Location (approx.): 46.957°N, -84.660°W (map) Alt: ???.?m
	Photo Date: 25 May, 2009
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/14, 1/125"
	Focal Length: 14mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Landscape / Cityscape Pictures

Pancake Bay, Ontario

Living life on the North Eastern shore of the greatest of Great Lakes. Superior certainly earns it's name well, but my heart still belongs to Huron. Camped here for a bit at the banks of a beautiful little stream that met Lake Superior with a tiy waterfall. Picturesque doesn't quite cover it.
Given that there was a blizzard up here only a week before, the Provincial Park was more or less empty ... save for a few trailer folk that seemed to be kicking out their signs to spend the summer here.

There is nothing quite like watching the sunset on Superior. When the sun sets it turns the distant horizon into a thin red line and the water lights up with rose and sparkle. By the time the starts have come out, you realize that all the meaningless tripe we deal with day in and day out, all our issues, all our problems, don't mean squat in the grand scheme of the universe and we're just a tiny dot out on one of the edges.
Very grounding.

If you feel life is starting to get beyond you, I'd recommend heading up here to let it stop for a few days and learn the lessons and wisdom of Gichigami ... assuming you don't find it crazy to talk to the Big Waters.
Hell, I'll even drive you there!

Location: 46.199948°N, -82.455371°W (map) Alt: 149.7m
	Photo Date: 13 April, 2009
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/8, 1/160"
	Focal Length: 14mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Landscape / Cityscape Pictures

Aird Bay, Ontario

Spring has only barely kissed the Northern shores of the Huron. Bare inches separate the shore from the ice packs here.

Taken near Serpent River; Aird Bay on the North Channel.

	Photo Date: 6 April, 2009
	ISO: 400
	Aperture/Shutter: F/8, 1/320"
	Focal Length: 37mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510

I finally bid a farewell to my tenure in York Region and our Richmond Hill office. It was fun, but the commute was a little draining day in and day out (something about 4+ hours of travel daily and not really going anywhere). I was certainly looking forward to some peaceful 15-20 minute morning jaunts to the office ... but ... that naturally didn't happen.
At least it won't be happening right away.
It appears that Sault Ste Marie has come looking for my services due to some layered issues they are having. Given the blizzard we are having, I figure "how much worse can it really be?".

Read More...

Yeah, yeah. Long time no post ....
Long days and getting home after 7 is like that. Also no pictures due to the -30 degree weather we've been having. Both my ass and my camera have been reluctant to venture forth.

Anyways ...
It was thoroughly satisfying to see the Pope of Ontario, John Tory , take yet another nose dive into his ass this morning. I can't believe the effort this guy has gone to in order to ensure the Liberals maintain power. I swear he's on the payroll of McSquinty as a corporate level danglie-twiddler.
After his third successful attempt to sabotage his party (fourth if you count that religion in schools thing ... five if you consider his leadership campaign), he's finally getting the message that we don't like him.
This round, the bi-election has cost his party an heirloom seat in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock (formerly held by Laurie Scott). Apparently her father was an MP in the area for nearly 30 years and this was a PC stronghold since '94.
Nice job.
I am genuinely curious though, did he really figure out that Ontariates think he's a douche, has he run out of MPP's willing to give up seats to the Liberals, or is there simply a mob forming outside his window led by Christine Elliott.
At the very least, I hope it was a pleasant slap in the nuts for politicians trying to return god-fearing religions to schools.

"Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed." - Don Wood

Proof positive that white collared priests are still no match for angry monkeys bearing monoliths.
... Then again, why let a little thing like facts get in the way of the poor judgement of the godly devout?

(for more information be sure to check out the WikiHow article on "How to Avoid Becoming a Religious Zealot")

Location: ??.????? °N, -??.????? °W Alt: ???.?m
Sell photos on photrade | By R_Skelton	Photo Date: 1 October, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/5.2, 1/160"
	Focal Length: 33mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Miscellaneous Pictures

Well, the new job has certainly eaten up all of my time over the last couple of weeks, making it hard to find time to sleep, let alone blog or play my poor neglected Wii.
I think this is the first time in ... well, possibly ever, that I don't really have time for a weekend becuase there's too much work to do.
Crazy!
I suspect this will mean continued reduced posting until I wrap my head around things, but I'll get out at least one or two a week.
I'm also toying with the idea of storing all my photos on Photrade to conserve space and possibly promote actually selling images (see sample above!). If you're local and would like any of the shots, contact me directly. Local printing is far more affordable on prints up to 8"x10". That said, by posting on Photrade, my pictures are available for use in other blogs (actually this has been the case for a while, if you ever bother to slog through my TOU). Simply hit my Photrade page, find a pic you like and click the 'Share' button. Switch to the 'Blog' tab and copy the code into your post.
Easy!
Colour for you blog without wasting time to become a photographer. I'll have more posted there as time goes by and I'll be focusing on bringing some more generic shots out that work well in conjunction with blogs but not so well on their own on a phot site like I tend to focus on.
As you can see, the advertising is reasonably minimal and you don't need to waste space mirroring the images on your own server (settings shown: size small, no border).

Should you be the one person that hasn't heard of my self betrayal and defection to Facebook, I can now be stalked on there as well.

Location: 43.822624°N, -79.182495°W Alt: 102.9m
	Photo Date: 21 June, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/4.3, 1/160"
	Focal Length: 134mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Flora and Fauna Pictures

Although it might be a wallabe ...

So what have we done so far?
Adjusting lighting, colours and even venturing into the realms of Black and White or Sepia.
Ok. So what can we use this for ... other then the exciting world of envelopes?
Well, the processes are valid for just about any shot. Since people tend to pick up or portray colours badly in poor lighting, lets go with that ...

Location: ??.????°N, -??.????°W Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 1 October, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/5.6, 1/8"
	Focal Length: 40mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: None

Here, we can see that I'm working hard at my desk. The clean background and subtle hint of tone makes for a reasonable portrait ... and not badly done as a blind shot either, I might add. It's amazing what you can do with a rough eyeball of a scene and a timer ...
Anyways, as this shot was taken only inches away from the previous two (here and here), it still suffers from the same long exposure times and crap lights. Now, in my case, getting the subject to remain still for a slightly longer period of time was no biggie, however you will need to take that into account for your shots. An eighth of a second is a surprisingly long period of time when you're actually paying attention.
Since I've already made the corrections for lighting etc here twice before, I've saved the pattern as an Action in Photoshop (I'm sure you can look up how to do that if you're clueless on the fiddlies), so it's a simple matter of running the action script and waiting a few seconds.
Now, because this is a portrait, you will find a few minor details may need to be adjusted. Typically (but not always) you will find that a slightly lower then average Contrast level will give you a more human looking shot. Also, I've added a slight diffusion to the image, which helps to smooth the skin, making the person look slightly younger and more healthy (your subjects will appreciate the thought, I'm sure).
Also, to clean up the image slightly, I've removed a somewhat distracting poster from the background. There have been no truer words in photography then "What does not add to the picture, takes away".
Below you can see the initial dismal image:

Bland, isn't it?
Note that now I have the pattern for the initial corrections and general maintenence scripted, the total time for processing this shot was less then 20 seconds.
It's worth recording if you're doing any more then 3 or 4 shots, even if you delete the process shortly there after.