Chinook

© Tomas Nevesely

This shot of the chinook arch was taken with my Canon G11 on a walk in SW Calgary.

Kananaskis

© Tomas Nevesely

Shot with my Canon G11 on a hike in Kananaskis, Alberta

Ten years really isn’t that long. I remember the whole Y2K thing like it was yesterday. In fact, I was on the  Y2K preparedness team at my day job.  My task was to test every single PC with a piece of software (in DOS) to make sure it would continue to function when the date changed from 1999 to 2000.

Recently, while browsing the web, I came across some humorous “news” from a decade ago.

The first one that I found amusing is this one from December 20, 1999:

Epson Stylus Photo 870 – 10 year prints

Excerpt: “Just got a message from my good friend Tham Kok Leong over at Digital Darkroom, it’s not often that we mention printers on this site but being the proud owner of an Epson Stylus Photo 750 I feel that I should mention Epson’s latest printer the 870 with the promise of longer lasting prints (claimed 10 years), edge-to-edge printing and “photo rolls” the ability to produce 35mm-like prints at home with a good quality digital camera and printer is already here.”

It’s funny now, but 10 years ago, ink jet prints lasting 10 years was a big deal! Of course today, we can expect our ink jet prints to last a lifetime and in some cases much longer.

And this one, from October 3, 2000 almost had me laughing out loud:

64MB CompactFlash for $99 !

Excerpt: “Sounds too good to be true, but Kingston Technology (one of our sponsors) have a special $25 mail-in rebate on their 64MB CompactFlash cards, buy from one of their participating “e-tailers” (Buy.com, Egghead.com and 4sure.com) from now until December 31st 2000 and you’ll get a $25 rebate off the price of a 64MB Kingston CF card!”

Yup, that definitely sounds too good to be true! Especially since today, you can get a 8GB compact flash card for under $80.

These are just a couple of examples of the unbelievable change in the photographic industry in just the past 10  years. I wonder how things will change in another 10 years.

Quiet Light

© Tom Nevesely

This image is composed of 2 sets of 2 images. The first set of images (one for the top and one for the bottom) were taken about 20 minutes past sunset and the second set of 2 (again top and bottom) were taken about an hour after that.
The first set was to expose for the landscape – 15 seconds, f/16 and ISO 100. The second set was to expose for the stars – 10 seconds, f/3.5 and ISO 1600.

If you look closely, you can see the Big Dipper in the sky and reflected in the water. This pond here is actually a cold water spring. The water remains at 6.5deg C all year long. The lighter area at the bottom of the frame is one of the underwater springs.

© Tom Nevesely

This photo was taken on a hiking trail in Banff National Park.  I saw these leaves on the snow covered trail and was drawn to the water droplets on them. I pulled out my Canon G11 and shot this handheld.

Happy New Year everyone!

Just like I do at the end of every year, I recently sat down to review my photos from 2009 and tried to come up with my favorite. It turned out to be much harder than I thought. I like different images for different reasons and there was no way I could choose just 1, 3 or even 5.

In the end I settled on 9 so here they are, the top 9 of 2009.

This month’s book recommendation is “At Work” by Annie Leibovitz.  In it, Annie talks about her experiences while shooting a number of her photographs from the late 1960’s to the present.  The book doesn’t talk about the technical aspects of the shoots (cameras, lights, etc) very much but there is a chapter dedicated to Equipment.

The book is well written and I found it to be very enjoyable to read. As mostly a landscape and nature photographer I wasn’t to familier with Annie Leibovitz’s work (although I knew who she was). This book gave me some insight into this great photographer’s life and the stories behind some of her great photographs. Highly recommended!

I’d also like to share with you a short excerpt from the book where Annie talks about the cameras she used when photographing for Rolling Stone magazine. I think it’s especially relevant now, in the digital age, when far too many photographers are concerned with pixel peeping, and always having to have the latest, greatest camera out there.

“The format of the magazine became squarer after 1978, and I decided to try a Hasselblad for the covers…” “…Most of the pictures for the inside of the magazine were still shot with a Nikon because the Hasselblad seemed a little too clear and unrealistically sharp. The bigger negative made for a handsomer image, but you couldn’t convey the sense that you were simply in a room taking a picture.”

Tomas Nevesely Photography – www.tnphoto.ca

A week ago, I talked about David DuChemin’s awesome book called “Within the Frame” and about David’s ebook entitled “Ten”. David has recently published another ebook entitled “Ten More”.  It’s a follow up to “Ten” and as the title suggests, it contains ten more tips to improve your photography. I highly recommend both so, if your serious about improving your photography buy them, read them, and most importantly do the suggested creative exercises.   Both ebooks are only $5US and are available at lulu.com

Tomas Nevesely Photography – www.tnphoto.ca

While browsing the National Geographic Magazine website this morning, I found this video entitled: “Redwoods: The super Trees – Making the Gatefold”.  In the video, the photographer Nick Nichols, describes how they created the a 84 frame stitched vertical panoramic image of an entire redwood tree. Be sure to check it out, it’s definitely worth seeing!

Tomas Nevesely Photography – www.tnphoto.ca

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David DuChemin is one of my all time favorite photography books. Unlike most other photography books, Within the Frame is more about expressing your vision rather than the typical “how to physically take a photo” kind of book.

Reading Within the Frame really made me stop and think about my own photography and my vision. It made me think about why and how I shoot what I shoot.  David’s talk about subject versus subject matter especially resonated with me.

If you like Within the Frame you’ll also most definitely like David’s Within the Frame Podcast and David’s new ebook “Ten”. Also don’t forget to check out David’s Website – www.pixalatedimage.com

Tomas Nevesely Photography – www.tnphoto.ca