January 31st 2010 – my 365 – Rub a dub dub…
…two men tiling a tub. Today my good buddy Carl came over to help(well really do all the work) tile. Yesterday was demolition day. It took me all morning to bring down the walls. Underneath the plastic surround was a layer of tile. Under that layer of tile, was…a layer of tile. Who does that? Not only that, but the original tile wall only went up about 5 feet, so they tiled up from there to the ceiling, so that they could just lay a new layer of tiles over top. I had a good laugh. Unfortunately because the original person that did the work, didn’t do a good job, there was a lot of rotted drywall. So I had to take everything down to the studs. Which I was going to do anyways. You see, the kids room is on the other side of the shower, so we wanted to soundproof the walls. So I played with sound insulation for the first time, which is actually really easy. It’s cut perfectly for 16″ on center. Then I installed the cement boards and left it at that.
Then at 8:00am this morning, it was off to home depot to get the mud and wedges. Got back in time to meet Carl and get started. It’s always a slow start because you have to have that first line perfect. After that is was rocking pretty fast.
Here’s a shot from my iPhone. You’ll have to wait until the entire bathroom is finished before you see the rest.
January 29th 2010 – my 365 – Hot Shoe Diaries
My wife purchased this book for me for Christmas. Wow, what a great read. I think anyone looking at flash for the first time should read this book first. You will learn soooo much. Joe has a very easy writing style. Yeah, there are some Scott Kelby type jokes here and there, which does get a little tiresome, but the information within the book is great. I’d love to see a Canon shooter write a book exactly like this. Joe is a Nikon user, so some of the information is a little Nikon weighted, but you can duplicate this with any other flash unit.
After you’re done reading this book, I suggest you go right to Zack Arias’ website and buy his DVD. After you’ve read this book and watched this DVD, go pick up your flashes and go crazy. You will immediately see a difference in your photography.
January 28th 2010 – my 365 – the other side
This is the other side of our renovations that we did. Now we finally have storage. Next up is the bathroom. Stay tuned for more exciting pictures of renovations. I promise after these are done, we’ll get back to beautiful brides and cool couples.
Gear Wednesday – January 27th 2010 – L vs non-L glass and focal lengths
So tonight I wanted to try and make up a little for last week. Yup, I goofed and missed. So tonight I bring you L vs non-L glass. Also, I wanted to show you what some focal lengths look like from different lenses So here goes:
All images are pretty boring to look at, but are all identical. I would like to repeat this test with a much nicer shot, maybe outdoors next time.
The pictures are straight out of the camera, only resized for web. The camera settings are all:
ISO800 & shutter speed of 1/15th
First up is a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm vs a 70-200mm f/4.0 lens at 70mm
Notice how the longer lens is actually a little bit tighter than the wide angle.
Next up is a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 35mm vs a Canon 22-55mm f/4-5.6 at 35mm
I first noticed that the second lens is a little bit brighter as well it seems to point up a little bit more. The brightness may be due to more of the lightbulb peering through.
Next up is a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 50mm vs a Canon 50mm f/1.8 at 50mm(duh)
Again, notice how the Nifty 50 is a little bit brighter? Also, it seems to crop in just a little bit more than the 24-70.
Well…What’s the verdict? 1 lens vs 3? Let’s discuss.
January 26th 2010 – my 365 – Lighting Gels
Thanks to my good friend Dan McLean jr for dropping of some lighting gels tonight. 
January 25th 2010 – my 365 – Happy Birthday Mr. Burns
From my iPhone to you. Here’s a shot of Whiskey:
Misc Monday – January 25th edition – Happy Robbie Burns Day
What a week. Welcome Internet to another session of Misc Monday, where I recap what happened (or didn’t) this week.
First up. DOH. I was actually sick enough to miss a Gear Wednesday post. Yes folks Week 3 and I’m already goofing up. Well, to be honest I was sick…and so was everyone else in my house except for my wife. For some reason Susie doesn’t get sick, she only breaks bones or gets hurt really really bad. Not a great trade up if you ask me. So I promise you that this Wednesday will have an awesome post with lots of greatness. You’ll want to stay tuned for that.
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Adorama Launches The Ultimate iPhone Photo Contest
Here’s the link:
The best part! It’s even open to us Canucks.
