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| From Steven and Amanda |
Steven and Amanda are a quiet couple with big plans! For their engagement, we wandered into Prince’s Island Park in downtown Calgary. The recent moisture has made a huge difference in the greenery, but the trees have yet to really show.
Prince’s Island has a number of views that make it possible to do early spring photos. There is enough green space to add color, and enough architecture to add lines and interest. It turned out that our favorite spot is not at all what it seems. For their wedding invitation, they chose a photo that looks like a nice picnic spot with a view of the Centre Street Bridge in the background. If you were to try to picnic there, you would need ear plugs.
We canceled our first scheduled outing due to weather. We nearly canceled this one because of the forecast, but it stayed nice long enough for us to have a fun time and get some great shots. After that, it was miserable weather again for a while.
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Tags: Calgary, Engagement, outdoor, Portrait, Prince's Island
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| From Mark and Jenn |
Having a summer wedding means spring engagement photos. This Easter weekend was definitely sunny enough, but the cold breeze made it a bit uncomfortable. Mark and Jennifer are a great couple, and were very patient dealing with flying hair and goosebumps.
Tom Campbell hill in Calgary overlooks the downtown core. Early spring is very brown, so the elegant stonework and stiff angles of skyline make for a dynamic backdrop suitable to a dynamic couple.
The invitation for their June wedding will feature this photograph. I left enough space around the image to insert the invitation text without obscuring their faces. I saturated the colors and added a more dreamy look using the Orton Effect. It gives the feeling of morning from a rather plain afternoon sun. I’m certainly looking forward to their wedding.
Tags: Calgary, Engagement, Orton Effect, outdoor, Photography, Portrait, Tom Campbell Hill
Prints of the Cardston, Alberta Temple are available at the following prices (shipping extra).
- 8×10 – $15
- 11×14 – $30
- 12×18 Gallery Style – $100
Tags: Art, cardston, Photography
This is a favourite dish at home and for potlucks. When served as a breakfast dish in Boston in years past, it contained diced salt pork.
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Combine beans, onion, and water in 3 1/2 quart (3.5 L) slow cooker. Stir. Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours.
Add remaining 6 ingredients. Stir well. Cover. Cook on High for about 30 minutes to blend flavours. Makes 6 cups (1.5 L).
Photographing the Seitz family was a pleasure. I like outdoor portraits, but the December weather, combined with young children made it necessary to shoot indoors.
The location had large windows that helped to give a better quality of light. The rooms were large enough to fit everyone and we had a great time being creative and just playing.
That’s what makes a photo shoot fun. 
Encourage conversation and help them to relax. Many of my clients have a lot of ideas and just love to show off. It just takes a bit of confidence building to get them started. I look for the right position to shoot from and do a little bit of directing sometimes. The results are more natural and relaxed.
With as many kids as there were, it’s important not to let them feel like they’re being photographed. Some like to give a forced smile. I’ll take a couple of shots and then 
try to distract them. A candid photo where they are laughing or just being themselves are the best. If you tell them to try hard not to smile, they can’t help themselves and they think it’s funny.
Sometimes, an odd perspective loosens things up. I’ll give them a quick look at how it turned out and it helps them not to be so shy of the camera.?
Tags: Calgary, Family, indoor, Photography, Portrait
A great activity for youth is a photo safari. With our Scouts, we hiked from Tom Campbell hill, just North of the Calgary Zoo, to downtown Calgary and back. Along the way, we discussed what things to think about while taking a photograph and helped them learn more about their cameras.
Being late November, it wasn’t a bad day for a hike. It was cool, but not freezing, so we were able to comfortably use our cameras without much worry about the batteries or our fingers getting too cold. As it was, we had a few problems with low batteries to start with.
We started early, hoping to catch a good sunrise, but the overcast sky didn’t quite agree with us. The rest of the day was filled with a lot of new discovery as the boys tried to be creative about their shots. 
We encountered a number of birds and animals that really got them excited. We found a stuffed frog that made for some amusement and started them off with something interesting to practice with.
We discussed how to emphasize the subject. Specifically that you first must identify the subject. Then simplify by either making the subject dominate the picture, or remove items from the background that would detract from the subject. When showing them their shots early in the day compared to later shots, they could see clear improvements.
I explained a bit about photographing buildings and how to keep the lines straight by making sure your camera is parallel to the face of the building.
Probably their favorite part of the day was the Chinese buffet at the end. We were all both hungry and tired, so it was a good way to cap off a great day.
Tags: Calgary, education, outdoor, Photography
I attended this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Military Museums in Calgary as a leader with our Cubs and Scouts. It’s an annual event for us. Each year seems to get bigger. I wasn’t early enough to get the view that I wanted, but I’m tall, so I could manage some shots above the crowd.
I like to get shots that show the character of the event. In this case, it would be people in uniform. And I found some particularly interesting people in uniform.
