crystalyoungphotography.com

Project 52 - January

2012-02-04T21:43:00.001-05:00

The first month of my photo-a-week 52 Project is in the books! Overall, we're enjoying the project so far. Shooting once a week is far less tedious than having to shoot every day for a 365 project. Both myself and my husband are shooting our own projects, you can find all of our photos over at crystalyoungphotography.com/Projects. Here's my first 4 weeks' photos:

1/52 Starting Project 52 with a Mickey Christmas ornament, before the tree comes down for the year.

2/52 Counterfeit currency

3/52 Frozen pond near my house. Not quite ready for skating yet though!

4/52 Mourning Dove helping himself to some scattered bird seed,

A Photo's Worth - Part 3

2012-01-19T21:30:00.002-05:00

It never fails to amaze me how seemingly other creative people continue to fail to recognize the value of a photograph. A while back I had posted a two part article (Part 1 / Part 2) on some experience I had with photo usage requests. Today I received a request via Flickr from an author (name & identifying details withheld):

Hello Crystal,

I would like to feature a couple of your Flickr photos in my new book. I’m very impressed with the quality and spirit of your photos - they would look great in print!

In order to use your image, I will need confirmation that the photo was taken by you. In exchange for permission to use your photo, I will of course formally credit you in the book and can also recommend your work on Flickr, your blog, Linkedin, etc. Please just let me know exactly how you’d like your credit to appear.

Some Googling confirmed that this is indeed a published author, which makes the offer even more insulting. I politely responded to the author's message, advising them that I could not license my photos for "credit", just as I'm sure they wouldn't write a book in exchange for credit. Sadly, I assume that this person likely sent out numerous other Flickr requests and will no doubt find someone that will accept their not-so-generous request.

Photographers - ultimately it's up to you to make a business decision and place whatever value you see fit on your work. But be aware that it HAS value. And authors/publishers/webmasters, please respect that OUR work has a value just like your work has.

ISO5571 - The Disney Photography Podcast

2012-01-18T21:45:00.000-05:00

The highly anticipated (at least by us, anyways) ISO5571 Disney Photography Podcast is now up & running! Some of you may know that Disney parks photography is a big hobby and favorite subject of mine, and needless to say a podcast devoted to the subject is exciting news. We'll of course be listening and featuring the show over on the CanaDisney Podcast Report. They've launched with 2 episodes, which you can hear via their website or on iTunes. If you like what you hear make sure to give them a 5 star rating on iTunes, and also give them a follow on Twitter @iso5571. Given the hosts' knowledge of the subject matter, we're sure this will be a must-listen for all Disney photography fans.

2011's Most Viewed

2012-01-01T19:06:00.001-05:00

A new year is upon us! Here's the most viewed photo on crystalyoungphotography.com in 2011.

This photo was taken at Disney World's Animal Kingdom Lodge in December 2010. It's of Eve, a sweet giraffe that lives at the lodge. We were fortunate enough to be staying there, and happened upon her one day right at feeding time. Overall, our Disney albums were the most popular photos on the website this past year. If you haven't already, be sure to check out our sister site and Disney blog, CanaDisney.com where we cover all things Disney World from a Canadian fan perspective. We've also got a whole album full of pictures from our October 2011 trip on the photo site, which have had a ton of views already in the few months they've been posted.

This year we're taking part in Project 52 - A Photo a Week for 2012. We hope to go the distance this time, unlike last year's photo-a-day project! Speaking of the 365 project, a tip of the hat to our friends Vanessa, Katie, and Larry who all went the distance and successfully completed their 365 projects - check out their work on Flickr.

Happy New Year everyone, get out there and get shooting!

Project 52 - A Photo a Week for 2012

2011-12-18T11:21:00.001-05:00

So you may recall that our attempt at a 365 photo a day project for 2011 ended at photo 291. We had originally decided to do the 365 project to provide motivation to pick up a camera and shoot regularly. It served this purpose, but eventually shooting a photo each day for the sake of the project was counterproductive. The 365 was turning photography into a chore rather than a fun hobby. We found that we usually yielded one or two good photos each week, with a lot of cat pictures in between.

For 2012 we wanted to try something that would provide motivation to shoot, without the grind of a 365 project. So we've decided to try a less labour-intensive photo a week project for 2012 and do a "photo a week" 52 project. There are a few Flickr groups if you too would like to participate in a 52 project. We've also set up a private Flickr group for some of our friends' 52 project - if you'd like to join us, send me a message on Flickr and I'll add you to the group!

Also, I think we've found a video of the Brantford Tourism staffer that classified me to be a professional photographer! :)

Brantford Tourism Photo Contest 2011

2011-12-15T10:57:00.000-05:00

Brantford Tourism has announced it's photo contest winners. You'll recall that my photos were disqualified from this contest because they (quite incorrectly) deemed me to be a "professional photographer". Congratulations to the 2011 contest winners and a few curious things I noticed about the contest on their website:

The original contest announcement (as seen on the city's website) listed 4 categories. You'll notice that the "Arts, Music, and Culture" category is missing from the contest winners. Perhaps another retroactive tweaking of the rules?
As for the contest rules and regulations, you can't read them anymore. They have been stripped from the Brantford Tourism website.
You may notice that the winner in the "Festivals & Events" category was also the same person who recently won another Tourism Brantford contest, the "Love MY Brantford Star for a Day" contest. What a fun coincidence - I guess Brantford is a small town after all.

Remember that Tourism Brantford is very receptive to feedback. If you weren't a contest winner, or if you entered the Arts Music & Culture category and are wondering what happened to those prizes, I encourage you to contact them with your questions and concerns. Visit their contact page or send them a tweet @VisitBrantford. You can also contact Melissa Stephens, Tourism Information Coordinator, at 519-751-9900 ext. 203, or send her an email.

Also, I wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who contacted me after my initial blog post on this topic. Your support was overwhelmingly positive, and clearly I am not alone in my belief as to what defines a "professional" photographer. I hope that Tourism Brantford has learned something from all of this, we'll see if their 2012 photo contest demonstrates it. Now on to more productive matters - get out there and get shooting, and happy holidays!

Professional?

2011-11-26T18:57:00.001-05:00

Apparently I'm a professional photographer! Funny how I'm always the last to know. Guess I should've been writing off photo equipment as a business expense all this time! But here I am, a "professional" photographer... at least according to the City of Brantford's tourism department. Allow me to explain.

As you may recall, my hometown city of Brantford's Tourism department runs a photo contest each year. I've entered, and have been lucky enough to win a prize, in each of the last 2 years. I enjoy getting to showcase my community through photography, and of course entered the 2011 edition of the photo contest. This year, unfortunately, there was a hiccup. I received an email from a City of Brantford Tourism staffer with a link to my website, inferring that I was a professional photographer and that I faced disqualification because I am not an "amateur". I quote from their email:

"Our rules state that the contest is only open to amateur photographers. After last year's contest, we received a message from an individual in the community that asked us about the amateur status of one of the contest winners. In light of that, we have conducted on-line research to check if any of our entrants sell their photos or make themselves available to be hired for photography."

It was apparent that I was the "one of the contest winners" referred to. What Brantford Tourism fails to grasp, however, is that I am NOT a professional photographer. Although flattered by the compliment, I am an amateur photographer. This distinction between amateur and professional has been debated ad nauseum in the photographic community, but the overall consensus seems to be that a "professional" photographer is one whose primary source of income is derived from photography. This is certainly not the case with me - I am actually employed full-time in the health care field, and that is my primary source of income. Simply stating on my website that my work is "available for purchase" does not define me as a "professional" photographer, at least in my book.

I know that my work as a photographer has value - I have invested both time and money into improving my abilities behind the lens. And I am not afraid to ask to be compensated accordingly if an interest is expressed in my photography (as I have blogged about previously). But despite what Brantford Tourism may think, none of this makes me a "professional" photographer.

I emailed Brantford Tourism the information that you are reading here, presenting my opinion and the facts of the matter. If an entrant's status was a concern for Tourism Brantford after last year's contest, then the contest rules for this year should have been written far more clearly and explicitly. Tourism Brantford has provided NO definition as to what is an "amateur" photographer, or as to how one would have this "amateur status" that they refer to in their rules. Many other reputable photo contests clearly define these categories. For example:

The Paris Fair clearly lists in their rules (page 25, PDF link) that "A professional photographer is anyone who earns more than 40% of income from photography"
The City of Kitchener's Public Library also lists in their photography contest rules (PDF link) that "An amateur is anyone who derives less than 50% of their income from photography".

Both of these examples also support the popular belief that a "professional" derives a good portion of their income from photography.

Unfortunately, Brantford Tourism is sticking to their narrow, incorrect definition of "amateur" and they have disqualified my contest entries. Rather than do the fair and right thing, and perhaps use this as a learning experience for future contests, they are interpreting and defining their vague rules months after the fact in a matter than suits their purpose. Whether or not we agree on their definition of "amateur" is a moot point, because they did NOT define the term at all until just now.

As what happens all too frequently in today's society, the squeaky wheel has gotten the grease. To the person who complained to Brantford Tourism (and I assume you'll read this, being such a fan of my website and all) I encourage you to use your energy for more productive matters. Go create something of your own, rather than try to bring other people down. After all you want to grow up to be a professional like me, don't you

If you'd like to let Tourism Brantford know that they're treating photographers unfairly, feel free to visit their Facebook page, send them a message on Twitter, or shoot them an email. And of course watch their website for the 2011 "Amateur" photo contest winners.

Disney World photos

2011-10-30T21:29:00.000-04:00

We've gone through all of the photos from our recent trip to Disney World, and they're now all posted in the Disney World gallery at CrystalYoungPhotography.com. We have photos posted from the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, as well as from around the Polynesian Resort where we stayed. Be sure to stop by and check them out!

RIP 365

2011-10-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

"This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper"

- T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

October 18 was a day like most others around the Young household. Went to work, came home, had a nap (hey, we work hard!), then ate dinner and watched some TV. But it was quite different than the previous 291 days so far this year in that we forgot to take a picture for our 365 project.

It should come as no surprise to readers of the blog, or viewers of the project, that the 365 had become a tedious exercise. Pictures of household objects, cat photos, and half-assed iPhone pictures had become an unfortunate staple of our 365 project. To contrast this, when we were at Disney World last week we were legitimately excited to shoot each day, and we'd like to think that is reflected in those photos. A deep chasm had developed between the pictures we wanted to shoot, and the pictures we "had" to shoot.

Now we could choose to handle this lapse in the 365 project a few different ways. We could pretend that we didn't miss the day, perhaps even fake some EXIF info on another photo. Or we could acknowledge the missed day and carry on with what would be now a 364 project. But ultimately, when we realized we missed our Tuesday October 18th photo our feeling was of relief, and therein lies our answer.

We have chosen to end the 365 project with day 291. For us, shooting for the sake of shooting simply isn't productive, it's actually quite the opposite. We've still got many friends taking part in the 365 project, and wish them the best of luck in completing their year's worth of photos. Check out the 365: 2011 Edition Flickr group to see their work. It's a bit disappointing to stop the project with only 74 days to go, but we'd be more disappointed in ourselves if we kept up with something that our hearts just aren't into anymore.

So in closing, thanks for following along with the ~~365~~ 291 Project. We'll keep the whole project up for posterity's sake at crystalyoungphotography.com/365. We're looking forward to photography for the fun of it again! Happy shooting everyone!

- Crystal & Bryan

365 Project, Week 41

2011-10-15T21:00:00.003-04:00

And here's our week 41 recap! More Disney World pictures of course, and a few wedding anniversary related ones too.

282/365 October 8, 2011 Had an awesome ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari today at Animal Kingdom. Rain meant that all of the animals were out.

283/365 October 9, 2011 Magic Kingdom entrance, handheld with Rokinon 8mm fisheye.

284/365 October 10, 2011 Another fisheye shot from the Rokinon 8mm. The Rock n' Rollercoaster was closed tonight for technical reasons, but this meant the area outside it was nice and quiet!

285/365 October 11, 2011 Spent our last night at Walt Disney World at EPCOT. Shot Illuminations with a cheap eBay ND filter with decent results.

286/365 October 12, 2011 Now departing Orlando. So long for now Walt Disney World, our home away from home.

287/365 October 13, 2011 It's our 10th wedding anniversary today!

288/365 October 14, 2011 Our wedding cake topper from 10 years ago. We made it ourselves, hard to believe there were no Homer & Marge commercially available!

We're back from Disney World now and back to reality. It certainly was nice to be at WDW and shooting every day for fun, not just for the 365 project. You can check out more non-365 Disney photos and read all about our trip at CanaDisney.com

365 Project, Week 40

2011-10-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

Better late than never, here's our week 40 recap. We went to Disney World mid-week, hence the delay in posting (and also hence the Disney photos spanning weeks 40 and 41).

