Deer season

I'm going to give deer hunting a go this year. I've never done it before, so lots to learn. My boys and I headed out scouting before the season opened(which was officially yesterday in my area) to see if we could find a promising location. I think we did.

I brought along a roll of Kodak Gold 200 with me that expired in 2005. I seriously love shooting expired film.

From Yesterday

From a crazy and fun fashion shoot yesterday.More will be up soon on my photoblog.

Shameless self promotion

This has nothing to do with cycling, but I'm posting it to my bike blog anyway. This is something that is really exciting to me, and to me, it means a lot. I was listed as one of Canada's top emerging photographers by Photolife magazine. Such an honour. Check it out on my photoblog.

Just a little update

Well, things have been pretty busy for me lately. Haven't even been out riding too much. Certainly not enough. Just wanted to throw an update out there for the cycling-blog-o-sphere that I used to be so involved in. Haven't forgotten you, and I keep up with yall on my google reader. Just haven't been contributing to it all that much.

A photo of the mystery bike will be coming soon. After a few more rides on it to get it dialled in just right.

Also, I'm giving an iPad away on my new website which is dedicated to family, wedding and lifestyle photography. I'm keeping my other site, jeremygoertz.com, for commercial, fashion and personal photography that wouldn't really interest people wanting family photography. In an effort to tailor content for different audiences, I think this separation should work well.

Now, this contest is a tough one for me. Why? Because I don't have an iPad, and I want one. So bad. Yet I'm giving one away? Yup. I wanted something fun to kick start the new site, and to me at least winning an iPad is a whole whack of fun!

The miracles of lighting

Here is an iPhone photo of where I was shooting this morning to get the
photos in the previous post. Post production only involved clarity and
sharpening. With the fast sync speeds, and gels, it's what cool look
you can achieve. This set is exactly as shot. See what I mean it's
fun! Cheers.

Frosty Walk in the Park

Just had to get out and test my new lenses. A 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM, and a 17-40mm F4, USM. Good fun for sure.

I have an announcement to make...

Well, you may have noticed it's been a little quite around this old blog for a while now. There is good reason for that, so I'll dig right in.

First of all, I am make a huge change in my career. Switching careers actually.

It's been something I've contemplated for almost two years now, and the decision has been a firm decision for about 6 months. Since this blog is linked to my facebook page, I couldn't really say much of it here, until I made sure that my co-workers all knew of the news. They now know, so I can officially go public.

February 28^th will be my last day as an employee of G&S Airport Conveyor. March 1^st will be my first day as a full time professional photographer! Huge leap isn't it! Scary? Yes. Wise? Time will tell. The right thing to do? I think so, and as such I am acting on it.

Until the last year or so, I've never ever in my life know what I wanted to be when I "grow up". I followed my dad's lead, became a Millwright, stuck with G&S for a while and the last 5 or so years I've been a Sr. Project Manager. It's a sweet job. It's for a sweet company. The people I work with I think are some of the best people in the world one could work with. I can go home for lunch, I've got huge flexibility in my schedule. Basically as long as the job gets done, it's up to me how I go about doing it. Why on earth would I give that up?

Well, there are several reasons, but the biggest is this. I don't have passion for what I do. I don't get excited to come to work every day. Being a project manager as you could imagine involves a huge amount of details. I am not a detail oriented person. I see big pictures. When there is a task at hand, all I care about is getting it done. How we go about getting done, or ever step along the way, is irrelevant to me. All I care is that we start moving. Now this is a good quality to have. However, when you're dealing with several million dollar projects, involving many different parties, and overseeing installation crews that can be as large as 8-10 men, you kind of need to have every little thing sorted out. If not, profits dwindle fast when you've got a large crew of men spinning their wheels on site. It takes great effort to force myself to do the detailed work required to be successful. It grates on me, and it's a chore the whole way through. Some people thrive on figuring every little thing out, documenting and organizing it all. Not me. I like to do as my dad always said while I was growing up, "head down, bum up". I like to just do stuff. Obviously there is a level of personal organization and keeping track of details that every person much posses to make it through life with any sort of success and have a decent reputation, but what I'm talking about is making sure that the 1,054 3/8" X 1" bolts that are being packed are going to be enough. Spread sheets, spread sheets spread sheets. Argh! They torture me!

