~ Lightroom Presets ~

I love lightroom. Just downloaded some new presets off the net. Google is your friend. Just look for lightroom presets and you'll find tons of free ones. I so love how lightroom and cs4 work hand in hand to create awesome images.

Here is an edit I did of Kris using a new preset.

Today sure felt like Friday. I cannot wait for the weekend. Hoping to get a chance to shoot more this weekend. I am DYING to go outside with the vagabond and get some shooting done. It's been a LONG winter. Ohhh and for no real reason.....the WEBB SISTERS RULE!!! :) SO DOES COHEN!!! :)
-Randy

~ SPRING FEVER ~

I am so excited, the FLAMES are one and done. As it should be the Calgary Flames choke on it in the playoffs. YAY!!! :)

Now I don't care who wins the cup...if it's not Edmonton it's not worth caring. :) I do want to get out this summer and take lots of really pretty pictures. Jenn asked me to go outside during the weekend snow storm and take a picture of her poor flower as it tried to ignore the snow falling on it.

I think the weather is going to get better and can't wait for things to start turning GREEN. Scary news about this Swine Flu. There is always some nasty thing out there to scare people. SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu now.....just reminders as to how frail we really are as humans and how life is never to be taken for granted. It's sad that people are dying from this. I really hope it does not spread and create more chaos in the lives of people.

Anniversary Weekend | 7 Years

Jenn and I have been married now for 7 years. I surprised Jenn with tickets to Leonard Cohen. He played at Rexall Place last night. At 8pm he took the stage and kept on playing for 3 hours. Jenn and I loved every minute of it. I think the best surprise was hearing the Webb Sisters. They were singing backup for him and also starred in the most emotional song "If it be your Will" which pretty much moved everyone in Rexall with it's beauty. I made sure I bought their music off iTUNES today since the CD was sold out last night at Rexall.

It was a great anniversary. I also got Jenn a Nintendo DSi (blue) and she loved it too. We ended our night at Boston Pizza for some much needed food after the 3 hour concert. Yummy Pizza. Today I am just still feeling happy from all that awesome music.
-Randy

~ Yay It's almost Friday ~

Yay it's Thursday!!! :) Not much to say. Here is an edit of Ashley for fun! :)

Here is an edit of Kris:

~ Random Wednesday ~

Hmmm, just random stuff I thought I'd throw out there:

Fave Toys as a Kid: GI JOE, Matchbox Cars, Playmobile, Lego

Fave Music Growing Up: Areosmith, Def Lep, Beastie Boys, Bon Jovi, Madonna, G&R

Fave Food: It's always been Pizza

My Fears: SNAKES!!!

Saddest Moment in my Life: Learning about death and loss in a personal way, had a sheltie dog named Tiny Tippy Tasha killed by a car when I was in grade 7. My heart has never felt that much pain before.

Happiest Moment in my Life: Marrying Jenn, that day was EPIC in my mind. What ever happens in my life I won't forget the beauty of that day. No one is perfect but that day felt perfect in every way.

Things I like about myself the most: My height, I love being tall. :) 6'7" rocks!!! Being creative, being an artist, I love using my imagination. Being married to Jenn, I got lucky, what can I say.

Thing I dislike most about myself: I am the king of procrastination, I am not in shape, I don't eat healthy, I don't get enough sleep.....hmmmm......I don't have many close friends, should prob work harder at finding some.

Okay enough Random stuff....here are some edits I did of Ash...

No rants today. Today was a good day. I got my Smartboard working at school. The kids really enjoy using it. I watched the Eagle webcam in BC....that was fun. Baby eagles are pretty sweet.

I am looking forward to this weekend. Jenn and I are going to celebrate our anniversary. Feeling good about this weather too....I know it's going to be cool but I know it won't last. This warm weather is coming faster every day.

