White on Grey on Grey

Haven't been shooting much lately due to time constraints and weather, but this weekend I'll be out to shoot my 70-200mm f/2.8. Very excited about it, although the 2x teleconverter I ordered was not in. So no winter zoo trip for me yet; perhaps a trip to Mill Pond, or, if I get adventurous and the weather holds, Phyllis Rawlinson Park.

Only four and a half months left!

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Mill Pond, First Snow

My day started trying to shoot this photo that I see every morning when I catch the GO bus downtown. Unfortunately, I catch the bus about 15 minutes earlier than when I got there today, and I missed the good light. These rushes practically glow gold when the sun hits them.

When I turned to swear at the sun (because that makes more sense than me getting up 15 minutes earlier, right?), I saw this flock of geese flying in front of it.

There was enough light to make cool reflections on some nearby condos.

A parking lot dusted with snow and recent tire tracks made for some cool texture.

A rare positive point about shooting in winter: You can wander around the empty playground with a camera and telephoto lens and no one calls the cops. A giant turquoise tongue.

Slide curve with fake bokeh.

Rings with real bokeh.

Where the net meets the line, and small mounds of snow.

Sara Conner's recurring nightmare, dusted with nuclear ash. Or snow. No skulls to be seen.

The old bell at the fire station.

I was certainly taking my time getting to the Mill Pond. Here's a blue door that caught my eye as I walked.

We have to be very detailed with our instructions in Richmond Hill.

My overexposed swan friends, caught here swimming in the Mill Pond's last remaining open water, when the sun made a brief appearance.

One day I'll figure out how to shoot shots like this. Today was not that day.

Radical snow grain and rock.

Fat bastard with big claws. Someone else fed it; I don't because I know eventually they'll be mugging people for peanuts.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Framing

Lately I've been trying to learn a bit more about printing black and white photos because I'm starting to really like shooting black and white and the walls of my apartment are incredibly bare.

I started thinking about printing when I found these picture frames at a dollar store. They are $2 each and I'm sure not to everyone's taste. They're more like diploma frames than picture frames, and I don't think they come any more cheaply made. However, I figure with some creative mounting and matting, they will be a fantastic way to put many photos up on my walls with little
investment beyond time and a little elbow grease.

I've been using a local printer and it they aren't really photo-focused, but they're a cheap way to learn what I need to learn about sharpening and output in order to get decent images. The process is also teaching me some new things to keep in mind while shooting. I've had some great images that are 1:1 crops of a larger photo and that process works great for screen viewing but does not hold up at all in print.

I have to find a better matte paper stock and a printer that has decent photo paper available for printing and then I'll be almost ready to print higher quality photos. My next challenge is mounting. I have three walls and a lot of space to cover, and I'm sure I'm going to want to change the layout over time. I've been considering stringing wire and hanging the frames from it (the frames would go well with wire, I think), but I want to do some more research before I start banging holes in my walls.

An excellent start.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Moon Punch

Another night session, this one from the comfort (cold comfort!) of my balcony. I saw this shot last night and didn't get around to taking it until tonight. Thankfully conditions were similar and I was able to pull it off. The high ISO required meant I had to use a but more photoshop than I'd like; furthermore, I didn't do a great job of the photoshop effects. The moon was a bit blurry making it hard to selectively sharpen without bringing out the outrageous grain in the rest of the photo. I wound up sharpening the moon and blurring the clouds.

The color comes from light pollution from the tungsten lights that are everywhere.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

My Name is Mud

I've done very little photography lately and it bothers me. It's what I think about when I'm on the bus or subway commuting to and from downtown instead of anything productive. The good light at sunset occurs at about 4 p.m., when I'm trapped in the cave of an office where I work with two more hours of grind before I can escape. With the light being what it is, I arrive home from work at about 8 p.m. and it's already been dark for almost four hours. All I want to do then is eat, catch up on some web sites, and go to sleep.

It's a far cry from the summer when I would get home from work at 5:20, go for a swim, eat, and then head out somewhere to shoot a sunset.

I got so sick of this blog not being updated that I had to look back in my collection of photos and post something suited to how I feel.

