Wild!

Hey Guys

Don't really feel like writing a whole tonne. I'm exhausted after a long (but Awesome!) day at the Toronto Zoo. Obviously lot's of great photo ops, here are my favorites. You can click on each of the images to enjoy the full size version. Let me know what you think.

Dan

Yeah, I know...It's been over 6 months since my last post. I honestly don't know what happened. Well, ok, I kinda do. I do a bit of hibernating in the winter months, I get very worn out and just don't have the energy for much creativity. Since spring hit though I've been itching to get back to it, but for some reason I just didn't. The main reason is that I just haven't been shooting anything new that I felt like posting. I was in a creative slump, just couldn't capture an image that I felt anyone would care to look at. I think even my last few images from last year felt a little flat creatively, at least to me. I think that I lost confidence in the shots I was producing and my ability to capture the magic of a moment...

Well, Baby I'm BACK! I forced myself to go out and shoot for a few hours today, and I'm going to try to do the same every Monday just as an exercise. I'm hoping that I'll fall back in love with it if I just start doing it again. Honestly I did a little bit today. I had a fun time shooting...with the exception of the scary hobo lookin guy that came up behind me on the train tracks while I was taking a few shots. I must of jumped a few feet off the track when he said "hi".

I also had a lot of fun processing these. I was a little rusty and maybe it shows, but I just kind of let my fingers keep clicking til the image felt right. With the Last 3 shots Mackenzie actually became my "creative director" and told me how he wanted the shots to look. I think he did a kick ass job on them, so thanks Bud!

Anyhow, enjoy the shots and I should see you in no more then a week.

Dan

Hallowe'en again

Well, Hallowe'en is all said and done. The costumes are worn, the candy is aquired and the bellies are sore. I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. I probably had the most fun, as the reactions to my costume ranged from the slightly confused to the belly laughs of the big red guy himself. And those were just the people giving out the treats, the kids were a whole different story, especially the little ones such as Logan, who was literally in tears when I put the costume away. I get the feeling that I'll be breaking it out again soon. Until then, have a good one.

Dan

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!!

Just a quick shot of this years Jack-o-lanterns. Tommorow I'll try to post some shots of the boys in their costumes and maybe some older Jacks. In the mean time try to save some candy for the kids and have a good Night!

Dan

OK, I think it's time to get rid of my ugly mug off the front page! See, I told you I wasn't great at keeping these updated. I do plan to have a slew of new images over then next week or so, with Halloween and all. These were taken on the weekend while at the park with the kids and my parents. It was a little chilly, but the colours were nice so I snapped a few shots. I'm posting them mainly cuz I downloaded the trial version of CS4 and was playing around with it. I'm very impressed with the ease of use for converting raw shots, though I have no idea what I'm doing. I just fiddled with some of the sliders and ended up with some pretty decent shots. My video card is having trouble keeping up, but I'll get that fixed soon. With both of these shots I tried not to do too much, apart from a bit of colour adjust and some clarity around the eyes. Enjoy, and see you soon :)

Dan

Camera Shy

One of my favorite things about photography (not really but go with me here) is that I am almost never in the frame. I talk about Kristie not liking the camera, but I notoriously absent from most vacation pictures and such. So here you go, I took these today, and did more to them then I can fit in this space, and I am, while not happy with them, at least satisified enough to share them. I also have one more from yesterdays series of Mac getting ready to kiss Kristie. Enjoy!

Dress-Up

Sorry it's been so long between posts. I haven't had any new shots to work on, and just life has picked me up and swept me off like so much fast water. Last night we were just goofing around as a family and I had to pull my camera out and take some shots. Logan is obsessed with Cinderella, and disney in general. He has this Cinderella doll that has very interesting hair. Last night started with me seeing if I could get Kristie's hair to sit like her's. Once we got it kind of close, we started talking dressup. She was going to go throw on a dark dress, but recently I had a conversation with a friend at work about wedding dresses, and I remembered that Kristie's was still sitting in a suitcase in our basement. So I dared her to try it on. Hilarity ensued. Logan was in Awe of her in that dress, which mostly still fit, as impressive as that is. Immediately out came my camera, since Krisie on camera is an elusive thing to begin with, but Kristie all dolled up, literally, is even rarer. And I even got approval to post a few of the shots, so here they are. The First one I didn't do a lot to. I used the channel mixer to convert the image to black and white and then added a curves layer to tone the image slightly. The dress also required a bit of darkening as I was forced to use a flash and the dress was completely washed out. In the second image I did a lot of toning of individual layers using masks and played around with curves quite a bit. I'm very happy with both shots, and I hope you enjoy the rare treat of Kristie on your screens!

Dan