Vic's Pics

I have been blogging.... just not here.

2010-12-22T10:37:00.004-05:00

In case you're wondering what happened to my photo blog, it's all been combined into the Shoot the Thrill Photography blog. Ryan is blogging there as well.

Please update your bookmarks/favourites/links to http://shootthethrill.ca/blogThe "without comments" link on each blog post is where you can click to leave a comment. Of course, if there's already a comment, it won't say "without comments" anymore.

Merry Christmas to all and all the best in the new year!

Algonquin Park

2010-08-22T09:43:00.001-04:00

It’s been about a month and a half since this year’s interior camping trip to Algonquin Park and I’ve finally uploaded some of the photos to Flickr. I went through them a while back, even made some small edits, but I neglected to actually post them where people could see them.

So, here are a few photos from this year’s trip, which actually consisted of good weather, a gorgeous island campsite, only 1 portage (yeah… we took it easy this year after last year’s crazy adventure), actually seeing moose from a canoe and not from a car on Hwy 60, and a brand new rental canoe from Algonquin Outfitters that hadn’t even seen water yet. It was a good trip.

More photos from this trip can be found in my Algonquin Park 2010 set on Flickr.

** Just a note to let you know that there is a new Shoot the Thrill Photography Blog that will showcase some of our weddings, portraits, etc. Feel free to check it out, and see what Shoot the Thrill is up to. **

Summer 2010 – First stop, Florida

2010-07-27T21:35:00.001-04:00

I was working on some photos from our interior trip to Algonquin Park, when I realized that I hadn’t done a post with pictures from our trip to Florida for our kick-off to summer (ie. May 2-4 week). I had done a running related post on my other blog, but forgot to post photos to this blog.

Ryan and I flew to Orlando, Florida on Saturday, May 22nd with our friends Wayne and Kathleen. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbour for the week, which was quite nice. We had a condo-style suite and had access to several pools on the large vacation property. Unfortunately, we did not spend as much time lounging on the property or swimming in the pools as I would have liked, but that’s only because we were out having fun at the many parks in the area.

During our vacation, we visited Sea World, went on many water slides (all of them) at both Sea World’s Aquatica and Wet ‘n’ Wild, and enjoyed the rides and sights at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (the Hulk coaster was very fun!). After our days out, we spent a few nights at the various establishments on Universal City Walk.

It was a good week. For the most part, I did not lug around an SLR, but I did walk to Sea World for a strictly photo taking day after we had already been there to experience the park.

The dolphin show was fantastic, so I definitely wanted to go back and take some photos of it. It’s difficult to capture the magnitude of the show as there was so much great choreography with the dolphins and the energy was amazing as well.

I have a few more photos of the dolphin show on Flickr, but the above photo was my favourite of the craziness that is a live animal show.

We saw some other great creatures at Sea World. Here are a few:

Family Portrait: Jeffers Family

2010-07-14T21:33:00.001-04:00

On June 27th we had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful family, the Jeffers. We had made arrangements to meet up that afternoon and we planned on photographing outdoors as long as the weather cooperated.

When we arrived at Mykel and Tracy’s house, the weather was “iffy.” We went outside to check out the yard and when we were only out there for a couple of minutes, it started to rain.

As you can see, some of the children didn’t mind, but the rain wouldn’t have worked out so well for the photo session.

As the rain poured down more and more, the formal living room was being re-arranged to accommodate the family portraits. Looking outside, we noticed that it had died down and that the neighbours were actually taking some photos outside of their house. So, back outside we went.

The weather held off for the remainder of the afternoon and we got a good variety of photos involving 7 people and one dog. It can be an interesting time when working with several kids and you always get some of them hamming it up for the camera, some with upset kids, and hopefully some with everyone happy.

When we were all packed up and ready to go, the rain came down hard suddenly. We made a run for the car and all was well.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot:

More can be seen on Facebook, on my Flickr and on Ryan’s Flickr.

Easter Egg Hunting in Eastern Ontario

2010-04-11T08:54:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, Ryan and I drove out to my parents’ place to spend the long weekend with family. Every year, we hide small chocolate eggs around the property and the kids (my nieces and nephews) hunt for them. Yes, I realized this does sound like a regular Easter egg hunt.