275/365 October 1, 2011 Our shirt design for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party.

276/375 October 2, 2011 Packing our bags for Disney World!

277/365 October 3, 2011 One last garden shot for the year. By the time we're back from Disney World these will likely be gone.

278/365 October 4, 2011 Birthday game at the Norfolk County Fair. I didn't win. :(

279/365 October 5, 2011 Hooray, we're at Disney World! Just relaxed at the resort today, shot wishes from the beach at the Poly.

280/365 October 6, 2011 Madame Carlotta (or is it Rinotta?) at the Haunted Mansion

281/365 October 7, 2011 We haven't taken the monorail from the TTC to EPCOT in years. Today we did, and took advantage of the opportunity to shoot EPCOT from a higher vantage point.

For a few more non-365 Disney World photos, and to check out our trip report swing by CanaDisney.com.

Back from Disney World!

2011-10-14T11:09:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We just got back from a week at Walt Disney World! We've got thousands of photos to sort through and edit, but we have put some quick edits up on the website in our Disney World 2011 photo album, check 'em out!

And fear not, the 365 project is still going strong. We should have a recap posted in the next few days. Spoiler alert - there's a week worth of Disney photos in there! In the meantime you can always check out the photos on our website or on our Flickr page.

2011 Norfolk County Fair Results

2011-10-04T22:23:00.000-04:00

2011 Norfolk County Fair results are in. I did pretty well, entered 42 pictures and won a total of 11 ribbons - one 1st place, one 3rd place, and nine 4th place. You can see all of the winning entries over at my Facebook page. All in all, a pretty successful fall fair season. Thanks for following along!

365 Project, Week 39

2011-10-01T22:36:00.000-04:00

Another week down as the 365 slowly works its way towards its conclusion.

268/365 September 24, 2011 At the Ancaster Fair. This certainly ain't Disney World's Dumbo attraction. Luckily we'll be seeing the real thing in just over a week!

269/365 September 25, 2011 More ribbons! :)

270/365 September 26, 2011 On our last trip to Disney World, we finally saw the Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management). This year, we'll get to see the original version!

271/365 September 27, 2011 Camera Gear for our upcoming trip to Disney World

272/365 September 28, 2011 Squash macro.

273/365 September 29, 2011 Candy corn macro.

274/365 September 30, 2011 One does not simply walk into Mordor!

9 months down, 3 to go! Remember that we're on all of your favorite social media - Twitter @crystalpics, Facebook, and Google+ too!

Disney World Camera Gear

2011-10-01T22:26:00.000-04:00

Originally appeared on our Disney blog, www.CanaDisney.com

As you know by now, our 2 biggest interests are photography and Disney World. So needless to say, we go fully armed to the happiest place on Earth! Pictured above is what we'll be taking to Disney World this time around:

Cameras: Canon 50D, Canon T2i
Lenses: Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8, Rokinon 8mm Fisheye, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, Canon 50mm f/1.8
Misc: Canon 420EX Flash, Velbon Ultra Maxi Tripod

Now we don't carry all of this with us each day at the parks. We each carry a camera body with lens attached (usually the Tamron and Tokina), with another lens or two in tow depending on what we plan on shooting. The tripod also comes along for night shooting. The Rokinon fisheye is a new addition to the camera bag which we look forward to trying out at Disney World this year. We've also never used the Canon 100mm lens at WDW either, which is surprising because it's the lens Crystal uses over half of the time at home. And the flash is something we definitely need to utilize more.

Now remember - the gear or camera doesn't make the photo, the photographer does. But having the right tools for the job certainly makes things easier. If we don't get the shots we want, we'll know it's OUR fault! :)

Be sure to follow all of our Disney trip planning at www.CanaDisney.com!

365 Project, Week 38

2011-09-25T09:48:00.001-04:00

Another week in the 365 project is done. Lots of cats and Disney this week, so safe to say not the strongest week worth of photos!

This brings up an interesting point regarding creativity - although my fall fair wins haven't been entirely disappointing so far, they are down a bit from last year. I do blame the 365 project, at least in part, for this. Forcing myself to shoot a photo each day takes a lot of the inspiration and creativity out of photography. Last year I shot a lot of my fair entries with a purpose in mind. This year, I reverted back to picking photos from my library that fit the various categories and I think that is reflected in my results. Another reason why this year's will be the first and last installment in the 365!

261/365 September 17, 2011 Went to my niece's 7th birthday party today. Nothing like having kids around to remind you how old you are! :)

262/365 September 18, 2011 Midway at the Binbrook Fair. I did well in the photography competition, won most overall points!

264/365 September 20, 2011 Testing out the new Instagram app update. As any photographer knows, beta testing must involve a cat.

263/365 September 19, 2011 This is our first Vinylmation! Don't think we'll spend our life savings on these Disney "collectibles", but we may pick up a few when we're at Disney World next month.

265/365 September 21, 2011 By this point in our Disney trip planning, we don't need to watch the DVDs... but we still do! Year of a Million Dreams (far left) was the best year, BTW.

266/365 September 22, 2011 Ribbons from the Paris Fair photography competition

267/365 September 23, 2011 Happy adoptiversary Garrison! 3 years ago we brought Garrison home from the Brant SPCA, and he's been a wonderful addition to the family (despite what his big brother Clarence may say!). If you're looking for a furry addition to your home, please check out your local shelter

Thanks for checking out the 365 this week! Hey, are you fed up with all of the changes on Facebook like I am? If so, come join me on Google+! No invite required, it's now open to everyone. Sign up and add me to your circles!

2011 Ancaster Fair Results

2011-09-24T19:56:00.001-04:00

Got back from the Ancaster Fair today. Did pretty good in the photography competition, winning a total of 5 ribbons out of 20 total entries - two 1st place, four 2nd place, and one 3rd place. This was enough to win most points in sections 11-22! One of my photos also won Best of Show, although I don't know which one yet because it wasn't labelled! I'll update this post when I pick the photos up and find out. You can see all of the winning photos on my Facebook page.

Update - Here's the picture that won Best In Show. They said they loved the monkey's expression and the hair (it was the winning photo in the "Bad Hair Day" category):

2011 Binbrook Fair Results

2011-09-18T20:27:00.000-04:00

Results are in from the Binbrook Fair. I did very well this year, winning most overall points (as you can see above)! I won 15 ribbons altogether - four 1st place, seven 2nd place, and four 3rd place, besting my overall ribbon count from last year by 1. You can see all of the winning entries over on the Crystal Young Photography Facebook page. Next year's Binbrook Fair features a new category list (they change categories every 2 years) which should be exciting. Next up is the Ancaster fair, running Thursday the 22nd through Sunday the 25th. I'll let you know how I did next weekend!

365 Project, Week 37

2011-09-17T21:39:00.000-04:00

This week in the 365 project started out strong, with an attempt to take some outdoors pictures while the weather is still cooperating. Once the work week began, however, real-life obligations quickly overtook the ability to go shoot in the great outdoors!

254/365 September 10, 2011 Went on a fishing trip with my parents today. Didn't catch anything, but I did get a lot of pictures - the sky was gorgeous today.

255/365 September 11, 2011 Big willow tree at Lorne Park, Brantford Ontario. Since this 365 project was about trying to keep us motivated to shoot during the cold, unproductive winter months it seems only fair that we try to get outdoors while we still can for some photos!

256/365 September 12, 2011 WALL•E - Great Pixar movie, or the GREATEST Pixar movie? It's a shame WALL•E doesn't have a bigger (or any) presence at Disney World.

257/365 September 13, 2011 Shirts we made for our visit to 2009's Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. Think they'll make a 2nd appearance this year!

258/365 September 14, 2011 A little research reading in preparation for our trip to Disney World. Less than 3 weeks away!

259/365 September 15,2011 Another fair this weekend - the Binbrook Fair. I've got 25 pictures entered in the photography competition.

260/365 September 16, 2012 A little editorializing on the 365 today. This is a traffic jam on the 403 eastbound during afternoon rush hour. Cars were parked all the way from Ancaster to Copetown (a 10km stretch) - luckily, we were westbound! It seems lately that anytime there is an accident on this stretch, the knee-jerk reaction is to shut the highway down. Seems silly to make thousands of people sit while 2 wrecked cars sit there. Once the victims are clear, drag the vehicles off the road and let people get on with their lives!

Going to the Binbrook Fair tomorrow to check out my entries and see how I did in the photography competition, I'll post the results here on the blog!

365 Project, Week 36

2011-09-10T20:53:00.000-04:00

The 365 project is almost 70% finished! This week was all over the place theme-wise, but it did feature a couple of keepers.

246/365 September 3, 2011 My Darth Vader is a dark, mysterious, terrifying figure. He does not wail "Noooooo!". George Lucas is doing his damnedest to destroy him, but I will not let him.

247/365 September 4, 2011 Needed a "nature abstract" photo for an upcoming competition. I like how the petals on this sunflower look like flames.

248/365 September 5, 2011 Took advantage of the Labour Day holiday to do some shooting around Brantford. This is a B&W quickie of the Bell Telephone Memorial. Still need to do some masking to bring out the detail in the statues and middle part. I'd like to also revisit this site with the fisheye lens

249/365 September 6, 2011 As a responsible photographer/motorist, always wait until your vehicle is stopped before taking a picture of your instrument panel for a 365 picture.

250/365 September 7, 2011 Some unexpected mail arrived today - our Disney welcome package!

252/365 September 8, 2011 Fourpeat!!! My hometown Brantford Red Sox defeated the Ottawa Fat Cats 1-0 in 10 innings to win their 4th straight Intercounty Baseball League championship tonight!!!

253/365 September 9, 2011 Now that Labour Day has passed, Vampire Mickey signals the start of Halloween season! Being big Disney and Halloween fans, our house is littered with stuff like this at this time of year.

A Crystal Young Photography shout-out to my hometown Brantford Red Sox (pictured in photo #6 above) who won their 4th straight IBL Championship on Thursday night (and their 5th in 6 years). They're only the 2nd team to win 4 straight IBL championships since 1919! I've had the pleasure of shooting numerous Red Sox games over the past few years, including this week's championship game. You can check them all out at crystalyoungphotography.com/Sports/Brantford-Red-Sox-2011

2011 Paris Fair results

2011-09-04T09:44:00.000-04:00

I've got my results back from the Paris Fair photography competition. Although I didn't do as well as in previous competitions, I did manage to win a total of 14 ribbons - two 1st place, four 2nd place, four 3rd place, three 4th place, and one 5th place. The quality of some of the winning images was a bit questionable, not sure if Paris is using a different judging system than in previous years? Personally, I perhaps went too heavy with Disney World related photography this year and will have to try to mix up my subject matter a little more in 2012. You can check out all of the winning entries over on my Facebook page. The Paris Fair runs until September 5th, and if you're attending this long weekend be sure to check out the photo competition - and I'd appreciate it if you'd vote #5 in the People's Choice competition! :)

365 Project, Week 35

2011-09-03T13:33:00.001-04:00

Week 35 of the 365 project featured a theme - Disney Week! Born partly out of anticipation of our trip to Disney World, partly out of not having anything else to shoot this week. You may notice that Day 7 of Disney week doesn't feature a Disney-related photo. It IS, however, a photo practicing night shooting techniques that we'll use while at Disney World so it kind of counts?

239/365 August 27, 2011 It's Disney week here on the 365 project! Just 6 weeks away until we're heading to Walt Disney World. Day 1 features Halloween pins, more of which I'm sure we'll pick up when attending Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

240/365 August 28, 2011 Day 2 features a relic from my husband's 1988 childhood trip to WDW - love that old logo.

241/365 August 29, 2011 Day 3 features a plug for Disney photography gurus Tom Bricker, Cory Disbrow & Adam Hansen who just released an e-book on shooting fireworks. Anyone who's seen their Disney fireworks photography knows what they can do. Go check out their Flickr pages, and pick up the e-book at http://www.howtophotographfireworks.com

242/365 August 30, 2011 Day 4 features the best mail a Disney World visitor can get - our Magical Express tickets! The first (and likely last) time we'll see 'Polynesian' written on them!

243/365 August 31, 2011 2 months until Halloween! Halloween is our favorite time of year, so needless to say there will be a lot of pumpkin-shaped Mickeys around the house in the next couple months!

244/365 September 1, 2011 Day 6 features Disney's Magical Express, macro style. In just over a month we'l be boarding a full-scale version of this bus heading to our favorite place on Earth!

245/365 September 2, 2011 Practicing night shooting techniques. 8 second exposure of the Zipper at the Paris Fair midway.

Thanks for checking out this week's photos! You can check out more photos from the Paris Fair on the website at crystalyoungphotography.com. And you can check out all of our Disney trip planning at CanaDisney.com.

