Well, we have day 2 of the Rimbey Horse show under our belts, and so far no one is in danger of getting muddy, wet or drowned! A brief thundershower this afternoon shut us down for 5 minutes or so, but in reality I think it was more a case of the judges needing a coffee refill than weather-related!
A really good turn-out today, with the day's performances split between English and Western, with most of the girls riding both.
As luck would have it, the afternoon brought showers followed by sunshine, which I am starting to believe makes for absolutely the best light there is. It's almost like the rain knocks most of the "dirty" out of the existing light, and when it shines again, it's clearer, warmer and "Oh-so-much-better" for pictures!
Here's a small glimpse of what I'm talking about...

And, just in case it comes up in conversation, the above picture in high-key(second from top) is supposed to look like that! I'm not in the habit of accidentally over-exposing, let alone posting said accident. It's an experiment, and I'd appreciate any and all feedback.
Thanks!

Day 1 of the Rimbey Horse Show went today, and we didn't have more than 10 drops of rain, Thankfully! A nice, overcast day, not too hot for the horses and no harsh shadows for the photographers, either! At the risk of being chastised for using slave labor, I want to thank both my niece Stephanie, and daughter Mackenzie for their help today. With my knee acting up like it is, it's hard enough getting from one side of the arena to the other, let alone clear down to the other end each 10 minutes for ribbon pictures. Awesome work girls, can't wait for tomorrow!
the turnout was fairly small today, but those that did attend did not disappoint. Today's previews are on the website, but here is a few to get you going...

Today finds me back home-for a week already, actually-and for us the show season starts tomorrow.
Rimbey has its annual open horse show this weekend and we'll be on the grounds shooting, printing and if tradition stands, setting up jumps and running general errands(the show organizer is a real slave-driver!!) Actually, she's a good friend of ours, a dedicated horsewoman and an organizing Tyrannosaurus. Among other things, she's responsible for this and several other horse shows, and has recently been getting quite involved with hot air ballooning, with the highly successful Rimbey Hot Air Affair 2012 under her belt this year already. hats-off to Lynn Johnson for all her hard work organizing(and also competing in!!) these events.
So, since Lynn has had my nose to the grindstone(that, and a bad knee that has depleted both the local doctors patience and the clinics supply of cortisone and freezing) I've had little chance to post much of any interest lately.
I suspect by tomorrow night we'll have some great new material, but today I'm going to fall back on two of my favourite subjects-my girls and birds in general.
The first picture is a rare shot of a Red-Tailed Hawk, actually co-operating with me and holding still while I got a few shots. (For the spoilers among you who will call me on it, yes, he's a juvie, so that is probably why he stayed for pictures!!!)

The second picture is from The Blindman Valley Pony Club practise last night at the always- accommodating WW ranches in Bluffton, Ab. The subject is my daughter Sydney and her pony, "Rocky". Rocky is a recovering laminitic horse whom my wife has spent the last 3 years diligently trimming and coaxing back from near-total founder. Syd is determined to ride her, so last year we got her some dandy boots and she's been the talk of pony club since.
She is the absolute postcard example of a "pony clubber" in my eyes. A girl who loves her horse for no reasons of breeding, skill or experience. She want to ride her because she's HER horse, and they're on a journey together. Good luck tomorrow, Kiddo!

A boring saturday night in the Peace country. I was thrilled when Matt came to my shack last night to tell me a cow moose was on the lease.
 OK, that may need a little explaining. I've been on the hands recently about not calling me when something photo-worthy happens. There has been way too many incidents of "hey did you see  " X"   last night"..
So, true to his mission, Matt comes knocking last night to say that there's a moose about to come on the lease. That's all he says, then gone!!!
Okay, It's a moose, so granted she wasn't too hard to find. And, she wasn't the most handsome girl in the moose stable. But the coolest thing was that she wasn't afraid of me!!
I set up initially about 100yds away from her, thinking that she would traverse , but as luck would have it, she kept moving towards me. I whistled to her every time she seemed apprehensive, and go figure, she kept coming closer!
She's a scraggly, emaciated tic-infested girl, but she has a moose "smile" as big as a house, and I think she's beautiful! love the eyelashes!!

