Triathlon

Today I shot the start of the Chinook Half 119.1 Triathlon at Lake Midnapore in south Calgary.

It's been a while since I shot a sporting event. I used to shoot a bike race or a triathlon nearly every weekend when I was part of that scene in Toronto. It definitely brought back memories of early morning starts along with the beautiful early morning light. A couple of friends were participating in today's event, so I tried to pay attention to where they were in the pack so I could grab a few stock shots.

Then, this afternoon I attended an artist's market at the Carpenters Hall in Kensington. I bumped into a few of my former ACAD students (Amy Wakefield, Heather Reinhart, Pat Wong and Aimee Qiu) and it was from talking to them and seeing their work, that I was inspired to play around with my triathlon shots in Photoshop, as they just seemed so plain and ordinary. Not that I wanted to fix them, I just felt the urge to be creative in a different way than I normally am.

I'm usually the type to shoot a photo the way I want it to look as I have little experience in "Photoshopping" those artsy effects I love so much. Truth is, I had never actually tried. So, armed with layer masks, blending modes, and some experimental brush techniques, I came up with a few "sketches". I must say it was quite liberating and fun to be painting on my photographs. I shall definitely keep experimenting.

Vancouver Walk Walk

When I saw this utility hole cover for Vancouver Water Works this past Sunday, I laughed. The message that flashed through my mind when I saw the VWW, was Vancouver Walk Walk. I had been walking through Vancouver's Gastown, Granville, Coal Harbour Seawalk, up and down Howe, Hornby, Granville and Seymore streets to meet friends and take photos along the way. It was great to travel light for three days - no computer and just my Canon G9 for a camera, which shoots 12MP raw files.

I can do without my dSLR on a holiday, but I can't seem to do without RAW. Shooting raw files has been part of my work flow for the past 4 years. It pains me to shoot jpg, mainly because of the loss of control that those 4096 tones in a raw file provide me.

The G9 is not perfect. If it was, then why would I bother with a high end dSRL for 10x the price? I had to get used to the noise, but I try to keep the ISO as low as possible to minimize it. For grungy inner city photos though, it's perfect.

I'll be adding some of the Vancouver shots to the travel stock on my PhotoShelter Personal Archive over the next short while.

Oh, and while on my travels I bought a new pair of blue shoes. You can see the top of them in the shot.