Wow, february eh. I think someone isn't being fair dinkum with me...

I did try to post something a month ago or so, but then my other half yelled at me for stealing all the bandwidth trying to upload a photo when he was trying to play NHL 11, so I stopped.

I think this might've been the photo. I was at home one morning, and like a lot of nights, I didn't sleep much past 6am. In this case it was a good thing, these retards were outside jack hammering around 730, I looked out the window to check it out and saw a typical male-occupation-oriented situation of 5 guys standing around watching one guy work. So I took a picture.



I see no workers, just a lot of tools strewn everywhere.


Anyways, its Easter monday, I've concluded I hate holidays more than ever, but I did make it over to Saturna, and within a half hour of getting there some amazing light crept in, so I went on a shooting spree. (Something about that makes me nervous to leave it there, but I'm going to leave it, we'll see if anything happens)

So I crept around the garden with my camera, and mostly shot photos of the dog because he's fuzzy, and catches backlight beautifully.

Ozzie, a cockapoo-sheltie border collie cross.

I got about 2 good photos with the little monster, I almost got a couple other good ones, but everytime I put my camera to my face he'd start barking.

And then there were flowers...

It's been awhile since I've taken pictures of flowers, and I don't normally like to, cause everyone else does, so if I do, it has to be different somehow. I do like what I come up with when I point my 50mm at flowers though, cause the lens has a very short depth of field, and its fun to play with textures and pick your focal point out while leaving everything else as a dreamy haze. Bokeh when used properly is fantastic, but as the consequence with so many people getting ahold of cameras like mine and not studying photos and theory, bokeh is abused. I really will support anyone who wants to get into photography, but they have to be willing to spend some time. Its like me and my guitar, I don't subject people to it cause I'm not good enough, but I enjoy it, so I keep it to myself. I'm too much of a perfectionist I guess.

I know I've just vomitted a heap of things onto this for the first time in months, but I have one more, its a video. Its my first time lapse! I planted some calendula, and then got sick for 2 weeks and had to take about that much time off work (it sucked), so I took pictures every half hour for a few days of my calendula seedlings popping up through the soil.

So until next week, hopefully. . . adieu.

Too cold to swim.

So I just took pictures instead. I took a little impromptu road trip, and wound up in Jordan River the other day. It was a very interesting day, I took some pictures, and brought back a post card. It was a good poor-mans vacation. Anyways, I didn't take too many photos, but I got one out of them that I'm especially proud of.

This one was shot with my Nikon 16-85 at 85mm, doing my best to frame it the way I wanted without getting too many brambles in the shot. I also couldn't step forward anymore, which would normally solve the problem because at the end of the the road I was on there was a bunch of construction, and they we're already looking at me like a crazy for parking and wandering their way. My iso was set at 200, and I literally did such a minimal job on editing, I'm pretty stoked. Heres the original.

I adjusted the exposure, with my curve focus on highlights, I also adjusted the clarity, and I think I may have darkened my blues just a wee bit to bring out the mountains under the clouds. But thats about it, oh and I corrected my horizon. I do my best at the time, but its one of my pet peeves I always notice on other peoples photos is that no one pays attention to the horizon being slanted off. I contemplated cropping out the bottom, where the brambles are, but I'm just not a cropper, it just didn't look right to me then. My frame would have been compromised.

I do love this photo though. Growing up on the island I've always loved the way the horizon is always blue, and the mountains are all just solid, with different levels of blue indicating their distance. When I was young, I would always draw a landscape that had islands coming in from the sides and tipping down to the ocean, green on top, and with a yellow, sandy base. I always tried to think of something else to draw, but would normally, when put on the spot in school, draw the same thing, and now that I've gone and come back, I realize what an amazing spot in the world this is, and why it's ingrained in me.

Till next time.

It's been awhile again.

So to keep things up maybe this will turn into a knitting blog . . .

Gunna try not to, but seriously, I haven't picked my camera up in a week. I took a trip on my own out to Jordan River, met some interesting people and hung out around a camp fire for a couple hours, and took some beachy-westcoast photos, but I haven't edited them yet. I've been working this week again though, and its been taking so much out of me that I haven't even been knitting. I've just been watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, wednesdays are even turning into Canadian programming night for the two of us, we watch Dragon's Den followed by Republic of Doyle, which is a pretty ridiculous bit of genuine Canadian production along some similar lines and similar humour as Due South.

But back to topic . . . I have a photo, of knitting! I was bent on making a hat for myself, but I finished it off too soon and its too short for me, it fits perfectly, and I like big bulky hats I can twist my hair up into. So I`ll have to try again, but the colours are fun.

Shot with my Sigma 50mm with flash, because I was so close I kept blocking the natural light coming in, and I needed enough light for that colour to really glow. Oddly enough my exposure time worked out to 1/13 sec, which should certainly warrant a tripod, but it came out pretty sharp, so I lucked out.