This year, the temperature on Saturday (when we did our egg hunt and Easter dinner) was in the high 20s (celcius) and there was much higher risk than usual for the eggs to melt. My mom put them in the fridge overnight so that they would be colder and hopefully not melt too quickly.

Saturday moved along as my mom, my sister, and myself hid the eggs. My dad took my nephew Kyle for a ride on the motorcycle at this time as well.

Once they returned, it was time to hunt!

2009 Vacations – Part 3 – Virginia Beach

2010-03-20T22:09:00.001-04:00

This past Labour Day, Ryan and I went to Virginia Beach for an extended long weekend. We arrived on the Friday morning and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. The main purpose of the trip was for me to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, but it was also a great place to go for a nice relaxing weekend on the beach. Or at least we thought it would be.

We had a great weekend, but the weather didn’t quite cooperate the way we had hoped.

Race day morning was sunny and hot (great weather for the race itself) but it started to turn stormy that afternoon. We actually swam in the pool at the hotel and not the beach as the conditions were very rough in the ocean. I also had to take my finisher’s medal photo from inside the hotel room because I forgot to take it when I was still at the beach and by the time I remembered, it was raining.

All of the Monday was stormy, so we took the bus up to the Virginia Aquarium to check out all of the indoor exhibits. It was quite busy there (combination of long weekend and rainy day) but we had a good time and saw lots of interesting creatures.

All in all the weekend was great, even with the rain. We enjoyed the Verizon Wireless American Music Festival, ate wonderful food at Mahi Mah’s and enjoyed some beverages on our ocean view balcony at Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort Hotel. All that was missing was sitting at the beach and swimming in the ocean.

2009 Vacations – Part 2 – Algonquin Park

2010-02-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Starting in May, Ryan and I started acquiring more gear for our first interior camping trip together; we were heading to Algonquin Park. We purchased packs (I never expected it to take me so long to find a pack that fit me well, visit an old blog post for more on the pack hunt) and several miscellaneous items (stove, fuel, dehydrated food, etc) at MEC and Adventure Guide. We were well prepared for our trip.

We headed out on our adventure after work with a plan to stay the night in Barrie so that we could get up to Pog Lake relatively early in the day to start our trip. Unfortunately, it took about 3 times as long as usual and we did not arrive at the hotel until late night.

In the morning, we headed up the highway, stopped at the Muskoka Store and picked up some rain gear that was on sale, thinking “you never know.”

Next stop: picking up our rental canoe from Algonquin Outfitters. I had made arrangements ahead of time, so the process was nice and smooth. While in the store, we picked up a large 1.5 L Nalgene bottle (to use for pumping/filtering lake water) and also some GSI mugs.

Now we were ready to start our camping trip. We checked in at Pog Lake (where we were to be meeting my family later in the week) and set up our site. We spent the first night here and then we were off for our 4-day 3-night canoe trip.

We put in at Cache Lake and when we were about half way across the lake, the rain started. Good thing we bought rain gear. We put it on as quickly as possible at our first portage and pretty much lived in the rain gear for the remainder of our interior trip. We did have a few clear breaks, but the rain won.

We stayed at a site on a different lake each night. When we’d arrive, if it wasn’t raining, we’d take put out or Keens to dry on a rock and make our yummy dehydrated dinners.

We did get a bit of dry weather at our final site on Tanamakoon Lake. We actually got to spend some time outdoors at the fire for the evening and I got up early in the morning to take some photos at dawn.

When we arrived back at Pog Lake, we made ourselves a “gourmet meal” on the Coleman stove, ate it by the light of a propane lantern, while sitting under a dining shelter (it was still raining), wearing dry clothes. It was a good feeling.

As much as the rain put a damper on things (groan), the trip was a good adventure. Of course, it would have been more enjoyable if we could’ve had some nice weather, but since this was our first interior trip, our next one will likely be a better experience. I’m definitely looking forward to another Algonquin Adventure.

Here are a couple more photos from the trip, for more, click on a photo and check out the Flickr set.

It’s my birthday!

2010-02-23T17:32:00.001-05:00

I always like to take my birthday off to do whatever I want to do that day. This morning I went out to Victoria Park with the D300s and the 50mm 1.8 lens. We got a lot of snow yesterday, so I thought it might be a good time to see some fresh, clean snow in the park.

Vacations in 2009, part 1

2010-02-15T20:23:00.001-05:00

Ryan and I have started planning some vacation time for 2010, which put me in the mood to look through some of last year’s vacation photos.

Over the next few posts I will highlight some of our vacation moments of 2009.

First of the year was our May trip to Ottawa, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY.

Ryan and I arrived in Ottawa for Victoria Day Weekend (May 2-4) when the Canadian Tulip Festival is in full bloom. This festival is the largest of it’s kind in the world. With three million tulips blooming, it’s quite the spectacular site to see.

After a great weekend in Ottawa, we headed south to visit my parents for a day. We ended up having to stay a bit later than planned due to some car trouble, but were on our way to our next destination of the Thousand Islands by late afternoon (we were planning on leaving in the morning).

We stayed a night in Gananoque before our trip across the border to Alexandria Bay.

Our stay in Alex Bay was great! We stayed at Captain Thomson’s Resort and had a fantastic view from our balcony. We spent our evenings sitting and enjoying the clear skies and view of Boldt Castle on Heart Island beautifully lit up and spent our days both touring Heart Island and also enjoying the weather on patios.

The view from our private balcony at Captain Thomson’s:

Boldt Castle:

After leaving the Thousand Islands, we were on our way back to Ottawa for Race Weekend! I was to be running the half marathon, so I wanted to be there a bit early to get prepared.

We checked out the 10K race and saw some amazing elites competing for the top spot on the Saturday evening. Ryan shot some photos that evening in preparation for the next day’s Marathon & Half Marathon.

On Sunday, My nephew and niece ran in the Kids Marathon and about an hour later it was my turn to start in the half marathon. It was a warmer day than usual with bright sun and very little shade. It was a great course. I definitely enjoyed the day.

Here’s a shot of my niece wearing all 3 completion medals (mine, hers and her brother’s).

The Differences Revealed

2010-02-05T19:49:00.001-05:00

Below is the first photo with the portions that were changed marked.

- The curtains were changed from patterned to solid
- The shadows were removed
- Glare was cleaned up on Ryan’s glasses
- Ryan’s mouth was replaced with his mouth from another photo

As some people said, the crop was a bit different from one photo to the other and also the exposure was increased on the people in the back.

Thank for playing!

Can you spot the difference?

2010-01-30T13:43:00.001-05:00

This photo is one that was taken of my family at Christmas just with the camera on self-timer on a tripod. For a quick family portrait before dinner, it turned out well, but a few (fairly) quick fixes were made before printing it in 8x10 for my family.

Look closely at the following two versions of the same photo. Can you spot the differences?

Leave a comment with the differences that you can see. I’ll post the changes that I made in a new post this coming week.

2009 – What a Year!

2010-01-14T21:28:00.001-05:00

2009 was an exciting year for Ryan and I. We’ve both been avid amateur photographers for a long time, but this was the year that we officially started our photography business.

Shoot the Thrill Photography came into existence early in 2009 and we are happy to say that it is steadily growing stronger. We’ve had the pleasure to shoot several family portraits, 2 equestrian shows, a number of road races, and a wedding.

Of course, we didn’t strictly photograph for business, we took some fun photo excursions as well (ie. Toronto Zoo, African Lion Safari)

I am looking forward to everything that 2010 will bring, especially the weddings and portrait sessions that are already booked. I get excited every time I receive an inquiry or talk to someone about photography. I absolutely love taking photos and I know that Ryan does as well.

And what would a photography year in review be without photos?
The following are some of my favourites of photos I’ve taken in 2009.

Olympic Torch in Kitchener

2009-12-28T22:39:00.002-05:00

Last night and again this morning, Ryan and I had the opportunity to witness the Olympic Flame for the first time in 22 years.

The last time we saw it in person was during the 1988 Calgary Olympic Torch Relay. I was out in Eastern Ontario (where I grew up) and Ryan was in Cambridge. We spotted a couple of 1988 torch bearers at last night’s festivities.

We first spotted the torch on its way down Duke Street, again over on King and then went to the event at City Hall where there were musical performances celebrating the temporary home of the flame for the night.

This morning, we got up early to see the torch off with the sights and sounds of Aboriginal drums, singing, and dancing.

The torch was then lit again and it took off out of town. I ran alongside of it for 1km, taking in the experience.

It was a great sight to see and I’m happy that I was able to see this wonderful symbol not once, but twice. Hopefully, it will come around again in my lifetime.

‘Tis the Season – Christkindl Market

2009-12-05T13:40:00.001-05:00

This past Thursday evening was the opening ceremonies of the 13th annual Christkindl Market at Kitchener City Hall. The festival lasts 4 days and is running until this Sunday (tomorrow) at 5pm.

Ryan and I have made an annual tradition of going to the opening ceremonies, which begins with a candle-lit processional from Victoria Park to City Hall with the Grand Philharmonic Choir. After the choir sings, the narration is read, and the tree is lit, we explore the German Christmas festival. Vendors sell crafts, food, toys and more in the indoor market, while outdoor vendors supply the festive crowds with meats, cheeses, waffles, and even some spirits.

Although there was no snow, the festive cheer was abundant.
Frohe Weihnachten!

Christmas Portraits

2009-11-22T14:45:00.001-05:00

Shoot the Thrill Photography is offering Christmas portraits at the location of your choice for the special price of $50 plus PST.

Half hour sessions can be scheduled from now until the 12th of December. Your session includes the photographer’s time and talent as well as your digital files on a disc. We will provide you with the rights to print and share your photos for personal use.

Shoot the Thrill is also available to design your cards for an additional cost. Contact us by e-mail to request further details or to book your session.

Cedarstone Farm Schooling Shows

2009-10-03T12:11:00.004-04:00

Ryan and I (Shoot the Thrill Photography) had the pleasure to photograph both schooling shows at Cedarstone Farm this year.

The June 20th show was a wet one. It was heavily in the morning on our drive up to Durham and continued to be wet for most of the day. The riders and horses were ready; the show must go on.

The Fall Schooling Show on September 19th turned out to be a wonderfully sunny day. It was another successful show and a good day for all.

To view more photos from these 2 events or to order prints, please click on one of the photos above.

Bride's Ball

2009-08-08T15:33:00.004-04:00

On June 20th, The Wedding Ring hosted a Bride's Ball at Elements Night Club with the proceeds of the event going to breast cancer screening at Grand River Hospital.

The club looked fantastic; there was wonderful food, yummy cupcakes, pink drinks, and lots of dancing to be had. I went to the ball with my husband and one of our maids of honour. A great time was had by all and I am definitely looking forward to next year's ball.

Family Portrait: The Stoffers

2009-08-08T14:57:00.003-04:00

These photos were taken a few months ago, but I was waiting to post them as some of them were potentially going to be a surprise father’s day gift. Now that father’s day has been and gone… here are a few of my photos of the Stoffers family!

Family Portrait: The Wards

2009-05-31T20:58:00.001-04:00

Easter weekend was an excellent opportunity for some family portraits. Today, I am posting photos of the my sister and her two kids: the Ward Family.

View Full Album

The photos were taken at my parents’ house both on the front porch and in the yard. The weather was a little chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining. As far as I know, a good time was had by all.

New Web Site

2009-04-09T07:04:00.001-04:00

After many hours of slaving over a laptop, the new Shoot the Thrill website is up and running! There are some additions and some changes that will be made in the near future, but it’s fully functional and more pleasing to the eye than the old site.

Check it out!

Family Portrait: Allison & Jay, March 29, 2009

2009-04-03T21:12:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday, Ryan and I met up with our friends, Allison and Jay, at their house to take their family photos.

Sunday morning was very rainy and it looked like we would not be able to do as many photos outdoors as we had hoped.

We packed up our cameras and lenses, hopped in the car, make a quick stop at Henry’s to purchase a new SB-400 flash (we only had one external flash (SB-600) and were going to be shooting with two cameras) and headed out to Al and Jay’s house.

We arrived at 2pm to find the family scrambling about, hair being done, ribbons being tied, and curlers being removed. We sat and had a coffee and noticed that the rain had completely cleared and the sun was coming out. We decided to do outdoor photos first in case the rain came back.

