First Photo Walk of the Year

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to go on a photo walk with a friend from Ebenezer. We decided on going to the University campus because it is weatherproof and also because I wanted to show her some of my favorite locations on campus for photo shoots so that she would have some more locations in her toolbox for her own shoots. Being relatively new to Saskatoon I thought it would be appropriate to show her some of my favorite nooks on the campus. Next time I think we will explore Innovation Place.

It seemed to be a day of plants and leaves for me. When we went on this walk nothing had started to bloom, yet, and even the trees were just barely starting to show signs of buds growing.

It is pretty ironic that my best photos of the day were all taken in locations that it did not matter what time of the year it was. However, it was nice to be able to comfortably travel from one location to the other outside without worrying about the cold, even if my favorite shots came from indoors.

What would a trip to the geology building be without a quick long exposure of the waterfall over the Koi pond? I really need to bring a tripod one of these times to get a crystal-clear photo of the still objects. That said, the Koi were posing beautifully for Brendyn and I was a little envious of her ability to lean over the water and get some nice photos of those beautiful fish.

Regardless of the weather or the photos it was just nice to spend some time talking shop and making photos with someone else who really loves photography.

I imagine the family photo session bookings will be coming soon and if you are interested please contact me sooner rather than later so we can make sure that we get you booked at your ideal time.

Magic Mushrooms

No, not the psychotropic kind. Just plain old white mushrooms of unusually large size. You could find these specially packed and twice the price labeled as stuffer mushrooms, which I plan to use some of these for. But this time the boxes of white mushrooms were just huge. Something to put this to scale might have helped but believe me when I say that one of these filled my palm.

Stuffers - 1 by Jay Scott

I have wanted to shoot mushrooms since we first saw a cluster in our front lawn a few years ago. However, the short longevity, difficult location, difficult angle and small size of them made a studio environment a much better option.

Stuffers - 2 by Jay Scott

I really enjoyed making these photos and playing with fun light colours.

Giant Pinapple

Just a huge pineapple we bought that begged to be shot before being cut up for grilling with our mahi-mahi tomorrow evening.

Giant Cuban Pinapple by Jay Scott

It's amazing how large of a backdrop you need to shoot something small at an ultra-wide, low, angle like this.

So Good to Be Back to the Zoo

Aside from the poor crumbling roads and paths, it was really good to get back to the zoo for the first time this year. The best part about it was going with my best friend and his family and my wife. I am looking forward to a great season of animals and flowers and am going to try to take the time to let the camera sit around my neck for a few minutes and appreciate what I am seeing instead of just shooting the whole time. That said, when I am setting up lights for a flower photo I do have time to appreciate my surroundings.

Sometimes it is difficult to remember the size and wildness of these huge creatures just one small fence away from us. Had we seen these from a vehicle in Jasper a few summers ago it would have been more of a flight response that sitting here watching these hulks almost smiling at us.

"Soft kitty,
Warm kitty,
Little ball of fur.…"

No, I have never had the opportunity to shoot at the zoo at night. What an experience that I would be. I would be most grateful for the fences then and would always be looking over my shoulder.

The photo of this lynx was taken in broad daylight but a few tweaks to the exposure and white balance gave it more of a moonlit luck. Not unlike my albino python photo from Reptile World.

This bison calf was born just a few days prior. Amazing how quickly they are so independent and happy to be not a small distance away from their mothers just relaxing in the cool mud and manure.

I was impressed that both Fox's were out and very active when we were there. It must have been the comfortably cool temperature. The swift foxes, pictured above, had spotted something that we could not identify and were running back and forth at the front of their habitat looking for a way out.

The red fox could be found in its usual spot below the seeder.

I am looking forward to getting back to the zoo on a weekday when it will be a little bit quieter. It was not busy but if you are the people the more relaxing I find it and the better the photos I typically get.

I fear that this year a popular route for a friend and I to wheel, from the SaskTel sports center to the forestry farm will be off limits as the pedestrian path is always soft and muddy and significant portions of the road we used to go on have been turned to course crushed rock and gravel; not wheelchair friendly. I hope that there are some reasonable repair plans in the budget this year. I don't enjoy seeing one of my favorite places deteriorating like that.

Here is What Has Been Going On

A few privileged readers are aware of what I have been working on and why it has been so quiet here for the last little while. I have been working for over two years on a personal project that I have finally decided to put out there and share it.

I settled on the name "Challenging Reality". It is a growing collection of artistically photographed barriers to quadriplegics and the technology that allows them to overcome those barriers, survive, and complete tasks otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to complete without.

It can be found one the web, http://challenging-reality.blogspot.ca/ and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChallengingReality.

Your feedback, comments, suggestions, Facebook "likes" and eventual contributions are greatly appreciated and I invite you to make those locations a place you regularly visit.

I had considered simply sharing it on this website but it grew to many dozens of photos already and I felt that if it was going to be a long lasting archive and resource on the Internet for quadriplegics that it deserved its own home. That is why it has a separate location from this website.

Certainly there will still be activity on here because I will be shooting the things I love, as well. But I feel like the photographs for this project have a much greater, longer-lasting, value than most of what I post here.

Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Thank you.