Hmm, May of this year...I guess this qualifies as delinquent blogging. I'd like to blame my hatred of writing, lack of people skills, and pretty much anything else I can think of but the truth is it comes down to pure laziness. Its been a great year for photography, with a pile of new doors opening up for me, and I've chosen not to get past FB posting to talk about it. Bad me...
This evening finds me back at Spruce Meadows, day one in the books with a media lunch and general networking opportunities. The weather was pretty drag and overcast today, but since no-one was competing, the loss was minimal.
I took the opportunity to photograph a subject that I find fascinating for no apparent reason-the role of cell phones in todays equestrian world. Go to any horse show, gymkhana, rodeo, dressage show, you name it, and you'll find riders on their phones while with their horses. Distracted riding?
Possibly. A friend of mine told me that a clinic she attended promoted the use of cell phones/smart phones by the riders as it apparently taught the horse patience. I'm not sure if I agree with that, but I'm also old, and may have a somewhat jaded view on what is acceptable anymore.
So, I found it interesting to see my friend and uber-competitor Lynn J. making a practice run with Ernie today, and wouldn't you know it, she had her phone bolted to her ear for the majority of it!!

At least Ernie seems happy!
So, I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for more examples. Shortly After this, I found last year's Grand Prix champion Olivier Philippaerts sitting by the fountain near the F.E.I. barn. Check this out...

Good thing he's got a groom to deal with all the pesky annoyances of show jumping!!
Anyway, call it an obsession or whatever you like, I find it to be an interesting twist to today's modern horse person, and I plan to get more shots depicting this in the future.
It's a great week to be back at Spruce Meadows, more to follow!

So, apparently I haven't posted in quite some time! It took a while to come down from the high that was the Masters, and then it got into winter work, holidays, more work and before you know it, its May and you've not done anything on your blog since, well, the Masters.( Sometimes, you just don't have anything to say, let alone write about, and I think I just ran out of words about Horses)
Speaking of horses, or at least horsepower in general, I think its only fair to warn you that this year, I plan to stray from horse shows somewhat, and explore a few different sports with my camera.
Primarily, I've gotten involved the the Central Alberta Raceways, and will be covering all of their events this year (hopefully, with the help of a few-or a lot of my photographer friends like Carmen Williams and Darwin Mulligan who are seasoned veterans at this sort of shooting!!)
Armed with a new ambition to shoot, some new gear and some absolutely fantastic weather, we spent the day down at the Rimbey racetrack, ushering in the 2013 race season with the spring Mud Bogs.
Now, being patch trash such as I am, I typically make it a habit of staying as far away from mud as I can(just because my truck is lifted with 37"tires does not mean I go around testing its ability to crawl out of a swamp...) but I must admit I was intrigued by the sounds and sights of warm-up around the facility.
I won't go into great detail-lets just say it was a great afternoon for weather, performance and friendship. i'll provide a few pictures here as an example of what we captured today. looking forward to tomorrow when the real racing starts!



This was one of the last shots of the day, and once the qualifying was done, there was a little fun time for everyone. With the way the light was, and the dust, we were actually getting nicer shots of the drivers returning for another run!!

I will never be this happy about being covered in mud.....

 Man, some of these quads can really move!

 We were afraid this guy was out for the duration after he blew something up on his first run, but he was back by round 2, and boy, could he move!!!

"I was this close...!!!"

Never saw a Razer have to get pulled out...

 My mentor Darwin was trying to teach (re-teach??) the art of panning with a slow shutter to create the illusion of speed.

 I had this exact truck growing up... it was somewhat less cool back then.

So, the final run tomorrow, and as long as the weather holds, we plan on catching some even better shots. My Oldest is coming to join me(which means I'll lose my 5D mmiii, sigh...) but she'll be catching some video with it as well, so I guess some good will come. Maybe I can coerce her into editing my video footage from the few helicopter flights I did today....

