Sam

Last night I went to photograph a 16 1/2 yr old border collie mix called Sam. She's pretty sprightly for her age but slightly deaf.

Photo Session

Natalie came round today to show me what she'd learned at a recent lighting lesson with a local photographer. We set up the lights. Main was fairly low, bounced into umbrella with the light set horizontal and positioned to the side of the subject. Fill light was also horizontal, bounced into an umbrella but set as high as possible and placed in the centre behind the camera. Fill light should be set about 1 stop less than the main. I think the lights were set to output a bit too much power. Note to self: Dial down a notch next time. Flash meter was reading f11 at 1/125 and ISO 120. I was aiming for f5.6-6.3 at 1/125 and ISO 100 as ideal. With the overhead room light switched off and just working with ambient and modelling lights, the Mk3 had no trouble focusing. Looking at the preview, noticed a grey rectangle on the lower left of the display. Switched cards and it still appeared so switched over to using the Mk2. Focusing the mk2 was much more difficult in the same light. Shot some pics of Tyra, Ivan and Natalie's dog Sparky. Many mediocre shots. A couple of nice ones but there were some hot spots because of the lights being set to too high a power. Practice makes perfect :-)
Went out to agility practice afterwards and on to Mexi's in Carleton Place. Ready to sleep it off now.

Published!

So Indy has her photo in the Ottawa Citizen today. This one. Looks good in print! Already had one e-mail from a friend who was obviously up and reading the paper before I was. A work colleague spotted it too and was asking me about Belgian Shepherds.
It's the works Christmas outing today. A lunchtime trip to the comedy club downtown. Haven't been to one of these places before. Apparently the comedians can be good or absolutely terrible. You never know what you're going to get.
Had some good news yesterday. I've been approved to judge up to advanced level for AAC. My first judging assignments will be at Dreamfields. Starters on May 3rd and Advanced on May 30th. Heard that Peter passed too. Curious to find out how the others from our group did.