December 11 2014
How quickly a year has gone by! And to this day I still don't have a drop of snow right now. How odd for it being December in Canada with no snow. This tim...
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How quickly a year has gone by! And to this day I still don't have a drop of snow right now. How odd for it being December in Canada with no snow. This time of year Rex was enjoying it in his bright red jacket.
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Dec, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my backyard, right after the sky cleared up from a snow storm. I live in a small town that is hard to find unique 'spots' to take photographs, but sometimes it's just not about where you take the photo, but what moment you are trying to capture. Rex had been waiting all day to go outside and play, so the opportunity arose and we hit the backyard!Time
Right after a huge snow storm, around 2pm in the afternoon. The sky was so grey before hand, it looked like it was night time all day! That was, until we got a lift on the snow in the afternoon.Lighting
Grey dreary skies are the staple of winter time. I wanted to capture the 'calm after the storm', where sky is still grey and makes it easier to capture the white snow, without the snow being too over-exposed. Capturing a dark-furred creature on white snow usually makes the internal exposure metering 'wonky'. Using the darker lighting outside to my advantage, my metering sensor had an easier time boosting the darkness without over-exposing the snow.Equipment
I used a Nikon D60 with a 18-55mm Nikkor lens. No other equipment was used.Inspiration
Rex was only one year old at the time, and still growing. As most people love to capture the growth stages and learning stages of their children, I wanted to do the same for my fur-baby. He was so impatient waiting for the storm to pass all day, that his eyes immediately lit up as soon as I got his coat out. I wanted to capture that excitement. Though in the photo, he dropped his ball in front of me and stared at me with eyes as if to say, "You going to throw that any time soon?"Editing
I did a bit of post-processing. Because the lighting outside was nice enough to capture the white and black, I wanted to contrast the red. I used Lightroom 4 to add a bit of saturation to the red coat. I also ran a sharpening brush lightly over the eyes to give them a little extra 'pop'. Can't you just feels his eyes saying, "Throw. The. Ball."?In my camera bag
I always try to pack lightly. Especially when it comes to photos around the house, which usually includes my animal subjects. I always have my Nikon d60 and D3100 in my camera bag, along with a 18-55mm lens, a 50mm 2.1 lens, and a 55-200mm lens. I also have several memory cards, as I am so prone to losing them. I also have two extra batteries that are always charged and ready to go, in case the ones in my cameras run out of life.Feedback
When taking outside winter pictures, make sure you do not create condensation on or in your camera. This happens when you bring in a cold object into a warmer setting. I was outside for around an hour, and I made sure not to try to 'warm up' my camera in any way. Doing so would have caused extreme fog and water droplets, which will wash out colours in your photos and ruin your equipment. Make sure to bring your camera bag outside, and place your camera in the bag before you come in. This will allow your camera to warm up slowly, save your equipment, and keep the image from being washed out by fog!
