~ Jessica and Joel Engagement Shoot ~

~ Jessica and Joel Engagement Photo Shoot ~ (see my professional blog for more images)
I was honored to take some engagement photos of an awesome couple, Jessica and Joel. The weather isn't ideal so we took the shoot to the studio and got some great shots on the white paper background. They are a great looking couple and it was a lot of fun to shoot with them. I am excited to work on the rest of these photos.
It helped take my mind off the Oilers being crushed by the Sabres. Not that I had very high hopes for the Oilers this year anyway. It's great that February is almost here. It'll be a fun month, some holidays, some teacher convention....it'll be good.

~ Monday - Out of Shape - Need Sleep ~

Well, our little school won the recreational ball hockey tournament at EIPS. It was a lot of fun, our team Chix with Stix was awesome. For a team of all ladies + moi and my principal we did great. We had a players that never played hockey before but I do think if you're Canadian it's in your genetic code to play hockey. Some teams we played were mostly men and it was really cool to see our school do some bonding and showing teamwork. But best of all was just how much fun it was. Mind you, the next day was NOT fun for me. I realized my lack of physical activities in the past few years and sports have taken it's toll on my body. I am VERY sore and pretty much every part of my body. I think it's time for me to get serious and start to work out and get myself back in to some kind of shape. The winning team received a golden stick and our school will be rewarded with it at our PD day on Friday. :) It's fun for a small school like ours to get win something like this. Teachers are a competitive bunch and it's a blast when you can claim bragging rights. :) Well, now I get to limp around work today and pretty much feel shame for being so outta shape.

~ COOL Contest ~

Okay, hopefully a few of you photographers that read this blog will join in and enter some work in this wicked cool contest. I am going to try and get an awesome shot entered in to the contest. I already have some awesome ideas. Anyway, hopefully I can get something special shot to enter. Here is what I know about it....it'll probably be on the Oilers website, so check there too.

CONTEST INFO:
What does the spirit of hockey mean to you? Is it the game winning goal, fans covered in body paint, a tireless parent who drives their child to a 6:00 am practice or is it another great hockey moment? Show the Edmonton Oilers what the spirit of hockey means to you in our Spirit of Hockey Contest presented by ATB Financial. Simply submit a photo which represents your interpretation of the spirit of hockey along with a brief description at edmontonoilers.com before noon on February 11, 2007. Three finalists will be chosen and their photos will be posted on edmontonoilers.com for fan voting between February 12th and 15th, 2009. The contest winner will receive two tickets to the ‘Battle of Alberta’ game on February 21st, 2009, two Oilers third jerseys and a $50 Oilers Gift Card. Finalists will all receive a signed Oilers hat.
Visit edmontonoilers.com for full contest details or to enter your submission.

~ The Moment ~

I think that photography is amazing. However it seems there are photographers out there...and yes you know who you are. These photographers are the "technical" nerds, the ones that obsess over lighting and over all the technical aspects of photography. These photogs need to always see sharp images and technically sound photos. Their gear and the lenses they use must be top of the line. I think far too often this type of photographer loses the moment in the quest to get that "perfect" image. I have been learning more that the moment is far more important then the light, the sharpness. Sometimes it's the moment that matters most. Let me explain. I shot a wedding where I had the couple select an image to be printed. She picked an image I liked but when I went to edit it for print. It had a blury area on it that happened do to movement when I shot the picture. There was nothing I could do in photoshop to fix it so I thought it probably wasn't a good image to use. However after looking at it I could see it was a special shot even with that "flaw" and the couple liked the moment in the picture.
I am starting to try and find those moments in my pictures now and hope that I can try not to become obsessive about being one of those technical nerds and allow the pictures to just happen. A few years ago I was doing this shoot and caught the model adjusting her boots and this was not a posed shot. I had my camera ready and snapped this shot. It is one of my faves from the shoot and happened when we were both not really "trying" for anything amazing. It just happened. I think that quest for L glass and great SLR bodies needs to be set aside sometimes and the moments need to be caught. There will always be an amazing SLR on the market, always be great lenses to buy. But those moments come once in a lifetime and it's up to the photographers to catch them. So use a point and shoot, a SLR, a disposable...just catch them.
Oh yeah and Oilers win!!! :)
-Randy

~ Finally No More Bush ~

POLITICAL RANT OF THE DAY: I think the world is going to be quite happy to see Bush ride in to the sunset today. I think in his deluded world he probably thinks he was the saviour of freedom. I do think when he looks in the mirror every day he does not see the man that made horrid mistakes and decisions. There is no doubt he'll live his days out on this earth as a VERY rich man. He'll want for nothing and always have plenty of everything he needs. It's sad to think of the lives he ruined as a leader, the people that were impacted not only in Iraq but many Americans. I think Obama is going to create some change and look forward to where the United States is going to go as a country. Lets hope America has learned it's lesson and can turn the page on the Bush era. Learn from those mistakes and please don't allow a leader like that to ever take office again.

Bush was a great person to spoof, but I'll take a leader like Obama if it means less hilarious Bush quotes and awesome SNL skits. I do think Bush will go down as one of the dumbest presidents, most people realize now what a mistake he was. Today is a great day for freedom, hehehehe, now hopefully Obama can start cleaning up the mess Bush left.

