Cotton Candy Clouds

I just can't get over the skies tonight. Had to share this asap. I was driving home from work and around town this evening and had to capture the magic in the skies. I was very taken by the colour at the marina.

I'll keep trying to express what photography does for me.  One day I might actually nail it.  This moment - it lasted maybe 5 minutes.  From the time I drove from my daughter's dance studio to the bridge and got out of my car, I had about 5 minutes to get these 2 images.  The railway was my primary focus. I wanted a different perspective on the city's skyline, hoping it was an angle that hasn't been done yet.  When the sun started dipping below the buildings I looked over my shoulder to see the wondrous pinks and soft blues over the Sleeping Giant.  I walked to the other side of the bridge, checked my shutter/iso/fstop to make sure they were good, took a breath to take it in then snapped the image.  The second image of the Giant was truly effortless.   I stood there a moment longer to take in the serenity and snapped a mental image as well.  The mental image is key as when I returned home later that evening to process the images, I give myself creative license to adjust and manipulate the image to how I best remembered the moment and how it made me feel.

Sawyer's Bay

It's 8AM and I'm standing on the dock of the bay as the last minute assembled crew of Straight Jacket arrives with gear, food and coffee.  The sun is already high in the sky, the breeze is light and an overall sense of  happiness is in the air.

It's a couple of hours motoring from the marina to our destination of Sawyer's Bay.  It's the little secluded inlet behind the head of the sleeping giant.  There's already a few boats moored off and we link up with them to expand the raft.   It's a race day and this is the starting area.  As more boats arrive and join up - the conversations grow to a dull roar.  Sailors are walking across all the decks to meet up with others.  We have our own little waterworld here.

Eventually the time comes for the skippers meeting outlining the course set for the race.  We dismantle the barge one by one and start the race before the race.   Everything by now is rigged up and we're ready to embark on a 7 hour sailboat race that parallels the 'Giant' then best course back to the city across the bay.

It was a beauty of a day for sailing.  I packed my Nikon and snapped some pics throughout the journey.

Summer Nights By The Sea

Blue hour may now be my favorite time of colour.  Blue hour takes place after the sun has set or before the sun rises.  I was sailing last night and our club had a little party afterwards. The skies were brilliant and I couldn't help myself.  I ran to get my Nikon and started snapping away.  I had no tripod so I resorted to railings, docks and garbage cans to set the camera on to get these nice placid lake shots.
 

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Keep It Simple

 

I've been struggling with my photography as of late. I watched way to many Youtube photography channels on the matter and have been swimming in the technical aspects of the art and it became daunting.  I was shooting everything in 'raw' and spending way too much time editing my pictures in post like everyone i was studying on the internet.  I couldn't see the forest from the trees.  I wasn't happy with my photos as I was doing too much to them in post and feeling fraudulent.  

After a great discussion with a fellow photographer about this he gave me some sage advise. Go back to JPG.  It'll make your life easier.  What I got out of our discussion was this - Raw gives you way more information to work with yes - but that can be debilitating.  The images once in your post picture production software of choice will always look 'flat' as there is a ton of extra digital information that you have to work with.  My take on this now is that I shouldn't have to rely on all this extra information to fix my photos if I take them well enough to begin with.

I flipped back to JPG and haven't looked back.  When I take the memory card out of the camera and put it into Cyberlink PhotoDirector the picture looks more or less like I saw in the view finder.  A bit richer - not so 'flat'.  I am literally now touching up my photos in a minute or two as opposed to ten or twenty in RAW.  The results are far more pleasing - at least to me and really - that's who I am doing this for.  Me.

I was loosing the joy and getting stuck on the technical.  I was going down the trap of wanting to buy better gear to make my photos better.  I am what I am - an amateur hobbyist photographer.  Being honest with myself has been liberating and I am back to taking snaps because I'm inspired instead of trying to proove I can do it.

These two photos are the first of my flip back to JPG.  I am very pleased.

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Familiarity

Ever since the art boxes at Marina Park went up last year - there's been one in particular that's been nagging my memory.  The one with the two silvery humanoid persons surfacing out of the water.

Looking for something else today i stumbled across this album cover from Primus and bam!  That's where i thought i knew that art work similarity!

Tales from the Punchbowl is the fourth studio album by Primus, released on May 23, 1995.

I'm all for public art.  I just don't like the digital art scenes on these 'boxes' as they aren't old enough looking to be timeless.  The same feeling when you watch a movie from the early 90s when CG was in its infancy and the believability just isn't there.

Zen Garden

If you are of the mind that you can intend every day to be a surprise, than its no surprise that you get to experience new and exciting things - all the time.


 Today I got adventurous and took a walk with a co-worker to the Bay and Algoma area for lunch.

We hit Bean Fiend - a place i haven't been to in a while.  I ordered an iced latte.  As I waited i noticed a sign at the back door "New Zen Garden Outside".  Intrigued i opened the door and was very surprised to see a full on landscaped and secluded eating area.

It was a very zen like experience just sitting in the sun looking at all the details and obvious effort that went into building this little paradise just meters from the busy traffic.

Of real interest to me was the explanation for what i thought was a shelf against the fence.  The waiter informed me that its actually a stage on its side and their intention is to have live music.  Fantastic!