Erich is 3 years old!

Erich turned the big three years old today. Of course, he's thought of himself as a "big boy" for a long time already. Ask him whether he thinks he's a baby anymore, and he'll be the first to tell you that "no, he's a big boy now".

Just the other day, we were helping Opa with moving some appliances. (We brought Erich along just for fun.) As we were heading out the door, a very masculine sounding, puffed up chest and all Erich said "yeah, we're gonna go load up the fridge and the stove on the dolly and we're gonna go push'em." I didn't know quite what to say, but I did think it was the funniest thing I heard!

So, Happy Birthday to my big boy Erich!

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By the way, turning three of course means that I sat him down for our traditional bi-annual photo session (read: daddy gets to play with camera equipment!). It was a blast doing this little cross lit composition.

A very informative night with Joe McNally

Kudos to friends Renee and Nathan Derksen for hooking me up with a seminar that Joe McNally was doing in town. Considering I had been following his work through National Geographic, Strobist, and his book ("the moment it clicks") over the past couple of years, I was stoked to be able to hear him speak in person. It was an inspiring enough to see him talk about pictures he had done, but even more inspiring when he did a sort of bonus live demonstration (complete with a ballerina as model). It was the live demonstration that was really neat to see.

He demonstrated how easy it is to be able to take quality, lit, on location portraits with just a few speedlights, and a reflector. He also demonstrated that even the pros experience difficulties on the field sometimes. (One of his flashes kept malfunctioning during the session.) It is comforting to know that even people who have done this for 25 years still encounter the same problems!

I put what I learned to practice that Sunday by doing a quick, lit portrait of Abby. She had needed a portrait for her upcoming prayer card / short term missions letter, and I thought what better way to practice what I learned. Here are some of the results:

Photo Caption: This was taken in a boardroom with 70s style wood panelling.
I shot this at ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 73mm with flash 1/2 CTO at 1/8 power
camera right through umbrella, reflector underneath subject to
slight camera left.

Photo Caption: Against a white wall. ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 70mm.

Flash at 1/8 power camera right, reflector underneath subject to slight
camera left, plus background flash at 1/4 power aimed at the wall.

Photo Caption: Taken outside against North shore mountains.
ISO 100, 1/200, f/16 @ 75mm. Flash full power camera right throwing
hard 1/2 CTO'd light from further distance than previous two shots. (attempt
to sort of emulate a setting sun.) Reflector camera left, close to subject.

It took about 20-30 minutes for all three scenes including setup. All things considered, this is really a very easy way to do some quick portraits - definitely good enough for the purpose she wanted. To be honest, this sort of stuff (off camera lighting on manual) used to scare me a bit - but as I've been practicing on how to effectively use off camera lighting, I'm beginning to understand how much more control one has over the photograph when you can introduce light.... and as they say, practice makes perfect.

Day 7: Safe arrival back in Vancouver and fun with Pocketwizards!

We arrived safely back in Vancouver. I had been anticipating this moment for a while: not so much because I had been dying to come home but because I had been gearing up to take an interesting photograph of Erich and Karen with the train. Hey - Photographers think of crazy ideas when they have nothing better to do on a 16 hour train ride!

Now first some background: This was the first major trip I had taken without taking an SLR with me. On almost all previous trips, I had always brought along an SLR, and a sometimes with dizzying array of lenses. But when you're trying to travel light (read: married with kids), this doesn't work so well.

So this time, I brought along a Canon G9 point-and-shoot, a flash, two pocketwizards, and a compact light stand. Comparatively speaking, this was very light gear inspired by this Strobist article. The great thing about this setup was that it allowed me to take both interesting lit or available light photographs without the overhead of a lot of equipment. The very configurable G9 combined with the relatively fast f2.8 lens work well to suit any serious amateur or professional photographer wanting to travel light. Combine this with the power of a 580EX and the range of pocketwizard remote triggers and you have a great setup.

I digress. Back to what I had been dying to do. I had been anticipating that we would have decent morning light when we arrived back - a necessary requirement to making this photo work. (I had actually tried this same photo the night we left, but did not have sufficient available light to balance properly.)

