In mid-February, while my photos were still on display at the Barrie City Hall Rotunda, there was an evening when SNAP Barrie  came to take photos of the winners. I stopped in that evening for the photo op, later joined by mom and Walter (thanks for the support!). It was a great little bit of exposure, and I got a copy of the pics to share:

And here is a photo of all the winners that were present that evening. Thanks very much to Mark at SNAP Barrie for the photos. Check them out for cool local community stuff! :

Another interesting thing happened recently. I was approached on Flickr (a place where I also share some of my photos) by someone claiming to have seen my Maple Leaf Flag photo submitted in a photo contest – in Vancouver! I was able to track down the photo store running the contest to inquire about it:

The owner told me that he purchased the photo through iStockPhoto to put up as an example to inspire people for their own submissions. I have had the photo listed in iStockPhoto for some time now and it has given me a constant trickle of revenue over the past year or so. Glad to see it finally out in the “wild”, especially in such a patriotic context (and even more especially during the Olympics!):

Ron, the owner, was kind enough to share these photos with me.

For reference, here is the photo:

I am not sure if the display is still up, or for how long it was up – but I thank Photo Express Foto Source for including me in a very patriotic display. I hope my photo was inspirational to those that saw it.

I have also been working recently on a photography portfolio website! The site is not completely finished yet, but you can check it out by clicking here. A lot of work has gone into it so far, and it is specifically tuned to display on mobile browsers (like the iPhone and soon-to-be iPad) so I can show off my photos on the go, and maybe get a little bit more exposure and possible a few print sales. I’ll be working on this in my free time (ha!) over the next month or so to complete it.

But that’s not all! On February 25th I talked at the Barrie Photo Club and did a presentation on travel photography (from my trip to Europe) that was very well received. I also did a three-hour seminar on photography basics this past Saturday for the photo club as well.

I’ll post again when I have time to take some photos, hopefully this warm weather will inspire me to get out with my camera a little more.

I could take photos of snowflakes for hours – each one is stunningly unique, and the near-perfect symmetry adds so many intricate details – definitely another favourite:

I hope that I have another chance to get out there and photograph snowflakes before the weather warms up too much. We’ll see!

On a side note: tonight I spoke at the Barrie Photo Club about travel photography – the presentation was very well received and it started some very interesting conversations. I’m very glad it turned out as good as it did! I had some very positive feedback from one-time visitors as well. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to do this again at some point! We are planning a workshop on an introduction to photography in March too – something I am co-hosting. While sometimes I feel too busy – the accomplishments always seem worth it.

I took a moment to take the photos needed to make a panorama of the falls. Here’s a very small version of the panorama, the full version is 236 megapixels:

We visited the casino and had a great time spending $12 and winning back $2. We were a little startled when we found out that the parking cost more than our gambling though! Our final stop before we headed home was another surprise – the butterfly conservatory. Desi and I walked around the paths about three times, chasing after the butterflies for photos, and just enjoying the tropical environment in the dead of winter. I got some great photos, and Desi too!

Some of the butterflies were extremely colourful, and the the photos turned out great. Desi and I were talking around and pointing out the most colourful ones, especially the wings on this one:

We really enjoyed our visit to the butterfly conservatory, and noticed some nice hiking trails in the area. This is probably a place we’ll go back to in the summer! Here’s another photo, and the gallery below:

 

And I’d like to take a moment and thank everyone for all of the comments you leave on my blog. I read every one and look forward to them always. Thanks so much!

I also ran into this little guy, completely unexpected as it landed on a tree that I was standing next to:

And probably my favourite from the outing, these Trumpeter Swans making a wonderful display:

It was a great day for photography, and I hope than the other club members came home with some great photos as well. While it can be bitterly cold, the winter landscape is full of amazing things.

 

So, then I entered the contest.

Here’s a photo of some of the winning photos, currently displayed in the City Hall rotunda:

You might notice some familiar photos in this shot. Here’s a closer look:

These were the runners-up. Photos that didn’t win, but still deserved to be displayed. I don’t like the way they printed my Maple Leaf Flag photo – far too dark. I’m glad it is being shared though. Well, how about the winners?

Here are the first and second place winners, as well as the honourable mentions. Great photos, Barrie has a lot of photographic talent. Some of you may recognize the photo in the top left. Here’s a closer look at the label:

So, this is the first award that I have won from my photography. The contest was partnered with Henry’s, a camera store chain. The prize was a gift card and a few little freebies (a tote bag and a pin) – I’ll put the gift card to good use for sure! I’m very glad that everything turned out great. I talked to the contest coordinator when picking up my prize and she said that they were surprised by the overall quality of the submissions. This means even more to me that I won when up against such impressive competition.

This made my day.

This was taken in Port Severn. I was driving by on my way home from Family Day weekend which I spent in Sudbury. The sun was setting and I chose to get off the highway for a few minutes to try and catch the last rays of it. I think it turned out really well. The original image I took is this:

I personally love both images.

And for those daring, here is a larger version. I actually took the photo in segments, and combined them in a vertical panorama. The full version is 54 megapixel, perfect to reprint it if we ever want to make a copy. What do you think of this tradition? I love it, and I am already looking forward to next year.

Winter isn’t my favoruite season, but it is quickly becoming one of my favourite seasons to photograph. Today I wanted to head to a few places before the sun was high in the sky. The first stop was just outside of town at Springwater Provincial Park – they have a small outdoor zoo with some interest animals. They were just waking up when I arrived, and this guy was quite vocal when I came into sight:

I admit it – I edited this one a little. I put the trees in the background, to make it a bit more natural looking than what looked like a dog house and a chain-link fence. It was tricky shooting through the fence in the foreground to get it to disappear! I think the shot turned out great. I went around and visited more of the animals, the deer were quite affectionate but unfortunately not very photogenic (they wouldn’t stay away from the fence, making it very hard to remove it from the picture). It was a great little walk and not a soul in sight at 8am.

Next stop was Milligan’s Pond. This is a small pond/creek area in Barrie that has flowing water in the winter, and as such attracts a lot of ducks. While I might have traveled here for the birds, I was more interested in the hoarfrost at the water’s edge:

The frost forms in areas of high humidity (the edge of a pond or creek is perfect for this) and melts quite quickly in the morning after the sun’s light hits it. I’m glad I got here just as the sun was poking through the trees, and lighting up certain patches of frost. The frost wasn’t just on the ground, but in the trees too:

Something I never noticed before – the dead needles don’t attract the frost. I wonder why! There are so many wonderful things to see on a winter morning. I was home with all of these photos before I normally even wake up. It has been a great day so far.

 

For those of you whose eyes are glazing over or think I’m speaking another language, this is what I’m talking about.

Taking this:

…and ending up with this:

Pretty neat, eh? It shows you how much data is in a RAW image, that normally you don’t see. I find that half the fun is taking the photo, and half the fun is processing it. I’ll be playing around with this technique more in the near future, so let me know what you think of the results!