2011 Fair Entries

2011-08-29T21:44:00.000-04:00

The 2011 county and fall fair season is upon us. I usually enter a few of the local fairs' photography competitions. It's a good way to try out some new things and see how others react to your photography. And a little prize money never hurts either!

First up is the Paris Fair, September 1-5 in Paris, Ontario. This will be my 3rd year entering the Paris Fair, and I've done very well with previous entries. The Paris Fair's photo competition is pretty large, with categories for juniors, seniors, amateurs, professionals, and everything in between. I'm entering 70 photos into the Paris Fair.

Next is the Binbrook Fair, September 16-18 in Binbrook, Ontario. This is just my 2nd year competing in the Binbrook Fair, although I have been playing fastpitch in Binbrook for the past decade. I did well in last year's fair, winning 2nd in overall points. The Binbrook Fair's photo competition isn't as big as some of the other fairs', but they do have some unique and interesting categories. I'm entering 25 photos into the Binbrook Fair.

The next week it's the Ancaster Fair, September 22-25 in Ancaster, Ontario. This is my 3rd year in the Ancaster Fair. Last year I did extremely well, winning most points in both Photography and Photography Advanced sections. The Ancaster Fair competition is a pretty decent size, and the fair itself is great - the fairgrounds were newly created a few years ago. I'm entering 20 photos into the Ancaster Fair.

After that is a new fair for me, the Caledonia Fair, September 29-October 2 in Caledonia, Ontario. We've never visited the Caledonia Fair before, so don't really know what to expect. I'm testing the waters and entering 10 photos in the Caledonia Fair.

Last up is the Norfolk County Fair, October 4-10 in Simcoe, Ontario. This will be my 5th year entering the Norfolk County Fair. It's a huge fair, with a very large photography competition. Despite some questionable judging in the past, I've done well in the last couple years' competitions. Last year was my most successful year, winning 12 ribbons. I'm entering 50 photos in the Norfolk County Fair.

Stay tuned for all the results! I'll be sure to recap any winning entries I might have here on the blog. And be sure to follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, and if you're on Google+ add me to your circles!

365 Project, Week 34

2011-08-27T18:15:00.001-04:00

Another week is in the books for the 365 project. This week featured our first near miss, with a photo taken very close to midnight (the photo in question is very apparent). The iPhone and Instagram crept into the project more than usual also. But hey, 7 pictures is 7 pictures.

232/365 August 20, 2011 Lazy Caturday.

233/365 August 21, 2011 Once again, by the time we grabbed the camera the sky had lost a bit of it s dramatic hue. Also, damn those power lines.

234/365 August 22, 2011 Needed a 'country fence' photo for a fair entry. So here we are! The perks of living rural-adjacent.

235/365 August 23, 2011 Snuck a 365 photo in just under the wire.

236/365 August 24, 2011 Huge thunderstorm blew through Ontario tonight. Unfortunately, it brought clouds with it, and we were only able to get this quick burst before the skies got too overcast to capture the big bolts.

237/365 August 25, 2011 Went a little wacky with the hue & saturation to try and spruce up this sunflower.

238/365 August 26, 2011 Instagram underground parking.

August is almost over, which means the 365 is almost 2/3 done! Between you & me and the internet, I'm not going to shed any tears once the shutter is pressed on photo 365. It's been an interesting experiment but as the increasing amount of cat and iPhone photos indicate, daily photography has become a chore rather than a productive exercise. But still, we've made it this far right? Onto week 35!

More Disney World Photography Tips

2011-08-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

Welcome back! In case you missed it last week, we had posted some WDW Photography Tips as part of a crossover with our Disney blog, CanaDisney.com. It was intended to be a "Top 10" list, however due to the subject matter we were running out of room. We had lots more tips that space didn't unfortunately allow for. But good news - on CanaDisney we're pleased to present a new, semi-regular series of photography tips for visiting Disney World!

The Right Equipment
We're not saying that you need thousands of dollars of equipment to effectively shoot at Disney World. For certain shots, however, you will need the right tools for the job. We shoot with and are admitted biased towards DSLR (interchangeable lens) cameras because they offer the most advantages. A DSLR's larger sensor, combined with the ability to switch between a wide variety of lenses makes it the best tool for the job in tough shooting conditions. You'll also need the right lens, or lenses to accompany the camera though (more on lenses in a bit).

If you don't have a DSLR, we would at least recommend an advanced point & shoot camera or superzoom for the parks, something with full manual control over the camera settings. Your typical point & shoot where the camera decides what settings are best will work just fine in daylight, but may not yield good results at night or indoors. In addition to your choice of camera, if you're shooting with a DSLR an external flash is very helpful. A laptop & external drive are also helpful to download and backup photos during your trip. Make sure you pack extra batteries and memory cards! And as we stressed in the first part of this series, a tripod is a valuable asset for night shots.

Lenses
In certain conditions you'll need a specific lens to get the shot you want. As we mentioned in our last installment, dark rides in particular demand a "fast" lens - most point & shoot cameras simply cannot let in enough light fast enough to get a crisp shot in these conditions. Even your standard "kit" DSLR lens isn't fast enough. For these conditions, you'll need a "fast" lens (one with a large maximum aperture, or in other words a lens that lets in a LOT of light). Many people, us included, use the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for dark rides. The good news is that if you shoot a DSLR from one of the big manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Sony) you can pick up a 50mm f/1.8 lens, often referred to as a "nifty fifty", for under $200 (which is pocket change in photography dollars!). And another benefit of a fast lens is the shallow depth of field (blurry background) it produces.

A wide-angle lens is also nice to have for WDW shooting. Disney World is a big place, and the wider the lens you use helps to convey, or even exaggerate its size. Most kit lenses start at 18mm but many photographers opt to go even wider. We shoot with a Tokina 11-16mm lens, and Sigma also makes an 8-16mm lens that is ridiculously wide. A popular variation on the wide-angle lens is the fisheye lens - shooting with a fisheye takes some practice, and we'll be trying one out for the first time at WDW in October.

Many DSLR shooters at WDW opt for a "walkaround lens" - a lens with a big range that alleviates the need to carry multiple lenses around. Although we haven't used it personally, several of our friends really like the Tamron 18-270mm lens. If you don't want to carry a lot of gear in the parks, a lens like this should cover whatever you may encounter. A telephoto zoom lens is something we don't use a lot at WDW, but it's good to have for candid close-up shots, and also at Animal Kingdom.

Look for more detailed lens information in future articles on the CanaDisney blog!

Plan and Research
There are lots of resources specific to shooting at Disney online, and lots of great photographers to learn from. The Disney photographic community is full of the nicest and most helpful people we've ever encountered when trying to learn about photography, in fact. Here are a few sites, full of people far more knowledgeable than us, that you should bookmark:

WDW Photography • WDW Photography Flickr group

DISboards Photography Forum
The Magic in Pixels • Disney Tourist Blog

Study Disney photography, and don't be afraid to ask questions - the path to great pictures begins long before you even enter the parks. Happy touring and happy shooting!

365 Project, Week 33

2011-08-21T14:41:00.000-04:00

33 weeks completed in the 365 project, are you kidding me? Can't believe we've made it this far! This is the time of year when photography becomes very time consuming personally, as we enter a number of local fairs' photography competitions. Ironically, taking actual photos tends to take a backseat to printing and mounting physical photos for entering! So prepare yourself for more cat pictures for the next month or so. :)

225/365 August 13, 2011 Shot some waterfalls today at Webster's Falls. The dry summer has resulted in some less-than-magnificent waterfalls around here. Plus there were tourists everywhere, couldn't get many shots without people in them.

226/365 August 14, 2011 Life is a bowl of cherries... cherry tomatoes, that is! Hey, at least it's not another cat picture today.

227/365 August 15, 2011 Our cats have a new backyard friend! This little bunny has taken up residence. It's nice that someone appreciates that we haven't mowed the lawn in weeks. :)

227/365 August 16, 2011 August 16, 1977 - 34 years ago today we lost Elvis Presley.

229/365 August 17, 2011 Fall Fair season snuck up very quick this year! I've done very well in the Paris Fair's photography competition the last couple years. Hoping to show well again this year!

230/365 August 18, 2011 Not-so-hidden Mickey. We're prepping another photography tips for our Disney blog,http://www.CanaDisney.com. This shot will accompany a paragraph on lenses, oddly enough.

231/365 August 19, 2011 Brantford Red Sox's Lee Delfino returns back to the dugout after an unsuccessful slide into 2nd base. Fortunately the Sox were up 7-1 at the time, and held on for the victory - forcing a game 7 in their playoff series vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs.

If you're on Google+, please feel free to add me to your circles. And if you're not on Google+ and need an invite, just give a click right here!

Disney World Photography Tips

2011-08-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

This article originally appeared on our Disney blog, www.CanaDisney.com as part of the Magical Blogorail. Each member of the blog hop gave tips in their various areas of "expertise" for touring Disney theme parks. We hope this will be an ongoing series, and look for more Disney World articles and tips at www.CanaDisney.com.

On this month's Magical Blogorail blue loop, we're discussing our top tips for visiting Disney parks. Our list focuses on photography in the parks. If you didn't already know, Disney World and photography are our two main interests, and when the two come together it's truly magical! Trying to capture the Disney magic in photographic form can be challenging, but with some preparation and the right tools you can come home with vacation photos that you'll treasure.

Practice Makes Perfect

Shooting at WDW is going to be a fairly unique experience. But that's not to say you can't practice beforehand. Try to seek out similar experiences locally that are comparable to what you'll be shooting at WDW - holiday fireworks, parades, fairs & carnivals, monuments, etc. Practice dark ride shooting by setting up objects in a dimly lit room and see what settings you'll need (more on this in a bit). It's important to get a feel for your equipment, and for camera settings to almost become second-nature. That way when a photographic opportunity presents itself you won't be fumbling around to get the correct settings.

Comfort Before Style
Visitors to WDW know that touring the parks can be exhausting at the best of times, and adding on heavy photographic equipment can make things worse. Some people think nothing of carrying around a backpack full of gear to the parks. Others prefer to travel light, with only their camera and lens, and maybe a second lens in a bag. It's essential that whatever your setup may be, try it out before going to the parks. We've learned through trial and error that we prefer a backpack vs. a messenger-style bag for carrying our cameras & lenses (less shoulder strain). You'll want a bag big enough to hold your stuff, but not too large that you can't stow the camera away and take it on rides with you. We usually keep our camera bags at our feet and put a leg through the strap on rides, this will keep it secure even on attractions like the Rock n' Rollercoaster. Whatever your camera bag preference may be, a comfortable strap for the camera itself is CRUCIAL. Do yourself a favour and take the strap that came with your DSLR, and get rid of it. Purchase something soft and flexible and made of neoprene - we use Crumpler Industry Disgrace straps, with Rapid and Kata being other popular options. We think you'll find it easiest to wear your camera while in the parks, whether around your neck or over the shoulder. If your camera is in a bag you WILL miss photo opportunities, so keep that camera out & ready to shoot!

Fireworks

Everyone loves pictures of fireworks, but be warned - shooting fireworks is difficult! Be prepared to shoot continuously throughout the display, and only end up with a handful of keepers. For success you'll need a tripod, and use a remote shutter release (or use the camera's self-timer) to minimize camera shake - you're going to be shooting at long exposures. Of course you'll want to stake out a good spot with minimal obstructions. Don't worry about getting close - when shooting fireworks, you'll be surprised how far back you'll want to go to fill the frame with bursts. For camera settings, set your ISO as low as it'll go (usually 100), use bulb mode to manually control when the shutter opens and closes (or if not available, a 1-10 second exposure ), and shoot at an aperture of anywhere from f/8 to f/16. If you're shooting Wishes at the Magic Kingdom, do some test shots of the castle before the fireworks start. Try to get the castle properly exposed while keeping the shutter open as long as possible - when the fireworks start, this will give you an idea of how long your exposure needs to be. If you're adventurous, you can add a neutral density filter to your lens - this lets even less light in and allows for very long exposures.

Dark Rides

Dark rides are perhaps the greatest challenge to shoot. The combination of low light and moving targets makes getting a tack sharp capture difficult. You'll need a fast lens (one with a large aperture to let in a lot of light) - preferably f/1.8 or better. No matter what your lens, you're going to want to shoot wide open (as low an f stop as your lens will go) to let in as much light as possible in a short amount of time. You'll also want to crank up your ISO as high as possible (1600 or higher) - this may increase noise in the dark areas of the photo, but even a noisy sharp photo is better than a blurry one! Choosing a shutter speed is difficult, and may involve trial & error - you'll want to use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action without giving too dark a photo. You can also bump up your exposure compensation, or bring the exposure up in post-processing. Minimizing both camera shake and your own movement is also important. Shoot when the ride/boat is as still as possible. Zooming in tight exaggerates camera shake, so shoot wide and crop later. And as tempted as you might be, remember DON'T use your flash! It'll ruin others' enjoyment of the ride and we want to keep WDW as photographer friendly as possible! You'll find that these same guidelines also work for indoor shows.