Peter Drucker said that it is a waste of time to try and develop a weakness. I agree. We are all give different strengths. Those are what we must spend our time developing. If I were to classify myself, I would say that I am artistic more than anything. Some may argue with that, some may not, but that is how I see myself. The things that are important to me, music, writing, sculpture, photographs, design, are artistic. I once saw a dread-locked, chain dangling, black trench-coat wearing kid with a huge patch on the back of his coat that read, "Music is my religion". While I don't make that statement myself, I do identify with him in the power that music plays in my life. I obsess over creativity. I could spend my entire days looking at photographs and drawings. I have passion for that realm of society.

Based on this, I am taking a huge risk, sticking my neck out there, and I am daring to make a living doing something that I love. Photography.

Now, I understand that it's not a matter of taking a picture, put it up in the air and people will open their wallets and pay me massive amount for that photograph. No, I understand that primarily it is just like running any other business. In fact I've calculated that less than 5% of my work will actually be taking photos. I've put some very real numbers together, skewed them to be a little on the pessimistic side, and then decided that yes, I would indeed try and make this work. I've been putting legal documents together, registering my company, legalizing my basement studio, and working on all of the other details that are required to have a legitimate business. This has eaten up many of my evenings and weekends over the past while which is a huge part of why I haven't been blogging her much. I've been pouring my energy into this new venture. Most everything is in place, the hammer is cocked, and now I simply need to pull the trigger. March 1^st baby! March 1^st!

It is a huge challenge that I am diving into, with potential of huge reward. Imagine, a life spent doing what you love. The payoff is big enough for me to believe that it is worth the risk. Further to all of this, I am so incredibly excited to be doing this. I'm stoked. It always helps to have an excitement to give you the energy required to do the huge amount of work that is involved with starting a business. Excitement is oozing out of me right now! Let's go!

www.jeremygoertz.com

403.901.3892

Fueling another Passion

Bikes and photography. Those are the two things I really like to do. Bike stuff is taken care of here, on this blog. I've had a photography blog for a while, and while it's been pretty quite over there (and here lately) I suspect it'll be posting over there a little more now.

That's not the big news though. The big news is I've got a new website. jeremygoertz.com. Works pretty good, and in the process of building it, I've learned a little about HTML coding. Still in it's infancy, I'll be working on it for a while yet, but I figured it was to a point to be ready to blast out on the old Internet.

There, that's the end of shameless self-promotion for today.

Cheers.

12 hours up and rolling again!

Tomorrow is the big day. If you want in on the project, let me know.

Details can be found here, and it's a blast. Even if we dont' quite get you added as a contributor by tomorrow, you can participate, and upload as soon as we get you on the list! Good times.

Photogs love Xtracycles.....

This morning I woke early, to try a few shots I'd been thinking about. The Xtracycle is the perfect vehicle for this. When I arrived at the place where I wanted to do the photos (it was outside) I was already in the environment. I was already familiar with the location. I imagined what it would have been like if I drove a vehicle, and then opened the door and stepped out into the cold morning air.

Somehow, I feel like I had an advantage this morning. Kind of hard to put a finger on it, but you can hear everything, you’re far more aware of what’s going on (if anything) at the location, and you make much less noise getting there, so as to not disturb any animals or other people there.

Xtracycles and photography mix very nicely.

Theses were some long exposures that I wanted to try. I was trying to make myself look like a ghost. I even hauled that old prop suitcase in my Xtra. These were simply edited for color in lightroom. No photoshop trickery. It's amazing what can be done when you use full control of the camera.

The shot of the Xtracyce was a 30 second exposure. I took of my planet bike 1W LED head light and used it to "light paint" the work Xtra. Took a few tries, as I was facing the camera and had to write it backwards in the air. I covered it up in the palm of my had while switching between motions. It's so weird to think that I was in front of the camera, writing Xtra in the air with a flashlight, and you can't see me at all. Long exposures are fun! You should try them.

15 minutes

The other day I was shooting some family photos for some friends, and I had rented a super wide angle lens (12-24mm f4.5) for a few shots I had in mind.

After the session, we went to their house for an amazing dinner, and then home. The kids to bed, my wife went to her book club, and I was left alone with a sweet lens. I decided to point it up to the heavens and hold her wide open.

