Between some exceptionally busy days at work and photo editing, I have been spending a lot of time in front of the computer recently.  Editing is my absolute least favourite part of the photo process (unless it's raining killer zombies from outer space, then staying inside is not so bad) I just feel guilty sitting on the couch while the TV drones on in the background, sifting through image after image when I could be outside somewhere.   My camera is a lovely little beast and I know she misses me, but the thought of editing photos after a shoot has me convinced to leave the camera in it's place.

The vast majority of the editing I have been doing lately are for headshots, weddings and music gigs so I have been intently staring at people on my computer screen.  I do enjoy photographing people, they are much more engaging to talk to than a moutain, but after a few weeks of carefully selecting, masking,  dodging and burning images long after the conversations have ended, I had to give myself a bit of a break from all the eyes staring back at me from my computer screen.

In hindsight, perhaps the break I should have taken was one away from the computer, but it was a snowy day and though there were no killer zombies from outer space falling from the sky, I decided that snow was almost as bad and I opted to stay inside.  With no new landscape material to edit, I started to revisit old sets from the past several months and work on some photos that didn't make the first cut.

My eyes were just as fuzzy and my brain just as foggy when I returned to the work I needed to do, but the change of pace was a welcome break.  I'm excited to get back out in the world just the camera and me,  once all my work is done.

After having a bit of a scare with a moose last fall, the thought of having to go out into the woods alone for photography has weighed heavily on my mind.  Sure, I could invite Mr. Bastard, fellow photographers or friends to come along, but the process of convincing people to wake up before some would even go to bed has proven time and again to be a pointless endeavor. A more reliable answer to combat the lonliness was on my mind, but it took a little bit of persuasion to get Mr Bastard on board.

He finally caved, and last week we adopted a young dog (1 year old) from a family whose little one was suffering from allergies. Her name is Creepy (yes, Creepy Bastard, you didn't think we'd name her something normal did you?)  and she has quickly become the third and definitely the cutest member of the Bastard family. We are both absolutely smitten with her. I admit, I have been a lazy photographer and I have a slough of crappy iphone photos and videos of our new addition, but sadly, no real photos to share yet.

Eager to put my new photo adventure partner into action, I woke up at 3:30 Sunday morning to make sunrise at Castle Junction in Banff National Park. We arrived just as the sun was peeking out from behind the mountains and I strapped the usual camera bag, bear spray and tripod to my waist.  The dog leash was added onto the belt and away we went, trading turns pulling each other along the path.  (She doesn't do leashes very well yet)

Not long after setting up my camera and tripod on the banks of the Bow river, Creepy warned me of an approaching intruder into our slice of paradise.  A fellow photographer had joined our ranks along the river to wait for that moment when the light hit the mountain and Creepy barked and growled and nearly dragged me off my feet to meet him. After a while, the photographer, who mentioned he had been shooting star trails all evening, headed back to his vehicle for a much needed rest, Creepy barked and growled to let me know he was coming near us again.

Perfect, I thought, she's much more aware of our surroundings than I am, she'll add a great set of ears and eyes while I'm lost in my world of apertures and shutter speeds.

Not ten minutes later, a vehicle backed up over the bridge I was crouching under and the photographer shouted a warning, there was a coyote on the other side of the river headed our way. I thanked him and watched for the animal.  Sure enough, the Coyote emerged out of the brush on the other side of the river, not 30 feet away from us, as Creepy sniffled around the riverbank, oblivious to the animal's presence.

Some watch dog she turned out to be, but it was still nice to have company

Sadly, after all the effort put in to the trip, the light did not work in my favour and I came home with very few photos to process.  Can't win them all, though I seem to have my fair share of stinker trips this year.

 I did take the opportunity to scout around some of my favourite locations to check the status of the ponds, streams and lakes to determine where my next morning adventure will be and I already have a brand new location in mind that I'm excited to explore.

The Stetson doesn't host nearly as many shows as they used to, so it's always a treat to see bands there again. In it's heyday, the room would be full of music lovers every weekend and it's where I first recall seeing The Press Gang many years ago.  The band has certainly come a long way since the early days, so I couldn't miss their CD release show last weekend, especially with such a fantastic line up of bands to round out the night.  

Nekro Trioxin of Frightenstein

Shows like this make me really like my life. I get the opportunity to be around great people, see really good bands, satisfy my compulsion to point my camera at stuff and enjoy a brew ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

From the number of times I mention falling in creeks and lakes, it should come as no surprise to hear that I consider myself to be a bit clumsy. While my first instinct is always to protect the camera at all costs, the other gear I work with holds a slightly lower priortiy and is dealt more than enough abuse.

That's why I decided that today, I should extoll the virtues of my Nikon SB700's.  The little beasts have been sprayed with liquid, knocked over, sat on and most recently, dropped from about 4 feet in the air onto a cold concrete garage floor.  The sound of the light hitting the ground and multiple pieces breaking and spinning away broke my heart and then I looked down.  A tiny little plastic cover had come off which easily snapped back in and that's it.  I powered up the flash, hit the test and it fired like nothing ever happened. 

Not that I would really recommend recreating the test to verify it's accuracy, but I'll stand by my new undying love for the SB700's.  They might not be as powerful as the 910's, but for the price point and durability, I couldn't be happier.

If history has taught me anything, I forsee more gear reviews based on smashability factors in this blog.

And now, here's a picture of The Press Gang, who are releasing a CD this Saturday at The Stetson (Calgary) (and who are lit with a single SB700)  The Press Gang Promo

Sleep is something my life has been lacking lately, I would probably be more upset about that if it wasn't self inflicted.

Friday night was spent saying farewell to a much beloved local music venue The D (for now). By the time I arrived around 8pm, they had already run out of beer.  In the few hours I was there, they had supplied the fridges and subsequently ran out two more times, I like to think I helped play a small part in that.

 Our friends know how to throw a good-bye party and I'm always happy to see the punk and metal communities rally around their friends in support. I always feel so lucky to be surrounded by such genuinely good people, but as I fell into bed that night around 1:30 am, my mind turned to the days ahead of me. Where to go, what to shoot, what to pack and most importantly, what to not forget.

Camera battery is charging, don't forget it.
Snowpants, remember to pack snowpants.
Tripod is leaning up in the bathroom (why is the tripod in the bathroom?), don't forget it.  
Maybe I should pack rubber boots.
Good idea, don't forget rubber boots.
Where did I put the bear spray? Have to remember to grab bear spray.
Oh, there's a memory card in the computer, don't forget it.

By some stroke of sheer madness, I managed to wake up at 5am, pack everything I needed and make it out the door just in time to catch the sunrise at Vermillion Lake in Banff.  An old go-to location but with little time to spare, it would have to do. 

I pulled up beside the lake, Rubber Ducky in hand and finally with my brand new rubber boots on my feet. The weather was mild and I opted to forego snowpants.  I splashed into an open patch of the lake, plunked Ducky into the water, crouched down and got to work.  As I composed the first few shots, I could feel that old familiar sensation of water seeping into my socks.  By the time I finished the open water shots, I was soaking wet from the waist down. So much for the rubber boots keeping me dry.  But with the good light fading fast, and no time to think about staying warm or dry, I headed over towards a good bit of ice and continued photographing.

I like to think I looked graceful, but deep down I know in reality I was a rubber booted (the ugly kind that my parents had to force me to wear when I was a kid), soaking wet photographer, wild eyed and messy haired, floundering around on my stomach with my camera like beached whale.  If that's not enough to attract unwanted attention from the other nearby photographers, I went on to do a roadside strip down to my ill fitting longjohns and bare feet before I got back in to my truck. (pure sexiness, she said sarcastically)

Normally, the day would end there, but instead I headed north to the David Thompson highway to meet up with fellow photographer and Sixth Degree Collectiver Jason Gendreau to explore the Abraham Lake and Kootenay plains area.  We managed to find a Stoney Vision Quest site and spent some time photographing the area.  The colourful fabric paired with the natural surroundings was a joy to see, and though it would be simple to recreate in any location, I think the sense of reverence would be lost.  If it's not felt behind the camera, then it won't translate into a photo. 

In order to keep the ethereal quality of a vision quest, I opted to depict the scene with more impressionistic techniques (camera movement and my favourite standby- vaseline. Great for chapped lips AND photography, who knew?) I captured a few scenes with this method, but one particular tree, with it's striking red, yellow  and blue fabric, was my favourite one to photograph.  Like a bear to a rub tree I found myself returning to that location a few times over the course of the next two days.

Of course no trip to the Kootenay Plains region is complete without an excursion on to Abraham Lake, unlike the last time I visited, the ice was snow free and the sky was relatively clear.Unfortunately, the light wasn't the greatest mid day and we weren't treated to a sunset worth writing home about.  However, we still shot up to 10pm until the snow began falling heavily and we decided enough was enough. 

I folded myself into the back of my truck and made an attempt to catch a few hours of sleep while the wind pasted chunks of snow onto the world outside. Freezing cold, cramped, exhausted and happy. After a few hours, I woke up, stretched out as best as I could and waited the 2 hours for my alarm to ring. The hopes for a pretty sunrise reflected onto the shimmering ice were dashed as soon as the sun threatened to rise. Overcast featureless skies hung over the stark white landscape (ugh. Been there, done that) so we opted to try the Vision Quest site once again for some more detail shots. A few more hours spent photographing in the drab light and we decided it was time to call it a day.

Despite the snowstorm, I decided to take the Icefields Parkway home, a fun drive with all the fresh snow but a little dicey with bald tires and only a couple hours sleep over the last few days. The snow was flying up past the windows and over the hood of my truck and I spent a great deal of the ride home yelling "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" at the top of my lungs.   All that driving and yelling had me beyond exhausted by the time I got home and I curled up on the couch to wait for bedtime. Some people say no sleep til Brooklyn, but I say No sleep til the photos are done. It doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but that's why I'm a photographer and not an MC.  I couldn't resist getting to work right away and I had my picks edited and posted before my burning eyes were finally allowed to be closed.

I appear to be sorting through a bit of a photo editing backlog.  Actually, that's an understatement.  I realized this week that I'm really far behind editing photos from gigs and that's a bad habit to get into (shame on me!)  All of a sudden it was the middle of March and I've barely touched anything since late January. Yeeesh.

I just finished editing a set from a Calgary Beer Core show at the beginning of February featuring three fantastic metal bands - World Class White Trash, Leave the Living & Burning Effigy. I know it's cliche to always say "if you get a chance to see any of them, you should totally check them out" but whatever. Cliche away, you should totally go see them if you get the chance.  I think we're quite spoiled by the amount of talented musicians in Alberta. 

Back to the enormous backlog of photos for a second.  I have a fairly crappy memory and I have to see a band a few times before I can actually remember their name. I'm getting old and I go to a decent number of shows, it happens.  That's the wonderful thing about having a camera with me everywhere I go, once I edit a photo I can look back and think, "Hey, I remember seeing them, they were great!"  Then I'll check to see the date I took the photo and cross check it with the Facebook event page to figure out the name of the band.  I don't know if all this technology helps me remember, or makes it so I don't try hard enough, but it sure is great.

It's been cold and if you have been a reader of this blog (even just a tiny little bit) it's probably already been established that I'm a wimp. What that means is that at the moment I have no new photos to share or stories to tell. As much as I'd love to be getting chased by moose or clumsily falling into a lake right about now, I'm afraid I have to refuse to leave my house. My camera sits idle save for a few pictures of household shenanigans.

That doesn't mean I haven't been busy, oh no, both bands I'm in are spending time in the studio. Last weekend the Rigormorticians did a one night basement extravanganza recording session in order to provide a current single for a compilation CD (coming May 2014) - hence the household shenanigans.  This upcoming Saturday my other band Fist Kitten is going to a studio in Black Diamond to record as much as we possibly can before our drummer defects to Winnipeg... 

That reminds me, if you know of any talented and cool girl drummers looking for a laid back (but committed) girl band in Calgary, let me know. 

In the meantime, because I am one and because I can: here's a collection of bass players.  (Psst: if you're in a band and need promo pics, I'm your girl, especially if you tend to play indoors)

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but it's all finished now and I have marked my return to photography with a sunrise trip to the mountains yesterday morning.  It feels so good to be back that I may go winter camping next weekend. 

With the 2014 Exposure Photography Festival in full swing, we were in a mad scramble to get things ready in time for our opening on February 8th.  The Sixth Degree Collective display "Home" is mounted in two  8ft by 4ft sections of plexi-glass on my front lawn, not a small undertaking, especially since the yard was buried in snow and ice.  It's still up for another week so there's still time to swing by Mike and Lisa's place to check it out.  Mr. Bastard was beyond helpful as were a number of our friends and I could not have pulled it off without their help. 

