It seams like its almost a photo a day, or every other day. This was shot from the back side of the Alberta Legislative Building. The colour version looked great, but black the architecture pops more in the black and white.

I took some time at lunch today and with a little Photoshoping (removing the background and converting to Black and white) i was left with the pleasing results.

I’m going to create a non-destructive black and white tutorial shortly explaining more about the work flow.

I love the morning light, especially in the fall, you don’t have to wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning (at least in northern Alberta) to get it. As part of the fall to winter cycle in Canada we are nearing the 6-7 hours of daylight for the winter season. Its not all bad though, we get amazing sun sets and sun rises. The bad would be the constant -25 or -35 on some days.

Last night was very windy, witch is strange since its fall, its not usually windy during the night. I woke up early due to the noise out side and decided to take some sunrise pictures. The image with the large patio umbrella in the tree shows how windy it was.

The cat is unrelated to the wind but still cute and new to the gallery.

These are some images i took at lunch at the Alberta Legislative Grounds. A bit windy and over cast but some nice results.

I have finally purchased my Digital Camera. Last night my wife and i went over to the camera store and haggled wheeled and dealed. I got $20 off! and no memory card so i’m using a 32 mb card that will not take 1 picture at full, so i’m shooting at small jpg. I took this photo with my canon FD to EF lens converter hence the soft focus.

I’m still getting used to the camera and all the other settings that have to be checked like White Balance and so on. but its super fun to use and i like the instant gratification you get. Click Button see picture. I need to be a bit lighter on the shutter release as well at 6fps i shoot 2 pictures.

Keep checking back I’m sure ill be posting images more often now.

After Crazing the magazine stand looking at the bike mags i came across my old friend Bike Mag. while looking through the September issue at home i saw that the cover Shot was from another old friend Dan Barham. To top things off the photo was also shot in my home town of Edmonton, Alberta.

After looking at Dans Blog to check things out its fitting that he got the cover for September because his birthday just happens to fall in that month.

Happy Birthday Dan

When i read about this camera bag it wasn’t because it was a cool camera bag, it was actually because it was made from recycled pop bottles, and that in its self seamed interesting to me.

the bag seams to be laid out really nicely gibing you the option to hold you pack on one shoulder and pull your camera out of the bottom side. it is also weather resistant with seam tapes seams and a rain cover so when you spent a few hours hiking you don’t have to hightail it back to the car at the firs sight of rain.

• 51% Recycled fabric per bag
• Cubic yards conserved in a landfill by recycling PET beverage bottles - 0.0034 per bag
• Recycled 16oz. PET Soda Bottles - 22.6 per bag
• Approximate BTU’s saved - 15,109 per bag
• Crude Oil Barrels - .002
• Refined Oil Gallons - .12

There was recently the Edmonton Grand Prix here and noticed how there are now earth friendly car products, instead of fiber glass you might see something that is hemp fiber held together with a linseed resin, or maybe tires made from potatoes starches. as if that washy enough. what about brake pads made form cashew shells?

I find these things interesting because they are not exactly cutting edge in technology, the idea might be new but it just took some one to look at a problem or solution a different way to create a earth friendly solution.

Link:
Primus AW

I’m not really sure what to think when i hear that Amazon has “acquire” Dpreview. Dpreview has been around for 9 years and i can remember reading the articles and looking at the tests 8 years ago. Most of my digital photography information comes from Dpreview and Shutterbug, so needless to say i trust the information. I have never once seen a bias view on any camera or review.

I also enjoy how they turned a hobby into such a success and even with 22 million sessions each month still only have 1 add banner, and its relevant.

I’m wondering how exactly “without compromising our quality or independence” will work out for them, I would be really disappointed if things changed, i could see Amazon getting there kickback from camera sails in the form of reference buys.

Here is the original story:

We’re proud and excited to announce that Dpreview has been acquired by the worlds leading online retailer, Amazon.com. Started as hobby site in 1998, dpreview.com has grown to be the number one destination for anyone interested in digital cameras and digital photography. Each month dpreview.com has seven million unique visitors (over 22 million sessions) who read over 120 million pages. “We’ve worked very hard over the last eight years to deliver consistently high quality content to our readers”, founder Phil Askey said. “It will be fantastic to be able to expand and build on that without compromising our quality or independence. With the support and resources of Amazon we can achieve this.”

Read the rest here.

I had the pleasure of working with Dan Barham a few years ago in the bike shop. Dan a guy new to Canada from England. He came here in January, were he was introduced to winter. As i got to know Dan i found out he was a pro mountain bike photographer from over the pond. Since then Dan has moved over to North Vancouver were he is now close the the Canadian mountain biking Mecca. I was brought back to Dans site almost by chance and i noticed it has been updated.

I felt it was worth mentioning to take a look: http://www.danbarham.com

I finally got around to getting my film dropped off and i must say that i got a lot of nice shots. They were taken in Rocky Mountain House near Twin Falls, as well as Seaba Beach and some misc pictures around town.

Well most cities have a rivalry, one out does the other and either side is blind to the defeat. As is the deal with Edmonton and Calgary. Now Edmonton is a great city a place were I grew up. Playing in the streets and the river valley that winds its way through Edmonton. When I was younger and even more recently I went to the Valley Zoo and it was wonderful. Things are a bit out dated and they are pressed for support to help rebuild some of the exhibits but after I went to the Calgary zoo I would almost venture to say that it’s a world class zoo. They had everything there and I hope some of my pictures will help to show that.

I have uploaded 3 new albums Rainbow Valley, Heritage Ranch Red Deer, and some Miscellanies Edmonton Shots. These were mostly shot with my new Canon 75-300 IS USM lens. Seams nice I’m still dreaming of a D-SLR though.