New Horizons

It has been a realllly long time since I have posted any new photos.  And since I have been here for 3 months now (here being Paris..duh), I feel that I should update with some France photos.

So here you go, the first of what I am sure will be many fond memories and photos from the other side of the pond.

I really like this first one.  We were at the Louvre with Julia's parents and I leaned against the glass pyramid to try and get the reflection of part of the building on the glass...I think it turned out well.  I took this photo with our 50mm prime 1.8.

This one is from the Dune De Pilat in southern France (close to Bordeaux).  I really love it because of the framing with the water on either side of the mound and I even like the sun spot...especially since I have vivid memory of how sunny and hot it was that day...Also, I love how small Juls looks in the pic.  It was taken with the 11-16 Tokina F 2.8.

Finally, this picture is of Mont Saint Michel in the Bretagne region of France.  We picked out a spot and camped for about 2 hours until the lighting was just right to get this one.  It was taken with the Tokina wide angle with a slow shutter speed...A sixth of a second I believe.

Enjoy...more to come.

Pictures From The Homeland 3: Chester

Time for the next (and last) of my pictures from home...That's right, from here on I only have photos from Europe.  Before we get to what I know everyone wants to see though, I have to pay homage to my hometown, Chester.  These first two pictures are from that town I grew up in and both were taken in the back harbor after a workout one day.  The first was taken with the Tokina 11-16 and the second with the Nikkon 50mm prime.  I like them both because the blues and the water just remind me of home...

 Finally, we have a photo from Queensland beach in Hubbards.  I decided to stop by while I was out for a drive and though it was too cold for a swim, it was perfect for a picture of the crashing waves...This photo may actually become my desktop background, it really reminds me of home.

And that's that, next photos will be Versailles...stay tuned!

Sunset Photos From Canaan, NS

I had a great opportunity to try my hand at some nighttime (it was more like dusk really) photography at Mill Lake near my childhood home in Canaan NS.  I haven't had a ton of experience taking photos in this kind of atmosphere but I thought the results were pretty good.  Here are 3 of my favorites.

I chose to include these first two because they are in the exact same place just looking in a different direction.  It's interesting to see the difference it makes as when I am looking into the setting sun in the first photo it gives that great nighttime image.  However, when I look away from the sun I get the second image, which is actually a more accurate representation of what it looked like at that time...cool I think.

Finally, this is another image from Mill Lake at sundown and it is my favorite from that shoot.  I like it because of the angles and the reflections.  I think everything came together to make a really cool picture.

The Final Days in Canada, Part 3

So I am no longer in Calgary now and these photos are from some of my travels during April (2011 duhhhh) while I was in Nova Scotia.

All three of the photos shown here were taken at my grandparents farm in New Germany, Nova Scotia.  The first is of their barn, I punched up the contrast and colors quite a bit to give it that odd glow but I really like the look.

The next two were taken inside the barn.  The first was taken with the Tokina 11-16 and is looking up to the sealing where there is an ancient wooden harvester hanging.  The second was using the 50mm prime and is of my grandfathers tool shed in the barn.  I really took down the colors here to accentuate the antiquness (a word???) and the glow from the window.

Both the interior shots were taken in very low light and it was the low F stops of my two lenses and some tweaking afterward that made them into nice photos, but I am pretty happy with the end result.

The Final Days in Canada Part 2

And continuing the journey...

These photos are all from my last walk in Calgary before I left.  I went on a stroll by the Bow River while I had a chance and checked out the sites.  This first one is right down by the river looking at the 10st bridge (I think).  It was taken with my Tokina 11-16.

This one is crossing over the bridge on the pedestrian footpath.  There was a lot of water on the ground and it gave me a great opportunity to take some reflection pictures...so I did.

Finally, this isn't even that great a photo, I just like the message...goodbye Calgary!

The Final Days in Canada Part 1

So, I've been posting like crazy on my other blog lately, but I can't forget my photos as well.  Here are a collection of a few of the photos I have taken over the last 2 months I spent in Canada (that was now 3 weeks ago).