Anderson ROCKS

~ Sleepy Sunday ~

Today is NFL playoff football, I am cheering for the Cardinals vs the Eagles. I am also hoping the Ravens win vs the Steelers. It's also Glen Anderson retirement night at Rexall. The Oilers will hoist his number up and honor him for his years as an Oiler. He was one intense player, who can forget his driving to the net skills and how much fun he was to see play. Anyway, I am off to enjoy this warm day and get some work done.

This pic is of Jenn at Wolfe's place Jamming with her friend Ellen on the weekend. :)

~ Rough Week ~

This was a REALLY tough week for me. Work was rough, just nothing really went as planned. Glad I made it to the weekend. Also glad that the Oilers traded Garron away to the Penguins. Now hopefully the 3 way goalie problems they were having will go away. Not much to say, I'm fighting a nasal cold....(yeah it's gross). Just tired and pretty much feeling winter blues, even though it's warm and sunny today. Looking forward to summer and NOT teaching.

This weekend was a lot of fun. We went curling at the ELK ISLAND ATA CURLING TOURNAMENT in Edmonton. Chandra, Lindsay and Joanne (peeps I work with) were repping LES. We did okay, I am VERY sore and think I was smart to now go in to a life of professional curling as I am NOT very good. :) I had fun though and it was good to get out and socialize with people I work with. I'll have pics to post soon on the curling. For now I need to go do some stuff to prepare for tomorrow. Have fun people.

-Randy

First Week of 2009 Almost Done

I have been listening to some GREAT podcasts on studiolighting.net and loved catching up on the brightest podcast on the net. I got to hear about some awesome new techniques with light, some GREAT ideas and inspiration from listening to these guys talk about their work.
I really can't wait to try some studio stuff out and use some of the lighting techniques. I am really re-energized and WANT to do some more work in the studio. If you've never checked out studio lighting's website go now....it ROCKS!!!!

Episode 13 , Beautiful Photo Studio Portraits w/ One Light

This is also a great refresher video on lighting styles and how cool you can be with just using 1 light. :)
-Randy

Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 2

This is an awesome video to really simplify how to meter and how to set up for using a light meter with your studio lights. I have the sekonic meter in this video and it really helped me understand how to use my studio lights. This video is a good refresher on how to shoot using studio lights. It really gives you SOLID readings and will lock your exposures on every time. :)

Driving Rant

Okay, it's time for me to have a rant, I need to do this for my own therapy so please skip reading this if rants are annoying to you. I am just really getting tired of the drivers I meet on the roads in this province. I am going to be picking on the men, yes my own gender. I am starting to think that this province of Alberta is full of guys that drive rig rocket trucks. Me in my tiny little Echo seem to be a magent for these morons. They fly up behind me and with no regard for their life or mine. These guys act like no one loves them by the way they drive. This whole province seems to be full of beer drinking, 4x4 driving rednecks that grew up thinking men should be jerks and there for they do their best to fit that role every day of their life. I know there are lots of people, including men that don't drive like jerks but sadly this province with it's "oil and money" attract these types of biscuits to Alberta. It seems that these cavemen and their big trucks measure each other by the size of their tires, lift kits and how many ATV's they can fit in their truck. I really wish people could show more respect for others, I seriously find that more and more this world is lacking respect. People are so self centered and interested in going places fast with little regard for their life or the lives of others. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. :) END OF RANT. :)

Nissan 日産 GT-R 0-60mph in 3.3s : World 1st Full Test

I want a car like this...that would be SO COOL, to put this car in to launch mode when leaving school for the day, lol. 0-60 in 3.3 seconds and I'd be home quite fast me thinks. :)
-Randy

2009 | No More Holidays

Well, this is the LAST day of holidays for me.....(insert Randy crying sounds here). Yes, the holidays were awesome and full of fun. Jenn and I loved being able to hang with our friends, our cats and just have some good times. My friend Sonny and I had some extreme gaming sessions to end the holidays. We got each other the game Call of Duty (World at War) for Christmas...he came to visit and we set up our xbox's in the basement. I had the 42" LCD and Sonny was on the TINY 19" LCD and we gamed hardcore till some VERY late hours. Let me say, if life we like the SIMS game my hygene meter got VERY low. We had a ton of fun and I am addicted to that Call of Duty madness. It's so much fun, calling in artillery strikes on the enemy, calling in attack dogs to hunt the enemy down, driving in tanks, it was a ton of fun and I was glad to act like I was a kid again, heheheh. So tomorrow it's back to the real world and responsibilities, stress, and all the fun stuff associated with work. Photography wise I am hoping to post some news in the next few days....weeks about new stuff coming this year from Randy Pond Photography. I'm hoping 2009 will be a successful year for my photography work and I am looking forward to pushing my skills and techniques a lot more to give my work an even stronger look and feel. :)
Okay, it's my last day of holidays so I am going to go chill out and watch football and possibly game a bit more....heheheh. Happy New Year everyone.....yay Oilers for winning in 2009!!
-Randy