Bring a Tripod

We were going to include this in an overall equipment section, but it's so important that it warrants its own mention. No matter what kind of camera you bring to Disney World, the single most important piece of equipment you can bring is the one most are reluctant to take - a tripod. Quite simply, nothing is more beautiful than Disney World at night. To get effective night shots you need a longer exposure time (it's almost impossible to hand-hold a camera to get clear night shots). And as previously mentioned, a tripod is mandatory for fireworks shots. We recommend purchasing a tripod especially designed for travel - one that will support the weight of your camera, but still lightweight and portable. A common photographers' saying is that the best tripod is the one you have with you! Some photographers opt to rent a locker and leave the tripod there until they're ready to do some night shooting.

We intended this to be a "top ten" list, however the subject matter proved to be too detailed and the post would've ran far too long. So look for more tips in future articles here & on the CanaDisney Blog!

To check out the blog hop this article was originally part of, visit www.magicalblogorail.com. The blogs shared lots of great tips for touring Disney parks - everything from dining, to saving money, to touring with kids, and much more! And you can always check out our Disney blog at www.CanaDisney.com

365 Project, Week 32

2011-08-13T20:09:00.000-04:00

Well after a week of shooting in Newfoundland, week #32 was not the most inspired in the 365 project. Be prepared for the familiar cat and computer screen pictures.

218/365 August 6, 2011 So long, perpetual fog of Newfoundland!

219/365 August 7, 2011 Another shot-for-a-purpose photo serving double duty in the 365. On Friday our Disney site http://www.CanaDisney.com was part of a Magical Blogorail loop sharing Disney tips. Ours is dedicated to photography at Disney World. Spoiler Alert: We mention the importance of a comfy camera strap.

221/365 August 9, 2011 So far we're really enjoying the low-light performance of the T2i, combined with our Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens. Here's cat picture 1 of 2, taken in a dimly-lit room.

222/365 August 10, 2011 Cat picture 2 of 2.

223/365 August 11, 2011 Alright, it's a lazy photo AND a shameless plug for our Disney blog.

224/365 August 12, 2011 Hydrangeas

220/365 August 8, 2011 Last regular season Fastpitch game of the season!

Sorry for the out-of-order photos, but Blogger is being a real piece of garbage lately when it comes to uploading photos. Just getting all 7 up was a struggle in itself. But anyways, onward and upward for the 365 project. See you back here next week!

365 Project, Week 31

2011-08-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

Week 31 was unique, as it featured shots away from home! I went to St. John's NL for my niece's wedding. Returned with ~1200 pictures to sort and edit. Picked a week's worth of quick ones to at least catch up on my 365 project posting. There will be much more to come later on at crystalyoungphotography.com.

211/365 July 30, 2011 Next Friday our Disney site http://www.CanaDisney.com will be part of a Magical Blogorail loop sharing Disney tips. Ours is going to be dedicated to photography at Disney World. Hope you'll come by and check it out!

212/365 July 31, 2011 Packing the photo gear, tomorrow evening I leave for the airport for my trip to Newfoundland! Not taking a laptop, however, so there won't be any 365 updates until next weekend.

213/365 August 1, 2011 Stayed at Pearson International Airport the night before my flight to NL. Wanted to get some long exposures of planes taking off. Got set up in time for this one... which was apparently the last flight of the night from the runway I could see. Better luck next time.

214/365 August 2, 2011 Downtown St. John's Newfoundland.

215/365 August 3, 2011 The Basilica Cathedral of St. John The Baptist, St. John's Newfoundland.

216/365 August 4, 2011 Lighthouse at Cape Spear, St. John's Newfoundland.

217/365 August 5, 2011 I did not kiss a fish and did not get Screeched. Guess I'm still just a Mainlander.

Be sure to check back later for more Newfoundland trip photos at crystalyoungphotography.com.

So Long, Newfoundland!

2011-08-05T22:10:00.000-04:00

Wrapping up a 4 day trip to Newfoundland, and coming back with lots of photos! Only have some iPhone photos for now though. Hope to have some photos processed and uploaded to the website over the course of the next week. For now, here's a few rough pictures from the iPhone.

Check out crystalyoungphotography.com/places later this week for more!

365 Project, Week 30

2011-07-30T15:29:00.000-04:00

The 365 project is 30 weeks old! Another odd mix of photos this week, pretty much what you've come to expect from the 365 Project thus far.

204/365 July 23, 2011 Going to be taking a trip to Newfoundland in August for a family wedding. My first time to the Maritimes! Should present some great photographic opportunities.

205/365 July 24, 2011 Shot some photos at the Telephone City Car Show today in Brantford, Ontario. I also donated a print as an entry prize!

206/365 July 25, 2011 Trying out ISO 6400 on the new T2i. Pretty impressive! This room was only lit by a TV and single light bulb. Dark enough for Garrison to sleep still!

207/365 July 26, 2011 This mystery flower is growing in my backyard! Don't remember planting it, and I don't know what it is. Is there a Botanist in the house???

208/365 July 27, 2011 The Brantford Red Sox limped into the IBL playoffs, after having lost 9 out of their last 11 regular season games. Despite this, the Sox showed why they're 3 time defending IBL champs with an explosive 11-2 win in game 1 of their series vs. the Kitchener Panthers.

209/365 July 28, 2011 Tried to catch this bee in flight.

210/365 July 29, 2011 Instagram Clarence. Only 55 minutes left in the day, so the 365 gets another iPhone cat photo.

That's it for week #30. Between the car show and the Red Sox games we've added a ton of new photos to crystalyoungphotography.com, be sure to stop by and check them all out.

Telephone City Car Show

2011-07-25T20:25:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, hundreds of classic cars descended upon downtown Brantford, Ontario for the Telephone City Car Show. The weather forecast called for rain, but it passed by and the cars and spectators stayed dry. We were actually hoping for overcast conditions, as the diffused light works well with all of the shiny metal and chrome, but by the time we shot there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

This was our second year shooting the car show. Vintage cars against a backdrop of new and old architecture makes for some wonderful photographic opportunities. A picture I shot last year at the show won the 2010-2011 Brantford Tourism Photo Contest. This photo caught the eye of the car show's organizers, who asked if I'd be willing to donate a print to use as a prize for the show entrants. Of course I was more than happy to! The winner of the pre-registration draw took home a nice 24x36 print of the winning photo.

All in all, we ended up with about 400 photos. We've edited and processed over 50 so far, which you can check out at the Crystal Young Photography cars gallery.

365 Project, Week 29

2011-07-23T13:37:00.000-04:00

Over 200 photos in the 365 project! This week's big photographic event is captured in photo 200/365 - we have acquired a new camera, the Canon T2i. You may recall we ditched our Rebel XS for a used 5D Mark I earlier this year. The 5D, unfortunately, has not lived up to expectations. Don't get us wrong it's great image quality-wise, but the 6-year old technology and interface is growing tiresome. For our shooting, we simply miss modern conveniences like live view, high-resolution LCD, and snappy multi-point auto-focus too much. Plus we also miss having a lighter-weight alternative to our 50D. And we've got a lot of EF-S lenses that were being neglected with only the 1 crop body. So the T2i arrived today, and now we'll try to unload the 5D to a new home. Or we might hang onto it for studio & portrait work. Time will tell!

197/365 July 16, 2011 Backyard firepit.

198/365 July 17, 2011 Icky bug in the backyard.

199/365 July 18, 2011 Instagram fail whale.

200/365 July 19, 2011 Yes, Gear Acquisition Syndrome (or GAS as they call it in the photographic hoarder community) has struck again.

201/365 July 20, 2011 This busy bee was almost too busy to stop for a photo!

202/365 July 21, 2011 Haven't posted a cat picture with the new camera yet! So here's Garrison after a tough day at the office.

203/365 July 22, 2011 Another scorcher out today*

* Disclosure - Thermomemter is out in the direct sunlight. It also displays 102°F all the time. It WAS close to that today though!

If you're in the Hamilton/Brantford area and are interested in a good condition 5D Mark I, you can check out our Kijiji listing here. See you back here next week for week #30!

365 Project, Week 28

2011-07-16T10:28:00.000-04:00

After last week's photo recovery drama, a relatively uneventful time with the 365 project this week. A mixed bag of photos, featuring a couple keepers and the requisite pictures of cats and computer monitors. The project is still a grind, and we're finding it harder to post photos each day - although at this point we're still taking them every day, just posting in batches every 2-3 days. So if you're tired of checking each day for new entries we apologize - but the weekly recap should cover it all.

190/365 July 9, 2011 The weekend's games didn't yield many highlights for our team, unfortunately. But our 2nd baseman did make a couple nifty over-the-shoulder catches.

191/365 July 10, 2011 Upon returning home from the ball tournament, we discovered that over a week's worth of photos had been wiped off our memory card after a failed Lightroom import. A very frustrating experience to say the least. Fortunately, recovery software came to the rescue.

192/365 July 11, 2011 Instagram Pooh

193/365 July 12, 2011 Not a flattering photo of Clarence. In his defense, he's not really THAT fat, but he is very fluffy!

194/365 July 13, 2011 Lots of tense scenes at tonight's Brantford Red Sox game. The visiting Barrie Baycats' pitcher plunked 2 batters without so much as a warning. This prompted the above confrontation (and subsequent ejection of Brantford's 3rd base coach).

195/365 July 14, 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II opens tonight at midnight! We're going to brave the opening-day crowd and see a dinnertime showing.... no costumes, though!

196/365 July 15, 2011 Big full moon tonight. We really need a 500mm lens!

Hey, if you're on the Google+ add us to a circle! You can easily find my profile right here. Thanks for checking out the photos, see you back here next week.

365 Project, Week 27

2011-07-12T21:38:00.000-04:00

As you may have previously read, retrieving the photos for the past week's 365 proved to be an adventure. And although we might have been relieved by an unintentional end to the 365 project, it was not to be. So the 365 chugs along. All processing drama aside, it was actually a decent week in photos, and we learned a lot.

183/365 July 2, 2011 After a few attempts already in the 365, managed to get a great lightning shot during tonight's storm!

184/365 July 3, 2011 Clarence's disapproving look seems to say, "I can't believe it's almost bedtime and you still haven't taken your 365 picture. You had all day!!!"

185/365 July 4, 2011 An entomology-related question for my Flickr friends - anyone know what kind of fly this is? This one was on my deck today, and it was creepy!

186/365 July 5, 2011 Oreo cupcake from the Cupcake Diner. A van that delivers cupcakes to your workplace is a good thing!

187/365 July 6, 2011 Hard to believe that it was just 3 weeks ago that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup! It's going to be coming around Southern Ontario with a couple of Bruins in the next few weeks, hopefully we can make it out to see it!

188/365 July 7, 2011 Oriental lilies

189/365 July 8, 2011 My fastpitch team played a tournament in Niagara Falls. We experienced magic that multiple trips to Disney World have never yielded - the free suite upgrade! Thank you Best Western!

Barring any further technical difficulties, we'll see you back here next week for another week's worth of photos.

365 Project, Week 27?

2011-07-10T18:32:00.001-04:00

Usually on the weekend we post a recap of the week's 365 photos. It was a busy week around the Young house, and although we did take a daily photo we hadn't been able to post them. So why aren't we posting seven new photos right now, you ask? Allow us to explain.

Late Saturday night - we returned from my team's fastpitch tournament in Niagara Falls, plugged our compact flash card in to the computer, and began the process to export the files to Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom recognized the new photos, and we selected the days to upload. This where things went amiss - Lightroom attempted to load the pictures, then displayed an error "Failed to find a place for the imported file". Now we have seen this error before, and usually a 2nd import attempt gets the photos where they need to go. This time, however, the photos were nowhere to be found (we later realized that all photos after June 24th were missing). The photos were missing from the compact flash card itself, not viewable on the computer or even in camera!

As of this point, we are trying to recover the photo files from the card via recovery software. This is actually our 2nd attempt today, with the first software finding files but not yielding viewable .jpgs. Our second attempt is using newer, better-recommended software. Hopefully we'll have photos available in a couple of hours.

We're curious to find out (and hopefully we can) what is to blame - Lightroom itself, a corrupted catalog, the CF card, or maybe even a combination of the above. We really like Lightroom, but don't think we'll be able to fully trust it after this incident. Switching to Aperture isn't really an option as we're PC users. I guess we've got some research, and some option-weighing to do!

Hopefully all will go well, and we'll have a 365 photo update and recap tomorrow. Stay tuned!