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A Visit to Ansel Adams’ Home
http://www.silberstudios.tv/previous-shows/ansel-adams-home/
I stumbled across this from Ken Rockwell’s blog. It’s a great little look into one of Photography’s masters. Personally, I think he was also a Photoshop wiz, well Lightroom…well darkroom.
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RUSH Among 2010 CANADIAN SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME Inductees
YES! Rush Rules!
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I also shot my first wedding of 2010. Here’s a sneak peek from the night.
http://www.ninelivephotography.ca/2010/01/24/january-23rd-2010-my-386-krista-mark-lawrence/
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That’s it for me right now. Off to shoot another 365 shot and start editing the pics so that they can be ready for when the couple gets home.
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And I always and with a pic…this is one of my favourites from Cuba.
January 24th 2010 – my 365 – Rings again
Ah Rings. I do love to shoot them. Here we go again this year…
January 23rd 2010 – my 386 – Krista & Mark Lawrence
Krista and Mark – Married at last. Here is a quick sneak peak into their day.
January 22nd 2010 – my 365 – Maloreigh and Jilly
My daughter and her friend going out clubbing tonight.
January 21st 2010 – my 365 – Gearing up for Saturday
Packing my bags for Saturday. Only need to pick up some AA’s now.
January 20th 2010 – my 365 – It’s Maloreigh, not Mallory
OK…what can a dad say?!? I get excited when I see my kids name on something, even if it’s spelled wrong. No matter how many times we drive past Mallorytown on our way to Quebec, I always have to point it out.
I found this little hidden gem at the Esso Gas station when I went to clean my windshield.
January 19th 2010 – my 365 – my iphone
Ah, I have the best wife in the world. She, I mean Santa got me an iPhone for Christmas. Now it’s loaded up with extra awesomeness, the Becker and Bschool apps. woo hoo.
January 18th 2010 – my 365 – Jumping kids
Every night before bed, the kids play on their old crib mattress. They love, no more monkeys jumping on the bed. Tonight, we used some off camera flash, sync’d with my cybersyncs. Off camera right, 1/2 power. I was bouncing it off my bathroom door. Now my shutter speed was about 400/sec so you may notice some black lines on the right. This is due to syncing of the flash, the higher you go with your shutter speed the more of this blackness appears. So I kept Desiree to the left side of the camera so that I could capture her in mid air jumping.
Tonight, I’m also adding my outakes because she’s just too darn cute.
Misc Monday – January 18th edition
Another week done. So many things happened this week. Mostly from Friday until Sunday. Monday-Friday was the same old. 9-5, then 5-9. Had a great conversation with my bride for next weekends wedding. One week to go for the lovely Krista and Mark.
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My Wife went to Home Depot on Sunday to get our tile, for our bathroom reno project. In 2 weeks we tile the bathtub. I can’t wait, I’ve never tiled before. However, as she was reaching for a box of tiles, one slipped and landed right on her middle and ring fingers. She ended up going to the hospital and the X-Ray showed she sprained her middle finger and broker her ring finger. A nice hairline fracture. 4-6 weeks for healing.
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Thanks for the awesome [b]ecker, he gave a shout of to this link:
Is Anything real?
http://designblog.reddoorla.com/inspiration/is-anything-real/
It’s worth checking out. Think about it as well all you “reality tv” fans…
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Tweet of the week: Does it get any better than when you iPod plays back to back rush songs??? It’s like it knows
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From my google reader. These are my starred items for the week:
A great, and long, post about the current and future state of the music industry:
http://www.brianbuchanan.org/2010/01/10/21st-century-rockstardom/
How to Evaluate Wedding Photographers at a Bridal Show. This was a great post, not only because my friend and fellow Wedding photographer is in it, but because I attended the spring wedding show as a pedestrian and not a vendor. I walked the show floor talking to other photographers and it was a 50/50 split of friendly vs foe. Now, this article doesn’t talk about that, but it does give some great advise to all you future brides and grooms out there. This year might be my first time attending a show as a vendor, so stay tuned for those details much later this year.
http://www.ispwp.com/how-to-evaluate-wedding-photographers-at-a-bridal-show.html
The Ibanez Universe 20th Anniversary & Jem Design Contest. I love Ibanez guitars and man I would love to own one of these. I played an original one at Steve in Montreal many years ago, but that was it. Now I do have my own Ibanez 7 string, but it ain’t as cool as owning this puppy:
http://www.vai.com/News/index.html
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That’s it for this week. Lots of work up ahead, both weddings and renovations.
