Lee Sacrey Photography - Lee's Chatter

Twilight- The Camera Mode!!

leesacrey — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:55:53 +0000

Continuing on the discussion of not having a lot of day light hours for photography here in the north. I decided, on my drive home from the office, that I would try my Sony a77′s Hand-held Twilight mode. I have used the mode with my older a55 but, haven’t yet put it to use on my a77. Hand-held Twilight is a mode which allows the user to take night scenes with out the use of a tripod or a flash. It is great at events in concert halls or auditoriums where they don’t allow a flash to be used or where tripods would get in the way. What it does is, take multiple images of the subject and combines them to get one good images. The shutter actually fires continuously for several seconds. My best guess would be that it works something like making a HDR image. I seems to work very well with one exception, it will not work for RAW files only JPEGs. I thought I would try to capture three things; the Legislative Assembly building, the Explorer Hotel and the City skyline. Each of those would be an easy stop on my drive. In about twenty minutes I had the three images I was looking for. After taking the City skyline I said the myself, “Self this mode works well on these buildings. The buildings don’t move, so overlapping the images or blending them would probably be easy for my cameras/computers brain. What would happen if I tried to capture some that isn’t stationary.” About ten feet from where I was standing were some flags blowing the breeze. I would try to use this Hand-Held Twilight mode to capture two flags blowing in the early evening sky. To my amazement it seemed to work just fine on these moving objects. Interesting, this could open a lot of new possibilities. Below are four images that were taken on what became a thirty minutes drive. I hope you find them interesting and as a second point; remember to play with the different functions on your camera. You my be surprised at what you may capture and if you don’t like the results; it digital just hit delete. Thanks for hanging around and as always Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Night Photography Tagged: camera equipment, Landscapes, Night Photography, Northwest Territories, Photography, Winter, Yellowknife

Please let the sun go down on me!

leesacrey — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:34 +0000

Sorry Elton John, I had to do it, lol. I guess most people up here in Canada’s real great white north are wishing for longer days. I guess I am one of those as well but, recently the sunsets here have been fantastic. Before I get to any sunset images I should explain why we wish for longer days more than the rest of Canada (at least the parts south of us). You see here in Yellowknife on December 21, 2011 we had a total of 4 hours 56 minutes and 12 seconds of daylight (December 22, 2012 added only an extra second). The sun did not rise until 10:04 am and it had set again by 3:03 pm, you go to work in the dark and you come home in the dark. Today January 25, 2012, the total amount of day light has changed to 6 hours 49 minutes and 40 seconds. The sun will rise at 9:26 am and should set by 4:15 pm. So, you should be able to tell that if you were a photographer, that worked a regular full-time job, your shooting time here is limited. You need to take advantage of every minute of shooting time you get. I suggest you take your camera everywhere you go or build a studio all your own (nature and landscapes will be difficult in a studio, lol). Of course, if you shoot the northern lights you just need a clear sky, day light is not required. So, with the limited shooting time, here is what I was able to capture this week. Well, based on the title I guess you would say sunset. That would be right but, I got a few other images as well. Here is a sample of what I saw. Thanks for coming by and as always Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Photo Shoots, Wildlife Tagged: Avian, Landscapes, Northwest Territories, Photography, Sunset, Winter, Yellowknife

My Close Encounter!

leesacrey — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:07:08 +0000

It has been a great week for aurora photography and last night ranks up there with the best of them. The light show was out pretty early, by 7 pm the sky was already full of ribbons of green. I headed out around 8:30 pm, picked up my friend Trace and we headed out to Vee Lake (after we picked up some large coffees of course). When we arrived and finally got out of the warm truck cab we could see that no matter which direction we turned there was a good light show. We started putting cameras on tripods and pushing shutter buttons. Soon we were joined by Trudy and the fun with friends continued. At around 11:40 pm Trace and I headed for home, stopping along the way to say hello to Val, another local camera carrier, lol. People are everywhere! So, it appears it will be a good year for northern lights. Here is a sample of what we saw from Yellowknife last night. Thanks for viewing and as always, Happy Shooting.

Filed under: Aurora, General Photography, Landscapes, Night Photography, Photo Shoots Tagged: Aurora, Landscapes, Night Photography, Northwest Territories, Photography, Winter, Yellowknife

Specs – they are not always about the numbers!!

leesacrey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:15 +0000

Yesterday, January 16, 2012, I continued to carry cameras with me where ever I went, one DSLR and one 35mm Film camera. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling that good so, I left the office early and headed home. I was going to spend the rest of my afternoon on the couch. Around 2:30 pm I get a call from the school, Jenna is not feeling well and she needed to be picked up. We both spent the day lying around. I had one more job to complete as dad’s taxi service. Megan, the middle child, needed to pick up something. Here are before and after photos of Megan (before and after her package was picked up);

Megan before her package is picked up.

Megan after her package is picked up.

Megan had to be taken to Family Vision Centre in the Centre Ice Plaza to get her new glasses, a.k.a. her specs. As my title suggests, specs are not always about the numbers. I know that is just sad but, I did get some images. I am sorry, thanks for checking in, and as always, Happy Shooting.

Filed under: Family, General Photography, Photo Shoots Tagged: Family, Northwest Territories, Photography, Portraits, Yellowknife

The Tree, the Raven and the Willow Ptarmigan!

leesacrey — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:41 +0000

Sunday, January 15, 2012 – Today I had planned on a short outing to capture some images. After a week where I only got a few minutes each time to shoot, I thought this would be a big event. However, my plan wasn’t really that big. I had only one thing that I really wanted to capture and once it was captured the rest of my outing was unscheduled. Just shoot what you see was my only thought. Earlier this week while on a drive around Yellowknife, I noticed a tree that seemed much more interesting than all the other trees around. I knew it would be the one subject I would have to capture on my big Sunday outing. So, mid-afternoon I head out with Bella the dog in the passenger seat. We drive directly to where I had spotted the tree and for some reason, I didn’t spot it right away. We drove around the block and there it was, the tree. I was shooting from a fairly long distance and was using my Sigma 120 – 400 mm lens mounted to my Sony a77. I took a couple of pictures and got back in the vehicle to grab my Maxxum 7 film camera. It was then I noticed something blinking on my a77 LCD screen. It was the words “no card”. I had left the card for my camera on my desk at home. I was just a little unhappy and started to call home to have someone bring it to the door if I returned. As Megan answered I remembered that Megan actually bought me an extra SDHC card for christmas and had me put it in the card holder on my camera strap. I quickly loaded it in the camera, formatted it and went back to the tree to recapture the images that I wanted. This time I took several images at different focal lengths. Thank goodness my family are always thinking about my habits. From there, I drove around while Bella stuck her head out the window into the -43 degree wind-chilled air. We saw a murder of ravens in the small park near the Dettah Ice Road. Ravens we see everywhere but, to see twenty or so ravens together is a little unusual. I pulled into the park and got some images. It was only a week ago I had commented on how difficult it is to get great raven images. I always seemed to have a problem capturing the detail of these interesting black birds. I captured a few more house boat images and some images of a dog chasing the ravens around the park, he appeared to be having a good time. The Ravens not so much. I drove around for a while and found myself out on the Giant Mine boat launch, a regular stop for aurora images but, unusual for me during the day. While there I noticed (or I should say Bella noticed) some Ptarmigan sitting in some of the small trees. Again using my 120 – 400 mm I captured a few images. From there my time got short and I decided to head back home. It was a great afternoon, a sample of the day’s work is below. Hopefully I will have the film images that I have captured this week processed soon so that I can share some of those as well. Enjoy, thanks for being here and as always, Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Photo Shoots, Wildlife Tagged: Avian, Landscapes, Northwest Territories, Photography, Winter, Yellowknife

Oh Pooh, it was a blustery day!

leesacrey — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:00:25 +0000

Saturday, January 14, 2012 was a windy one here in Yellowknife. The temperature wasn’t to bad,only around -18 degrees celsius but, you could subtract 10 or 12 degrees from that with the windchill. I wasn’t at work today but, did have some errands to run at home. I carried my camera around just as I did during the week. Mid-afternoon I had to get Kyla to work, pick up some epson ink cartridges and make a quick trip to the bank. After just getting some work done on Dale’s van, I decided to take a short drive on highway 3 just to see how the van was working. I went out to the area where a hawk owl had been spotted (but I didn’t see the owl). On my return I stopped on a nice straight stretch of highway and stood in the middle of the highway to get a shot. I was hoping to catch the white bands of snow blowing across the road. I didn’t get exactly what I wanted but, it looked cold and slippery. A little closer to home as I was driving by the horse stables I thought I would get a quick snap of the old carriage that marks the entrance. It looked cold, certainly to cold to make me want to ride in it. I finished my errands and returned home. Tomorrow I am planning an actually photography outing so, more images will be made. Stay tuned. Here is what I saw on January 14, 2012. Thanks for hangin’, enjoy and as always Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Photo Shoots Tagged: Landscapes, Northwest Territories, Photography, Winter, Yellowknife

Five minutes to shoot, 5 minutes of post!

leesacrey — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:42:51 +0000

Yesterday, between some lunch time errands, I made a quick detour onto the Dettah Ice Road . It was first venture onto the ice this year. I didn’t go that far as I still had to get back to the office and do some client work. I made a quick stop and got out of the truck. I looked around and as I always do, I looked back at Yellowknife’s old town and the house boat community. I love the view of the house boats in Yellowknife bay, winter or summer it doesn’t matter. I captured a few images and jumped back in the truck to complete my next errand. Five minutes, the entire detour got me only five minutes of time and I didn’t use my camera the rest of the day. Early this morning I loaded the images on my computer and spent no more than five minutes in post for all images combined.

I should note that each time I photograph the house boats, there is usually one that stands out to me. This time was no different. There was a house boat with some bright yellow metal siding. I really like how the yellow went with the cool winter scene. Another thing to note is that I am not a fan of a big clear blue sky. To me it just big and blue, nothing really interesting. Add some interesting cloud cover and I am a happy photographer so, yesterday morning was a good morning for capturing a big sky. I love how low the sun is on the horizon up here in the north. It is like we get sunrise for the whole day. Anyway enough of my chatter, here is a sample of my five minutes of camera holding time. Enjoy, thanks for checking in and as always Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Photo Shoots, Post processing Tagged: Landscapes, Northwest Territories, Photography, Sunrise, Winter, Yellowknife

I hate neck straps, maybe I need a Transporter!!!

leesacrey — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:11 +0000

Can anyone tell me why, every time I buy a camera it comes with a neck strap? I really don’t like neck straps. Carrying my cameras around my neck is horribly uncomfortable. I can never get it to feel right no matter how I do it, no matter how I twist it or turn it the neck strap always feels wrong. It doesn’t even matter what kind of neck strap. Sure the newer redesigned ones feel better than the older ones but, they are still uncomfortable. In addition to not feeling that good, neck straps are always getting in my way. They hang in front of my lens, they get in the way of my hands when I am using my camera controls and sometimes even when I am laying the camera down I have to try to keep the strap out-of-the-way or out of something near by or whatever. Neck straps are just a pain in the behind. I don’t use mine around my neck. Now I most often use the strap over my shoulder. That is more comfortable but, I’m still not a fan. So, what do I use instead you ask? Well, I haven’t found the ideal carrying device yet and I currently use three different things on each camera body I carry. On my Minolta Maxxum 7 35mm film body I have the old Minolta neck strap. I hate the strap (I actually like the old school strap to look at, I just don’t like carrying the camera with it) but, most of the time the camera is carried in my bag so it is not as annoying in there.

My Maxxum 7 - Strap

For my Sony a700 I ordered a Camera Armor ToughStrap and SafeGrip. A combination of a neck strap and a hand grip. I took the original Sony neck strap off and put it and the Camera Armor neck strap in a storage box. I then put the hand grip on the camera body. So now I only have the hand strap located on the same side as the main camera grip. Unlike other straps this one doesn’t need to use the tripod mount point on the bottom of the camera. I can’t say it is the perfect solution to holding my camera but, it is a lot better than a neck strap.

my a700 with Camera Armor's SafeGrip

When I bought my Sony a77, I knew I wouldn’t be using the neck strap that came with it and wanting to try something other than the Camera Armor SafeGrip, I went back to a strap. I know what you are thinking, If I hate neck straps why go back. Well, this strap is different. This time I purchased a Lowepro Transporter strap. This strap is just a strap with a shoulder pad as a separate piece which will slide along the strap, allowing you to position it anywhere you like. It also has a memory card holder attached (which allows me to carry two additional cards). The big feature for me is the two quick release buckles attached to the strap. You see you get two pieces that attach to the camera and the strap uses quick releases to buckle to the camera. Now I can attach the strap when I am on the move and quickly unclasp the strap when I am using my camera. Now if I ever decide to purchase the extra smaller straps (with the ladder locks) and mount those to my other cameras, I can use this one strap for multiple camera bodies. I think it works great.

my a77 with the Lowepro Transporter attached

The Lowepro Transporter's quick release buckle

my a77 with the strap released

So, there you have it, I hate neck straps and I have taken you on my small journey to solve my problem. After all that I will tell you this, when using my camera (holding it in my hand to take a shot) the best strap for me is still no strap at all. That would make my hand pretty tired as I walk. For now the Lowepro Transporter is my answer. The other thing I can tell you is, today I used two cameras to capture images of different camera straps. There is always something to shoot. Thanks for reading and as always Happy Shooting.

