Meet Henry and his little brother Winston.  These two made for some fun photography on a recent puppy portrait shoot.  Some how we were able to get through our hour shoot without getting arrested by a ranger at Squires Castle for not being on a leash.  All is well since if Henry had been on a leash I would have never have captured this shot.  Have you ever seen a happier dog!

If you are interested in a pet photo session for you favorite furry friend don’t hesitate to contact me through the form on the Portraits Page.

Exp: 1/640s @ f/5.6, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 300F2.8L

Sitting here watching it snow made me think about being in sunny and warm Alaska last July.  This shot was taken on the bear viewing trip that I went on.  We were on location in the middle of a partly sunny day so the lighting for furry critters was less than desirable.  Alas, I was there with the bears so not much else to do other than make photographs.  I did get a lot of shots I’m very happy with.  For this one I used Lightroom’s adjustment brush to bring the bear’s face out of the shadows and darken down the grass in the background.  Without these adjustments the image was very flat and the bears face was lost.  Hope you enjoy this shot, it was a blast making it.

(click the image above for the wallpaper size image)

Exp: 1/640s @ f/5.6, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F5.6L

The other day I was putting a photo book together of the images that were shot on my trip to Alaska this year.  While I was doing this I also was looking at a collection of images for a book for my Yellowstone trip in 2007.  The thing that was really struck me is the difference in the impact and composition of the images between the 2 trips.  This was a really nice surprise.

I have a couple things that I want to try in my photography in the coming year.  So stay tuned to the blog as the blog is one thing that I want to be more active.  I think if I make more posts that I’ll also shoot more (other goal).  I started this blog in Jan 2008 and only posted 32 times.  My goal for 2009 is to make 52 posts.

Well I’m looking forward to 2009 and all the photography that it will bring.  Happy New Year!

Exp: 1/250s @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Gear: Canon Rebel XTi, 400F5.6L, Handheld

Today I’m sharing an image with you that won first prize in the waterfowl category in the Wood Duck Photography Contest.  It is a contest held by the Cleveland Metroparks during their annual Wood Duck Festival.  I took this image last year but reprocessed it because the background was a little too hot.  But with the extra touches it doesn’t distract from the main subject.  Hope to see some of you at the festival!

Exp: 1/500sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F5.6L, Handheld

I finally got around to processing the rest of the images I shot at the zoo back in the beginning of the month. I came across another lion shot that I thought came out pretty good. I’m always surprised when I’m lazy and don’t process images right after they were shot, I tend to find images that I might have overlooked. The above image got overlooked because it was a part of a large series of images I shot of this lion. I think I’m going to make it a new work process to wait a little bit to process a whole set of images. It tends to make me much more willing to delete images that just don’t meet my own standards or have a composition that works.

The most interesting things that I’ve learned about photography in the past few months are the creative aspects. In the past I’ve been too focused on getting the shot, “is my exposure set right?”…”is my shutter speed fast enough to stop my motion/the subject’s motion?” I’ve started to slow down and be more methodical about how I shoot. I believe this is a side affect of the fact that I’ve started shooting in manual mode. This requires me to set the aperture/shutter/iso. So once my exposure is set the only thing left to do is take the image. I now do much more composing and seeing new images that I wouldn’t have before. Hopefully this will lead to a more creative set of images in the future…

Click the link below for a wallpaper sized image.

Widescreen

Exp: 1/25 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 400
Gear: Canon 40D, 50mmF1.8

If you’ve been reading the blog you probably would have seen this photo already on my flickr stream but in this version I did a little bit different post process to bring out some more tonal range.

I haven’t posted much about gear but I wanted to recommend a lens to those that are starting out or those that want a lens that has a fast aperture without a large price tag.  The Canon 50mm F1.8 runs about $90 from online retailers.  It is money well spent the consensus of most people that use it and have reviewed it that it is sharp, fast, and a great value.  On a 1.6x crop camera it becomes a 80mm F1.8 perfect for portraits.  One tip for anyone that has not used a prime lens before is “zoom with your feet”

Exp: 1/200 sec @ f/4.0, iso 640, 113mm
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200F4L

Here is a quick post from last Friday at the zoo.  The only really interesting thing about how this shot was taken is that persistence was used.  We visited the koala exhibit and couldn’t see the joey but decided to stop by on our way out and were rewarded for our trouble.