In -15 degree Celsius temperatures, a small group of determined activists met in front of City Hall Sunday, November 21st, to protest against racism. Leading the protest were Jason and Bonnie Devine. A few weeks ago, masked men invaded Jason and Bonnie's house. Jason was attacked and beaten with clubs and bats by what Jason believed to be members of a local white supremacist group. Bonnie and their kids were asleep.
It's crazy to believe that thugs can invade someone's home and beat them up. What's crazier is that Social Services took the Devine kids, claiming they were living in a dangerous environment. On CBC Radio One, Jason said that Social Services equated their situation with drug dealers and biker gangs. Insane.
At the time of this rally, the Devine kids were back home, but Jason was still suffering from the beating. In this photo Bonnie tries to sooth a headache.
Both Bonnie and Jason are known for their activism. Bonnie was one of the candidates running for mayor in the recent civic election.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
frozen cosmos 1
Discovering more cool things I can do with the new Pentax K-5. This is a shot of a frozen Cosmos flower wilting on my balcony. It kind of looks like an illustration you'd find in a high school biology text book. I can pretend to be a painter. : )
I used the following Pentax K-5 in-camera filters: extract color (to pull out just the pink and yellow), and water color. And then sharpened it up a bit with Corel PhotoPaint.
I used the following Pentax K-5 in-camera filters: extract color (to pull out just the pink and yellow), and water color. And then sharpened it up a bit with Corel PhotoPaint.
Here is another version of the same flower where I just used the extract color filter to bring out the pink and then adjusted the level equalization, contrast, and sharpness with Corel PhotoPaint.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Old & new technology
Today, I took the new Pentax for a run through a couple of neighborhoods. I took a photo of a house roof that had an old fashioned rooster weather vane and a state of the art satellite dish. The owners dashed out of their house to talk to me. The wife actually yelped "You-hoo" like a chihuahua to get my attention.
The wife waited in the doorway as the husband, a distinguished older German fellow, asked why I was taking pictures of their house. I assured him that it wasn't their house I was photographing, but their weather vane and satellite dish. As I showed him the photo, I told him I thought it was an interesting combination of old and new technology.
"Is it for you?" he asked. Was he figuring I was making money off his weather vane and satellite dish?
"Yes it's for me," I said. "I'm a photography student, taking classes at Mount Royal, but this is mostly for me."
Then I said thank you, he returned the thanks, and I went on my way. I posted it to Flickr, but then decided that if the owners saw it they might not consider it "personal use" and decided to delete it.
The wife waited in the doorway as the husband, a distinguished older German fellow, asked why I was taking pictures of their house. I assured him that it wasn't their house I was photographing, but their weather vane and satellite dish. As I showed him the photo, I told him I thought it was an interesting combination of old and new technology.
"Is it for you?" he asked. Was he figuring I was making money off his weather vane and satellite dish?
"Yes it's for me," I said. "I'm a photography student, taking classes at Mount Royal, but this is mostly for me."
Then I said thank you, he returned the thanks, and I went on my way. I posted it to Flickr, but then decided that if the owners saw it they might not consider it "personal use" and decided to delete it.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
A Rose
Getting there. This was a night shot of a flower on one of the crosses posted along Memorial Drive for Remembrance Day. I still need to play with f-stops so that more of the photo is in focus, but I thought this wasn't bad without a flash or tripod.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
fluffy
Recently I purchased the new Pentax K-5 DSLR with a 50mm 1.4 lens and a 50-200mm zoom lens. Another learning curve. So far I'm liking how creative I can be in-camera, however, I find the results are better when editing RAW rather than JPEG. (I know, duh!)
This photo of weed fluff was shot with the Canon 50D. When I can figure out how to adjust the Pentax to get the same contrast and depth, I'll be totally happy. I'm afraid It might involve buying a really expensive lens, though.
Or maybe, I'll just have to adjust how I look at my photos.
This photo of weed fluff was shot with the Canon 50D. When I can figure out how to adjust the Pentax to get the same contrast and depth, I'll be totally happy. I'm afraid It might involve buying a really expensive lens, though.
Or maybe, I'll just have to adjust how I look at my photos.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
B&W Workshop
Just completed a two night, one day black and white photography workshop at Mount Royal University.
Friday night, the class discussed why we like shooting in b&w. I mentioned my mom's little red box camera and that I thought b&w told stories more vividly. Some liked the drama of b&w.
Saturday morning we wandered around Inglewood. Having shot photos there before, my challenge was to not repeat myself. Since there's so much in Inglewood to shoot, not repeating myself wasn't difficult. Saturday afternoon we returned to MRU to edit our favorite three photos with Photoshop CS. I got a taste of what it's like to be the slow one in the group. The computers (I went to two) did not recognize my Canon 50D and I went through three card readers before I could upload my photos, which put me behind whatever everyone else was doing. My energy level was (and is) still really low from the virus infection, and by the end of the afternoon I didn't like anything I shot. Still, I pulled off three photos, which the instructor printed for the Wednesday evening critiquing. It was all good. Everyone in my class pulled off really good prints.
This photo was from the Inglewood shoot, but not one edited with Photoshop. I still prefer my ten year old Corel software.
This week I start the Photography Level 2 course. Might have to do major caffeine if my energy level doesn't pick up.
Friday night, the class discussed why we like shooting in b&w. I mentioned my mom's little red box camera and that I thought b&w told stories more vividly. Some liked the drama of b&w.
Saturday morning we wandered around Inglewood. Having shot photos there before, my challenge was to not repeat myself. Since there's so much in Inglewood to shoot, not repeating myself wasn't difficult. Saturday afternoon we returned to MRU to edit our favorite three photos with Photoshop CS. I got a taste of what it's like to be the slow one in the group. The computers (I went to two) did not recognize my Canon 50D and I went through three card readers before I could upload my photos, which put me behind whatever everyone else was doing. My energy level was (and is) still really low from the virus infection, and by the end of the afternoon I didn't like anything I shot. Still, I pulled off three photos, which the instructor printed for the Wednesday evening critiquing. It was all good. Everyone in my class pulled off really good prints.
This photo was from the Inglewood shoot, but not one edited with Photoshop. I still prefer my ten year old Corel software.
This week I start the Photography Level 2 course. Might have to do major caffeine if my energy level doesn't pick up.
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