UPDATE - Good news! The photos have been retrieved. At this point we're still unsure if it's Lightroom or memory card related, or both. We last imported via Lightroom on June 24, and all of the photos after that were the ones that were missing. This combined with the fact that the photos disappeared AFTER the initial Lightroom import leads us to believe that LR has to be at least partly at fault, good or bad memory card. We have been pulling individual 365 photos off the card via laptop each day, which might also be a contributing factor. It's no wonder cards end up having issues, though - despite multiple reformattings, this card still had photos on it from early 2010!

Our strategy now will be to ditch the big 16GB cards, and switch to smaller capacity cards. The convenience of the big cards isn't worth the hassle of retrieving and restoring. Once was enough! :)

365 Project, Week 26

2011-07-03T13:14:00.002-04:00

Hallelujah!!! We are past the halfway point of the 365 project! This was an 'all over the place ' week photographically. But of course it featured the requisite cat, flower, and iPhone photographs.

176/365 June 25, 2011 Besides photography, our other hobby is Disney World. On June 26, 2010 we created our Disney blog, so it officially turned 1 year old this weekend! Stop by and check it out if you like, we're at http://www.canadisney.com

177/365 June 26, 2011 Found these 2 tiny caterpillars hanging out on my rose bush today.

178/365 June 27, 2011 It was nail trimming night at the Young house. Garrison was a good boy, and enjoys a treat for his cooperation.

179/365 June 28, 2011 Cloudy skies over our neighborhood tonight at sundown.

180/365 June 29, 2011 Municipal parking lot, Downtown Hamilton.

181/365 June 30, 2011 It may look pretty, but it's clover and our yard is full of it! Someone's going to celebrate Canada Day by mowing the lawn around here...

182/365 July 1, 2011 Happy Canada Day!

Onto half #2 of the 365. Remember you can always check out the entire 365 at crystalyoungphotography.com/365 and on our Flickr account.

365 Project, Week 25

2011-06-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

Although Canada Post may be on strike, we are still delivering daily photos!! Yes, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor boredom stays us from the completion of the 365 project. This week's photos featured many diamonds and balls:

169/365 June 18, 2011 My fastpitch softball team played in a tournament this weekend. The ump called time while one of our players dusted herself off after a slide into 2nd in our Saturday afternoon game.

170/365 June 19, 2011 In Sunday's game we rallied back from a 7-0 deficit to win 11-7, thanks in part to plays like this one.

171/365 June 20, 2011 A lone male goldfinch enjoys some nyjer seed in our backyard.

172/365 June 21, 2011 The Young household has leapt into the 21st century - we're now a K-Cup family. No more scooping coffee grounds for us! If you're ever in Burlington, Ontario there's a place called ECS Coffee and they have a ridiculously large selection of k-cups. And if you buy 7 boxes you get 1 free - needless to say, we got our free box. :)

173/365 June 22, 2011 Softball is no fun when you can't see the outfield.

174/365 June 23, 2011 Got these cheapie solar lights for the garden, and discovered that they change colours!! Not bad for $2.

175/365 June 24, 2011 Tyler Patzalek at the plate for the Brantford Red Sox. He cracked his bat during this hit, which if you look closely you can see in the photo. This game ended up going to 16 innings, with our hometown Red Sox eking out a 9-8 win (after blowing an initial 6-0 lead!).

365 Project, Week 24

2011-06-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

Week 24 of the 365 project is complete. Much like the Vancouver Canucks, this week's 365 was dominated by your Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins!

162/365 June 11, 2011 Purple clematis

163/365 June 12, 2011 Yup, it's another cat picture! But Clarence has been sleeping like this for awhile now, and it's too cute to not feature in the 365.

164/365 June 13, 2011 Chives blooming in my backyard.

165/365 June 14, 2011 Go Bruins!!! We're hoping to see the black & yellow with the Cup tomorrow night!

166/365 June 15, 2011 Bruins win the Stanley Cup! Tim Thomas wins the Conn Smythe!

167/365 June 16, 2011 Yes, you're going to have to indulge us in another Bruins-related 365 photo! Glad to see the win made the front page of the local paper.

168/365 June 17, 2011 My fastpitch softball team played in a tournament this weekend. Friday night's game featured this close play at 2nd.

Remember you can always check out the entire 365 at crystalyoungphotography.com/365 and on our Flickr account. We're probably done with Bruins pictures now, but we do have 2 more softball pictures up from this weekend's tournament!

365 Project, Week 23

2011-06-11T19:42:00.000-04:00

Another week is complete with the 365 project, making 23 in total. The project nearly ran off the rails this week, with several photos being taken immediately before bedtime. We're going to try to keep with the project, but it is getting exponentially harder to find the motivation to shoot every day (the multiple cat pictures in the week are a dead giveaway!). We seem to yield one photo a week that we're proud of, so setting a goal of taking one good photo a week would seemingly accomplish the same thing as this 365 project:

156/365 June 4, 2011 Had an early day thunderstorm pass through today. Didn't get any lightning shots, but these clouds were awfully low & ominous!

157/365 June 5, 2011 Finally had a rain-free day! Did some planting. Peas up front, and cucumbers in the back.

157/365 June 6, 2011 Clarence loves this box. Don't know how he's always so comfortable in it!

158/365 June 7, 2011 Huddle at the pitcher's mound.

159/365 June 8, 2011 Extremely happy with the results of the Bruins game tonight! Not so happy with the results of this photo though, but this is what happens when you watch hockey & neglect your 365 photo until bedtime. Will have to try this again with a tripod later on.

160/365 June 9, 2011 Mountain bells in my backyard.

161/365 June 10, 2011 "What?!?", asks Garrison. "It's 11:05pm and you STILL haven't taken your 365 picture today??" Thank you for volunteering, Garrison!

Onto week 24 - we'll see if we manage to slug through another week! Our photography may be lacking lately, but we have put a ton on new content up on our Disney site, www.CanaDisney.com. We've got Disney podcast reviews, our latest Magical Blogorail article, and this week we'll even be featuring our first guest blogger!! Swing by CanaDisney and check it all out!

365 Project, Week 22

2011-06-04T21:19:00.000-04:00

Week deuce deuce is complete. A mixed bag again this week, featuring the great outdoors.

149/365 May 28, 2011 Did some shooting today at the Brantford Red Sox game today. Got quite a few nice captures of the ball coming right off the bat.

150/365 May 29, 2011 Mother Nature provided us with another light show tonight in Southern Ontario. This storm was a lot more violent than the last one though, accompanied by tornado warnings in some areas. Fortunately the brunt of it seemed to pass by just north of us.

151/365 May 30, 2011 Japanese Maple leaf.

152/365 May 31, 2011 Work ground to a screeching halt today when the cupcake truck arrived!

153/365 June 1, 2011 Good game, Tim Thomas. You kept your team in it, it's a shame that they couldn't reward you with a win.

154/365 June 2, 2011 Dusk at the ol' ballpark

155/365 June 3, 2011 Needed a new picture for our blog. Over on http://www.CanaDisney.com we've started a new series of articles called the Podcast Report, where we're reviewing the various Disney World-related podcasts that are out there.

Onto week #23! Remember you can always check out the entire 365 over at crystalyoungphotography.com/365

365 Project, Week 21

2011-05-28T21:27:00.000-04:00

Another week is in the books on the 365 project. Not the most eventful week, photography-wise, although Tuesday's is a definite keeper. And we all did survive the rapture last weekend, so that in itself is a victory. Still, we're sticking it out on the 365, for better or for mediocre! Here's photos 142-148:

142/365 May 21, 2011 Well the rapture didn't come as expected. Guess I'll have to eat ALL of these cookies myself!

143/365 May 22, 2011 So the world didn't end, AND it didn't rain today. The forecast was 0 for 2 this weekend! We celebrated with some post-apocalyptic steaks.

144/365 May 23, 2011 It's not exactly Wishes at the Magic Kingdom, but somebody on the street behind us celebrated Victoria Day with some fireworks.

145/365 May 24, 2011 This allium is blooming right next to our central air conditioner (which we DID turn on this weekend, we're not big humidity fans!).

146/365 May 25, 2011 Some thunderstorms passed through this evening. Managed to quickly set up & catch this lightning through the patio door.

147/365 May 26, 2011 We hope the birds enjoy their new buffet in our backyard

148/365 May 27, 2011 2 young sparrows in our backyard.

Join us back here next week for hopefully some better photos, and less rapture schtick!

Photography & Copyright in Canada

2011-05-22T15:57:00.000-04:00

We've read a lot of articles online about copyright and photographers, but most of them are applicable to photographers in the U.S. Our question was 'How does Canadian copyright laws work with respect to photographs?'

The good news for Canadian photographers is that under the Canadian Copyright Act whomever takes the picture automatically holds copyright to the photo (with a notable exception we'll touch on below). No formal registration is required - however you can register your photographs with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, giving you a certificate that states that you are the owner which can be used in court as evidence of ownership. For a one-time fee of $50 you can register your entire photographic collection, and unlike our U.S. counterparts no submission of copies of the photographs are required.

The exception to the above regards commissioned work. If you are hired to take a photograph, then by default the copyright of that photograph belongs to the commissioner, NOT the photographer. Therefore, if you wish to retain copyright of a photo that you are hired to take, you must have a contract with the commissioner stating that the copyright belongs to the photographer. You can find some sample contract forms here.

So if you're a Canadian taking photographs, you are automatically protected under copyright law (although registering your copyright certainly won't hurt). But if you're hired to take a photograph and you wish to retain copyright of that photograph, make sure you've got a signed contract retaining your copyright.

365 Project, Week 20

2011-05-21T20:43:00.000-04:00

Well it looks like the Apocalypse didn't start tonight as some doomsdayers predicted, so the 365 project must continue. Here's what the past week had to offer, photos 134-141:

134/365 May 14, 2011 Went on a photo tour today of a brownfield in Brantford, Ontario, the former Massey-Ferguson site. It's huge, with numerous abandoned factory buildings.

136/365 May 15, 2011 A rare look at my lens collection! Kidding of course, this was from the Canon booth at the Henry's Photo, Video & Digital Imaging show. Despite all of this gear, we managed to not spend a penny at the show.

137/365 May 16, 2011 Portrait of Clarence (ran through the dry brush filter in Photoshop elements).

138/365 May 17, 2011 This chilling pamphlet came in the mail today! Although on the bright side, we'll finally be done with this $%*&@ 365 project...

139/365 May 18, 2011 I'm starting to get ready for the various local fall fairs' photo contests.

140/365 May 19, 2011 The print version of the 2011-2012 Brantford Discovery Guide came today! It features 3 of my photos, including the photo contest winner above. I've got photos on pages 25,55, and 76.

141/365 May 20, 2011 A gardening rule of thumb in Southern Ontario is that once Victoria Day weekend passes it's OK to plant. We'll see how these tomatoes do.

Onto week #21. You can check out the whole 365 at crystalyoungphotography.com/365, and check out my new 500px site at 500px.com/crystalyoungphotography - and be sure to sign up for your own free account & join the community!

365 Project, Week 19

2011-05-15T19:47:00.000-04:00

Another week of the 365 project in done. At this point in the project, some of the 365 photos are definitely going to show minimal effort (although many have already fallen into that category before now!). The 365 project did accomplish its goal of keeping us shooting during the cold & dreary cold months, but at this time of year we would be normally shooting once or twice a week regularly as it is. On Saturday we went on a photo tour of a local brownfield site, and we would have also shot at a Brantford Red Sox game were it not rained out. And today we went to the Henry's Photo, Video & Digital Imaging show (and didn't purchase a single thing, believe it or not!). Here's photos 127 through 133:

127/365 May 7, 2011 Our hometown (and defending IBL champion) Brantford Red Sox opened their 2011 season today, with a 6-4 win over the Hamilton Thunderbirds! Here starting pitcher Scott Robinson brings the heat.

128/365 May 8, 2011 Spent a good chunk of time in the yard today. Brought some flowers inside to enjoy.

129/365 May 9, 2011 Tried to get a shot of the steam coming out of my kettle, and it didn't work so well. But as you can see by the clock on the stove it's too close to bedtime to invest any more time in the shot for today.

130/365 May 10, 2011 Lit this tulip from behind to get the centre to glow a bit.

131/365 May 11, 2011 Opening night of my team's fastpitch season. It's too cold & I'm too old!

132/365 May 12, 2011 Stupid Angry Birds

133/365 May 13, 2011 Clarence & Garrison doing some bird watching. And yes, if you're keeping score it's been 3 iPhone pictures in a row now on the 365!

Make sure you swing by crystalyoungphotography.com, we've got TONS of new content - over 60 pictures posted from the brownfield tour, plus 60 more from the Brantford Red Sox season opener!

