PHO5598: Assignment 7

Fill Flash was used for most of the remaining assignments. In this assignment we were to use it as Fill Flash in an outdoor photo. Chris came down for a few days last month and stayed with Dave and I. On the first day she was hear we ploughed through my assignments and the majority of them turned out quite nicely. The first photo below is the traditional use of fill-flash where the lighting on background and the subject are balanced with the use of a small flash. The second photo shows the technique sometimes called day-to-night where the flash and background lighting are not balance producing a darker background and therefore giving the feeling of haven taken the shot at night. The photos can be found on Flickr as well.

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PHO5598: Assignment 6

The sixth assignment for my now completed Lighting Techniques course was Night Lighting. We went, as a group, downtown and took shots of the night lights. We started at Nepean Point overlooking the Ottawa River and then walked down to the National Art Gallery and then towards the War Monument. It was a very cold, windy night so our equipment really got a hard test. Unfortunately some people learned that their cameras do not like the cold, one camera even shutdown on its owner. Fortunately for me though, my equipment did beautifully during its harsh test.
These are the two photos I submitted. I have uploaded them to Flickr as well so you can check them out there too.

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Photo Slacking

I have been slacking lately when it comes to my art. This is partially my fault and partially not. It has been so busy with work lately I have been either too exhausted after working so hard during the day or working throughout the night and therefore have had no time to work on my photos. I have also just been feeling the winter blues and I tend not to find this time of the year too pretty a the snow around here is icky and grey and the grass you can see is ugly and dead - not that inspiring to me. Spring is just around the corner though and I am super excited about it - the babies will be born at the agricultural museum soon and buds are starting to sprout from the gardens around the neighbourhood. And of course ... the Tulip Festival starts next month! My photo collection will be growing rapidly in the next few months for sure.

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Winter Photography

I am attempting to get out there despite the weather and practice taking shots in winter. In the past I have avoided such situations since I felt I could not deal with all the white surroundings and intense light (aka snow and ice). I have gone out several times now, mostly to the canal and one trip to Winterlude, and have done pretty well. I am definitely getting better and learning how to adjust my camera settings to deal with the non-ideal settings. I have also learned that the bright white overcast days that often occur during the winter days can give some neat effects (eg. solid white backgrounds without any post-production work) that I really like in certain photos (like the one of the stop light [red light, green light] below). I am going to keep practicing as I still need it but I am definitely happy with the progress I have made so far.

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Multimedia

I registered for my second course at Algonquin College yesterday. I was initially planning on taking two courses this term but my workload at DST has increased tenfold and it doesn't look like it will be decreasing until last spring/early summer (good for work and my company in general - but bad for my photography).
I registered in a Multimedia course which will teach my how to use Flash and Dreamweaver (and other such programs). I know the basics of these programs as I used them a bit in high school and for fun since, but I am no pro and can't make anything that looks even slightly professional. The overall goal of this course is to be able to design a photography website for professional use. As I am currently looking into getting my own website started, I think this is a good place to start.
I decided to take a course which won't be photo based since I am not the greatest with winter shots and really have no experience in it. I plan on practicing this winter with manual shots with the dSLR so that next winter I will be more comfortable taking a photo based course during a snowy season.

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