Yard Swap!

Our local photo club - Photo Fredericton - recently did a Yard Swap as a field trip. I had never heard of it before - but essentially, you put your name and address into a hat and pick someone else's yard to go and photograph. We are meeting tomorrow night - and I just finished selecting and editing the ones I will be sharing. Here they are!



For these fun outings - I like to play around a little with some photo editing. It gives me an opportunity to learn! All in all, it was a fun outing.

M42 to EOS

What does M42 to EOS mean? Well they are both lens mounts - the M42 is an older screwmount and EOS (or more appropriately Canon EF) is the new Canon autofocus lens mount. I just got an adaptor so I can use the M42 Screwmount type lenses on my Canon EOS camera bodies (Elan 7N, 20D, and XT).

Why? Why not? I (somewhat) recently got an inexpensive screwmount camera and lens. The lens is a Russion Zenit Helios-44-2 58mm f/2. I got some nice photos on the film camera - and thought it would be fun to mount the Helios on my 20D.

Well I took the combo out with me to the park with the kids - I got a few photos of leaves as they are beginning to turn.






So far I like this combination. The photos were in the f/2-f/4 range - and ISO 400. The only post processing I did was to correct the colour balance, and exposure. There was also a minimal amount of sharpening.

Blurry Trees!

I really like blurry trees, but have never tried my own images - until recently. I am inspired to practice more. Here is my favourite from a walk with the kids. I took about 30 shots - this one stood out. I present it here in sepia and in colour - I can't decide which I like better.



Details: Canon Digital Rebel XT, Canon EF 85mm f1.8 Lens @ f/22, ISO 100, 0.6 Sec. exposure, -.3 EC. Panning up and down.

Photosensitive Cancer Connections

Last year I sumbitted a photo to this organization who was using photography to bring awareness to cancer.

If you go here and click Images and then Niece - the third image down on the left is of my aunt Geraldine holding my neice Aylish.

Incidentally, my mother died from colon cancer when I was 25...just about 11 years ago now.

Before my mother died - I didn't know anyone with cancer. After she died, you talk to people, and realize that everyone knows someone who has/had it. Amazing.

Speaking of the trip...

Here are 2 shots from my recent trip that don't fit the snapshot category....

The first was taken out the plane window sometime around 6am on my flight out. Details: Canon DRebel XT, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 @ 17mm & f/4, ISO 1600, 1/40th sec. Straightened and noise reduced in post processing.

The first day we were at a park by the Lake Ontario, in Port Credit (west of Toronto), here is a shot of some boats in the marina. Details: Canon DRebel XT, Canon 70-210mm f3.5-4.5 @ 200mm & f/8, ISO 100, 1/320th sec. Converted to BW, and added contrast in post processing.

Found - Again?

I was putting up a small personal web site of photos from a recent trip, and found a lost website of mine! What times we live in, eh? I have 3 e-mail addresses that I use, and probably 2-3 more I don't, if I really looked for them. I have a Business based website, and a family based blog, and a hobby based blog (this one) and about 5 small 'photo' page websites to share photos I have taken at various events. No wonder I lost one!

It is an unfinished project to scan a whole box of negatives my grandfather gave me - I have about 2/3 (I think) done here: http://oldphotos.50webs.com/

Not a pretty layout by any means, but you can get to the photos! I don't know the negative size but I would guess the closest would be about a 6x9 cm format, although they are a little wider than 120 film.