Brantford Brownfield Photo Tour

2011-05-14T23:32:00.000-04:00

Today we went on a photo tour of Brantford's Greenwich-Mohawk brownfield site. Took a bunch of cool pictures of the abandoned Massey-Ferguson factories and buildings. It's easy to see why people are into photographing urban exploration, the site was rich with great photographic opportunities and we had a blast (despite the rain!).

You can check out the entire gallery of over 60 pictures at crystalyoungphotography.com/Places/Brownfield

Brantford Discovery Guide

2011-05-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

The 2011-2012 Edition of the Brantford Discovery Guide is now available. It features three of my photos!

Page 25 - Photo I took at the 2010 Telephone City Car Show.

Page 55 - The winning entries from the 2011 Brantford Tourism photo contest

Page 76 - My winning photo from the 2010 photo contest

You can pick up a copy of the guide at the Brantford Tourism Centre, or you can view it online here.

Play Ball!

2011-05-08T19:01:00.000-04:00

The 2011 Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) season is underway! One of our favorite things to do is attend our home team Brantford Red Sox games. They've won the IBL championship 2 years in a row now, and they conveniently play right near our house! We've been bringing our DSLR to the park for 4 years now - shooting sports is what initially prompted us to upgrade to the Canon 50D, and later the 70-200f/2.8 IS lens. Fortunately the game tickets are a bargain at $6 each, because they've indirectly cost us far much more in camera gear! There are now also lots of DSLRs at the park, as members of the Brant Camera Club also shoot at the games. If you're around Brantford, or one of the other cities that hosts an IBL team we highly recommend checking out a game, it's lots of fun and great ball.

Be sure to check out crystalyoungphotography.com all season long, as we'll be posting pictures from the games!

365 Project, Week 18

2011-05-07T12:35:00.000-04:00

We're 35% of the way through the 365 project! It seems like it's already been 365 days by this point. I wouldn't hold your breath for a 365 2012 edition! :) This week introduced a new photographic opportunity with the arrival of our iPhones. Our inner photographer will try to use the DSLRs as much as possible, but I'm sure a few iPhone shots will creep into the 365 when necessary. At the start of the week it seemed the photos may all center around my birthday, but that seemed a little too egotistical!

120/365 April 30, 2011 Saturday is treat day! The Bruins won the first game of their playoff series vs. the Flyers, I've completed one third of the 365 project, and it's my birthday!

121/365 May 1, 2011 The newest addition to my growing home studio, this Alien Bee B800 was a birthday present from my husband. I will have to practice a lot with it before attempting any portraits, as it puts out enough light to blind someone!

122/365 May 2, 2011 Another birthday present - membership in Canon Canada's "EOS Club". Not sure what membership actually entails, but it came with a Crumpler strap and who doesn't love that?

123/365 May 3, 2011 Yet another birthday present - Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Pez dispensers! I don't think these are coming out of the box.

124/365 May 4, 2011 Spring is here, and it's the start of a new fastpitch season! I've been playing since I was a little girl, had to take last year off due to injury but am looking forward to getting back on the diamond this year. Hopefully this old girl has a season or two left in her!

125/365 May 5, 2011 Playing with Instagram on my new iPhone. Like any new camera, the first picture taken must be a cat picture!

126/365 May 6, 2011 In honor of the Bruins' 4 game sweep tonight, I thought I'd take a picture of #4. I'm sure he's proud of the B's playoff run thus far!

See you back here next week for pictures 127-133!

TV Ontario - Photography Month

2011-05-05T21:46:00.000-04:00

It snuck up on me, but May is Photography Month on TV Ontario! You can check out the broadcast schedule on their website, and the documentaries will also be available for streaming via their website. The featured photography documentaries are:

May 5, 9pm - Close Up: Portraits
May 7, 7pm- John Gollings: Eye for Architecture
May 12, 9pm - David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating
May 19, 9pm - Close Up: Photographers at Work
May 25, 9pm - Disfarmer: A Portrait of America
May 26, 9pm - Karsh is History

Tune in or set your DVRs, it's not often we get to see photography covered on TV! All the details are at photomonth.tvo.org

365 Project, Week 17

2011-04-30T20:36:00.000-04:00

4 months completed in the 365 project, one third of the way through! We will warn you, this week started off strong but also features our lowest effort picture yet!

113/365 April 23, 2011 Railway Bridge at Fordview Park, Brantford

114/365 April 24, 2011 Happy Easter! The daffodils in my backyard opened up just in time for today.

115/365 April 25, 2011 We've found the April showers! It's supposed to rain all week here, so I expect there to be TONS of May flowers starting next week.

116/365 April 26, 2011 For someone who's been on "vacation" for the better part of 2 weeks, I can't say that there's been a lot of photography time. So here's another cat picture!

117/365 April 27, 2011 ZOMG, Bruins win!!! I don't know if we can take another series after the roller coaster ride of this one.

118/365 April 28, 2011 Had to dedicate another day in the 365 to the Boston Bruins (especially after yesterday's ZERO effort photo tribute!). We should've dusted off the cup before taking the picture, but then again a dusty Stanley Cup is almost fitting since it's been 39 years since the B's last win.

119/365 April 29, 2011 Today was the Royal Wedding! Although we Canadians are members of the Commonwealth, I didn't get too swept up in all the fuss. Today's picture features the tiara worn at another Princess' wedding - mine! :)

Onto the 2nd third of the 365. Thanks again for checking out our work. Remember to follow us on Twitter @crystalpics, and like us on Facebook!

Brantford Brownfield Photo Op

2011-04-29T22:23:00.001-04:00

We missed out on this opportunity the last time it was offered, but Brantford is giving photographers lots of notice this time around! From today's Brantford Civic News (PDF link):

PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR OF THE GREENWICH-MOHAWK BROWNFIELD SITE

Saturday May 14, 2011- 8:00 AM until 2:00 PM

Meet at the Main Entrance on Greenwich Street (near the Military Museum)

ALL ARE WELCOME! (No photography experience is necessary)

This is an opportunity to photograph the site of the former Massey-Ferguson, Massey-Harris and Cockshutt Plow industrial campus. This tour is unguided and access will be restricted to only those areas identiﬁed as accessible for photographic purposes. All persons participating in the Photo Tour will be required to sign a waiver freely accepting and fully assuming all risks, dangers and hazards associated with accessing the site. No persons under the age of 18 shall be permitted on site. All participants must wear footwear and attire appropriate for the conditions of the site. Preferably hard soled shoes with tread and long sleeved clothing. Hard hats and steel toed shoes are useful but not mandatory to participate.

For more information, please contact:

brownﬁelds@brantford.ca or (519) 759-4150 ext. 2380

This will be a great opportunity to photography an environment normally not accessible (at least by permitted means!). If you're in or around Brantford May 14th come do some shooting!

A Photo's Worth - Part 2

2011-04-24T10:56:00.000-04:00

In part 1 of this article, we went over a situation where a local event requested usage of our photography. In this part we will cover a different scenario altogether - when photos were requested for commercial purposes.

The second request we recently received involved photos we shot at another local Brantford event, the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament. This is another great event that helps support local sports programs & facilities. The tournament's profile has been raised in the last couple years thanks to filmmaker Kevin Smith (pictured in the above & below photos), who has brought numerous teams to Brantford and participated in the tournaments. 2010's tournament set a Guinness World Record for the largest street hockey tournament (Kevin's site News Askew featured some pictures we took at the tournament).

Requested Photo #1 - From the 2010 Tournament

Our pictures of Kevin Smith and the tournament came to the attention of the publisher of a well-known, best-selling, worldwide reference book (we won't specifically name the book here, but we think you can figure it out!). They wanted to use a couple pictures taken at this record-setting event in the new edition of their book. More specifically, they wanted to use 2 pictures of Kevin Smith. We responded to their email, thanking them for their interest and quoted a price for licensing the 2 photos they desired. The price we quoted was very reasonable given the scope of their publication, and considerably less in fact than what an image from a photo service like Getty or Corbis would charge. This was 3 weeks ago now - we haven't heard from them since.

Requested Photo #2 - From the 2009 Tournament

In the first case, we were more than happy to help out a local event and cause. Easy decision to make. And even in the second case, we would have done the same if it were the local event making the request. We were happy to have our photos featured on News Askew not only for the "exposure" (crystalyoungphotography.com a record number of visitors because of the News Askew post) , but also to show our appreciation to Kevin Smith & his crew for all their help in making our hometown tournament a huge success.

But make no mistake - the second photo request was from a money-making, for profit business. They requested photos of a celebrity for their best-selling publication, and the photos they requested have a tangible value. Clearly someone in the publishing business knows the value of a contributor's work, but in this case it still didn't prevent them from assuming they could obtain this work for free. Would it be flattering (and even so-called "good exposure") to have our photos published in an international, best-selling book? Absolutely. But we made an educated and principled decision to ask to be compensated accordingly. We can only assume that someone else's photos were found via a Google or Flickr image search, and would wager that their uncompensated photos will appear in the 2012 edition of the publication.

In both scenarios we evaluated the nature of the request and the requester themselves, and made a decision based on the situation. Many photographers are having to make the same type of decision, especially in this age of the internet and the accessibility of photographs. Peta Pixel had a recent article regarding a photo on the cover of Time magazine, and a photographer that perhaps didn't value his photo at what it was worth. This, of course, was his decision to make, but we can't say agree with it. The rise in the popularity, and affordability of DSLR cameras is putting advanced equipment in the hands of more and more people. As a photographer, amateur or professional, just know that what you do has worth and value... and don't be afraid to ask for it!

365 Recap, Week 16

2011-04-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

16 weeks under our belt in the 365 project. Cats and dogs and birds this week, amongst other things. A few were shot in exotic, exciting locations like Port Stanley and Mississauga!

106/365 April 16, 2011 Garrison can't believe the Bruins are losing again tonight, and neither can we! OK, we actually CAN believe it...

107/365 April 17, 2011 On my website http://www.crystalyoungphotography.com, I have a blog. A much neglected blog! One of the side effects of this 365 project is that it has eaten up a lot of free time that I should be devoting to blogging. I'm going to try and rectify that though, and have set a goal of doing a weekly post there.

Today I posted the first installment of an article A Photo's Worth that deals with determining what to do when asked for use of your photos. I've been approached a couple of times recently by different people wanting to use my pictures, with 2 different situations and outcomes. I hope you'll check it out!

108/365 April 18, 2011 Although it's allegedly spring, it's been cold and rainy/snowy the last 2 days. The only cure for that - cinnamon buns!

109/365 April 19, 2011 My family on my Mom's side are fishermen. They used to even have a boat named after me!

110/365 April 20, 2011 Some purple martins bicker at my grandparents' house.

111/365 April 21, 2011 Yes, it's Clarence again!

112/365 April 22, 2011 Went to the "All About Pets Show" in Mississauga today. This year the Dock Dogs were featured. This German Shepherd was the standout in the group we watched, leaping over 20 feet into
the pool!

That's it for week 16. Join us back here tomorrow for part 2 of "A Photo's Worth", and next week for our week 17 recap!

A Photo's Worth - Part 1

2011-04-17T14:50:00.001-04:00

There seems to be a perception with photography that doesn't exist with other forms of art - namely the value, or lack thereof, of a photograph. How many times have you heard "That's a nice picture, you must have a great camera!". The average person taking snapshots with their point & shoot camera or cellphone unfortunately doesn't appreciate the skill and investment (in both time and equipment) required to get that special shot.

If your photography is online in some form, be it a website, blog, or Flickr, you'll likely be approached at some point to use one of your photographs. More often than not this request will come with perhaps a promise of "exposure" for your work, but rarely with any talk of financial compensation. A photographer needs to know the value of their work, and to not be afraid of asking for what that work is worth. We're not saying that every picture is worth x amount of dollars, but a photographer must assess each request and make the appropriate decision. We'll illustrate this decision with 2 recent personal examples.

As you may recall, the below picture won the Brantford Tourism 2010/2011 photo contest:

It was taken at the 2010 Telephone City Car Show. The winning photo caught the attention of the car show's organizers, who contacted us and requested if they could use some of our car show photos on their website. We happily agreed, not only because the car show a great local event that brings attention to the city, but all proceeds from the car show benefit local charities - Participation House Brantford & Rose House Brantford. We're also donating a print of the above photo to the show's silent auction. We look forward to shooting some new photos at this year's show, and if you're in or around Brantford on July 24th we highly recommend checking it out.

In this scenario, the decision was easy to make. In Part 2 of "A Photo's Worth" we'll cover a different scenario - when your photo is requested for use for commercial purposes. See you back here next week for part 2!

