So this is Christmas

Santa’s helper, originally uploaded by ken.udle.

Every November for 9 or more years, our family – grandparents, brothers, nieces and nephews, has gathered in the same spot on St. Joseph Blvd in Orleans, at the same time, 5:30pm to watch the Santa Clause parade of lights. This year the weather was kind to us, so those who came prepared stayed warm for the 2.5 hours it takes for the parade to run its course.

Photographing parades like these calls for preparation, good timing and a bit of luck. The lighting is mixed with street lights, assorted coloured lights on the floats, and truck lights both front and back. Shooting RAW is almost essential if you want to have maximum control over the WB later in LR.

As for lens selection, I went with a short telephoto for maximum flexibility. My ISO was at 800 and my f-stop was as wide as I could get it, around f/4. Then it gets interesting.

As the floats move by, you have to pick the right spot for focus and exposure, I usually went with the middle focus point and took a reading off either a face or a tone that would prevent the highlights from blowing out. Panning is usually needed too but in the picture above it looks like I grabbed the shot during a moment when the float paused. That’s the anticipation bit. You need to be aware not only of what’s coming but also what’s happening in the front as well. This way you can adjust your focal length, and decide on what part of the action you want to capture.

Keep your framing in mind as well. Its true that you can shoot wider and crop out some unnecessary details but try to keep that to a minimum so as not to end up with too much noise in the dark areas. This is part of the preparation. Take the time to examine your location, what will you need to exclude (the bright Tims sign perhaps or the nicely decorated sex shop not far from the church. These are all important decisions.

I enjoyed the night very much. I tried shooting into the floats as they went by. When I had the focus and exposure right, luck gave me a moment when a couple kids were clearly enjoying the ride. The best part is that at the parade, I wouldn’t normally be able to see these moments.

November is over and Santa has arrived at the malls. Hum, have I been good enough this year to get that Wacom tablet?

Changes

too soon for winter, originally uploaded by ken.udle.

Seasons change, people change, our needs change.

On November 5th my brother and I headed out at 6:30am. The air was crisp and the skies were clear. Our destination was Blakeney Rapids located just under an hour’s drive west of Ottawa. This trip represented a return to regular weekend outings for Dave after a difficult year for him on a personal level. I’m glad to have him back as frankly morning outings are not quite the same when you go solo. The gap in active photography had an impact for Dave, in a sense he’s relearning stuff he knew quite well in 2010. I’m going to help fill that gap as a mentor of sorts. We’re still working out the details but I’m already discovering the role of a mentor can be beneficial in two ways. One way is for the recipient and you’ll find lots on that subject on the web, the other is for the mentor him/herself – besides the satisfaction of seeing someone grow in confidence and skill but also I think it helps keep the mentor current on the craft and challenged to be innovative with problem solving.

I am close to deciding that it would be a good idea if I had a mentor. The first step, of course, is knowing what my needs and expectations are. I’ve given some thought to that, and doing some research as well. David DuChemin writes about the concept in his book Vision Mongers and his advice has helped me focus on some personal goals.

I have at times thought of my involvement with photography as being like some one who is late to the game. I’m a couple years from retirement and only a few years into learning this craft. I know if I’d kept at photography over the years and learned more about art and business I’d be in a very different place right now and I don’t think I’m that different from a lot of people my age; office workers and family men who find they have more time and disposable cash available to begin pursuing something new – taking and selling quality pictures, perhaps ones that could be considered art. This part of the baby-boom wave has helped grow a new industry of on-line photography lessons, workshops, weekend retreats, books etc all offered by people with varying levels of skill as writers, photographers and teachers. I suspect the quality or those offerings may have inspired a recent post by Ray Ketcham when he wrote about the Myth of the Muse. I believe his message is inspiration grows from work and not from some divine or other mystic intervention. But what about time, and the lack thereof?

How does the middle aged person make up for decades of missed opportunities to learn the arts, to be observant and creative? I can’t accept that it’s too late. Perhaps a mentor can help fill that gap, can help guide me across the river to that distant shore. That’s what I hope to explore next.

The picture at the top was taken at Blakeney Rapids with a Canon Xsi. ISO 100, f/22 and a 13 second exposure with a focal length of 36mm. I used ND filters to achieve a long exposure.

Graduation – giving something back

Walkway on the Bog, originally uploaded by ken.udle.

My parents introduced me to photography at the impressionable age of 12 with my first camera and a basic darkroom kit. It became and still is a significant part of my life. Last year I had the chance to share what I’ve learned, and to give back some of the magic that comes with translating how you see the world into something that’s uniquely yours.

Mom has always been a creative person with hobbies ranging from blending coloured pencils to give depth and life to sketches of English country scenes, to decorating cut glass bottles with lead, and gluing dried flowers in tiny arrangements on notepaper, to the more traditional knitting and quilt-making. In recent years, though, I hadn’t heard talk of any new hobbies. When she mentioned last spring that she’d like to get a better camera, the glimmer of an idea formed. I talked with her about camera features and the differences between point and shoot, bridge and SLR cameras and was pleased when she decided to get a very nice bridge camera for their pending trip to NL. Before the trip, she asked if I’d give her a few tips. There was my opening.

Over the following months we talked about taking pictures and digital workflows and post processing. I gave her a couple of essential but not too technical books and was thrilled to learn she was reading them and trying the exercises. I have to admit too that I was surprised to see that not only had she been listening to what I said a week or more earlier, but was actively putting what I said to use. A milestone was reached recently when she told me she was bracketing her shots but didn’t find there was much difference with the results and that she was getting used to using the exposure compensation option. It struck me that she knew more about her camera and exposure than my brothers did at the same point in learning the craft.

We invited her to participate in our weekly photo challenges where we’ve seen her pictures get progressively better. A long forgotten energy was developing with this new creative outlet and I think it’s been fantastic for her. I don’t want to give away her age, but I’ll be 52 this month and I think it’s wonderful that she’s been able to adapt so quickly to digital photography and computers (a Mac of course).

Unbeknownst to her, Saturday past was like a final exam for year one of the course. We headed out to the Mer Bleue (a protected bog near Ottawa) just as the sun was coming up. There I watched a bit then left her to her own devices photographing reflections, landscapes (in tricky lighting mind you) and frost on the plants. Later over tea at Tim Hortons, we talked about compositions and depth of field. When I saw her pictures I could tell she was light years away from where she was last year. My picture above of the boardwalk isn’t as nicely composed as hers. I wrote to her that night to tell her she had passed year one with flying colours and was being promoted to year two where she’ll learn about shooting RAW and hopefully will be introduced to a DSLR.

The message for parents and their children – it’s never too late to learn, nor is it ever too late to give something back. In my case it was simply time, conversation and encouragement. Easy Peasy.