With the train safely back at the station, I asked one of the train attendants whether it would be okay if we stayed an extra minute while I took a photo. I quickly handed Karen a slaved flash on pocketwizard mounted on a light stand. She placed it at the same position as one of the overhead reading lights inside the train. I guessed at the power setting, figuring I would adjust it by asking Karen to vary the distance via walkie-talkie. I went outside the train and took a photo. The result was this photo where you have dark window upon dark window with the exception of one lit (as if by reading light). It's simple, but illustrates the power of what one can do with a light setup like this.

Strobist Info: Canon G9 @ f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 400, Flash set to 1/8th power.

Day 5: Surreal Beauty

Here are some more photos of the scenery in Jasper National Park. November is a very interesting time of year to visit the park because the weather can be so unpredictable (sunshine, rain and snow). The unpredictability makes for some rather unbelievable contrasts of light and darkness. These photos taken on Maligne Road illustrate my point.

Happy Birthday Isaak and Elias!

My nephews celebrated their 3rd and 1st birthdays this summer. The Tsos held a grand party to celebrate. What fun it is to see them grow, and to see them celebrate another year. I love these photos because they show so much of their individual personalities.

Elias, is quietly content and happy to be held by Opa as he blows out his candle. Isaak, the adventurous explorer is already curious what happens if you should touch the candle!

Happy Birthday Isaak and Elias, and many more to come!

Sarah's Photo Shoot

With graduations come graduation photographs. This past July, I had the privelege of taking Sarah's "seniors" photos. Sarah, who has spent the last several years in Vancouver along with her missionary parents, is moving back to Kansas where she will begin her freshman year.

She is a beautiful young lady, and a joy to photograph. Some bystanders even mistook her for a model! Not a bad situation to be in considering we got a free cruise on the harbour because of that!

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens @ 200mm, f/4.0, 1/800 ISO 200. Gold reflector camera left.

From a photographical point of view, this was my favourite shoot yet. I had a lot of fun, and I was able to employ techniques I hadn't tried in 'production' before. For instance, I made heavy use of off camera diffused strobe lighting: first as the fill, then as the key light as the evening wore on. It made for a great learning experience and good confidence booster.

Many thanks to the Conners who trusted me with this opportunity and also many thanks to my wife Karen for encouraging me to pursue my photographic skills. (plus she's pretty good at getting people to pose also!)

Here are some of the results.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/60 ISO 200. (Strobist) Shot into sun, fill flash from off
camera flash @ 1/4 power through white umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 104mm, f/5.0, 1/40 ISO 200, tripod mounted. (Strobist) Shot into
sun, fill flash from off camera flash @ 1/4 power through white
umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 35mm f/2 lens @ f/3.5, 1/60 ISO 100
(Strobist) Off camera flash @ 1/2 power through white umbrella, camera left.

Erich turns TWO!

A little taller. A little wiser. And a lot more talkative. Erich turns two today. As promised, we took a photo of him and his past portraits.

Happy Birthday little Erich!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

My friend Nathan got a year older so I decided to send him a little gift along the lines of his hobby. Here is a custom birthday card painted entirely of light.

Darkened room, ISO 100, f/22, 30 second exposure. Handheld flashlight.

It took quite a few practice runs to be able to get all the letters in a straight line, facing the right way all in 30 seconds!

Day 12: An old old castle

A visit to Germany, and indeed Europe would not be complete without at least one visit to a castle. For our visit, we decided to visit the castle Geilbahn Burg. It took us almost 2 hours by transit to get there, but it was worth it. For the most part, simply admiring the age of the castle was awe-inspiring enough. From what I could tell (and I am no expert), the castle was built during the middle ages and many of the period's relics adorned the place.

Erich had fun looking at the various exhibits, but soon grew too tired from all the traveling to appreciate the full magnitude of what he was seeing. He did, however have lots of fun running around the various hallways of the castle.

I had considerably more fun practicing photographic skills. After visiting the torture and execution chambers, I decided I could do some interesting "scary" pictures at the castle with off-camera flash. I experimented with the flash set at 1/4 power shot from a low angle at camera right.

I also shot this photo atop the castle's tall lookout. Flash set to 1/8 or 1/4 power from subject right. It was a bit risky: I set my camera on self-timer, placed it on a wooden ledge (hundreds of feet above ground level), took a few steps back with my flash and waited for the shutter to click. Had a big gust of wind come along, my camera would have been toast, but hey at least I got the shot! I love how the light from the flash falls off nicely just in front of the camera and reveals subtle texture of the surrounding wood.