Sigh.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Stolen Sunshine Day

Today I checked out the shooting locations in my neighborhood to see how they were being influenced by the advancing season. The sun was shining brightly in the morning but as soon as I stepped outside the day became overcast, with the sun breaking through only once the entire time I was out. The Millpond is used for skating in winter, but now it's caught in a limbo between Fall and freezing temperatures. The local cemetery has green grass and many fallen leaves, rendering it in orange, brown and marble red, black and grey.

The day was so overcast I was able to shoot a swan without over exposing it; usually the sun reflects too brightly from their white feathers.

Creepy bokeh.

A mutant, but very pretty, duck.

The fungus seems to still be doing well this time of year.

Creepy old tree. It had a raccoon sleeping in it. Or it was dead. Let's say sleeping.

I stopped briefly to check out the nearby cemetery. I didn't shoot much but I thought the natural wear on this headstone created a neat effect on the last name.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

First Canadian Place

I've started a new contract and getting time to shoot is difficult. I took my camera downtown today to try and shoot First Canadian Place (home of the Hockey Hall of Fame). I took a few snap shots and that was that.

It was also raining. A view from my bus stop in the morning.

My coworkers are in the crowd. It's a very cool architectural design; I will have to think about the place and go back when I have more time.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Phyllis in the Fall

Today I spent some time shooting at the Phyllis Rawlinson Park, my first and likely only visit there in the Fall. While the day was overcast, as seems to be the case whenever I go to the park, it was still nice way to spend the afternoon. It also gave me a chance to try out my new camera bag, about which I have mixed feelings.

I tried to think more about isolating subjects this run, and the amazing color opportunities I found.

Combining both lead to some interesting shots. The overcast day helped keep the backgrounds very flat.

I do love me my benches.

The copper eaves troughs should be in color in this shot, but the rope/wire was a very tacky green color that destined this photo for black and white.

Some symmetry and texture.

Beautiful thistles.

Isolation of white on brown.

Isolation of reds.

Some kind of crazy seed pod, half destroyed and lying on a footbridge.

Orange oaks and an attempt to capture the third dimension.

And to think a couple of months ago I was lamenting the excess of green. Now it stands out like spilled alien blood.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Moon Watching

I haven't spent much time looking at her face as of late. She's still a beauty.

And there she is.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Boys Cottage Weekend

This past weekend was host to an annual outing to a friend's family's cottage to close it and do clean up. It's a beautiful spot and always a great place to shoot Fall colors. We might have been a bit late for the peak of the season, but it was still a fine display. We arrived Friday night and left Sunday morning.

On Friday night I took some night shots using the light from the cottage as many ways as I could. The Tungsten lights and Fall colors mixed well.

Using lights from a source like this at night is the closest I'll get to a proper outdoor shoot with spot lighting I'll likely ever get.

The directional light worked well in black and white, too.

The next day after a terrible blackberry alarm incident I went outside to shoot what turned out to be a very dreary dawn. It let me do some long exposure shots on the shoreline, smoothing the water and giving it a smokey feel.

The rich colors popped in the soft ambient light.

As the day wore on, the clouds cleared and it became sunny.

A triangle and a reflection; this was a teaser for the reflections that came later.

I went out to shoot for sunset after a refreshing nap. The water was calm, and the sky showed promise for an interesting sunset.

Spot color amongst the evergreens.

The lake, to coin a phrase, turned to glass as the sun went down. The cloud reflections were so clear they looked photoshopped.

It was all natural.

The clouds themselves had a bit of character. I found my lens not quite wide enough to do the broad shots I needed to properly frame the clouds and reflections. I needed something wider than 18mm (27mm DX).

Regardless, I had some luck.

This driftwood looks close-cropped out of an original photo, but it's just the incredibly smooth water in the background that makes it look so.

As the sunset drew to a conclusion, the reflections began to blur as I used longer exposures to capture the images.

On Sunday I stalked the bird feeder for a bit, sitting on the picnic table about six feet away. The Jays were too wary to approach, but the Chickadees went for breakfast.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.