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| Sit back and Enjoy the Journey |
With the beginning of April as we saw in the last post I began to take my photography in a much more serious manner. To be honest I tackled it much like a job. I often called myself the "professional" hobbysist because I spent more time than many pros I am sure learning, practicing and mastering my craft. This inevitably led to many many more images being taken so I am going to slow these photography reviews down into more bite size pieces and tackle them in individual months to do them proper justice.
May 2011 I was still experimenting with my photography. I had spend a lot of time in April learning about composition (although this is an exercise I have come to realize is neverending). In May I wanted to start putting my newly found skills to use and start shooting better images. I still had an ecclectic focus in my photography, opting to shoot what most interested me that day on my photowalks.
In addition, in April the inevitable happened and I outgrew my Nikon d5000. I knew it would happen because of its limitatations, but it was the perfect teaching device. I learnt some key elements of what I liked in photography. I liked fast prime lens, I liked my camera to be light, and I was more interested in wider angle stuff than telephoto. I also realized I didn't need a million autofocus points and blazing frames per second. I was much more methodical in my approach and liked to anticipate action rather than letting the camera luckily grab a shot. With all these new requirements in my mind I made the switch right out of Nikon to Canon to get their Full Frame Canon EOS 5d. This allowed me to enjoy the benefits of full frame technology at a cheaper price (older used model) and it was also the lightest of all the full frames.
Spring was in the Air
I had gotten a 135mm 2.8 prime lens to do more medium telephoto stuff and with spring in the air, I ended up spending quite a bit of time photography the birds in and around Port Credit. Usually I opt to shoot ducks because I just love their colours but it was mating season for the the swans and they were just so active, I found myself migrating to them everytime I was out. In addition, the geese were starting to have little chicks, so no duck pictures this month, I had a new focus.
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| Showing his toughness |
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| Taking Off |
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| The Imminent Attack |
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| Splash Landing |
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| I will follow you anywhere |
Flower Photography
With May the early spring showers finally started to cease which allowed me to do some flower photography. This was one of those stumbling into things for me. Up until this point I really had no interest in shooting flowers but one day while I was walking by a tulip, I stopped and shot a couple shots for fun. When I looked at the pictures later in lightroom I was pleasantly surprised with the results and began experimenting with both shooting and processing techniques.
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| The happened upon Tulip |
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| Sunflowers in a basket |
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| More Tulips |
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| Experimenting with Flowers |
In and Around Port Credit
On my walks around looking for flowers and birds I still came across a couple pictures that couldn't be passed up. First, I was at the water shooting the swans and the light was reflecting off the water so magnificently that I just had to shoot it once I found a subject.
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| Tranquility |
Another day the rain was making its way back into town which flattened the colours of the flowers and scared the birds away. But it allowed for a great black and white shot. I always find stormy skies make for some of the very best black and white photos.
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| A Storm is Brewing |
Continuing with my Street Photography
I again continued to spend a lot of my time focusing on and improving my street photography in May. At the beginning of the month I was just shooting whatever grabbed my attention.
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| A good-bye embrace |
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| Mini-Me |
But as the month progressed I found myself flocking to a central theme. I can't tell you why my eyes began focusing on this theme, whether it was coming from inside me or just what was revealing itself to me in the streets. But I found it so interesting that we live in a world of such close proximity to each other and yet most people have deep loneliness that is visible from inside of them. This was probably my first unofficial "project" or theme where I started building around this concept.
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| A Sense of Longing |
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| Waiting |
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| Where is my dinner? |
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| Isolation |
Well that marks the end of my journey for the month of May. I hope you enjoyed the images! Which ones were your favourites?
You tell me your favourites and I will reveal in the comments which is my favourite from each section afterwards :)
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