365 Project, Week 15

2011-04-16T13:16:00.000-04:00

The 365 project is still chugging along. A mixed bag this week, with no real coherent theme. We did hit photo #100 this week though! You'll notice that computer screen shots replaced cat pictures this week when we couldn't figure out what to shoot.

99/365 April 9, 2011 Spring, and these crocuses have sprung! Looking forward to shooting out of doors now that warmer weather has arrived.

100/365 April 10, 2011 100th picture! It's been tough to keep motivated at times, but we've made it this far.

101/365 April 11, 2011 Gloomy day in Port Stanley, ON.

102/365 April 12, 2011 The DISboards' Canadian forum has an annual hockey pool. I'm proud to say that I improved upon my 3rd place finish in 2009 to win 1st place this year!! OK, credit really goes to my husband/team General Manager. We overcame a lackluster first half of the season to come on strong in the second half and ended up winning by over 50 points.

103/365 April 13, 2011 Boarded-up Federal building, downtown Hamilton Ontario.

104/365 April 14, 2011 Ah, the playoffs. Always an exciting time to be a Bruins fan, as all the hope built up during the regular season gives way to post-season disappointment. The B's began their playoff run by giving up a goal 3 minutes into game one against their hated rival, the Montreal Canadiens. It's gonna be that kind of series...

105/365 April 15, 2011 We're done booking our Disney World advance dinner reservations! Got everything we wanted. We'll be blogging about the process and our picks later this week on our Disney site,http://www.CanaDisney.com, swing by and follow our trip planning!

And that was week 15. See you here next week. Remember to give us a follow on Twitter @crystalpics, like us on Facebook, and if you're on Flickr add us as a contact.

365 Project, Week 14

2011-04-09T17:44:00.000-04:00

The 365 project enters Spring! It's been a very busy week at home, but we did still manage to take 7 photos in 7 days. Not any home runs this week though, the presence of Disney and cats is a sure sign of a lack of inspiration! Will definitely have to get outside for some pictures this upcoming week.

92/365 April 2, 2011 Did some shooting around the house today for a post for the Magical Blogorail. The Blogorail is a collective of Disney bloggers who come together once a month and all write blogs on the same topic. This month's Blogorail loop is all about keeping the Disney magic alive at home. Visit http://www.magicalblogorail.com and check out all of the blogs, the Blogorail loop starts with us this month!

93/365 April 3, 2011 Finally found some time today to clear out a corner of the basement to set up my new flash stands & umbrellas (see photo 88). We were having trouble with our new cheapo eBay flash triggers, but figured out late last night that they weren't working because we had rechargeable batteries in the receivers (apparently they need plain old alkalines because the voltage is slightly higher!). Experimented with 1 flash shot through umbrella and some flowers for now.

94/365 April 4, 2011 Another shot for our upcoming Canadisney blog post for the Magical Blogorail.

95/365 April 5, 2011 Busy day = another cat picture in the 365!

96/365 April 6, 2011 Belle came as the "prize" inside a Kinder Surprise egg. She's not a happy looking princess!

97/365 April 7, 2011 Our Disney World trip planning hits a milestone on tomorrow - our 180 day window for booking our dining reservations opens up! Be sure to follow along as we plan our trip on our Disney site www.CanaDisney.com.

98/365 April 8, 2011 Masters weekend! We (sadly) have learned over the years that watching golf on TV is far less frustrating than actually swinging the club yourself. Fortunately we replaced it with an even MORE expensive hobby, photography!

Onto week 15. Don't forget to check out our Disney site www.CanaDisney.com and follow out trip planning. We're also on Twitter @CanaDisney for all things Disney in addition to our photography account @crystalpics, give them both a follow!

365 Project, Week 13

2011-04-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

January, February, and March are now complete! Proud to say we haven't missed a day yet. Although some of the photos were taken simply for the sake of taking a photo, mind you! Here's pictures 85-91:

85/365 March 26, 2011 Clarence's favorite time of day. Tried to get some "action shots" of him scarfing down his dinner but most came out blurry

86/365 March 27, 2011 Poor sparrows thought it was spring around here, then we promptly got 20cm of snow! We're trying to keep the bird feeders filled to help them out until the snow melts again.

87/365 March 28, 2011 Monorail Monday!!! With a tip of the cap to our friend DigitalSLG who shares our love of Disney and Domo.

88/365 March 29, 2011 One of my photographic goals is to get better with portraiture and off-camera lighting. I've now got some tools to assist in this, thanks to an early birthday present from my husband! :)

89/365 March 30, 2011 Recently replenished my whole spice rack, since all of the old jar contents were about 5 years old. Probably won't use all of these up in the next 5 years either, but they're colorful!

90/365 March 31, 2011 Surprised I haven't used this for a 365 photo yet. We have a vase full of marbles for some reason!

91/365 April 1, 2011 Much like the ticking of this metronome, the 365 project is proving to be constant and relentless. It hasn't always been fun or rewarding during the first 3 months, but we've come this far and we're gonna see it through!

See you back here next week for week 14!

365 Project, Week 12

2011-03-26T16:57:00.001-04:00

A dozen weeks are completed on the photo-a-day 365 project. Here's our thoughts on the 365 project now that we're roughly a quarter of the way through. First, it's easy to see why many people started then abandoned their 365 projects. I can't blame those people one bit - picking a photo subject every day is tedious, and it makes photography a chore rather than an enjoyable hobby. However, the 365 HAS accomplished its task of forcing me to take photos when I normally wouldn't (during these cold winter months). I think the solution lies somewhere in between - namely, set a schedule that will give you a regular, routine reason to shoot something (perhaps once a week). We're going to stick through the 365 project for 2011, and perhaps adopt a less strenuous schedule for 2012. This week saw the start of spring, then 20cm of snow! But it yielded a couple photos that we're particularly proud of ( see if you can guess which ones!):

78/365 March 19, 2011 Took a trip to the "big city" of Toronto to Canada Blooms, Canada's largest flower & garden festival. Ponds and flowers, all in the climate-controlled comfort of a warehouse

79/365 March 20, 2011 It's that time! Time to start planning the next trip to Disney World! We're planning on going down in October for our 10th wedding anniversary. And of course any good plans are contained in a planning binder. Here's our 2011 edition.

80/365 March 21, 2011 Our cat Garrison loves to hold hands. This photo was a happy accident - we were hard pressed to find a 365 subject for today, so of course we went to go ask the cats if they'd like to pose. Garrison politely declined my husband's request in favour of more nap time, but we did get this for our efforts.

81/365 March 22, 2011 Yesterday's picture featured Garrison, so today we had to give equal billing to his older brother Clarence. Clarence loves sitting in bags, even when he's slightly bigger than the bag itself.

82/365 March 23, 2011 This time last week it was 8°C, flowers were starting to bloom and birds were singing. Today it's winter again and the only thing on the grill is snow. Bah.

83/365 March 24, 2011 Beautiful sunset tonight, but the sun was moving too quick for me. By the time I got the camera on the tripod there was only this little bit left. And I MUST thank the city for erecting those power lines 4 years ago, up until then we had an unspoiled view of the open field across the way...

84/365 March 25, 2011 Took a trip today to Port Dover, on the shore of Lake Erie. Got in some moving target practice with my Canon 70-200 2.8. I like this picture because the seagull looks almost hawk-like!

See you back here next week!

365 Project, Week 11

2011-03-20T11:04:00.000-04:00

The 365 project is still going strong! No real clear-cut theme, intentional or accidental, for this week.

71/365 March 12, 2011 Went to the Farmer's Market today... didn't get any fruit or vegetables but I did bring home some of these. It was a bountiful cupcake harvest this year!

72/365 March 13, 2011 Charlie the Meyer's Parrot says hi!

73/365 March 14, 2011 Springtime is coming!!! Bought some mums on the weekend to try and coax the warm weather to arrive.

74/365 March 15, 2011 A cat picture for a special reason - it's Garrison's 4th birthday today!!! Happy birthday to Garrison, a truly special cat that makes our days brighter.

75/365 March 16, 2011 Found out a co-worker is taking a last-minute trip to Disney World. Of course I had to put my planning hat on...

76/365 March 17, 2011 Happy St. Patrick's Day! You've gotta wear green today, right?

77/365 March 18, 2011 Time to make the bread!! An early birthday present from my parents.

If you want to check out the 365 Project each day you can always see the pictures as they're posted at crystalyoungphotography.com/365, or on my Flickr account. If you've never joined Flickr, why not give it a try? It's free to join, and the social networking aspect of Flickr is a lot of fun - there are groups for whatever type of photography, subject, or gear you may be in to. And feel free to add me as a contact once you're there!

365 Project, Week 10

2011-03-13T10:41:00.000-04:00

The weeks are into double digits, and the 365 project is still chugging along! It's been an odd week starting with snow, then with temperatures hitting 8°C and rain, then finishing up with more snow. Needless to say there was a lot of indoor photos this week:

64/365 March 5, 2011 Soup's on! It's a grey, rainy day here which always calls for hot soup.

65/365 March 6, 2011 Our cat Clarence is an indoor cat, but he can't resist going out in the snow when it's mild out.

66/365 March 7, 2011 We like to consider ourselves technologically savvy in the Young household, but there's one exception - we still have a VCR. Camera lens purchases have definitely won out over a DVR around here.

67/365 March 8, 2011 Pancake Tuesday! The one day a year I get to have pancakes for dinner!

68/365 March 9, 2011 Warning - today's 365 entry contains some bragging. This is the prize pack I received today for winning 1st place in the Brantford Tourism Photo Contest. Not too shabby a result considering I only entered 2 photos in the contest!

69/365 March 10, 2011 Our kitchen, like most of the rest of the house, is full of Disney-related knick knacks and doodads.

70/365 March 11, 2011 EPCOT Center mug, circa 1988 - a souvenir from my husband's first trip to WDW.

It was a busy week on crystalyoungphotography.com, with over 6000 photo views. Many new visitors came by from our Disney blog (canadisney.com) and from the Brantford Tourism photo contest. If you are new to the site thanks for stopping by! You can always see the 365 photos daily on the website and on our Flickr, and we also post a weekly recap here on the blog.

Brantford Tourism Photo Contest

2011-03-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to announce that I won first place in the Brantford Tourism 2010-2011 photo contest! Last year I had entered a number of photos and won 3rd place. This year I entered 2 photos when the contest first opened, then forgot about the contest and neglected to submit any further entires. Despite this, I managed to win! Here's the winning picture, taken at the 2010 Telephone City Car Show:

I won a gift card and prize pack from Henry's, and was featured in today's Brantford Expositor:

Looking forward to shooting more local photos for (and hopefully remembering to enter them into) next year's contest!

365 Project - Week 9

2011-03-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

The 365 project has entered month #3. We are hitting the wall creatively, but still haven't missed a day. It's easy to see why many people have dropped out of their 365 projects lately, and we certainly don't blame them for doing so. Still, springtime is right around the corner and with warmer weather comes a whole slew of new photographic opportunities! Here's photos 57-63:

57/365 February 26, 2011 Just a quickie shot for the day. Some hot chocolate to warm me up on a chilly February night. Spring can start any time now.

58/365 February 27, 2011 Oscar night!!! We actually saw an unusual amount (for us) of best picture nominees this year - Inception, 127 Hours, The Social Network, The King's Speech, and Toy Story 3.

59/365 February 28, 2011 Abstract macro shot of a glass of ginger ale... hey, there's 365 pictures to take, they can't all be winners!

60/365 March 1, 2011 If you take up photography as a hobby, you're certain to receive a lot of packages from China! eBay is a photographer's best friend for cheap accessories, this envelope contained a 67-77mm step-up filter ring.

61/365 March 2, 2011 1 in 6 chance of winning my butt! At least it's better than a free cookie.

62/365 March 3, 2011 First point & shoot appearance in the 365!! The sky was very dramatic on the way to work this morning.

63/365 March 4, 2011 I think Garrison sums up the mood around Casa de Young tonight - blah. It's been a long week, looking forward to relaxing for a couple of days.

The Tim Horton's picture must've been our good-luck charm... we won 2 coffees right after that! As always you can check out the entire 365 Project at crystalyoungphotography.com/365. Please check out our revamped Disney blog at canadisney.com, and give it a like on Facebook too!

365 Project - Week 8

2011-02-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

2 months down in the 365 project! It's been getting tough to get motivated to take a picture each day (the cold & snow isn't helping matters) but we're sticking with it. Here's the last week in review:

50/365 February 19, 2011 Another shameless plug in the 365 Project. One of our favorite podcasts is the Big O and Dukes show, available on iTunes and via their newly-enhanced website http://www.bigoanddukes.com. As their site says,

"The podcast format gives the guys an unbridled medium to relay their opinions and their frustrations anything and everyhing. So pull up a seat, plug in your headphones and step into the studio with Chad Dukes, Oscar Santana and Drab T-Shirt; by the end you’ll have laughed yourself right out of your chair, but have gained a window into the lives of three new friends."