Wow!!
What a few days this has been!!
For those of you who know me, you know this has been a long time coming. I've taken a lot of flak as to why I'm so determined to shoot here, or why the battle project is so important to me, but hopefully I can answer that over the next few posts.
The short answer is- Handsome horses, Pretty Ladies and a world famous event.
OK, that requires a little elaboration, I know!
I've been really absent from this blog over the last month or so, mostly due to a commitment to the people over at Western Horse Review(they agreed to carry a blog that I was to put out that dealt with the battle project and I've had a few really good posts there. Actually, starting tomorrow, I'll be doing daily updates for that blog, so it seems only fitting that I take a few minutes tonight and update what's really happening with the project!)
My very good friend Lynn Johnson got this whole ball rolling a few years back, when I first shot her horse show in Rimbey. Since then we've been involved in many projects together and this battle idea has grown from our time together. "Get your credentials" she's been pestering me for some time now, and this year we finally got our poop in a pile and made it happen. And boy, what an eye-opener its been so far!

Being accredited at Spruce means you are afforded some pretty skookum privileges-in today's case, that means a course walk with Eric Lamaze. Of the Akita Cup...yup. And, to add a little cream to the day, I had a chance to meet and talk with Bob Langrish, probably the world's foremost Equestrian photographer. ( When I told him I was nervous about being here, he told me in his classic British Accent " dont worry-we're all just here to do our job") Easy for you to say, Bob, you've been at it for 40 years!

It was cool, though. To spend a few hours with a world-class athlete, and actually understand what he was saying. I think he lost a lot of the crowd after he stopped talking about the Olympics scandal, but for anyone who stuck with him, what an awesome insight into what goes through a champion rider's mind as he walks a Grand Prix course. Yes, I'm very lucky, and I know it!!

We saw Marge Southern as we came out of the media centre, chatting with the Rolex boys(Personally, I'm an Omega guy...)

 I am so fortunate to have met the competitors  for our battle project. Sure, we knew a bunch of the ladies prior to this (they're the reason its happening!!) but today was a day to finally put the last pieces of the puzzle together as I met the last of the "mystery" team members, Like Kathleen and Fabio (Best cooler ever!!)

 Adrian Neufeld-29 years of battle of the breeds. What do you you say to that??

Yes Laura-Gene, Tex is pretty (Appy people, whooftie.....)

 Team Canadian-only missing one bicycle...

 The Saddlebred people...such a serious lot...

 Maggie, the Spruce Meadows course designer...and a whole bunch of other stuff that I haven't figured out yet, but she's really important, so I'm trying to be nice to her. (OK, not really, but I do so at my own peril...)

 

So, during our media media luncheon we had a chance to hear
from Linda Southern, and she said lots of things that were all pretty cool, but to tell the truth, I was so emotionally wrapped-up in just being here that I missed most of what she said, but there was one thing that really stood out, and you can see evidence to that simple statement wherever you look around the grounds here. I think I'll make it my new motto..
"It's all about the horse..."

Apparently it's been a good month for Owl viewing around here! There's some low ground about 4 miles from where I'm working right now, and no matter which route I start with, the last 4miles is pretty much the same, and includes this swampy area. On many mornings, I'll see Great Grey Owls here, as well as a pair of Red-tailed fox kits(which have so far eluded my lens), a pair of twin moose calves with no Mom and some ever elusive Red-Tailed Hawks.
Last night on the way home, a Great Grey was hunting from a post, criss-crossing the road with absolutely no concern for me and my camera. I came away with some good shots and a lesson (re-learned, unfortunately) on not getting so close that the subject fills the frame. Seems I get so excited when these guys actually sit still that I get too close, and trying to get a flight shot with a 600 when the birds is that close will get you nothing more than out of focus tail feathers.
So, with said photos safely hidden in the recycle bin, I'll share a couple of the better perched shots and hope for another chance today.

If you haven't heard already, we are in the midst of a project following 3 teams of equestrians up to and through the 2012 Telus Battle of the Breeds at Spruce Meadows this september. Western Horse Review has picked up a separate blog we are doing for that project, and you can follow us here:

http://www.westernhorsereview.com/blogs/breed-sport-news/battle-of-the-breeds-2012/

And for anyone who saw the last post about the late-fledging Great Horned Owl, he unfortunately didn't make it. The ladies at the Wildlife center told us that the problem with wildlife injuries is that the animal doesn't usually display any indications its hurt or sick until its too late.