And of course, I had to capture one that was just there because she had to be and wa
sn’t much interested in the long-winded rambling that accompanies pomp and ceremony. “When is it over dad?”
That’s one advantage of being on the ground. Of course, I would also love to have a really long lens and a roof like these guys did.
I’d be curious to see what they got. The rule of thumb for long lenses is that your shutter speed needs to be at least as fast as the length you’re shooting at. So, for a 200 mm lens, you need to shoot at 1/200 second or faster to keep from getting a blurred shot. If the lighting isn’t good enough, you can’t do it without a tripod.
After the ceremony, the museums were open to the public to view. The lighting in most parts are poor, so it’s hard to get much for shots without a flash. The problem with 
using flash is that most exhibits are behind glass, so you often get a lot of glare.
There’s a new exhibit featuring naval items. One of my favourites is the ship models. They’re also behind glass. As you can see, they’re too delicate to risk someone touching it. They’re also nicely lit with huge windows allowing tons of natural light. The trick then is to try to position yourself to limit or eliminate reflection. You can also use a polarizing filter. That cuts a lot of light though, so you’ll need a tripod.
Tags: Events, museum, Photography, remembrance day
Heidi and Gary are a great couple. It was a pleasure to photograph them. They were sealed in the Cardston, Alberta Temple. 
I was privileged to attend the ceremony. There is no photography permitted inside the temple. I can best describe it as simple, elegant, and divine.
This was only a week after Bior’s wedding and it was an amazing difference in weather. We had a warm, pleasant afternoon to shoot in. I took longer than expected, just because we were having so much fun.
One of my favorite things to do, is make composite photos. I positioned the camera in one spot and had them pose in several locations. Afterwards, I pasted together an image that they weren’t expecting. They were absolutely delighted by the result!
Tags: cardston, Composite, outdoor, Photography, Temple, Wedding
Akeela and Bior’s wedding was definitely a challenge for all of us. The previous week was just beautiful and then we get this frigid day that a family from warmer climes just wasn’t used to. I’m native to Calgary, and I didn’t like it either. Had the weather co-operated, the ceremony was planned to be held in the yard.
The ceremony was small. It was held in a small room, so that had its own challenges. Despite the difficulty, the wedding and the photos turned out great.
We went to Fish Creek Park for the formals. We were past the fall colours, but the background of the trees still made for an interesting backdrop. There was a lot of room, but no warmth and a brisk breeze. They were able to put up with it long enough to get some good shots. The whole family was very friendly and fun to work with. They all wore fabulous outfits, especially Akeela with her beautiful henna tattoos.
Tags: Calgary, fish creek, henna, Photography, Wedding
Fozia and Mike were a delight to shoot. The mix of culture made it easy to be creative and take some different shots than in traditional American weddings. Part of the wedding included a sand ceremony where each member of the family poured sand into a bottle, symbolic of the unifying of the family. It’s a very beautiful thing to see.
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This was my first wedding to use a 50mm lens almost exclusively. I pulled out the 75-300mm zoom lens once to do some close-up shots of some of the decor. The 50mm performed admirably. I had to be more active though and it forced me to re-think some angles. I think that made for a better variety of shots.
The ceremony, being indoors, required a bit more setup than I’ve done in the past. The lens helps to a degree. I can’t always shoot with a wide aperture because it limits the depth of field too much. Because of the angles I was at, I needed to make sure that enough people were in focus to make the shot usable.
Fozia and Mike gave me a lot of room to work with and were very accommodating. I was able to set up my lighting system in a way that lit up the room so that wherever I was, there was enough light to get the shot.
I used two umbrella strobes set in slave mode so that my any on-camera flash would trigger it. There’s an automatic setting for the flash that gives beautiful exposures if you do a pre-flash to lock the exposure. A wedding ceremony is too fast to be constantly locking the exposure for each shot. I set the flash manually and lowered the flash output on the camera (so I don’t waste battery), and just took pictures without worrying about the lighting anymore.
Slave strobes are a funny thing. They have an eye that detects a flash from any camera. They were pretty busy with other guests taking pictures also. I would hope that it improved their shots too, but I can’t be certain. When a strobe fires, there’s a tremendous energy release. It has to re-build the energy for the next shot. The time it takes to rebuild the energy is called the recycle time. Cameras with built-in flash use a battery, so sometimes the recycle time can be a few seconds long. With everyone else triggering the strobes, it can make a battery powered strobe be unavailable when you need it. The strobes I have are AC powered, so I never worried about recycle times. They were always ready.
We went to Lake Chaparral, in SW Calgary for the formals. The fall colours are an amazing feature for any shot. The lake offered a couple of waterfalls to work with, as well as many bridges, rock features, ponds, flower gardens, and a simple gazebo. The trees are significantly mature enough to offer a more forested feeling. My only complaint is that we spent too much time wanting to shoot something at each new feature. But I loved the gangster theme!
Tags: Calgary, indoor, lake chaparral, outdoor, Photography, Wedding