Silence

Silence, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

I was driving between jobs near Shirley's Bay when I saw the clouds. I knew I had to pop in to one of my favourite spots to take some pics. I was only there for about 10 minutes but came back with this shot. I must have dozens of pics of these rocks but am still searching for that perfect image.

Vimy Ridge Day

Vimy, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

Today Canadians will Honour our World War I fallen. Vimy Ridge was a battle that took place from April 9 to April 12 in 1917. Not only did our lads win the battle, but they planted the seeds of a new national identity for Canada. you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

My family and I toured France and visited the memorial there.
This was the first image I made at Vimy. We had just pulled into the parking lot on a cloudy, dull day. As we walked up the short path to the monument, the clouds parted over the monument, majestically, as if on queue. While from a photographic view I am not satisfied with the image, on an emotional level I find it very satisfying.

Smokey

Smokey, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

An Air Canada Boeing 767 leaves some rubber on runway 25 at Macdonald-Cartier Int'l Airport as it comes in for landing. It was a gorgeous day and my boys and I decided to do some plane spotting in the afternoon.

Bombardier CRJ

Bombardier CRJ, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

This CRJ is taxing into position for departure.

Pano shot with Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AFD

The Black Widow Returns!, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

This pic is composed of about 100 shots taken with a Nikon D3 and Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 lens shot at f/1.4. I wanted to get a narrow DOF (its about 3 feet here) and wide field of view and a compressed perspective. I used CS4 to put this final image together using Photomerge. I like this version. The first version, which is here www.flickr.com/photos/photobal/4460746843/ had light and dark patches which I think were caused by vignetting. Tried to correct for it but could not get it work nicely. CS4 corrects this autmagically.

This image is 11417 x 6647 pixels, huge! I wished I had taken a few more frames to get the right side of the building in.

D60 & 35mm f/1.8 AFS

D60 & 35mm f/1.8 AFS, originally uploaded by PhotoBal.

I bought this used from Henry's for my wife. It will be fun going shooting together.

I picked the D60 since it is small and relatively new.

Olympus PEN

Yes, I got an E-P1. I've had it for about 8 months and though it might be time to talk about it. Olympus has already released the E-P2 and E-PL1 but for me, I love my PEN.

The bowl test shot taken with an old 50mm F/2 Nikkor H lens with a Nikon F adapter bought off of ebay. The Nikkormat FTN was taken with the 17mm F2.8 kit lens.