Congrats Tracey and Todd!

Will Pridham would like to congratulate Tracey and Todd on their recent wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a great time! More photos on the way.

Algonquin in the Fall

D700, ISO 400, f11@5s. (70-200mm 2.8, 2 frames)

Morning in Algonquin is a very special time, especially in the fall. The warm and cool air mixes over water to create spectacular misty mornings. Dress warm though as the temperature dips below freezing!

The Opeongo River offers some spectacular scenary. Low valleys are shrouded in mist and ice after a frost.

Pickeral weed and other types of aquatic grasses and sedges provide wildlife forage in the Opeongo system. This tributary is a well known spot for feeding moose (unfortunately none seen). On this particular morning, the mist provided a surreal atmosphere.

D700, ISO 400, f11@10s. (70-200mm 2.8)

The sun breaks through the trees here as it climbs into the sky. These mornings are so beautiful that sometimes the camera becomes secondary and you are left just quietly watching events unfold.

Steam rises off the lake and produces a great effect. These are the moments that the hikes in the dark and cold mornings pay off.

D700, ISO 400, f11@ 1/5s. (70-200mm 2.8)

The following photos are the result of a long hike up the trail to get there for daybreak. It was worth it as the views did not disappoint.

Poplars and maples showed up in stark contrast against a coniferous backdrop as the mist separated me from another peak.

D700, ISO 400, f11@ 1/25s. (70-200mm 2.8, 3 frames DoF stacked)

Two wider views on this plateau offered spectacular scenary of 100's of squared kilometers of Algonquin wilderness.

D700, ISO 400, f11@ 1/40s. (70-200mm 2.8, 3 frames stitched)

D700, ISO 400, f11@ 1/25s. (70-200mm 2.8, 10 frames stitched)

Overall impressions of the trip were as follows:

1. I used the 70-200mm 2.8 more than any other lens. Why? Because the 14-24 and 24-70 were ofter too wide and got foreground elements in the photos I didn't want. What a surprisinly useful landscape lens.

2. Morning in the fall is a much better time for photography than dusk. There is much more spectacular and moody shots available.

3. Didn't use the 14-24mm once this trip. I find it difficult to use properly. You really need the right view and there is much more to consider in the composition. I will need to practice much more with this lens to use it properly.

Nikon D700 and the 70-200 f2.8 VR- At the Haliburton Wolf Centre

All images here were taken at ISO6400 through one-way glass in a controlled environment.

Sunday rolled around and I was just itching to see what this camera could do. Remnants of Hurricane Ike had been hitting us with dark, overcast days and rain showers so it made for an ideal low-light situation. I decided for a trial-by-fire and went up to the Haliburton Wolf Centre, located near West Guilford, Ontario. The location only provided one enclosure to view the wolves from and most of the viewing area was encompassed by moderate canopy cover.

My relevant gear:

- Induro 3 series tripod
- Acrotech GV2 ballhead with quick release plate
- Nikon D700 (with D80 backup)
- 70-200mm 2.8 VR Nikkor

The Camera
I was lucky and the western timberwolves were out near the enclosure. Due to the light available, I needed to up the speed to ISO6400 and shot at wide-0pen most of the time. The images are OUTSTANDING and very comparable to ISO 800 on my D80, the only difference being the colour is much richer out of the Nikon EXPEED chip (good article here by LetsGoDigital). The grain visible can easily be workable in a noise-reduction program such as Noise Ninja. This wasn't what impressed me the most though.

The AF on this baby is jaw-dropping. Nikon's scene recognition system quickly focused on individual moving wolves and it was able to keep tracking through dense foliage. It was easy to keep a focus lock by depressing the available AE-L/AF-L button whenever needed.

The menus were very similar to the D300, though I did find them annoying. I guess when there are so many options available, you're going to need room to put them all. It will take a while to really understand where all the menus are. One thing is for sure though, read the manual thoroughly as some of the most important settings are only available through the custom menus.

The Lens
There's really not much new to write about with this lens as most everything has been examined by others more qualified than me. I will say though, that this lens lives up to all the hype. It produces sharp images that are rich in colour at f2.8 and also creates terrific out-of-focus backgrounds. The VR is a godsend as it will afford you 1-2 stops better than the 80-200 f2.8. One thing that was glaringly apparent was the need for a teleconverter as the 200mm on a FX sensor really lacked the reach that the 200mm would have had on a DX sensor. For my money though, image quality is more important, and the D700 gives you that.

Will Pridham Photography Goes FX!!

Well it was bound to happen, but I finally decided to go FX! After some deliberation at the pro's and con's of each format, the FX-format's terrific low-light ability managed to sway me just enough. Along with the D700, I picked up a several new Nikkor lenses including the 14-24mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, and the lauded 70-200mm f2.8 VR. Preliminary usage with these lenses show terrific potential for shallow depth of field photography as well as providing state-of-the-art low-light wedding photography. All in all, I just feel that I will be able to offer better quality to clients than staying with DX format.

Grunge Patterns and Lomo Effect

I took a couple of photos on the way home from Dorset, Ontario this weekend and decided to give them a slightly different feel. I added some grunge patterns and brushes from the terrific Obsidian Dawn website. I also changed the curve levels of the reds in order to give more of a "lomo" effect.

The lomo effect emphasizes more casual, snapshot style photography. Many of the lomo cameras had fisheye lenses and they were all characterized by oversaturated colours and improper exposures. Do I recommend this all the time? No! However, sometimes it can take a dull photograph and give it a unique nostalgic presence.

Thompson's Marina, Coboconk, Ontario, Canada.
Camera and Lens- $2000.00
Tim Hortons- $1.65
Gas- $45.00

Immaturity of Youth.... Priceless!


"Wrong Turn". Dorset, Ontario, Canada.