The 1st and 3rd pics were taken with our Tokina 11-16 F 2.8 lens of awesomeness (thanks for the recommendation Shawn) and the 2nd was taken with our also awesome 50mm prime F1.8.

This first photo is from our hotel room in the Bellagio, it's a great image of the fountains (they had just finished a show and ironically enough we were looking right at the mini Eiffel tower from our room...foreshadowing, I think so.

I think the reason I like this photo kind of goes without saying...Being in front of Caesar's Palace (apparently Caesar doesn't live there though...) kind of begged for the Captain.

I love the color in this photo.  It was taken in the Bellagio, the ceiling by the check in has this gigantic glass art flower display, apparently it's the largest blown glass art piece in the world.

Well, that's the first installment, I'll put more up toute suite.

Pictures From The Homeland 2: Nefoundland and Nova Scotia 2010

And continuing the digital journey, here are a few more from our summer trip.  These were all taken with the D90 and the kit lens.

This first one is taken from the "Brigus Mountain" (coming from Alberta it was really more of a hill...maybe even a grassy knoll).  It shows the harbor and center of Brigus, NFLD, Julia's grandmothers hometown.  I really enjoy this picture because it shows the sleepy little Newfie towns that I have always found fascinating.

I snapped this picture of Julia and her grandmother when we were leaving the cemetery where we visited her grandfathers burial site.  I love this photo because of the twisted fence.  One of the things that makes little fishing villages so great is that everything (streets, fences, even houses) just seem askew somehow and I think that makes for great photo ops.

Finally, this photo is in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.  For those of you who don't know these are the "3 churches" and are historic sites in Mahone Bay.  The one on the far right also happens to be where Juls and I were wed, and is really the reason I like this picture.

Pictures From The Homeland 1: Nefoundland 2010

I want to keep going with my photo posts so I am looking back at some of my old trip photos to throw them up on the site.

These next few are from our trip to Nefoundland last summer.

Thought I would start it off with something simple.  I am not great at taking pictures of objects, however, to me this photo is a simple but effective representation of life by the sea and that's why I like it.  It was taken at Port De Grave (pronounced "pardagraeve" in Newfenease) with the Nikon D90.

These next two are two of my favorite photos of Julia.  The first because I think she looks great and the beautiful background of the Saint John harbor/Fort Amherst (Thanks Todd) just adds to that.  The second because it is one of the most funny and expressive photos I have ever taken of her.  I just love how the path is behind her and goes on forever in the background and of course, her facial expression is priceless.

PHOTO CONTEST #1: Your Favorite Picture

So...lots of people have photo blogs and they put their pics up and it's good fun, blah blah blah...I wanted to do something a bit different with mine, so I thought I would include some themed contests.  I should point out that they are not really contests in that you can't actually win anything, I am just calling them contests so people will read this post.

Basically, the challenges is this, send me your favorite picture that you have taken with a write-up (keep it short) of why you like it.  I will post a new submission every week and we can all look at each others favorite photos. 

These photos don't have to be high quality and don't have to be of anything in particular, they just have to be your favorite.  I will stipulate that they do have to be taken by either you, or a family member though.

I look forward to seeing your entries, send them to me in a message on my facebook account.

Alberta Catch-Up 5

And the last 3...for now.

Like I said, lakes with mountains in the background are a dime a dozen in the Rockies.  Even so, they still make great photos.  Here is yet another example from our trip to Jasper.  I really like the colors here.

This was a result of Julia and I trying to see who could get the best water picture at this fountain in Heritage Park and truthfully, I think it's mine...but I'm not sure. For those who don't know the frozen water affect was achieved by increasing the shutter speed.

Saving what may be the best for last, this photo actually won Julia a photo of the month contest at Total!  This was taken at Pyoto Lake on the way to Jasper.  We had stopped to try this hike and it was raining pretty hard but we figured what the hell.  Luckily for us, the rain cleared up just as we reached the top of the viewpoint and this rainbow appeared.  Since taking this photo we have seen this exact photo on countless travel ads in Alberta, but never one with a rainbow...we should try and sell it!