They currently do 1 free show per week, and an additional premium "Reloaded" show. Give them a try and join the Horde, you'll be glad you did!

51/365 February 20, 2011 For goodness' sake, not more snow! Left work tonight and there wasn't a flake in the sky... by the time I got home 45 minutes later there was this.

52/365 February 21, 2011 Still getting the hang of the depth of field with the 5D. Shot this picture of Garrison handheld at f/1.8 and only managed to get his nose in focus.

53/365 February 22, 2011 My 2nd favorite couple, next to Mickey & Minnie (plus Disney couples usually have happier endings)! Accidentally shot this at ISO 3200, still getting used to the 5D Mark I not having an auto ISO setting...

54/365 February 23, 2011 This apple orchard is a favorite subject of mine, but I'd never shot it in the winter before until today

55/365 February 24, 2011 48 days until the NHL playoffs begin! Being a Bruins fan is always fun - how will they disappoint us this year? It'll be tough topping blowing a 3-0 series lead like last year, but I have faith in our boys in black & yellow.

56/365 February 25, 2011 We're excited to announce our new Disney site, The Canadisney Blog. Our previous Disney blog started out covering our 2010 trip to WDW and grew from there. On the Canadisney Blog, we hope to cover all things Disney, from a Canadian perspective... and don't worry, we'll try to keep the 'eh' usage to a minimum! We've also changed our twitter handle to @Canadisney, in case you're wondering who that is following you now.

We ended up with a lot of pictures shot in portrait orientation this week for some odd reason! As always you can check out the entire 365 Project at crystalyoungphotography.com/365. And please check out our revamped Disney blog at canadisney.com!

365 Project - Week 7

2011-02-19T18:35:00.000-05:00

Week 7 of the 365 project is now complete. Lots more indoor photos as we're still in the grips of Canadian winter. The week featured many thoughts of spring.

43/365 February 12, 2011 The first... er, sparrow of spring!! Trying to think warm thoughts, waiting for the snow to melt. This was technically taken with the 5D, however it's heavily cropped so it kinda defeats the purpose of full-frame!

44/365 February 13, 2011 I'm not a big fan of selective colouring in an image, but I didn't really know what else to do with this picture. The cake plate had an annoying yellowish tint, and I thought the pink cake would pop more on a black background.

45/365 February 14, 2011 Happy Valentine's Day! We don't care for these candy hearts (we're more chocolate fans in the Young house) but they make a good photo op.

46/365 February 15, 2011 Spring training has sprung!! With a tip of the Red Sox cap to Katie Marino who inspired me to do something baseball-themed for today (and she's got great taste in ball teams too!).

47/365 February 16, 2011 Our stairs are currently impassable due to a gang of gnomes

48/365 February 17, 2011 After using the 50D for yesterday's photo, went back to the 5D today. Learning that shallow depth of field is a LOT shallower with a full-frame camera - I took several shots like this at f/1.8 and only 2 piano keys were in focus!

49/365 February 18, 2011 The temperature is rising and the snow is melting! Brought home some flowers from the store today to celebrate. I know winter's not done yet, but we'll enjoy the mild weather while we can.

You can always check out the entire 365 at crystalyoungphotography.com/365.

Going Full-Frame - Initial Thoughts on the Canon 5D

2011-02-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

A week ago we somewhat "unintentionally" acquired a used Canon 5D Mark I from eBay. My husband had been watching various 5D auctions, and placed a bid on this one because it was in good condition, came with all original accessories including the box, and was located in Canada (although cameras are duty-free, if you buy an item internationally you may get charged 13% sales tax when it clears customs so buying Canadian is a must for larger purchases). He placed the bid before going to work, not expecting to win, and when the auction ended 6 hours later, against all odds, we were the high bidder! And with that a "new" camera was on its way.

Why yet another camera, you ask? And why a 5 year old camera when you've got a perfectly good and newer camera? The 5D is what is called a "full-frame" camera. dpreview.com has a good description of the differences between a full-frame and your standard "crop sensor" DSLR camera. Most hobbyist and prosumer DSLR cameras like our 50D are crop cameras. Canon crop cameras are said to have a crop factor of 1.6, which can be a little confusing. Some people believe that a crop camera extends your lens' reach by 1.6 times This is not actually the case. A crop camera creates the illusion that your lens has more reach, or is zoomed in further. But in fact a full- camera utilizes all of the lens, whereas a crop camera is only using a center portion. Here's an example using our Canon 5D and 50D - both with a 200mm lens, both shot from the exact same position:

Image shot with full-frame camera. The photo is using the entire surface of the lens.

Image shot with crop camera. You can see how the sides, top & bottom of the image are cropped off.

You can see how the full-frame camera allows for wider photographs. It appears that the second image is zoomed in closer than the first, but the 2 images were shot with the same lens in the same place. A full-frame camera's larger image sensor also allows for a shallower depth of field (also known as bokeh/ blurred background). As an added bonus, the large sensor size allows for a bigger and brighter viewfinder.

The 5D was originally announced in late 2005. In comparison, we bought our first DSLR, the Rebel XS, 3 years later in 2008. Needless to say it's been an adjustment getting used to technology 3 years behind what we started out with! The 5D lacks a number of features we've always been accustomed to with our DSLRs. I think the feature we initially miss the most is the ability to display the current camera settings on the camera's rear LCD screen. This wasn't something we even considered before, but apparently Canon didn't introduce this feature until 2007! We also miss Live View (the ability to use the LCD screen as a viewfinder). Low light autofocus with the 5D is very poor, fortunately manually focusing is still an option with the large viewfinder. We want to shoot landscapes and portraits with the 5D, as that's where the full-frame camera sensor can truly shine, but we haven't had the opportunity to shoot either as of yet.

We've now shot over a week of images with the 5D (images 39 through 46 in our 365 project here). It's hard to initially say whether the image quality is vastly different vs. our 50D. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to experiment and try to shoot the same image with both bodies and compare the results. Time will tell if the 5D will become a valuable member of the Crystal Young Photography team. It will supplement, but certainly not replace our 50D. We've got too many great crop lenses for the 50D that simply won't properly work with a full-frame camera. Plus the 5D pales in comparison to the 50D in many features including burst rate, autofocus, Live View, and the LCD screen. On the plus side, both cameras take the same kind of battery so there's plenty of power to go around!

365 Project - Week 6

2011-02-12T15:51:00.000-05:00

A month and a half of the 365 project is in the books! This week featured a new addition to our gear list, a new (to us anyways) Canon 5D Mark I. I'll be posting my initial thoughts on the new camera in a few days, once I've shot a full week of photos with it. Week #6 featured more snow, more cats, more of everything you love from my lens! :)

36/365 February 5, 2011 Oh boy, more snow. We'll be shoveling 15cm of this stuff tomorrow, meanwhile it'll be 22°C at Walt Disney World..

37/365 February 6, 2011 Super Bowl Sunday! At the time we posted this, Green Bay had just gone up 14-0. It ended up being one heck of a game

38/365 February 7, 2011 Look what arrived today! My husband somehow won an eBay auction "by accident" (his words) so we're now the proud owners of a 5D (the original model, not the Mark II). So this week we'll be shooting with the "new" camera to see what all of the full-frame fuss is about!

39/365 February 8, 2011 5D week begins! Our first full-frame photo features the view down our driveway. We haven't had to shovel it for 2 whole days! Ironically, I took this picture with the Tokina 11-16mm lens, which is designed for crop sensor cameras but works at 16mm without vignetting on full-frame.

40/365 February 9, 2011 Was struggling to find a 365 subject today with the 5D. The cats were both sleeping, so I opted for their cat grass (naptime is the only time of day there isn't a grey cat face buried in it).

41/365 February 10, 2011 Finally got Clarence to pose for a picture with the 5D. Still getting used to the camera, 6 year old technology is a bit of a step backwards at times. Low-light autofocus is non-existent with it, so we're getting lots of practice with manual focus. It'll be nice when it's not -20° Celsius and we can actually use it outdoors for some landscapes

42/365 February 11, 2011 Happy Valentine's Weekend! My true lens love is the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro. Paired up with the 5D they're a perfect match!

You can always check out the entire 365 project at crystalyoungphotography.com/365. You can also follow me on Twitter @crystalpics. And if you're on Flickr please add me as a contact!

365 Project - Week 5

2011-02-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

And so began month #2 of our 365 project. Neither this week's blizzard nor the late shift at work could prevent us from taking 7 pictures on 7 days!

29/365 January 29, 2011 Took this shot of the Lorne Bridge over the Grand River on the way home from grocery shopping. Will have to revisit this spot in summertime when the river isn't frozen!

30/365 January 30, 2011 Clarence & Garrison, enjoying a lazy Sunday in a sunny window. Managed to get a few shots before the grooming turned into fighting!

31/365 January 31, 2011 Always fun to shoot a shiny object. Realized when processing this photo that you can see my living room's reflection in the bell. I'll have to try and use the reflection creatively further on in the 365.

32/365 February 1, 2011 Month #2, here we are! Going back to my go-to lens, the 100mm f/2.8 Macro to start the month. This is a close-up of Clarence the cat's cardboard scratching board.

33/365 February 2, 2011 Snowpocalypse!! The great blizzard of '11! Live coverage of the storm from our driveway. The snowfall wasn't AS bad as forecasted, but it was still pretty awful. Thick, heavy snow the consistency of pudding. Time to go snow blower shopping.

34/365 February 3, 2011 I featured Oswald in January, so it's only fair that Mickey gets a turn this month.

35/365 February 4, 2011 As I sit, tired from another long work week, I realize that I want to be a cat when I grow up!

Of course you can always check out the entire 365 project at crystalyoungphotography.com/365. And if you're on Twitter please give me a follow @crystalpics (I will have a photography-related announcement in a couple of days!).

365 Project - Week 4

2011-01-29T15:32:00.000-05:00

One month down on the 365 project! Here's photos 22 through 28.

22/365 January 22, 2011 Happy 10th birthday Lucas!

23/265 January 23, 2011 We're shamelessly stealing today's photo subject from our friend Susan. This is our first digital camera, the HP Photosmart 315 - 2.1 megapixels, 38mm equivalent lens (2.5x digital zoom only), ISO 100, f/2.8-9.8, 1.8" LCD. It came with an 8MB CF card which could hold 10 full-res pictures. We "upgraded" to a huge 64MB card... which cost $80 in 2001!

24/365 January 24, 2011 My favorite flower to photograph has to be the gerber daisy. I'd estimate that 30% of my hard drive is filled with gerber daisy photos!

25/365 January 25, 2011 Today's photo features a shameless plug for our favorite podcast, The Mike O'Meara Show (available on their website and iTunes). If you like talk radio, you'll love this radio show on the internet featuring Mike, Robb, Oscar and Buzz. We listen to it each day on the commute to & from work and it's the best hour of the work day!

26/365 January 26, 2011 Fear not, there was not a power outage in the Young household tonight! And the candles are battery-operated.

27/365 January 27, 2011 Getting some more practice in with the new Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Also remembered my new year's photographic resolution to use more black & white!

28/365 January 28, 2011 Behold, the national currency of Canada! Prior to the invention of Canadian Tire money in 1973, our economy was largely beaver-pelt based. Now we can exchange this colourful paper for snowshoes, toques, poutine, you name it, eh!

Remember, you can check out the entire 365 project at crystalyoungphotography.com/365 and you can see the last month on our Flickr site. Thanks for looking!

365 Project - Week 3

2011-01-22T12:54:00.000-05:00

3 weeks in to our 365 project and still going strong! Cold weather where we live has meant a lack of outdoor photos, but there'll be plenty of time for that come April.... Canadian winters suck! Here's a recap of photos 15 to 21.

15/365 January 15, 2011 Less than a month until pitchers report for spring training!

16/365 January 16, 2011 For today's photo I'd thought about venturing outside to take a picture of the snow, but opted to settle for the indoor, ornament variety instead

17/365 January 17, 2011 Run & jump! Figured we were due for an actual macro photo from the Canon 100mm macro lens

18/365 January 18, 2011 Tea time! Mulan tea set from our Disney knick-knack collection.

19/365 January 19, 2011 Tonight's moon. Noticed the sky was very dramatic, but by the time I grabbed the camera the moon had already started to retreat behind the clouds

20/365 January 20, 2011 Clarence the cat, relaxing in the shadows... in his favorite cardboard box

21/365 January 21, 2011 Thank goodness for underground parking on a freezing cold day

As always, you can check out the entire 365 Project at crystalyoungphotography.com. We're also taking part in the 365: The 2011 Edition group over on our Flickr account. If you have any ideas or suggestions for one of the next 344 photos, leave a comment below!