I spent some time looking at my nature work on my website today. I realize how connected I am to those images. I love shooting people but nature really is fun. Images of flowers have a personal connection to me. Memories of my first trip to Vancouver Island with my 1st Canon camera. An ancient 35mm with a nice telephoto lens. I loved seeing the prints I got at Butchard's Gardens. Some of the shots with a shallow DOF of a beautiful flower were what got me hooked on blurred backgrounds. I love shooting at 2.8 or even 1.8. I think I need to go 1.4 or even 1.2, the more the merrier. :) I pay for it with a lot of wasted out of focus pictures. However the ones that work are what makes me LOVE photography. I think my 50mm 1.8 is still the most fun to shoot with out of all my lenses.

Here is an edit from awhile ago of Ashley outside. Just playing around with older shots as I wait to capture some new ones. Hopefully SOON! :) Anyone want pics? Anyone? I have not shot a person in too long. Besides weddings....I need to shoot some new stuff....it's driving me nutty. :)
-Randy

Society by Eddie Vedder ! This song is GREAT !!

This song sums up how I feel about today.....420 day. I am tired of society being so selfish and wanting crap like pot to be legal. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......drugs suck!!!
-Randy

~ 420 RANT ~

This day ticks me off. 420 the code for pot heads to use to refer to their illegal drug. I know it's a big debate, there are people that say it should be legal. I prefer to take the stance against ALL illegal drugs and even the legal ones like alcohol and smoking of any kind. I wish people could see beyond the "pleasure" that they gain from these drugs. Families of law enforcement officers deserve to have more people stand against drugs. Today in Edmonton Pot heads went down to the leg grounds to "protest". I wish they could visit the graves of lives ruined by drugs. It's such a selfish world. Pro POT people can argue with me all they want about it. I've worked in schools where almost every kid smoked pot. I've seen first hand what it leads to. I am a young teacher and have had too many students buried. Suicide, murder you name it. I've lost too many students to drug related deaths and been witness to so much lost potential due to drugs. I coached basketball and saw how these teens were "brain dead" they had no motivation to excel in sports, school or much of anything. Smoking up was their world and all they desired to do.

It's illegal....not cool......police put their life on the law every day to defend laws that our democratic society makes. Even drugs like alcohol cause larger problems even more so I bet then pot. Everyone can make their choice, but I wish more people would see it for what it is. A waste and dredge on our society.

On a much happier note, I saw some beautiful wildlife of the feathered type on my way to work. I was blessed by seeing a field so full of snow geese, Canada Geese and who knows what else. The sounds were awesome, I plan to YouTube the video clip I took with my G9. It was sweet to see as far as my eye could see, a sea of white birds. It was very cool. :)

~ Vampire ~

I was inspired by a picture I saw on the net to do this edit:

~ Wednesday ~

I am looking forward to summer. I really want to focus on shooting location shots this summer. If I am going to do portraits I want them to be done in some really amazing locations. I want to scout of Edmonton and try and find places to shoot that are unique. I do not want to just flock to the legislature building. That has become overdone in my mind. It's always a mass of people, photographers and usually weddings fighting for locations there. I love the spots to shoot there, but have shot enough there. I want to find locations that really are off the beaten path.

I did get an AlienBee vagabond, which is a portable power supply. I want to use it on location shoots and add artificial lighting to natural light. I feel this combo will create some stunning portraits. I really can't wait until more leaves come out and it turns green. This summer of 2009 is going to be a busy one for my 40D. I hope it burns out and I can convince Jenn to buy me a 5DMII. Or maybe Tammy will throw her 5D my way out of pity. She's a high roller...that's pocket change to her. :)
-Randy

~ Reggie the Dog ~

My friend Tia has a little dog named Reggie. She was showing me this picture of him and I had to share it. She kind of loves this dog and has done what the "Dog Whisperer" dude has said to never do....which is humanize your dog. It's easy to humanize pets, Jenn and I do that with our cats. We forget they have small brains and instincts and like to think of them as advanced life forms that can talk to us. :) Of course the talking is just for our amusement and Jenn and I are constantly making up things our pets would say and trying hard to do them in voices we feel would be appropriate for our cats.