This photo was just off my back porch, and there is a lot of ambient city light sneaking in, but I was amazed at the movement that was captured in the 15 minutes that the shutter was open. I can’t wait to get out in the middle of a field far from town and try this again. If it weren’t for all that dirty light creeping in, I would have loved this photo. For now, it's just a visual inspiration for a photo that one day I want to take.

Here's something if you're really bored.

While in Fernie this past Labor day weekend, and the children were napping, I started sketching. The weather was quite unsettled, so I thought I might as well setup and do some time lapse photography.

This was the only location I could find to shoot from, out on the porch of my parents condo, and if more options were available (that wouldn’t require much effort) I would have positioned the camera differently so as to avoid the flair in the lens. Oh well.

I love seeing the way clouds develop, and if you’re bored enough, you can watch this and you’ll notice some circular motions to the different clouds as they form and dissipate. Get ready for a intense, action packed video. That way when one comes along, you’ll be prepared. This isn’t it. Cheers.

New Photo Blog

I've started up a new blog, just for photos. I've got a website online, and eventually I would like to have that set up with galleries, contact info and all the rest. Right now it's nothing special. I will use this new blog just to post recent photos that I've been taking.

Currently I'm just shooting as much as I can for free. Anyone local who would want some family photo, or couples who want engagement photos, I'll do them all for free. I'm just trying to build up a portfolio right now. Eventually I would like to be able to do weddings. Not that I want to make huge money as a photographer, but if I could make some extra cash to buy more camera gear, that would be a success to my plan.

Last night in Rockyford

Last night was our last night in Rockyford. We aren’t actually moving into our new house until next week, but I’ve got a bathroom that I need to renovate before our tenants move in, so we’re camping in our RV at my in-laws. The boys will have fun, and I’ll be able to make all the mess I need without making the family live in a construction zone.

So, being as it was the last night we would spend in Rockyford, we decided to head to the park, and then a walk around town. I brought my camera.

First, a healthy dose of playing at two of the parks in town.
Then, walked around and talk with others who were doing the same.

We checked out the fire trucks that were being serviced.

Then we came to a building that I’d wanted to shoot ever since we moved to Rockyford. I think it was a service station at one time. While I didn’t have my tripod (which would have made for many more possibilities) I was able to shoot some photos in the varying light conditions inside the building.

This was a great place to shoot. So many great compositions to be had. I could have spent hours shooting inside there, instead, the kids played outside for the 10 minutes I was inside. Some of the rooms were so dark that I couldn’t possibly get any photos without a tripod. If I had my tripod, there would have been so much more. Oh well, it’s good to be forced into being creative with what lighting and subjects you have on hand.

I love old broken down objects.

When I was shooting this, I wondered how many different cars it had filled up.

The restroom was out of service.

The fire extinguisher was gone, but the fire exit still worked, so, I left though it.

I'd love to come back to this building with a tripod and some flashlights. The outside light was still quite bright. I think the next time I come, I want to come right before dusk. With a tripod, you could get some more dramatic shots with dying light. Then, highlight certain areas with various flash light setups.

In playing around with simple flashlights, it's amazing how practical they can actually be in photography. Especially in shooting old buildings such as this one. Just get creative with how you use your light. Bounce it, defuse it, hide it. You name it. Just be creative and try using common household objects.

Light

Just messing around with the camera to keep from getting bored last night. A simple glass, with some dandelions that my boys picked for my wife, and a little LED light to illuminate.

Oh boy

I've discovered the time lapse photography setting on my little point and shoot. Now, how many of these cheesy little videos will it take before I'm bored with the feature? I'm afraid for the sake of everyone else, it might be a lot. I set up the camera in the board room when I got to work this morning. after about 3 hrs the batteries died. Fun while it lasted.

Pisco Sour

A few weeks ago, my dad went to Chile. I heard a bit about a beverage they enjoy over there. Pisco Sour. I asked my dad to bring me back a bottle. Today, I got it. From what I understand, it tastes like strong lemonade and has a similar effect as tequila. I'm saving this for a nice hot July afternoon. Should be good.
I'm also starting to figure out the how to set my DSLR for various lighting while shooting in full manual. I have to say I'm quite impressed with this picture. No lighting other than the florescent tubes that light my office.

DIY Camera Bike Mount

Photojojo (the greatest photo newsletter) just put up this little ditty that was kind of cool. Easy enough to figure out on your own, but nice to have the how to. I've got all the stuff kicking around my garage, might have to give it a try.