Barkerville, BC: dltphoto

Somewhere way up in the middle of nowhere on the road that takes your hours to get there is this wonderful little town called Barkerville, Established 150 years in a time when Gold was in them there hills....
This is an excellent place where people have restored an old Gold Rush town and have made it into a wonderful destination for  people, willing to do the drive, to mooch around and look at some of the old buildings that made up this Western style town.To make it even more enjoyable they have capped it off with people in full dress for the time period wandering around pretending to be characters from that period, really quite the photographers paradise!
Since I hadn't really read to much up on it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I certainly didn't imagine it being as large as it was. The buildings were wonderfully rustic, not like the good old brick I am used to from good ole England. The Only thing I missed or would have liked was the occasional tumble weed to go rolling down the main street!! that would have made it priceless

Here are some of my favs to give you some character feel to the place

Wedding: June 2012: dltphoto

The nice thing with not being the lead photographer at a wedding is that you can just be yourself, and shoot more random things. You don't have the pressures of being "the man". I quite enjoyed my little assisting time with Mr Jason Beattie the other day!
I even dabbled with different formats, such as my Sigma DP1s, 35mm Film ( Nikon F100) and the Nikon D200..!

Lets start with the Sigma...

Wedding Golden Oldie (2007): dltphoto

Fortunately over the years of shooting many, many weddings you get to meet people with talents different from your own, which often proves useful in the future...hence the beautiful Tile job I am getting in our bathroom, if anyone needs tiles laid then let me know, I can hook you up with Ruslan!

Here a shot from waaaaay back in 2007 of the affore mentioned Ruslan, which at the time someone suggested it reminded them of a famous artist's painting, Jack Vettriano... here is my new rendition and below is my previous 2007 effort of which I named myself  "Turnerano".... I'll let you guys decide whether or not its reminiscent of his work, which is featured at the bottom!

2012 edition

2007 edition

"the Swinging Butler" by Jack Vettriano

APAC: Photoclub submissions, April 2012:dltphoto

So this month I got my submission right!! The image below is the one that never made it! Actually to bad it did make it since the Judge ripped it to shreds, something to do with change my angle, get lower, use a macro lens, crop the light from the top, blah blah blah.... wah wah wah was all I heard!

"frozen and leaning" score 7

Just when you thought the night couldn't get any worse he hands me a 6... I think it was the lowest score all night. Pft... whatever, once again he slammed it into the ground, something to do with the mountains needing to be in focus and the tree on the left to distracting..... blah blah blah. Maybe next time I will just submit some non-discript, plain boring shot that conforms to the Capa rules... Actually I have noticed that those whom use PHOTOSHOP a lot seem to do very well, maybe the judges have now gotten used to seeing edited or over edited images rather than the nice capture out of the camera, as they would have seen back in the good old film days... Challenge accepted!
 Like I have said on previous posts I really don't care what the judges do or don't like, I would like them to expand their horizons to see past the rules which as I have learned in my years, need to be broken.
My images certainly arent the best in the world, I am not blowing my own trumpet, creatively I think I have good content, with a solid composition and good technical merit.
Yes I have a little high-lighted areas Mr Judge, after all I did use my phone for these images. Its much easier from a real camera, I am enjoying pushing myself from a camera which is far less capable. That makes it much harder. Much more FUN.

"over the hills and far away" score 6

My final submission was the Assigned topic "from ground level". I chose a cute little wedding couple shoot I did for Offload Studios, to show how small they were I chose to do a diptych, which I imagine I was punished for.. I scored a combined 22 out of 30!

"the bride and groom" score 22

A wintery winters day, the Digital Saga: dltphoto

So  in a previous post dubbed " the film chronicles", I went out and shot some goodies with the classic Nikon F5, but as to not make the Nikon D200 feel left out of course I dragged it along with me...really, what photographer only goes out with ONE camera? and maybe also a smart phone too!

Happy Valentine's Day, 2012: dltphoto

Heres a few of my pics from playing around in my studio..somewhat of a Valentine Theme!!

One leaf amongst many: dltphoto

I have just realised I have reached the "10,000 page views" mark. In celebration of this I have released a commemorative "limited edition" 1920x1080 resolution  desktop image entitled "green and orange". heheheh!. Thanks to all my followers!

Golden Oldie: dltphoto

I was going over some old pics from quite a few years ago, 2005, and came across one classic image which I dubbed at the time "the Batman Shot".

after 6 years and would I have processed the images any differently??
Inititially I went black and white again but after playing I came out with a slightly aged effect...

Wedding, Kamloops: Jason Beattie Photography

Well, they are not always going to be 25 degrees with beautiful rich blue skies and pillowy white clouds but that doesnt mean the bride and groom wont look stunning and totally enjoy there day no matter what comes there way...!
Here are a few snaps that I managed to grab whilst assisting the Man, Mr Jason Beattie way out in the middle of nowhere in Chase, BC on a very rainy and chilly day. Checkout his great shots on his blog ( Jason Beattie Photography)

dltphoto: Wedding I Cam & Carissa

About one of the most amazing weddings to date, except for my unfortunate dirty trousers incident, my terrible choice in facial sun-tan lotion and the fact that we got a little lost in the largest and oddest golf course ever. Cam & Carissa were an amazing couple and tons of fun and Cam was a hero despite suffering from allergies. Massive thanks to Laura Henderson again as ever for coming along with me and to laugh at my misfortunes and also for surviving her own allergies!

Portrait: Rob & Dawn

Some Photographers do it in the rain!!!!

A dreary, rainy evening couldn't stop me from shooting these two. Rob & Dawn are getting married next year and with any luck the weather wont be anything like this. Props to my amazing assistant Jennifer (sister of Dawn) who didn't complain once about the weather under her umbrella!

Portrait: The Snow Family

A particulary challenging late afternoon for me and my cold! I managed to win the attention of one wriggly little guy and snatched a few winning shots from the Snow's around Auguston, under the unknown, to me, watchful eye of Red Wagon Lara!!!!! Sneaky girl! hahahahah. No more Colds or sickness for me. Its makes for tough working conditions!