…so I took a shot down to Quidi Vidi while out running errands. This is a so-so picture of a boat that I spent 10 minutes editing – to make it more interesting. I hate it when more time is spend on post production of a picture than the time it takes to get the shot.

Anyway, there’s a few things coming up this weekend… stay tuned.

I’ve finally updated my gallery over on the wedding site. It’s comprised now or work from late last season and early this season, so there’ll be another update to that page before long, plus some new galleries, more stuff from Eileen, etc..

Here’s a few shots that didn’t make the cut…

…so here are a few more shots from my summer season review that I mentioned yesterday.

It’s been pouring all day in St. John’s, so I’ve not had the chance to get out shooting. Which is just as well, because my membership in the WPJA is about up for the year, and I’ve found that getting renewed is almost as involved a process as getting accepted in the first place.

Among the many requirements they have is that members have a web site with good content that is up-to-date. This requirement, along with the rain, has prompted me to finally go back through some weddings from this past season to pick a few favorite shots… something I’ve been meaning to do, but as yet just hadn’t gotten around to it.

I love this shot. It’s from early in the season. The girls had to travel from one community to another to get to the church, so they borrowed a motor home to do it in comfort and style. I rode with them for awhile, and despite the close quarters, I got a few truly candid shots.

As you would do when playing that old Sesame Street game “One of These Things Are Not Like The Other”, can you guess which one of these pictures doesn’t belong?

They were actually all from the same grad shoot that I did a few days ago. I guess only one of these does belong then, depending on who you ask.

So many of my shoots lately have been with a small circle of photographers that I’m “training” (for lack of a better term). Today we popped out to Torbay to get a few shots and learn a bit more about shooting in bright sun light.

When I shoot with someone new, we always go back to the very beginning – the camera stays in full manual mode. It’s often a rough start, but when they become accustom to it they will have the knowledge to handle practically any lighting condition without relying on the camera’s built in “intelligence” – which more often than not is not really that intelligent anyway.

Perhaps my most very special student (read: slow) is the minion. Don’t worry – he won’t be insulted by that – he’ll be the first to say it. Something “clicked” with him today, and he started to grasp the wild and rapidly changing world of camera settings with fast moving clouds on a sunny day. When I saw that he was getting some solid, properly exposed shots, I left him alone and managed to get a few myself.

I think these shots speak for themselves…

We were a little too ambitious this past summer.

Thinking it would be easy, and after shooting two weddings on a Friday and Saturday in July, we drove to Grand Falls-Windsor mid-week to shoot on Wednesday, then returned home to shoot two more on the next Friday / Saturday. But wait… then we headed to Gros Morne to shoot all day on the following Wednesday, and again home to shoot two on the weekend. 8 weddings in 16 days.

That threw us into such a tailspin in terms of editing that it literally took months to get back on schedule. The turnaround time was never anything more than a respectable 4 weeks, but that’s much longer than I like. Lesson learned.

It wouldn’t have been so exhausting with a few good nights sleep, but when we arrived at the second hotel, they’d given our rooms away. A “We’re really sorry but…” and a “this has never happened to us before” combined with nine hours of driving and a half dozen moose sightings, then we were forced to find new accommodations at 10:00 o’clock in the night… in a national park in mid-summer no less. Cow Head hasn’t many choices let me tell ya. At that point, we were willing to stay at a camp ground. They have showers, and I’m not really opposed to sleeping in the car.

Shooting weddings can be a difficult assignment for a photographer. There’s tremendous need to come up with something unique and creative, and as soon as you achieve that, you have to abandon that new idea and try never to do it twice. While you’re shooting, you’ve got only one chance to get the shot – no matter how you’re feeling emotionally or how tired you are.

ANYWAY, I never posted anything from that second Wednesday, so here we go.

I’ve found the perfect modeling subjects – they’re available at any time of day and they never complain.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, we drove out to Cape Spear – somewhat half heartily, with little hope of finding anything new.

But it turned out to be a case of “right place, right time” and, after walking a different path, the sky happened to part to unveil a beautiful scene. For just a minute or two, the lighthouse looked as if it was in a rolling sea of grass.