Day 8: Hats off to Hattingen (and other very old cities)

Day 8 was spent shopping and strolling in the nearby old town of Hattingen. Resembling much like a textbook middle-aged city (complete with city walls, square, hall and church), Hattingen offers some unique looks into the past. Of particular fascination is how modern life has integrated into these old buildings. Adjacent to where the above photo was taken is a bar, complete with modern beer-branded lamps adorning its side. It too is in a very old building built around the same era.

What is also interesting is how long these ordinary buildings have survived. ~500 years is an awful long time for a building (especially compared to North American standards) and makes for some interesting comparisons in workmanship. (Think leaky condos vs. 1576 A.D. building...)

Apart from the stroll, I also had some interesting fun with off-camera, strobist style flash. (This was much to the chagrin of my travel mates of course.) Thanks to my father-in-law who reluctantly acted as a light stand, and to Karen and Erich for being my guinea pigs models.

Strobist Info: "Daylight effect by overpowering daylight". Camera set at 1/50, f7.1 to capture ambient at ~ ev -1/3 stop. Flash at 1/2 power, to the top left of my subjects to overpower ambient sunlight. Fired using Cactus (eBay) triggers.

Happy One Month Isaak, Happy 2nd Birthday Elias!

We had some big parties this week for our nephews Isaak and Elias. Isaak turned one month on the fourth, and Elias turned two years on the fifth. In honour of the occasion, a portrait:

Taken on our front steps. Canon 10D, EF 50mm USM f/1.4 lens @ f/5.6, 1/10, ISO 400, magic hour. I love the slight motion blur on Isaak's arm - gives the picture character.

Happy Birthday Elias and Isaak!

Congratulations Robin and Yoonjeong!

Karen, Erich and I had a crazy fun weekend up in Kamloops at the end of July. We had gone up there (along with my photographic assistant Danila) to do a wedding shoot and to attend Robin and Yoonjeong's wedding. For those of you that know Robin, you will know that this is a long time coming this was the event of a lifetime! :-)

Caption: Robin and Yoonjeong walk together across a crosswalk in traditional Korean wedding garments.

Congratulations to this beautiful new couple. We hope your new life together in Korea will bring wholeness to you and your family. May your marriage be holy - set apart for God's purpose. May you walk together in His truth and by His grace appreciating each other's differences, strengths and weaknesses.

I had a particularly fun time tagging along as the embedded photojournalist. Although this is not my first wedding I have done this, it is the first one for which I have spent so long preparing. We witnessed moments of joy, of anticipation, of frustration, of surprise, but most of all moments of memory making. Wait till I tell your grandkids about the mice! In all seriousness though, thanks for giving me and Danila this opportunity to document your wedding day.

I will be posting up more pictures but not until I have finished processing them and not until they have passed through the bride and groom's eyes.

Bartlett Family Photo Shoot

Late in July, I had the opportunity to take some photos for the Bartletts in preparation for my upcoming wedding shoot with the Brenners. Now weddings and kid photography aren't really the same. But, as it turned out it was nevertheless a great opportunity for me to practice on moving subjects (kids do move around *a lot* - so do brides). It was also the first time shooting with a dedicated assistant (Thanks Danila!). We had a lot of fun and learned lots too.

Here are some of my favorite shots from this session:

Emily receives a kiss from her mom. Canon EF 70-200 f4L on Canon 10D @ 145mm f/4.0 1/60 ISO 400 with [Strobist info] off-camera flash set at 1/4 power about 5 feet away adding some rim light to Tiffany's hair.

Rodney and the boys pose for a goofy shot underneath the Granville Street Bridge. Canon EF 50mm f1.4 on Canon 10D @ f/8.0 1/200 ISO 100 with [Strobist info] off-camera flash from camera bottom right set at 1/4 power about 5 feet away adding the scary light effect.

Title Photo: Family Portrait - Canon EF 70-200 f4L on Canon 10D @ f4.0 1/60 ISO 100. Ambient light only.

My little lighting assistant

Karen had an after work meeting the other day so Erich and I got a chance to go on a real father-son date.

