Earth Hour 2013

What did you do? We did the cool thing and played crib by candlelight.

Cross Country Skiing

View of Kananaskis Lakes from Blueberry Hill

Ever gotten back into something that you used to do a lot?

Upper Kananaskis Lake – Looking toward the Point and Forks Campgrounds

Cross Country Skiing is that for me. As a kid, we used to go fairly frequently and then I went sporadically as a teenager and adult. However, in the last month, I have gone three times. Mr. Bean and I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade our gear so we’re no longer using secondhand stuff from the 80s. It definitely helps!

It can be so peaceful skiing through the snow covered trees and seeing things like this creek… Plus, now that I’m used to my new skis, I can snowplow with greater control and don’t do the “ahhh!! I’m going to fall – goodbye balance!!” dance while going down hills. Am I the only person who does that?

I am so grateful that I live so close to the mountains and have the opportunity to go out and enjoy them – does it make me weird if I want this warm weather to go away so it’ll snow so I can go skiing?

No twigs or pine needles in my eyes – my safety glasses did their best to replace my broken sunglasses.

Last weekend my mom and I headed out the Peter Lougheed Park and skied up to Blueberry Hill. It was a beautiful and warm day and lucky us got spoiled on the way back – what an amazing sunset to end a fantastic day!

I tried to adjust the colours so they looked similar to what I actually saw – still is nothing close to the real thing!

Have you gotten back into something after not really doing it for a while?

2012 in Review

Decorations for the Baby Shower I Threw for a Friend – Inspired by InkObsessionDesigns

It’s already almost the end of January and 2013 has already started to pick up, so 2012 almost seems like a faint memory despite it being less than a month ago. Such is life, I guess.

Newborn Shoot for a Friend

2012 was definitely a year full of firsts, challenges and triumphs. I also apparently took way more photos than I thought – as can be seen with the accompanying collages (look at alt-text for descriptions!) I also finished my Photography Certificate of Achievement through SAIT – go figure that procrastinating me has yet to submit my form to get the actual certificate.

Annual Field Trip

In 2012, I got my first “Real” job, watched one of my siblings get married,  Shot a wedding as the Primary Photographer, climbed a 10,000ft Mountain and sent out a Christmas card and letter. You know, small things like that.

House my Family let for my Brother’s Wedding

My Brother and Sister-in-Law’s Wedding

First of all, I learned a LOT at work. Not just technical stuff, but things about myself like how I am more capable than I think I am and that I can survive through embarrassing situations where I wish the floor would swallow me up as have fun to boot!

Okay, I’ll fill you in – at the end of August, I went up to Fort St. John on a field trip and I was so out of it on the first day that I dropped my glass of water on the floor (and all over myself) while at the client’s office. Go me! Despite being super spastic, I ended up having fun, but it could also because I have a tendency to get incredibly hyper when I’m really, really tired. I’ll keep believing the former as it makes me feel better about myself.

Summer Fun at the Cabin

Mr. Bean and I also spent a fair amount of time at the cabin having fires. I ate waaaaaay too many s’mores, but I justify it by saying that I’m making up for almost 12+ years of not eating them. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Vancouver Island

I also learned that I need to be better at taking care of myself. There was a period in June and July (before I went on a glorious vacation) that all I did was work, ride my bike to and from work, eat and sleep. I had no desire (or time) to do anything with other people. Not exactly the best example of enjoying life to its fullest. Or at all.

Friend’s Engagement Photos

While shooting my first official wedding, I gained even more respect for wedding photographers – everything happens SO quickly and you can really only hope that you’re able to capture everything and that it looks good. I was so happy that Mr. Bean helped me!

Friend’s Wedding Photos

I did manage to do a bit of hiking in 2012 – first I went with my parents to Mt. Lipsett in Kananaskis, Piper Pass in Kananaskis with my family while my sister was visiting, the Plain of the Six Glaciers in Lake Louise with my mom (where we saw a huge chunk of ice fall off a glacier – very cool) and to Pocaterra Cirque with Mr. Bean during the height of the larch trees. I LOVE larch trees.

Hiking in 2012 – Mt. Lipsett, Piper’s Pass/Elbow Trail, Lake Louise – Plain of the Six Glaciers, Pocaterra Cirque

My mom and I also went on a backpacking trip into the Skoki area in behind Lake Louise ski hill in Banff National Park. There, we climbed Mt. Richardson – take that, fear of heights! – my first 10,000 ft peak. We had a few issues with weather (hiking in the pouring rain isn’t the most fun), with our camp stove, forgetting sunscreen only to realize that there was some in the care after we went back to the Lake Louise townsite to get more and thinking that sunscreen was lotion, but we still had fun. We also ate delicious dehydrated meals, similar to our previous meals. The area was so beautiful that I convinced Mr. Bean that it would be a good idea to head to Skoki Lodge for our 5th wedding anniversary this year (in the same cabin that Will & Kate stayed in when they visited in 2011!)

