Tulip in the Mist

I'm down in the States, so I don't have any photos to choose from. That will all change soon. My new Macbook is coming, so I will no longer be chained to my desktop computer.

My friends liked this one, and I happened to have a copy in my email, so I thought I'd share it with you. I took it while Bethany was watering the garden.

Peace out.

Timmy.

Some friends of mine...

(This picture looks sucky small, so make sure you click on it to see the larger version.)

I've told you lots about the Famous Uncle Robert. He has been a huge help and influence in my photography. He loans me all sorts of different gear; including lenses, tripods, and books. In fact, last week's picture was taken with his macro lens. You should check out some of his photos (click here). He's a Canon man, but I love him anyway.

Somebody I haven't told you about is my friend Greg. When I got my new camera, he gave me an old lens of his. It's an 80-200mm f/2.8, and I've really enjoyed using it. I was using it last night from the balcony of a Catholic church. The combination of 200mm and f/2.8 made it possible to capture tight, crisp images of the activities near the alter.

Another great use I have discovered for this lens is portraiture (is that a word?). I had a great time doing some portraits of my friend Heidi last week at Queen Elizabeth Park here in Vancouver. I still have lots to learn about composition and lighting when it comes to portraits, but at least I feel confident with the equipment I'm using. Thank you Greg! (Check out his video production company by clicking here.)

The Tulip Wars

Bethany and I often have disagreements about my photography. She often likes photos that I think are junk. Ironically, she sometimes dislikes some of my favourite photographs. Sadly, because she has access to our entire hard drive, many of my "nice try" pictures make it to her blog. Today's post is no exception. I thought I would counteract the lame tulips that appear on her blog with a much better tulip pic. To be fair, Bethany does like this photo, but had already posted it a few weeks ago.

I took this a couple months ago while trying out a lens that the Famous Uncle Robert is loaning to me. It's an old Tamron 70-210mm macro and I like it a lot. For this image I used it with a 2x teleconverter. I like the lens a lot, but the mount is too old for my camera, so I'm going to find out if I can get an adapter for it that will make it work better. As of right now, the camera seems to get confused and doesn't get enough light from the lens even though I have manually set the lens to f/2.8 (this problem exists with and without the teleconverter). Hopefully I can get a more modern adapter, because this lens is pretty sweet. As of right now, I have to use such slow shutter speeds (this one was a 10 second exposure) that hand-held shots are out of the question, and a stiff breeze will leave me completely powerless.

Next week I will tell you about the wicked lens that my friend Greg gave me. It works beautifully as a portrait lens.

Peace out.

Timmy.

See You On The Flip Side

Okay, this is kinda lame, but I'm short on time these days. I'll try to put up something better this weekend, but no promises. I took this while Bethany and I were walking with the Famous Uncle Robert and Aunt Sylvia. This empty lot will one day be condos. In fact, there are numerous signs up, urging people to buy in early. In the meantime, the lot is filled up with rain water and refuse from the neighbouring construction sites. The Famous Uncle Robert has pointed out that people should probably think twice about buying a property built on a plot of land that currently looks like this.

I thought it was neat to see the building from across the street being reflected in the watery foundation of its future neighbour. I know this sounds artsy-fartsy and lame, but I think the junk at the bottom of this photo symbolizes the questionable foundation of the building that will be built here. Therefore, I took the picture in such a way that the reflection was growing out of the junk. I didn't have time to adjust the RAW file, so I simply rotated the JPEG and cropped it in Picasa.

Peace out.

Timmy.

ps. Thanks for the encouraging words Anna. Yes, I can ship to Ontario.