We ended up taking almost all of the photos on the backyard deck, shooting toward the yard. Looking back at the photos now, I can see that this was a poor choice as the images were quite hazy with the sunlight. The position of the sun wasn’t great that time of day, which caused a lot of blown out images and haze. Luckily, not all of the photos were taken in that exact situation. Also, the photos that were affected were mostly correctible with some adjusting in Lightroom. I will definitely pay more attention to the position of the sun next time.

I did happen to take some photos towards the house with Jay and his two kids, which turned out quite nicely. The colour ended up looking great and I was very happy with them.

We broke up some of the shooting so that I took photos of Jay with his two kids while Ryan took photos of Allison and her daughter. Then I took the three kids away and did their photos while Ryan went with Allison and Jay for some couple shots.

I finished off my photos for the day by taking some of Allison and Jay relaxing in the house.

All in all it was a good day for learning in a real-life situation. I’ve never worked with 3 kids and 2 parents at once before. It was an interesting experience. Parents are always looking to see if their kids are behaving, which makes them not look in the same direction as the kids. Kids also act up more when they are in the large group with the family and act more natural when they are just with the other kids and the photographer.

I’m looking forward to more experiences with family portraiture and more opportunities to work with different family units and group environments.

Schmap: Toronto Photo Short-list

2009-03-31T20:50:00.005-04:00

I received a message in my Flickr mail today letting me know that one of my photos has been put on the short-list of photos for possible inclusion in the Schmap Toronto Guide. The new guide will be published late April 2009.

I've done the necessary reading of the terms and accepted them. I've submitted my photo to be considered.

This is the photo they chose for the short-list:

Wedding: Heather & Andrew, September 27, 2008

2009-03-22T00:03:00.007-04:00

I'm going back in time for this post to September 2008: Heather and Andrew's wedding day.

This is a wedding where I played more than one role. I was a bridesmaid and also an unofficial photographer of the day.

Heather and Andrew had a photographer as part of their wedding package with the Blackforest Inn, but she was only to be photographing their day from noon until 7pm. As the girls were going to be getting their hair and makeup done early in the morning and then getting ready at Heather & Andrew's house, I stepped up with the D60 and took some photos of the "getting ready" portion of the day and also some reception photos after the photographer had gone.

It was a very fun day. We took a Brentwood Livery limo to get our hair and makeup done at Frenzi, a salon in uptown Waterloo.

After the salon, we went back to the house to get ourselves and the bride ready.
I took some photos of her dress before handing the camera off to my husband, who would be taking photos of the groom and the guys getting ready.

I continued to photograph with my point and shoot Nikon L5 (convenient to hold in a small purse).

At the reception, I decided to get a couple of more creative shots. Heather and Andrew always bring "monster cookies" with them when they travel. They take photos of them wherever they go, so I figured they needed a good photo of them at their wedding:

And finally, the obligatory ring shot:

All in all, it was a wonderful day and a great experience.

Brass Mantis

2009-03-16T07:47:00.000-04:00

About a month ago, Ryan (my husband) and I were invited to a live music show at a local bar called The Circus Room. We packed up a couple of DSLRs (D60 and D40), a flash, 2 lenses (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and 50mm f/1.8) and headed out to shoot in possibly the worst conditions avaialable.

The bar was dark (as most bars are), the stage area was very small and contained by walls that were covered in different coloured paints and random decorative items such as a guitar that kept interfering with good shots. They also used fog.

The guitar on the wall:

There was some luck to be had with the downstairs having more conisistently coloured walls, so I did some headshots down there before the show started.

The last of the above photos was actually shot next to the stage after the show.

In a way, I'm glad that we had a chance to shoot in such non-ideal conditions. It gave us some great experience working with very little and still coming up with some good shots. I was contacted for some prints of some of the photos of this show and yesterday delivered the finished product. They were quite happy with them and have actually mentioned possibly using us for photography in the future.

Here are some of my performance shots:

If you would like to see more of my photos from this show, just click on any of the photos in this post. You will be brought to the photo on Flickr where you can easily view my Brass Mantis set.