I have spent a considerable amount of time over the last few months getting things ready for the exhibition. Sitting behind the computer editing my own photos,  buying supplies, mounting photographs, measuring, marking, typing, answering questions, presentations...and of course, shoveling snow.  So when I finally had a weekend with no obligations or work to do, I was elated to set my alarm for 4:45 am for a much needed trip to the mountains.

I woke up at 4:30 am and though I felt rather cheated out of what could have been a glorious extra 15 minutes of sleep, I crawled out of bed.  The weather forecast looked pretty grim, snowing everywhere and as I set out on the highway, the moment I reached city limits the snow had already started.  I kept telling myself I needed the trip not just for photos but for my sanity as well so I pressed on. I arrived at Johnson Lake as the sun was threatening to peek over the mountains and I quickly set up my gear under a tiny little pedestrian bridge (I have been to the lake a number of times before so I already had my composition and location in mind. Scouting missions do pay off)

As I crouched under the bridge like a troll, I plunked the camera and tripod in a freezing little stream and switched the live view on.  I wasn't quite happy with the composition and had to move the camera further into the middle of the stream.  Of course you know what happens next right?  Into the water goes the feet, then I knelt down in the water to better see the composition and finally in goes a single hand to steady myself.  On the bright side, I have since learned why I can't find a pair of mittens or gloves that successfully keep my hands warm while photographing - I keep taking them off to better manipulate the camera buttons and then get so involved in what I'm doing that I don't put them on again. I'm sure plunging them into a freezing cold stream doesn't help matters much either.  Someday I'll learn...

It's not often that I will "chase the light" and attempt numerous locations in one morning, but like a kid in the candy store I continued up the Minnewanka road and then back down the hill to Vermillion Lakes, stopping wherever my eyes desired.  The rest of the morning went without incident, a photo here, a frozen foot dunked into another pool of water there. Rubber Ducks miraculously rescued by timely procured sticks and cheese sandwiches. The usual.

After the sun peeked over the mountains, and I was positive it wouldn't do anything interesting the moment I turned my back, I took a coffee and snack break before heading into town to poke around.  The snow, which had been falling lightly all morning, held off for a while, but sadly it was falling too hard for me to catch a good sunset in the evening and I made my way back to the city.  A little bit soggy but feeling rejuvenated. 

My little yellow companion wasn’t always such a bitter little mouth piece.  In fact, when I first employed the use of the little bath toy, it was simply to add a recognizable subject into my landscapes without using a human form.  I don’t particularly care for landscape images with people in them unless I know the person, but I do understand the appeal and wanted  to provide something for viewers to have “someone” to connect with. Enter the rubber duck. 

It began simply enough with a trip out to Airdrie’s Big Hill Springs park and a goal to photograph a static ducky midst the rushing water.  I tromped around searching for a suitable location and once I found it, I began shoving coat hangers and miscellaneous twigs into the bottom of the duck in order to hold its place against the water.  It was only when I was knee deep in a cold creek, holding an impaled rubber duck in one hand and a camera in the other while passersby gave me confused and concerned looks, when the rubber duck uttered its first caption.  “Rubber Ducky thinks the photographer is nuts.”  Yeah, Rubber Ducky, you’re probably right, now hold still while I grab my tripod.

I took quite a few more shots that evening, soaking my shoes, pants and sweater and gaining a fair bit of attention from park users in the process, a wild eyed grown woman soaking wet and wielding a tiny rubber duck in a public park isn’t something you see every day.  The bitter little Rubber Duck nay-sayed everything I did, acting as the voice of the sane person I had buried the moment I picked up a camera.  Since then, the duck has become the subject of a separate photo project and the voice of my own pessimism so I can be left to photograph in peace, but  "All Rubber Ducky Ever Wanted, Was a Warm Bath"

Some cold hard facts about adventuring with your camera:

1.  If you are prepared for animal sighting, and remember to leave your telephoto lens on camera, you will not see ANY animals at all. Not even a squirrel.

2.  If you are prepared for great landscape opportunities, and leave your wide angle lens on camera, the light will be either be completely boring or way too harsh, but you will see a lot of really cool animals that are far away.

3.  If you dare to stop and eat dinner, the service will be horribly slow and you will leave the restaurant just as the amazing light is fading.

4.  If your battery dies, you are guaranteed to see a majestic grizzly bear ninja kick a wolf in the midst of a wonderful landscape in the best light of your life, and nobody will believe you.

5. Sometimes it's better to leave the camera at home, and enjoy an adventure with your loved ones the old fashioned way.  (with your camera phone)