Word on the street is that I may get together with one of my bosses for a night time shoot of the city from a high-up location, she wants to give some long exposures a try, and I told her I had a wee bit of experience with that, so we`re gunna team up. It should be fun. I`ll come throw one up in a day or two from last year, but right now I`m feeling rushed to make it to Wal-mart before the masses so I don`t have to stand in line for a half hour to get out again . . . Adios Amigos (and Amigas).

G'un do some knittin's today.

Yeah I like to pretend I`m from the southern US sometimes, just for fun, its how I get my kicks.

Was just doing some editing, I took a photo a couple days ago when there was suddenly heaps of crows flocking around and hanging out in the oak tree across the road. The extent of my telephoto capabilities is 85mm, but I am still pretty happy with this shot. It was nearly black and white to begin with, because of the tree having no foliage, and there being a very definitionless white-cloud backdrop. So I just got rid of the last hints of colour and blew up the exposure a wee bit to turn the sky pretty well white, and that is pretty well all I did to edit this shot.

I just think its kinda fun, I`m thinking on a f-art level.

F-art; definition; The combination of two words Faux and Art used to describe otherwise kitchy and mass produced art designed more closely to match colour schemes than for their artful intent. © Rights reserved by Maylia Janzen.

I like shooting my own spin of f-art though, especially when its something a little more sinister than daisies, like a sleeping tree covered in crows.
¸
Thanks again to my first follower, I think that officially christens this blog into proper exsistence. Some one else looks at it, its not just me typing into oblivion.

Hey There Molly!

Well, it appears I have one person who noted my absence over this past month, thank you Molly. I'm about half-way though editing the photos I took yesterday, but I figure I'd throw one up on here right away. I lucked out and became aware of an impending long sunset coming up while standing at good altitude (some places would call it a mountain), so we had amazing views of the inside oceanway between Van Isl. and Saltspring. I also had a fantastic subject, I mean, who doesn't like 7 mo. old babies? Anywoo. . .

That's Amy. Shes my buddy. The other one is Molly, shes Amy's handler.

Well, in other news, I've got two weeks off work, so I'll see what I can do about an entry a day. I mean, what the heck else am I gunna do? Oh yeah, I do intend to become a runner over the next two weeks. I like working out, but sometimes when work is going to be busy I have to think ahead so I won't get worn out at work, but now I can just focus on wearing myself down so this next two weeks is easier mentally. Oh and I bought new yarn today, and started a toque for me . . . haven't made one of those since last July.

Thats all I have for you today folks. I'm out.

PS. the 'be the first' follower position is still up for grabs at the bottom of the page, giv'r.

Its still Cold.

After being in Australia around this time last year, and not seeing snow for a year and a half, I'm having a hard go with it. So heres one I was thinking of this morning that more or less shows how I feel.

Oh the snow!

Well that was a fun day . . . drove the Malahat during a snowstorm . . . twice. I really wanted to get out and get photos of the road next to our place, its snowy, but the trees still have green and yellow leaves on them. Instead I pussied out, cause its cold, and shot in the house. . .

My lightroom isn't set up right now though, new comp, so I have an older photo today that I found from when I did a shoot with a friend last year. I have it as my desktop right now, and everytime I come to the computer I like it a little more, so I share . . .

Shot with the Sigma 50mm @ f/2.8 and at ISO 320, which was probably a mistake on my part, I don't typically shoot at half stop incriments on anything. Something like this I'd typically want my lowest ISO to maximize the natural colour uptake on my sensor. My editing would only have focused on my shadows and maybe some highlights in the whites, make my curve a little steeper.

I love this lens of mine though, I bought it on a cold, weird night in Edmonton, I met a guy outside of a Tim Hortons that ended up being closed, and didn't really get to test it because of severly low light. I went for it though. I asked the guy why he was selling the lens, and I love the answer, "I bought this 18-105mm lens, and I do everything with it. I've only taken this one out of the box twice." I wonder if he ever figured out his error in that decision. The 18-105mm has poorer glass, is plastic, and is the generic lens you typically buy in a kit with a nikon body. It'll do the trick, and most people say you can take good photos with anything, but if you've made the decision to step it up with the body, you shouldn't shoot yourself in the foot with your lens.

Oh yeah, heres a new one I just edited of my bro from earlier this summer.

He looks a little awkward when he tries to pose, so I had to compromise him. I think I made weird noises, I know, we're mature. This one is also with the Sigma 50mm, shot with me standing on the couch, free-hand, no tripod. Unfortunately a few of the photos we're a little fuzzy because of this, and I only got 4 I liked enough out of this shoot.

Anyways, I'm cold, word out.