As some of you know, we are selling Karen's old 'beater' commuter car. We no longer need two cars and after having loaned the car to Kat and John for the past year, we are going to sell it. So while Karen was out Erich and I decided we would wash the car and take some photos of it. We drove it down to the boat launch area near Vanier Park for the photo shoot.

Although I think I must have been crazy to bring along Erich alone to photograph a car (complete with tripod, reflectors and flash) in a parking lot, Erich certainly didn't think so! He was elated I decided to bring him along and was determined to help as is evident in these photos of him.

Well got to get used to working with an assistant I suppose. I have a 'big' lighting assistant helping me out in a few weeks for Robin's wedding. Should be fun!

Photo Caption: Uh, what's next, boss?

Canada Day at Kits Beach

Had lots of fun celebrating Canada Day with the kids this year.

First was a quick portrait session for the Bartletts to celebrate their 5th year in Canada, and then it was a picnic lunch with Mom, Hans and the kids.

Happy 140th Birthday Canada!

Erich @ 18 months

Those of you who have seen Erich lately will know how much he has grown both physically and cognitively.  It amazes me everyday how fast he picks up new words and phrases.  He now readily recognizes things - not just specific things, but can classify them even if they look similar.  For example, when I was setting up the tripod for this shot, he pointed at the tripod and said "camera" because he knew that it was associated with the camera.

Recently I was thinking of how best to capture Erich's growth.  I've been meaning to start a family tradition - you know how some families pass down a patch quilt or blanket.  Well, I'm not much of a sewer, so a patch blanket is really out of the question.  But I am a photographer and what better way to express it than through portraits!  But how do I encapsulate all the years so that Erich only ever has to look at one portrait at a time to see how much he's grown?  Well, turns out I'm also a programmer and in programming there's this little thing called recursion.

I don't know if you remember, but a few years back HP had these commercials where someone would take a photo holding another photo.  That gave me an idea to start a new tradition:

Every six months, I will do a portrait of Erich of him holding his portrait - hopefully set with some of his favorite things at the time.

Here's the first one.  I've kept it minimalist on purpose.  Since this is the first, I had him hold the montage of his picture at ~7/8 months and a picture of the day he was born.

Congratulations to Renee and Nathan Derksen!

I have finally gotten around to posting this. We went to visit the Derksen's just over a week ago to see their newborn baby boy Ethan Derksen! I managed to take a few photos before my camera battery died. (Hate it when that happens!)

Congratulations you two! Ethan is such a cutie and he could not have been born to more loving parents. :)

Aquaventures Swimming with Erich and Elias

Erich and Elias have been attending a swim class for the past few weeks at the AquaVentures aquatic centre in Kitsilano. They specialize in swimming classes for kids, and every Friday, Karen, Mom and Hans have been taking them there. Today was the last class of the session, so I took an early lunch, and went down there for about 20 minutes to take a few (umm ok ~70) pictures of them.

Here's a shot that I love - Erich's expression says it all. He is such the brave soul!

Happy Grad Justin and Grad photo shoot

Congratulations to Justin Conner on his high school graduation and on his award for being an encouragement to his classmates (see photo). For those who do not know Justin, he plays bass on the Bridge worship band, and is always a pleasure to be around.

Karen, Erich and I had the privilege of attending his graduation ceremony today at Fraserview MB Church. It was held for the graduating class of Richmond Christian Secondary School. We hadn't been to a high school graduation in quite a while (the last one being Sam, Ming-Yan, Clara, Deborah from CCCC). We were secretly thankful that this graduating class only had 36 people in it, so the ceremony length was bearable. (In contrast, my graduation class had over 900 people...so the poor graduate whose last name began with Z....)

I also had the opportunity to take some graduation photos of Justin a few weeks back along some abandoned railroad tracks in Kitsilano. Here are some shots from that shoot.

Seattle!

Took a weekend trip to Seattle for some R&R and to see Karen's cousin Keane. Got some great photos by our hotel. Our hotel was right next to the SafeCo Field where the Seattle Mariners play.

We also took Erich to the Seattle Children's museum. It was a very fun exhibit. Companies had recreated many of the industrial applications but on a smaller scale for infants. Erich couldn't have been happier as he had lots of buttons to push and much to see!