Happy saturday everyone!!

A day off in the Peace Country pretty much means a trip to the Bennett Dam for me when I'm up here.
I had the good fortune to link up with a biologist from BC hydro last year, and she's been a real champ about taking me out on the tailraces whenever I call and beg!
Well, today was a total wash-out, to stay the least. There must have been 30+ eagles around, but much to my dismay, they didn't stay in place, afraid to fly due to the wet weather as I had hoped. Rebecca(said biologist) has come to the conclusion that they are just scared of black ford trucks, so next time we will take her white company truck and see if that makes any difference! (I'm not holding my breath)
Determined to get something on the card today, we headed east following the sunshine-pretty easy in the Peace. It was looking good back towards the Halfway River, and we've seen a pair of balds in a nest there most times that we come through the area. Today was no exception. The only difference was that the babies-if you can call them that at this stage!-were very restless and the parents were initially nowhere to be found.
I've come to a few conclusions recently about super-tele lenses, the most important being that tele-converters(unless you are on a tripod) are more of a detriment than an aid. The combination of losing 1.5-2 stops of light, along with the dis-advantage of added camera shake multiplied by the converter length just doesn't make the whole operation worthwhile. I shot a friend in a riverboat the other day. He was doing 25-30kn, + current, in low light, and the 600 on my ancient 1DS threw out some truly stellar shots.
Putting the 1.4x on the 600 and slapping the whole affair on the 1DIII should have produced some spectacular results, but this was not the case. We started flirting with too slow of a shutter speed, the ISO came up, and it just wasn't what I was looking for. It would probably be a good topic for discussion here on the blog, but unfortunately I deleted all the garbage and now have nothing for said discussion.
So, on to the eagles. Us flatlanders find them so fascinating, I always laugh when someone who has grown up with them chastises us about our affinity for such a regal bird. The answer is simple-we're tired of looking at Ravens!!
Todays lesson-manual exposure!! around 200 clicks to produce the 3 or 4 decent shots you see here.
Ive alway been an advocate of spot metering, but against a bright sky, even that may not be enough to keep the shadows in these dark bird exposed. 1-1.5 stops overexposed was putting some pretty good shots on the card-too bad it took me most of the day to figure it out!

Enjoy the eagles, everyone!!

I've spent the last few days lamenting about how far behind I've gotten with all things computer related.
Probably not an uncommon complaint, especially among people such as us. We have Facebook, Twitter, +google, websites blogs and who knows what else. I don't know about you, but if I manage to get something posted on at least one of those services I feel like I'm miles ahead!
Today's post is not so much of a post as a test. I've actually buckled down and tried to get some of these services linked, associated and whatever other services there are to allow all these social media choices to play nice together. While I'm not holding my breath, I think its a step in the right direction. For those of you who may be associated with me on more than one of the above-mentioned sites, please disregard the redundancy that will probably follow!
For anyone who cares, Ive tried the following approach. This blog has now been linked to my +google account, which in turn is set up(hopefully!) to post automatically to my Facebook page. It will also automatically update my twitter account. So, providing I haven't accidentally set up some crazy circular link whereby it ends up chasing its own tail, I should be away to the races.
I invite anyone who has some experience in this area to step in and comment. Good, bad or otherwise, I'd love to hear your take on this. We all know the growing importance of social media in our photographic success, but getting it set up correctly seems to be a modern mystery to anyone over the age of 18!!
As I mentioned last post, the show season is getting into full swing. So far, i'm certain to be shooting at Rimbey, Didsbury, Blufton, SpruceView. My "assistant" has promised that we'll need to put on our seat belts for the plans she has in store, but so far she is playing her cards pretty close to her chest.
Time will tell. For today, here's a working copy of the ad for the Rimbey Horse Show 2012