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Snow Sculpture

Snow Sculpture
Beauty and Art are not mutually exclusive – as are most things that are subjective of course.

Despite the filling of my life with our wonderful new son Alex, and the development of our first into a young batshitcrazy-toddler, I have found a certain creative void has formed within me.

I can say, honestly, that the muse does hit me – repeatedly, in fact – over the head with ideas and concepts that are there, just a moment from fully grasping, but I am utterly unable to either implement, or write it down in time before it escapes.

2under2 is my “campaign” name for having these two lovely kids in our lives, but it has become more than full time. It’s compromised my worklife, unable to stay late, and never able to facilitate a timely departure in the morning I am just squeezing the bare minimum of efforts to my employer: not quite what you want written for your performance review.

I’ve also struggled with taking the time to take the photos I want to take… largely including people, and some form of lighting setup for experimentation to better implement at Weddings this year. But it’s just not there.

Yes, folks will say “Make the time!” but seriously, would we be all this tired if the “making” of time were as easy as putting it on a production line in China for some 11-year olds to off put into a shipping container? We are only given the time that we have: no more.

This all said I will FIND the time. The kids are out of the hospital. Alex is sleeping more, which means Mel is sleeping more, which means I don’t have to support her physically and emotionally quite as much. Quinn is, well, trouble, but he’s almost 2 and being a bit of a dick, I assume, is part of the male learning process. I’m going to guess there’s some fusion to be found in all this, something I can’t see, just like the inspiration that’s been hitting me and fading too fast to follow…

Things, right now, feel ugly – I know Mel feels ugly – but there’s beauty in it.

My sons are beautiful.

Alex sleeps, curled in a ball on my stomach right now as I type this, coughing slightly, then he drifts back to his slumber. Maybe all that inspiration I’ve been having is transferring to him, helping HIM develop, giving him an early creative start… soon he won’t need as much of it and I’ll be able to have it back in time to really pull off some great photography.

Mar 01, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

2B

2B
Wow – the past few weeks have been fairly intense. None of it photographic, sadly, all of it family and illness and doing whatever you can to make the people you love comfortable. My mom took the time to travel from Toronto to Ottawa to help me get food to Mel and Alex at CHEO. David drove me and Quinn out there to do the same, even though he doesn’t owe me shit: a great act of kindness from a good man (single too ladies).

Thank you to countless others who offered their time and resources to help; it was appreciated. Everyone’s home safe now and on the mend. Now all we need is about a billion hours of sleep caught up and we’ll be even.

Feb 21, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

RSV

RSV
Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus is a nasty little bug that fills your kid up with mucous. Which, if they’re young enough, and unable to force the phlegm out on their own, has to be removed by tube and suction. There is no treatment other than oxygen, it’s just one of those things they have to get through – but damn if it isn’t heartbreaking to see.

It’s physically strenuous on Mel too, considering she’s his only food-source. That mean she shares a room with two infants hacking and crying all night; going on three nights now too.

Feb 17, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | 5 Comments »

Little Curves

Little Curves
I made a comment on twitter the other day that went something like this “some say you don’t take as many photos of your 2nd child because you’ve done it before with the first, but in reality it’s because the first is so fucking crazy you no longer have the time.”

Quinn lost a bit of his “crazy” this weekend by catching a nasty viral infection. For the parents out there I’ll say this: both ears.

Sucks – and after spending two semi-sleepless nights on the couch cradling the boy I’m afraid it’s caught up to me too.

Luckily, my parents had a planned visit to Ottawa this weekend, so along with shouldering MUCH of the burden, they afforded me time to shoot. I was able to steal Paul’s 50D for a few intimate shots of Alex sleeping (note: as a 3 week old he sleeps more than he doesn’t).

This shot was processed using Adobe’s Lightroom 3 Beta, along with a pass through Nik Software’s ColorEfex Pro & then SilverEfex Pro for the B&W conversion. If you don’t already own these plugins these two alone account for the full WORTH of the Nik complete collection for Lightroom (as of this writing $299.95 USD) I use them daily and add some very much needed “pop” and control to many of my images.

Pro Tip: check out Rick Sammon’s website for some more samples of the Nik software plugin, as well as coupon codes for it and others.

Feb 07, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Trouble with Tribbles

Trouble with Tribbles
This week I received the lovely Lensmate Adapter for the Canon G11. This is a must-have accessory for anyone with the G10,11, or Panasonic LX3 (I wish I had this back when I had one).

The Lensmate is beautifully crafted with machined aluminum and black to match the exterior of the camera. It is primarily a system designed to allow attachments over the retractable lens of the point & shoot camera. You get the “A” section and then add the “B” or “C” sections based on your needs of attaching Canon’s own tele-converter lens, and/or filters. The great part is that you can use standard sized filters (72mm on the “B” section) as it opens wide, like a lens hood, to eliminate vignetting. This was my main reason for picking up the adapters as there’s nothing quite like a circular polarizer on your lens to bring out the clouds, darken the sky, or see through water on the ground.

An added benefit of the Lensmate, and the makers must know this advantage too, is they’ve designed it with a criss-crossed grip around the A section. This gives your left hand a place to firmly hold the camera (as if you were focusing the lens on a SLR). Without this, my left hand tended to gravitate under the whole body of the camera, not necessarily adding any level of stabilization; to me this feels natural. Here’s an image of the lensmate on the G10 (they’re nearly identical)

The Lensmates aren’t particularly expensive either, indeed, Canon’s own LA-DC58K is $30 USD (plastic 58mm thread), while the A & B segments of the Lensmate can be purchased for about $48 USD.

These few pieces basically transform the camera into something that looks a bit more “serious.” While you do compromise the portability of the G11, I’d argue that you can hold it by the grip on the Lensmate, comfortably, without worry. The optical viewfinder also becomes VERY blocked, but at 70% coverage, I rarely squeezed my face against it. In fact, Canon’s articulating screen is exactly what I needed on a P&S to make it unique and manageable.

Lensmate have produced a great niche product consisting of smart, quality parts that look like they belong with the camera, as good as any Canon part I’ve owned (if not better)- I’m going to leave the Lensmate on my camera even when I’m not using a filter.

Feb 05, 2010 | Categories: Review | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »