Spring on the Golf Course

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Once the Master’s Golf Tournament arrives in April, golfers get itchy to start another season of playing. Waiting for the course to open and playing on frigid days are all part of the Canadian golfer’s spring tradition. As the grass grows and the buds appear on the trees, the courses come out of their dormancy and begin to regain their splendour.  The photo above is #1 at St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. It was taken as the sun peaked over the horizon and began to illuminate the over-cast clouds. This is a lovely photo of a golf course in April, but it will never be printed because the bunker in the foreground is full of foot-prints, taking away from the pristine nature of the course. Golf course photography is what we do – can we do it for you? You can see a full range of our photography at our Geddie Photography website.

Moments in Time

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There’s a major municipal construction project underway in my neighbourhood. Lots of traffic delays, and strange noises during the night. A hundred-year-old bridge is being replaced and the new pieces are going up while the old pieces are coming down. It’s a game of dominos to keep the traffic moving while the construction continues.

We’re into the final stages that involve the erection of a massive arch to suspend the bridge over a major highway and a wide creek. Temporary structures are holding the bridge while the arch is built, piece by piece during the night with the roadways temporarily closed.

I wanted a photo of the bridge to convey the grandeur of the project. Finding the correct vantage point was the challenge and I thought about it over several weeks. As a morning runner, I explore the streets of our town as I plod around on my workouts. Finally, I realized where a path I knew might put me and my camera into the correct position.

So here’s the shot. I think the vantage point is perfect, and so was my timing. I was setting up at sunset, just before the road closures as the crane was moving into position to swing another piece of the arch into position.

One of my photographer friends says, “Photography is all about chasing the light.” He’s correct, but the chase often results in the discovery of a unique perspective.

The Best Camera

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What’s the best camera? The one you have with you!

As a photographer, I’m always agonizing about how much camera equipment to carry with me. You want it all, but that’s usually impractical, so there has to be a selection determined by the shoot, the time and the place.

Fortunately the huge improvement in the iPhone over the past five years means that we always have a camera with us. And if you have seen the iPhone commercials, you know that the iPhone can produce some very good photos, and videos, and panoramas. It’s absolutely amazing.

I amazed myself last weekend while riding on the Toronto ferry. There was the skyline of Toronto in all its glory from a vantage point that was perfect. Didn’t have a Nikon with a wide lens, so pulled out the iPhone and voila, an immediate capture of a great image.

It is possible to capture great photos without a bag full of equipment. The place, the lighting and the view are still more important than the equipment you might use to capture the moment.

New Photo Challenges

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When’s the best time to take a photo of a transport truck? On a cloudy, rainy day, with lots of nice reflections and a great opportunity to see the lights and glimmer from the rig itself.

We’ve been in trucks, around trucks and shooting trucks as they pass by putting together a new website for a large trucking company that ships time-sensitive, temperature-controlled food products. If it’s fresh in your supermarket, it was probably shipped on one of these trucks.

Client projects present new challenges, and working with clients on location is an adventure in inventiveness.

Portraits

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We’ve done many portraits. Executive, middle management and family.

The ideal situation would be to bring the subject into a studio, where you have lots of room, appropriate backgrounds, nearby washroom/makeup mirrors, funky music and great lighting. That’s the way I would like it, but that rarely seems to be the way it works out.

With executive portraits, time is always an issue. In the crazy 9-5 business world, no executive worth his seniority could possibly break away from the daily issues to travel to a studio. And when shooting teams, or factory workers or families, inevitably the only way to get the photos done is to take the studio to them. The mountain to Mohammed.

Over the years we’ve tried lots of ways to make this happen. We have portable light stands, portable umbrellas and other light modifiers, and several external flash units. And backdrops large and small. Everything but a wind machine. It works, but it isn’t a studio.

Recently, after years of deliberation, we made the big move and bought a complete outfit of studio strobes. It’s all Bowens products and it fits beautifully into a custom case. It’s portable if you have a vehicle, but not if you’re going farther than you can drag the wheeled cases. However, despite the increase in size and complexity, we’re completely overcome by the quality of the light and the ease of use. If I’d realized how much easier/better this makes portraiture, I’d have done this years ago.

The quality of images we’ve been achieving is spectacular, and in my view, very professional. The light is infinitely easier to control. And with a flash light-meter and modelling lights, far easier to predict.

The lights are magnificent. We have enough power to light a car-shoot, or to do multiple lights on a large group. It’s so much easier!  And with the camera tethered to a laptop, it’s easier for the clients to review the work in progress. That’s a real plus for everyone.

So portraits? Sure, bring ’em on. We can come to you. Or you can come to us.