Critters and Views of Colorado

I am not sure why I love photographing animals as much as I do, but it is fun to capture the beauty of animals in their natural habitat. It must be some of Moose Peterson's influence rubbing off on me. We took the better part of a day in Colorado to visit Estes Park. What a cool place!
The entire drive from Boulder to Estes is magnificent. Great views of the majestic mountains and endless trees in all directions. Even the kids were impressed with the scenery.The park is known for their Elk, and there are plenty of them to view. When we first pulled into the town, we saw a bunch of people who had pulled over to the side of the road to look at the Elk on a golf course. Not exactly the picture I was looking for! As we headed deeper into the park we encountered some really beautiful animals like these and they were very close to the road. Let me tell you, this stops the traffic in the park as everyone wants to do a "drive-by shooting" with their cameras out of the windows of their cars. We parked and walked back to get this shot.

Photographing my sister's wedding!

So many people told me that this was a bad idea. Many other photographers said to me "Never photograph a family event!", but I have to tell you that this was not the case for me. My sister and her new husband were relaxed and looking great! I had a chance to capture the day for them and deliver a gift of images for which I am proud. I also had a chance to spend more time with them because of this. Like I said, Sue and Ross looked amazing and made it easy for me. Having the beautiful surroundings of Boulder, CO didn't hurt much either.

My family and I stayed at the Boulderado Hotel which is located in downtown Boulder. This is a very old hotel which has a ton of character and old world style. When I first walked into the lobby area, I knew that I had to capture a picture of my sister and her fiance in this place. When they came by the hotel to meet up with me, I dragged them inside to get some shots.

And then we were off to capture some images at a local park. We had a beautiful day (in between two days of thunderstorms) with bright sunlight which made the shooting conditions tough but we worked around that.

Having fun with photography! - "Midnight snack"

So...it was late on Friday night and I needed to finish an article for Digital Reproduction Magazine (in Australia). I was writing about using fish eye lenses and how to use them to create interesting images. A friend and editor suggested that I write a side bar article on fun uses of a fish eye. This, and the fact that I could not sleep, led to a funny picture. I thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny to put my camera in our refrigerator and take a "fridge eye view" picture of me raiding the ice box?" And there it began. I cleared an area of the middle shelf, repositioned some food, set the camera to manual focus, set the 10 second timer...and...got this shot. It makes me laugh!
I call this one "Midnight Snack". :)

I shot this with the Canon 5D Mark II, Sigma 15mm fish eye lens, Lexar 4GB 300x CF card.

Graduation Time!

Connor with two of his teachers

Yesterday was a great day for the Cable family! Connor is happy because he graduated 8th grade. Annette is happy because she no longer has a 50 mile commute in the carpool and I am thrilled to be done with the rather large tuition. :)

Me and the graduate

Now we have a child in high school and I am starting to feel old.

Swimming action!

Saturday was the first swim meet for our swim club and the kids did great. It was also a good time to capture some images of the kids in action. This is the first time that I have used the Canon 5D Mark II for sports and it came through nicely. At only 3.5 frames per second, it is not the fastest camera out there, but it takes a hell of a picture.
Since I have shot many of these swim meets, I tried to find some new angles and new images to capture on Saturday. I tried to shoot at times that I would normally not hit the shutter release. This gave me some cool images of the nontraditional swim team shots.
And then after trying new angles and action shots, I decided to put that new Sigma fish eye lens to work once again. This gave me some totally different perspectives of the meet.
After shooting thousands of shots of the swimmers, I had never had a shot showing the timers doing their job. The fish eye lens provided a very cool image of the swimmer coming to the wall with the timers ready to record the race. Damn - this lens is cool!

Three more Bar/Bat Mitzvahs

I just finished shooting my third Mitzvah in the last two weekends. The last one, like the others, makes for a really long day of photography. I think I shot close to 2000 images throughout the 10 hour day. Even though it is a really long and exhausting day, I feel lucky to capture these important family moments. Not only am I there as the recorder of the day, but I feel as if I am included in the celebration. Numerous people commented that I am not like other photographers, since I immerse myself in the event. But, after thinking about this for a while, I think that this is what separates me from so many other photographers. I don't look at these events as another day of work, I see the day as critical moment in these people's lives, which I get to experience with them. Am I happy to get paid for this? Sure, but it is so much more than that.

I love photographing the kids, especially when they see their pictures and understand what we can do together. This is my chance to show off my art.

Talia and I went over to these mirrors, at the Cypress Hotel in Cupertino, and had some fun capturing some pictures. Showing her the LCD on the back of the camera and seeing the giant smile on her face, that is what I love! There is no way to express the feeling of that moment. I guess the job of a photographer is to make people look their best, and I look forward to that challenge every time I am photographing them.

I usually do not have time to sit back and think about my photography, but sitting on this long flight (to the East Coast once again) gives me a chance to do so. People always talk about my passion for hockey, for work, for my family, for my photography... I think that passion is what drives me in everything I do!