Mostly photography

Sometimes you have an image in your head. I found a place that might be the starting place for that. Let's just say it didn't quite work out like I expected, but it was still a learning experience.

What I'd hoped for was a photo of downtown, nestled like a jewel against a dark sky, with a bit of light in the foreground. What I got was this.

I hadn't known the tower would have the flame going. Opening ceremonies, duh! It was shot from here, which is a very long way from downtown.

Where to start? It wasn't dark enough yet. I've cropped in close on it, maybe too close. But really for where I am I don't have enough lens happening. Still, I had fun playing with different exposure settings. Several shots had long streaks of light where an airplane or helicopter flew past.

From there I went to scout locations for shooting the Perseid meteor shower this coming weekend. Disappointed there. I need to be further out of town. Way further. I'd hoped being on the lee of a big hill south of town would work, but no. Calgary is really, really bright.

While there I got my first lightning shot! Yay me! It was a really long way away. You can see the exposure was long enough to get a bit of star trails.

I tried a few star shots off to the SW where it was dark, but that didn't work out so well. I haven't figure out the knack of focusing on stars yet.

But the big learning from the night? Bring bug spray! Also a low powered flashlight would be nice. I don't know where all the controls on my camera are by touch yet, and ended up using the iphone to light things up a bit. So not-pro!

From there was the small thing of a Saturday 18 K run. 2:14, gradually slowing down throughout. Otherwise it went well. Maybe more details later.

Sunday was fun! Several of my buddies were doing the Chaparral triathlon. I hadn't known that had been a place for 18 years; I thought it was new. But no, the announcer said several times this was the 18th.

In addition to being paparazzi for my buddies, there were a few other victims as well. How can you not photo such happy smiling people? I enjoyed keeping track of where my 3 subjects were, and where I had to be at various times for the races. Out of 320 or so shots, about 75 are worth showing to them with the possibility they might like them. There's another 200 or so where there is a recognizable person in the shot, but let's just say it might not be the most flattering pose and leave it there. Let's see which ones they are willing to have published.

This might be the best shot of the day.

And mama looking for a quiet place to be away from all those splashing humans.

Lastly, I'm not sure if my swim buddy is in this shot, elbowing for space. Everybody is so well dressed in their dark wetsuits and swim caps, don't you think?

One of the unexpectedly interesting things about carrying a nice camera at events is that you start noticing other people carrying nice cameras. I chatted to a couple people about photo stuff, which was fun in it's own way between photos.