Lake Superior Landscape Fine Prints Now Available

Now available for purchase on my website are several new Lake Superior landscapes fine prints. Featured in these prints are the popular "Morning On the Cove", "Morning On the Cove Revisited", and "Fire on the Point". Each print can either be purchased without borders or on a white or black border for mounting.

Each print is printed on Kodak Professional ENDURA paper for long life and maximum finish. The lustre finish allows for the high saturation and colour quality of glossy, but without the glare of glossy paper. My Print Gallery can be found here.

Lindsay British Car Show 2008

The family and I had some time to kill this Sunday morning, so we headed on down to the Lindsay British Car Show (also called Classics On Kent) at Memorial Park in Lindsay, Ontario. I know about as much about cars as I do about astrophysics, so I hope no one gets offended at the fact that I'm not naming the models!

Anyway, below are some photos I promised to post. Head on down to the Lindsay British Car Show Photo Gallery for more photos. These great machines seemed to have everyone back in simpler times.


I thought about naming the next photography "Hotdogs and Dreams". Now I'm not sure I would be brave enough to do this, but....


Like I said in the above text, check out the gallery for more pics!

Sudbury Superstack

"The girls are out to Bingo and the boys are gettin' stinko,
And we think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night."
- Stompin' Tom Connors

Sudbury, a boom-and-bust town at the gateway to northern Ontario, has long been considered on of the icons of blue-collar. On the way back from Lake Superior, I took this shot of the stack against the a wall of clouds. INCO is one of the worlds largest nickel producers. This "superstack" sends all polluntants into the sky high enough so it bypasses Canada and heads out across the Atlantic. It's our little gift to Europe.

This is a good follow-up as an example from my "Emulating Black and White" post a while back.

More b&w from the trip here.

All About Pets Show 2008- Toronto International Centre

This is a little late coming, but I figured I’ll post it because it was such a good time. I had to pleasure of working with Terrie deMarchi of Lakeview Productions at the All About Pets Show this past March in Toronto. What a success! It seemed like all of Toronto was present at the show. I would like to thank everyone who came to the show and stopped at my booth.
here are some wide angle shots of all the actions in the isles:

O.K... I was kidding. All of Toronto wasn't there, but all of Toronto could see it on the television. CITY TV was present, as was the Pet Network. Exhibitors got to expose their products to a greater audience than just the show.

What would the pet show be without all the animals! Everything from dogs to cats, to even reptiles, amphibians and birds were present. All these animals presents unique challenges to a photographer, especially with the low lighting in the International Centre.

These wonderful animals provided unique photo opportunities with their owners! I was shooting on full manual mode with manual lenses, so those white balances were tricky. Shooting RAW format was definitely something I would recommend in this situation.

Below is the Winterhaven Kennels booth. The kids loved their show-winning Pomeranians.

Sometimes people got to dress up like animals. Thanks to the Pet Network's exhibit, kids got to strut their stuff with their face painted like their favourite animal.

I even got to meet a celebrity! Maggie, the spokesdog for Cesar gourmet dog and cat foods was present and giving autographs.

World famous dog behaviour specialist, Dr. Stanley Coren was present also, and gave everyone in the stands a lesson in humility. He was an engaging and energetic speaker that kept the crowd on the edge of their seat.

By the end of the third day, everyone was exhausted. Its hard work putting on such a successful show!!! They should try being the photographer (kidding). My feet had blisters on them (not kidding). Near the end of the day all the key sponsors and Terrie deMarchi from Lakeview Productions got together for a "family" photo.

Ominous Gas Prices...

Took the same shot I presented in the previous post and decided to have some more fun with it. Maybe I should preset it to ESSO as a reminder of an ominous future.

Waiting for the dentist...

I took this photo this previous winter while on a trip to see the dentist. Just a funky shot with a whole lot of curves and tonemapping. Keeps up the photoshop skills!

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Rural Landscape

After adding a little snap for the printer, this is the second version:
The sky is still a little washed out.... soooo....

I went back to same spot I was during the previous post and decided to give it a go with Photomatix Pro (tonemapping and HDR software). The trick was to make this as realistic as possible while exposing all the detail in the shadows. Objectively looking at the shot now, I may re-process the image with a slight bit more contrast.

I find Photoshop CS3's HDR function not quite as good as Photomatix. Photoshop tends to really soften the image and requires much more sharpening work than Photomatix does. Colours don't seem to come out quite as vibrant for me.

According to famous wildlife and landscape photographer Bryan Peterson, in order to get full dynamic and tonal ranges, you need to bracket an HDR to the extreme limits. I usually shoot a minimum of 5 shots, with as much as 8. Two of the shots will be extremely underexposed (almost no light at all) and overexposed (almost no dark at all). One will be the correct exposure and the other two about half-way between the extreme exposures. Usually EV compensation on a camera is NOT enough to get all detail. One thing I have noticed though, is that the more exposures you blend, the softer the image gets.

Colour vs Black-and-White?

I took a drive this evening as the sun was shining on the fields. It's tough to get good photos were I live because it can be very flat. Luckily, I found a nice spot as I rounded a corner on a dirt road.

I like how the light coming from the west is filtering through the trees and adding shadows across the fields. This gives the appearance of depth in the photo. My only regrets are that the house on the right is slightly cut-off (due to some trees in the way) and the large pine in the background is cut-off.

Post-processing of this photo include the usuage of some blue and yellow graduated filters to bring out the blue sky and the yellows in the field. Also, a #85 Amber filter was used in order to tone down the greens. Usually, evening light over farm fields doesn't produce rich greens unless it has rained. For the black and white version, post-processing included the above and then converting to AgfaPan type b&w and implementing a red filter to really bring out the contrast in colour in the fields. This was discussed in my "Emulating Black and White" post.