Filed under: Equipment, General Photography Tagged: camera equipment, Photography

The sun is rising so I must be still above ground!

leesacrey — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:00:45 +0000

Lately I have been carrying my camera to and from the office. Not just to work in the morning and home in the evening (that would be bad because it is still dark at both those time here in Yellowknife) but, everywhere. Meetings, to the bank, company errands, and wherever I go. The plan is to try to get any amount of photography time in that I can. This time of year my office gets busier and busier so anytime time for creating images is a bonus. Yesterday started out as one of those days where you just don’t feel like doing anything. I dropped Jenna and Megan at school, picked up one of Kyla’s classmates and start off to their school. On the drive, I noticed the beautiful sunrise. I pulled up to the school and let the girls out. Then I decided to take a different route to the office. On the way I pulled over and grabbed my camera. I quickly snapped a few images. The first thing I noticed was I usually have my tripod and filters for these types of shots but, not today. Just a camera and one lens. It was still relatively dark and shooting at f11 required me to bump my ISO to 3200. Not the ideal ISO for my landscape work but, without 3200 I would never be able to handhold a sunrise shot. Anyway, if I wanted the shot I had to do whatever it took. Quite often when asked how I am doing I answer with “Well this is one more day above ground” I am joking of course but the sunrise and the fact I could capture it with my camera made me think that not all is lost and that there are surely great days ahead. Imagine, just being able to see and capture a nature show can make me feel just a little better, this photography things has its benefits. Once home I loaded the images on my computer and did some work with Aperture 3 and Neat Image and the result of that work is below. Hopefully, I get a few seconds to shoot again today. Watch tomorrow to see what happens. Remember, there is always something to capture no matter how much gear or how little gear you’re carrying. Stay tuned, thanks for following and as always, Happy Shooting.

Filed under: General Photography, Landscapes, Photo Shoots Tagged: camera equipment, Landscapes, Northwest Territories, Photography, Sunrise, Winter, Yellowknife

What is Art?

leesacrey — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:24:05 +0000

Several months ago, well almost a year ago now, I had the pleasure of meeting Daryl Benson. Daryl, in my opinion, is one of the greatest photographers on planet earth. I understood, long before I met Daryl, that he was not just a Photographer but an artist. You see for me, an artist isn’t just someone who paints or sketches but someone who creates art. I have felt that way for a long time. What I quickly figured out during Daryl’s visit to Yellowknife is that my understanding of art was still narrow. I knew I didn’t like terms like “fine art” or “fine art photography”. It was either art or not art for me, fine art is just some elitist view on the whole thing. Daryl ask the question “What is art?” and then a short time later he asked “Can anything be art?”. We talked for a fair amount of time on the subject, me trying to answer the two questions and Daryl it seemed already knew the answers. There was a discussion about how anything that someone put time into creating could be art. Could the perfect loaf of sweet bread be art created by the baker? Things jumped into my head, things like an Audi R8, a Ferrari 458 or the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione are art. To me the Alfa maybe the most beautiful car ever made, not to drive (as I have never driven one) but to look at and admire. It is just that pretty! So, in the eye of the beholder, anything could be considered art. Daryl also has a wonderful understanding presentation. His explanations on why presentation is important made me think that the presentation is art just as much as the object being presented. It really has to do with your view on things. The new question for me was does an artful presentation add or take away from its subject. I think if it is done correctly the art and the presentation will compliment each other making the combined piece art and each piece art in its own right. So, where is all this going you ask? Well, with a mind more open than before Daryl’s visit, I have been trying to view things differently. This brings me to the presentation of my art (if I could be as bold as to think what I create can be art). With a new view on the art of presentation, I went to Visual Effects, a local framing gallery here in Yellowknife. A friend of mine, Peter, works there and I have always admired Peter’s ability to understand what mats and what frames look good with the piece being framed. So, I had and idea. I want to present some images in such a way as to relay a message on photography. I brought in one large print and several 4 x 6 prints and told Peter my idea. The idea for me was the easy part, creating what I wanted and presenting it just right was the hard part and I was leaving that to Peter. With no idea how everything would turn out and no idea if Peter really understood my vision, I left it in his hands. Today, Peter called and told me to drop by the shop. Being a block from my office I was there quickly. Peter unveiled his work and I was amazed. It was more than I had expected. The idea was what I had visioned but, the colours used, the placement of each piece and the over all presentation is art. Art created by Peter. The photographs are mine and I think the images are art but, the combination of my art and Peter’s art together just makes it that much better. Peter’s work doesn’t take anything away from my images, it adds to the images make the whole package better. Even though I believe the image below doesn’t really do the piece justice here it is. The frame is a gloss black metal frame. The main mat is a moss-green colour which really works with the green of the aurora. Spread across the large aurora image are a series of smaller aurora images presented to look like a strip of film. The film conveys that fact that my art is the photographic images. The whole package conveys Peter’s art, the presentation of my work in such away to tell the viewer what I do. Peter, I have learned, is an artist. Thanks Peter for your work, I can wait to see the lighthouse print we have talked about. To all of you readers, thanks for coming by and as always, Happy Shooting.

Filed under: Aurora, Friends, General Photography, Night Photography Tagged: Aurora, friends, Northwest Territories, Photography, Yellowknife