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Here’s an old picture from the first wedding I shot.
January 17th 2010 – My 365 – How to throw mud on your walls
Today we hung drywall and threw mud on the walls. It started with a small bucket, and well, that did the first coat. 2 more to do. So another trip back to Home Depot, this time to get the big jug.
January 16th 2010 – My 365 – eye-one
You always have to calibrate your monitor…do apple users have to or is it just us lucky PC folk?
January 15th 2010 – my 365 – my TMND
My Teenage Mutant Ninja Desiree. She’s 4 and has loved the turtles since she was about 3 1/2. Usually they’ll get turned on to something else within a few months, but nope, not her. She loves them. This is even her second pair of pyjamas because she outgrew them. Now her baby brother wears the old ones. One day I will grab a shot of the two of them together.
January 14th 2010 – my 365 – Mystery Helium
Mystery helium. We bought this balloon on December 14th…it was only suppose to last a few days…it’s still going strong
January 13th 2010 – my 365 – Gear Wednesdays
Another edition of Gear Wednesdays and another of my 365s.
Today we look at one of my major home renovation projects. We are moving the great wall. For some reason the previous owners had torn down the wall and moved it back 2 feet. All that did was limit the other room, which would be used for storage and the furnace/laundry room. So now we move it back. I’ll be tearing it down and moving it back to it’s original position so we can once again have storage hidden in the laundry room.
For the Gear Wednesday portion, today I wanted to show everyone the difference between a Full Frame camera(Canon 5D) and a crop sensor camera (Rebel XT). The rebel is an APS-C Crop. The exact same settings on the camera were used:
ISO:400
f/9
22mm
Things to note:
You can see that the Rebel has more digital noise than the 5D.
Colour. While not the most interesting image and most colourful, you can see that with the 5D you have better tone than with the Rebel.
Crop. This is the biggest factor. You can clearly see the difference between the two bodies, as everything else was the same. I placed the camera on the same tripod and screwed them into the same base once the image was taken. I always wanted to show this. I find that on the web you never see true side by side images.
January 12th 2010 – my 365
Another day in the neighbourhood. Tonight, my old guitar equipment, which I haven’t picked up in months now, called to me. I have my tuner sitting on top of my tv and it’s been there since the last time I played. So it stares at me every night. This little tuner is the best tuner out there. It’s been on the road with me for years and is back with me at home. I know a ton of pros(players and roadies) that rely on this puppy. So here is my little Boss TU-12.
For the photographers out there, I also used my Alien Bee triggers for some off camera flash. The flash was coming in at about a 45 degree angle on camera left. I had a silver reflector next to me on camera right to reflect some the light back at the tuner. There was some shadows from the angle of light that I needed to fix. I had the wide angle diffuser on the flash as well to help spread out the light.
Misc Monday – January 11th edition
Another crazy week. Talking to quite a few clients for 2010. Firming up timing, just saying hi, booking new couples. This week was great. I love chatting with everyone. As I near my next couples wedding I get exciting. It feels great to know that you are going to make images that this couple will keep for life.
So onto another edition of Misc Monday. Let’s recap:
Tweets of the week:
mykidstweets: Desiree: you guys are head in the nuts
thebecker: i have my very own iPhone apps to help you follow my blog & tweets. check out http://bit.ly/beckapp & http://bit.ly/tbsapp (opens iTunes)
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Becker – Yes I am jealous and envious that you have your own apps. I wish I had my own now.
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From the music world -
Savatage has a new Greatest Hits package coming out in March. I can’t wait.
The Slayer, Megadeth, Testament show in Toronto has been postponed again. Boo!
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Canon has released an update to their EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. You can read all about it here
I purchased the F/4 a few months ago. I still think it’s great. So now that all the awesome people are going to go out and buy the new one, I’ll be in line to pick up their old ones off Kijiji!
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I follow Digital Photography School in my Google Reader. They put out a great article this week about setting some photographic goals for 2010. I think I may sign up for some of these as well.
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I think that’s it for today. Lots on the go as always. New Renovations in the house are going to be happening soon, pics to follow.
and a little something from the archives again:
