Sometimes its just for you

As I mentioned in a previous post, sometime you shoot for a purpose or a reason. You have a project or a client to shoot for and that's why you take on a shoot. Other times, you shoot for the sake of shooting and just play around with making an image.

Then there are those special times you make images just for yourself. There are moments that you capture just for you. Apertures, and shutter speeds and all of that becomes very, very secondary to just recording the moment.

This was a particularly emotional day for me. My dad was knocked out of his wagon last fall and broke his hip and was expected to never race again.  Well, at 71 he is a tough old fart and he's in remarkably good shape and he climbed back into the wagon box again this spring. Its hard to get out and see him run though so this might very well be the last time I get to photograph him racing.  This is something he has done since before I was born so if he isn't racing I don't know what he'll do.

I have to admit I played around with these images a fair bit when I got home but at that moment all I could do is hang on and go along for the ride.

Zena Holloway Shoots Underwater

I've always wanted to shoot high quality images underwater.  Naturally, underwater photography conjures up mental images of fish, sharks, scuba divers, and sunken ships. Zena Holloway does more with the underwater environment. She actually uses it to shoot high fashion and artistic imagery.  Check out this beyond the scenes video here at fstoppers and Zena Holloway's website for her amazing underwater photography.

Sometimes you just gotta try things

A lot of times I will go out and either look for a shot or have something in mind.  That is to say I have a purpose or a reason. This shot was one of those cases. I shot this for a DP Challenge entry and I had the whole setup in mind pretty much end to end and the result was close to what I had envisioned.

But sometimes you just want to try things out, experiment and play a little. Its not always about getting the next gallery image or ribbon winner. Sometimes its fun just to pull the camera out and shoot for the sake of shooting. This is is one of those shots that I made just for me. 

Tired little cowpoke!

Its Stampede time here in Calgary and my wife thought Hudson should get some Stampede spirit. I'm not sure if he enjoyed being dressed up but he sure does look cute!

Happy Canada Day from the Provincial Capital of Alberta!

I celebrated Canada Day by driving three hours to Edmonton with my wife and her friend Jessica the night before. My wife and I got up on Canada Day at 6 am after which she ran 15 kilometers. If I am going to be up that early on a national holiday I may as well get some shots out of the deal. The run started and ended at the Alberta Legislature buildings and went down into the Edmonton river valley. So of course, I had to take some pictures of the buildings.