Alberta Catch-Up 4

You guessed it, more Alberta pics.

There are simply tons of opportunities in the mountains for photos of lakes with mountains in the background but I wanted to include these two specifically.  To top one is of Forget-me-not Pond in Bragg Creek, Alberta. Juls and I both loved this pond and the surrounding park and went for tons of hikes there, it was a great place.  Taken with the same Nikon setup, I just really love the deep color of the water, apparently it's that green because it is a man made pond and has an unusually large amount of algae and sediment.

I love the second pic because it is the payoff for hiking to the Lake Louise Tea House in...you guessed it...Lake Louise, Alberta.  It was about 1.5hrs to get to this point and then another hour to get to the top of the big beehive (the peak climbing up on the left of the picture).  It was totally worthwhile and probably my favorite hike we did in Alberta.

This picture is probably my favorite of all the ones I have taken since we bought the DSLR.  I love the depth, color and composition.  It's taken from the steps of Chateau Lake Louise looking out over the lake.  We woke up early(ish) and decided to take a short hike and found the lake was super calm and looked a different (darker) shade of green than it normally does.

Alberta Catch-Up 3

And 3 more.

This is another photo taken at Heritage Park in Calgary.  I really like this one because of the lighting.  Taken with the D90, 35-120 F4.8, this was an experiment for me and I actually played with different white balances to see what each would give me.  In the end, I liked the warmth of the white balance in the photo here, and so it is the one I kept.

Both of these photos were taken in Drumheller, AB with the D90 (same lens as above...it was the only one we owned for quite some time).  I took the top photo and really like it, but have gotten comments that it would be better if the bush in the foreground were more prominent.  I am starting to agree and may do some additional editing to see if I can punch up the colors a bit.  The second photo was actually taken by Juls.  It is the ground in the Badlands and is just a really cool macro shot...oh yeah, the 35-120 has a macro feature, which is the only reason we still have it.

Alberta Catch-Up 2

Here are 3 more.

Both of these pics were taken at the Athabasca Glacier on our trip to Jasper on Labor Day weekend 2010.  They were both taken with the D90 again with the 35-120 F4.8.  I really like the top one because it almost looks like it has been taken with an ultra-wide or even fish-eye lens, but it hasn't.  As for the second one, the reason I like it is actually because of the people you can see on the glacier in the upper right hand corner.

This one I added because it is one of my favorite pictures of Juls (she hates it by the way).  We were on the paddle boat at Heritage Park in Calgary when I snapped this one and I just like how raw and imperfect it is.  It was taken with the same setup as the two above.

Alberta Catch-Up 1

I'm going to try and get 3 pics per post here to make things simpler...here's the first 3 in no particular order...well, they are in some particular order...in a bit of an order I guess.

Both of these were taken at the Calgary Zoo shortly after we bought our Nikon D90.  The lens is actually an old lens that Juls had on her Nikon Film camera (F70 I think).  It is a 35-120, F 4.8 kit lens...so in other words its not a great lens, but it did work well here.

This is actually a photo that I didn't take, but did edit.  I was driving the car as we were leaving Rolleau, Saskatchewan (The home of "Dog River") when we saw this little guy on the side of the road. Shawn took the photo with ICOMs D700, and I think he had the 70-200 f1.8 lens on.  It was originally a little bland and the fox was not prominent enough so I increased the blacks and contrast and cropped in a bit.

That's the first three.

A Canadian in Paris, the Photo Blog

I figured that since I am putting actual effort into my other blog (www.ericinparis2011.blogspot.com), I should also make a place to put our photos.  Julia and I have both gotten into photography lately and I am really looking forward to practicing further in some of the most beautiful locations on the planet. 

In keeping with other photo blogs I have seen I will try and explain exactly what I did, what gear I used etc. when showing pictures, I am both lazy and forgetful though so it could just be made up...no promises.  Also, if I can every figure out how to, I will be linking my two blogs together to make it easier to go between them...

Look for the first photos soon, I plan to start by looking back at my favorite photos from our time in Alberta.