Elise LeBlanc in Concert, a set on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Folk artist Elise LeBlanc performs for LTDs (Leaders in Training and Discipleship) on the beach at Gull Lake Centre near Lacombe, AB.
I have been working at Gull Lake Centre for the summer, putting together videos and shooting photos for all the campers who come through the gates. It has been a wonderful opportunity to practice my photography, especially on days like these!
Wave Launch, a set on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
The Wave Art & Media Installation was launched on Thursday June 23, 2011 as part of the McLuhan Centenary and the Media Ecology Convention 2011 in Edmonton Alberta.
Wave was unveiled in the atrium of Enterprise Square (old Bay building in Downtown Edmonton, owned by U of A). Several convention attendees and students of the MACT program, along with friends and colleagues attended the launch and tried their hand at being a “waveling.”
Wavelings can connect via their smartphones, tablets, or traditional computers to a special web app, which allows them to explore webcams from all over the world, based on the McLuhan concept, “the global village.”
They can also view their image as a silhouette amongst a series of “renga” poetry written for Wave. This interaction explores McLuhan’s “the medium is the message.”
The Wave will be in Enterprise Square until November 2011, and will be continually updated and developed with software and hardware updates though out its stay. Stay tuned to the @wave_art twitter page for the latest news.
Thanks to Jeremy Keay for shooting the photos.
I finally opted to re-invest in some new photography equipment, this time in the optical area.
I contemplated between the new 55mm and the 35mm, since the 55mm certainly has a unique close-up perspective (and from what I understand a slightly better portrait shot) but since I already have a 55mm in manual form, and 35mm seemed a bit more versatile, I opted for it in the end.
Most of my comparisons will be to the kit lens my D40 came with, the 18-55mm stock zoom that is pretty much the cheapest lens Nikon sells. My first impressions are that this thing produces very sharp pictures. Perhaps I just haven’t picked up my DSLR in a while, perhaps I just haven’t been using RAW often enough, but these look pretty sharp to me. Thanks to the F1.8 aperture size, plenty of light can enter the camera in low light, which makes it easier to capture a shot without dropping shutter speed to blurry-inducing levels, or increasing the ISO on the rather limited sensor of the D40.
To compare, check out the two shots below, first with the 18-55mm at about 35mm at F4.6 (largest allowed at this zoom point) and 1/200 shutter speed. The next is the same image shot wide open (F1.8) with the 35mm prime. Both were shot at ISO 800 on the D40.
My goal was to be able to shoot in lower light without being forced into high ISO ranges, so this should help out quite a bit.
Check out more shots of the day on the Flickr set.
Fun with new 35mm, a set on Flickr.
It has been a while since I went out and took some pictures. I suppose winter was a bit of an inhibitor. I actually lent my SP-320 to my sister for a trip, so these shots (and any others in the next few weeks) are with my little F440 ultra compact, and considering the limited control, I thought they turned out extremely well. It IS good to go back to basics sometimes.