Happy long weekend everyone!
It's been a hot few weeks here in central Alberta lately. I'm reluctantly back to work, albeit much closer to home than I've ever been.( It remains to be seen if that is actually a good thing or not!).
The new location affords me a 15 minute drive in the morning through the hills west of our place.
lots of chances for local wildlife shots, and some pretty nice landscape views as well. Coming home at night, the sun is behind me and the trip is repeated, although I do seem to be having a lot more luck in the mornings. Lots of fog and mist. One spot on the road is home to at least 6 Kestrels, who may be more wary than Red-Tailed Hawks(if thats possible) when it comes to getting their picture taken.
This morning, near where I commonly see great Horned Owls, I thought I saw a porcupine in the ditch.
Closer inspection revealed it to be a young-very young and late!- Great Horned Owl fledgling. He was in some distress, and wasnt able to fly. He didnt look hurt, so I went on my way, planning to come back and check on him later. At 9:30 he was still in the same spot, and moving much less, so I scooped him up and my wife and girls came and delivered him to the great folks at the Medicine River Wildlife Center. They'll do their best to nurse him back, but Carol said he was in bad shape and had about a 10% chance of making it.
Here he was when I first saw him early this morning:

I've also seen some good looking deer in the area

The view from the high ground on Baldy can be very impressive in the morning

I managed to get a Kestrel to sit still for a shot the other morning

And even a dirty old compressor facility can look not too shabby in the wee hours of first light

Have a great week everyone!

Good morning all! It's been a while since my last post, and try as I might, I've not been able to convince Kenz that she should take up blog writing full-time. As a result, I guess I'm back to writing my own material.
We've been madly trying to sort and post photos from 3 consecutive weekends of horseshows, with the end finally in sight. Once the Didsbury pictures are up, we can concentrate on our really big project that has been brewing for some time. I'll discuss it in the next post, which, unlike today's, will actually pertain to something equine.
So, what am I on about today then? Birds. Pelicans in particular and my first attempts at shooting a super-tele from a boat. Should be easy, right? Big glass, close pelicans, great morning light,what can go wrong? Movement!! Good grief, I had no idea how much a boat moved until I was looking through 600mm of glass trying to shoot a bird flying a foot off the water.( Now, I'm not totally new to boats, but I'm by no means boat savvy, so those of you who are can begin mocking me now...)
I don't have a lot of advise on the subject-technically it's not really different than any other picture, although the water tends to throw around a lot of stray light that I wasn't used to shooting from shore, so I found spot metering gave me my best results with surprisingly few blown-out sky shots.
No, it was the movement of the boat that killed me! My brother-in-law was great, creeping up slowly with the trolling motor then shutting it down early and drifting in, but it was still like bad 60's Hollywood acid trip looking through that lens. And holding your breath, no, that just makes everyone in the boat wonder what the heck your doing to be out of breath! I had brought a monopod, thinking that with the little room I had up in the bow seat, that would be a good tool for stability. Most definitely not the answer-it seemed to amplify the movement 10-fold. I also tried stabilizing it on my knee with similar results. The best results came when I just hand held the unit , (breathed!!!) and let the IS do it's job.
When I was buying this lens a while back, I read a lot of reviews that it's too heavy-can't be hand held, etc. I even discussed it with the salesman, who told me he often hand-held his Nikon 600 with stellar results, you just have to put a little effort into it.
I'd have to say I agree. While you won't be doing it all day, it's more than possible to get the shots you need. here's the proof.

For those of you keeping track, I'll now get back to sorting and posting show pictures.

Bluffton Classic 2012

Hey everyone! Mackenzie here. Dad's out shooting some jumpers so I'm your interim blogger for this post. :) This past weekend has been a flurry of activity at the WW Ranch in Bluffton. The days have been filled with rider after rider competing for that lovely red ribbon. Mind you, getting up in the early hours of morning was not very appealing, we made it through the past three days without falling over entirely. (Hey. It's summer. Gimme a break.) Whether it be standing inside the arena or standing in the scorching heat outside, we managed to get some pretty good shots. Dad tells me, "Pick out your favourites." Me, ".... OKAY!" *goes and tags over 70, and then, with great difficulty, goes and whittles down the selected to about 6.* (Yeah, harder than first thought.) Howbeit, all of the pictures were good, and I've managed to pick a few of the stunners. I think most of these were taken by yours truly, however, there's wayyy too many to try and keep track of who took this and that.
This is simply a preview of what's yet to come. We hope to post the rest of them in the coming week.
Talk later soon,
Mackenzie :)

(Never mind, this one above is Dad's) :)