Happy New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2009. I'm heading out to my New Years gathering with friends and hope you are enjoying the night as well whether with friends or family. I know I'm looking forward to 2009 and all the adventures to come.

U17 Hockey World Championships

Well that was fun. I say that genuinely as well as a bit tongue in cheek. Had a blast doing the photography but had some trouble getting the shots we needed as security gave us regular media passes instead of all-access passes. We worked it out but it was a bit of a hassle. Then I had my first photography injury. Well, it is just a bump but I was hit with a players stick while shooting between the benches. It all doesn't matter though as sports photography is absolute recreation. It was well worth going out on the icy roads last night to be there and I'm looking forward to January 3, 2009 when we get to do two more games in the tournament.

Well, I have a new Camera. A 1968 Canonet 28 by Canon. My wife's grandparents gave it to me. I stuck film in it today, the first time I've used film in about a year after having given away my Pentax film SLR to a student. I've already taken three frames with it and it takes a bit of getting used too. Not that I plan on ditching digital anytime soon, but it is always fun to try new (old) things. In fact I'm trying to get my Ricoflex camera working as well. I've cleaned it, bought 120 film and now just need to find a replacement piece for the inside of it.

Now aside from all my playing with a film camera we are busy right now with the photography of the U17 World Hockey Challenge which we are official photographers for on December 29 and January 3 in Nanaimo. That is going to be a lot of fun! Also get to do some stock photography for a British Columbia company called Island Spirits Distillery. We met the owners a couple of months ago at the MISTIC Awards where we were the official photographers. They have a great product that they are selling in Alberta right now and you can order direct from the distillery in BC at their website. If you like Gin or Vodka you should look forward to trying it out soon.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Inspiring Books

Every once in a while you read a book that really helps you to bring your own work or life into perspective. I just finished reading Annie Leibovitz' book titled At Work and it was an eye opening read for me. Honestly I hadn't really heard of her before I picked up the book, but I was familiar with some of her work including of course her famous Demi Moore cover shot in Vanity Fair. Anyway, if you are at all interested in portraiture and journalistic work it is a great read.

What a load off!

I just received my new camera strap from Lowepro. I must say it is a huge relief. Wanted to give a plug for the product. If you are anything like me you probably hate the stock strap that came with your dslr. I know my E3 with the battery grip on is a big heavy camera. Adam received this really nice free strap from Smugmug our photo website host but they never sent me mine. I finally gave up and ordered a $40 strap from Lowepro called the Voyager S. I love it. What a difference. No more skinny rigid strap digging into my neck. Plus as a side bonus it doesn't have those large obnoxious logos on it like you see with all the camera branded ones so you look like a moving billboard. Anyway, short post here but if you need a new strap the Voyager S gets two thumbs up from me.

Let it Snow

Well, we have had the first big snowfall of the year. I'm so glad to have a weather sealed camera as I was able to shoot outside today without worrying about ruining anything. I'm not crazy about shoveling the stuff, but to be honest I prefer this weather to the cold rain which is the dominant weather here all winter. At least its nice to look at.

We have been a little quiet lately, but busy enough. Shot the MISTIC Christmas party last week getting staff photos. That was fun and the food wasn't bad either! I'm hoping to get out to a couple of hockey games this week as well and we are hopeful that we will be able to shoot the U17 hockey championships later this month and early January.

Adam and I have been eying up some Pocket Wizards. Might just be my Christmas present to myself. My staff gave me a gift certificate to Vistek for Christmas so I'm pondering how to use it. But on the subject of buying things. It is a tough economic time. People have less money to spend and most of us are worried about work. If you are fortunate enough to have work right now it is a good time to get some deals as prices seem to be in a freefall as the economy cools. I recently saw an Olympus E520 dslr with one lens on sale at Blacks for $470. That camera was almost $300 more this summer. Other cameras seem to be dropping in price as well except those under huge demand like the new Canon 5D MarkII. Cameras with video (big cameras that is) seem to be in vogue now. I gave away my camcorder as I found the quality in my digital camera to be equal for video. For those of you looking for a really great camera that has dslr ability but not the size, you might be interested in the new Panasonic G1. It doesn't have video, but I understand its successor in the spring will have high definition video. The G1 has only been out a month and has already fallen $50 in price.

Also a little money saver tip for those of you into photography. Adobe makes great products but their Photoshop program is $700 here in Canada. You can buy Photoshop Elements for under $100 in stores and then go online and buy a little add on program called Elements plus for under $20 which gives you pretty much everything in Elements that the full Photoshop has. That saves you $580!! I haven't tried it yet, so I can't endorse it but I know others have and say it works very well.

Anyway. Merry Christmas. Get out there with your camera! Or call us and we'll do it for you. :)