Annual Backpacking Trip with my Mom

The year ended well and poorly – we celebrated a wonderful Christmas with both sides of our family and I baked a lot. Unfortunately, shortly after Christmas, I got the flu which eventually morphed into viral Bronchitis. I guess it was okay – it’s only because I was sick that I made all these storyboards!

Night Photography

What are the best moments of 2012 for you?

Top 12 Photos of 2012

I haven’t been that great at sharing photos this year, but since there’s one day left in 2012 – better late than never to do so! Here are my favourite shots I took this past year.

These are in no particular order – Click the photo for a larger version.

Top: Sunset on Vancouver Island (July 2012)

Left Column:

• Top: Cool looking moon-rise  (January 2012)
• Bottom: Chateau Lake Louise (September 2012)

Right Column:

• Top: A friend’s baby newborn shoot (January 2012)
• Bottom: Larch Trees Reflections – Kananaskis Country (September 2012)

Next Row: Kicking Horse River and Mt. Stephen from Field, BC (February 2012)

Next Row:

• Left: Engagement Photos I did for a friend (June 2012)
• Right: Wedding Photos I did for the same friend (August 2012)

Next Row: View from Mount Richardson (behind Lake Louise Ski Area) looking toward Lake Louise (August 2012)

Left Column:

• Sunset on Vancouver Island (July 2012)
• Star Trails Time Lapse Photo (October 2012)

Right Column: Brother and Sister-in-Law’s Wedding (May 2012)

My Latest Photography Course

It’s been a while since I posted anything strictly photography related, so I thought it was about time. In September and October, I finished my 8th photography course (and last for my Certificate of achievement) at SAIT. (Not that I’ve done anything about actually getting the piece of paper since, but that’s besides the point.)

In this course, we 5 assignments with various topics. While some of them were more challenging than others, it was really good to take photos with a purpose.

All of these photos are essentially straight out of the camera – I just added the watermark & the “advertising” for the product shoot.

1. Sun

f/22, 1/400s, ISO 400, 35mm

This was taken at the view-point of the plain of the six glaciers at Lake Louise, where people had made these little Inuksuk guys. My mom helped me to move rocks so that I could lie behind the figure to get the sun at the angle that I wanted it at. Some other hikers thought that we had lost something and were looking for it – anything to get the shot, right?

I took this shot at a very small aperture (f/22) to get the sun to have rays. (This is how it works – the sunlight refracts around the shutters in your camera lens in varying amounts depending on how much overlap there is, causing the rays of the sunburst.)

2. Portrait

f/3.5, 1/200s, ISO 400, 66mm

We needed to take a portrait of someone doing something they liked to do, so here’s my dad in his backyard play the guitar. I used a fairly open aperture to blur the background and to slow me to use a higher shutter speed. I need to remember when I am taking shots of people in shadows to change my white balance settings so things aren’t quite as blue.

3. Product Shoot

f/3.5, 1/15s, ISO 200, 24mm

Apparently Crave Cupcakes now have gluten free friendly cupcakes, so when we were supposed to do a shoot of some kind of product outside of where it’s usually found, I thought why not? This is probably a shot that I’ve put the most thought into. It didn’t turn out quite how I wanted it to as they didn’t have any big cupcakes left by the time we got there, so I had to improvise a bit. I think it worked out in the end and the cupcake was getting pretty close to “I can’t leave this behind.” The icing on the other hand, I definitely could have (way too sweet and too much.)

I am also apparently quite predictable – one of my classmates knew the photo was mine as it had hiking gear in it. For some reason, that makes me happy.

Another random tidbit – apparently shutter speeds between 1/8 s & 1/30 s (1/15s being the worst) are bad for camera shake due to the mirror in the SLR moving while the shutter is open. If you want to prevent this, lock your mirror up!

4. Screaming Motion

f/8.0, ~35 min, ISO 400 (should/could have used 200), 24mm

This is by far the one that I had the most fun with (knowing my love of night photography, it shouldn’t be that surprising.) This is taken at my parents cabin looking NNW to get Polaris in the shot. To be honest, it was actually kind of by fluke that it worked out so well – I just pointed it in that direction and hoped for the best and it turned out quite well.

I wish I had taken it at slightly lower ISO so that the sky would be a bit darker, but given that I took this at 11 pm for 35 minutes, I didn’t really want to take it again. Plus, I was getting really cold so I wanted to get inside to bed!

5. Shadows

f/7.1, 1/800s, ISO 320, 52mm

This was a shot that I took while wandering around the neighbourhood looking for shadows and fall colours. The pine cone was just sitting on a patch of newer sidewalk and I thought the textures work quite well together. My instructor apparently thought that it could be sold at a tourist shop in Banff or as part of a collage or story on pine cones, which was flattering and hilarious.

There you have it! I’m not sure if I will take any more photography courses at SAIT for the moment as time is not something I have oodles of lately and I find it hard when you don’t get home in the evening until after 10pm. Perhaps in the future?

What are your thoughts about taking photography courses? Have you taken any good ones lately?