I edited the picture up for Tia and she also told me I should blog this and hopefully someone will want me to photograph their pets for them. SHAMELESS PLUG: Randy Pond Photography will shoot your pet....hehehhe.....okay, that sounds bad. I will however take awesome photographs of your pets and you if you like. Contact me today and the first person to contact me for pet photos gets a free artistic edit of their pet.

~ Holiday Monday ~

Love this warm weather. Just fighting a bad sinus cold and chilling at home, relaxing with my 3 cats and beautiful wife. Here is a new edit from Danni and A.J.'s wedding. :)

~ Happy Easter ~

Well, the computer problem was a false alarm. It works great now. I am fighting a cold...sinus cold....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am hoping to get better, going to rest up today. I am happy that even though Edmonton is out, they beat Calgary in the season series. I think cowtown will be out in 4 straight, heheheh. GO HAWKS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's Easter Sunday, yay, the best part of it is not working tomorrow. Looking forward to resting up and beating this COLD! :)

~ CPU Problems ~

It seems like my little problems with my HP computer are back and this time they look worse then before. I had the power supply replaced....now there is more fan noise and it appears now that it's the CPU fan.....not sure what the cost or damage will be from this problem. I know now that warranty is a joke from HP. Sending it away for 79 days and getting the hard drive wiped is not a great option. If it turns out to be an expensive fix I may have to send it away. Hoping that will not have to be the result.

But just to update everyone:

Randy Pond Photography is on hold due to technical difficulties. I hope to be on track as soon as possible as I know there are people depending on me to get them their photos.

Calgary Flames SUCK!

Even more true!!!

Calgary Flames suck-weird al-you're pitiful

hahahahah

~ ABC Season ~

Well, it's time for every Oiler fan to put away the jersey for next year. Time to dig deep and find that ABC team spirit and cheer like mad for every Oiler fan's 2nd favorite team, Anyone But Calgary. This is the 3rd straight year Edmonton has missed the playoffs, so as an Oiler fan this is my goals for the team for next year: (I am sure no one in Oiler management cares, hehehhe)

• NEW COACH!!!!! Mac-T is awesome, nothing personal but it's time to change this position and shake things up.....do whatever it takes to send a message to players, fans and the rest of the teams that they are not satisfied with losing.
• NEW MANAGEMENT!!!! Kevin Lowe needs to step further away from managing the team, even though he's not the official GM he is still too involved in decisions, he needs to move on too.
• SIGN A TOP FORWARD!!!! Get a #1 franchise style player....don't expect Hemsky to ever be elite....we need a BIG name player.
• GET SOME GRIT!!!!!! The young skilled players are awesome but we need guys that can be tough (not just fighters) to go in corners and get the puck. Hitting, playing on the edge and showing teams that come to Edmonton, that the Oilers are NOT an easy team to play. Too often in the 2008-2009 year, the Oilers looked like the easiest team to play against. Hopefully they can change this in the coming year.

Okay, I blog about the Oilers far too much, hopefully I can blog about Calgary losing and golfing so I can move on to better topics....like photography, summer and so forth. :)

-Randy

~ A.J. and Danni Edits 2009 ~

Here are some new edits for A.J. and Danni's Wedding:

~ Mom and Dad ~

I did a shoot with my Mom and Dad today. It was fun to get some pictures of the two people that had to tolerate me as a kid, teen and now adult. :) They both deserve medals of honor, purple hearts and the like. :)
-Randy

~ Oilers lose again!!! ~

Well, Oilers are NOT good at home, no surprise there this year. It's sad to see them playing so poorly. Well, it means more time for photography and less time to watching the playoffs if this team misses the playoffs this year.

~ Yay Thursday ~

I sure hope the OILERS win tonite, lol....they r so done.

~ Quitting Photography ~

As of today I am selling all of my equipment and making a personal decision to leave the photography world and move on to something new. I would like to pursue something else in life, not sure yet what it will be but photography is not satisfying me anymore. If you are interested in buying my gear send me an email and we can discuss prices.

I hope my friends and family will support my decision and understand that this is for the best for me.

-Randy

PS - APRIL FOOLS :P