~ 274/365 School ~

274/365
Going to see the Indigo Girls tonight in St.Albert.  The Oilers start another season.  This is the school I teach in.....good old Vegreville Comp!!!
-Randy

~ 235/365 Leaving the Badlands ~

235/365
© www.randypond.ca
Packed up the camp and headed for home.  Stopped to take this shot at a lookout not far from where the campground was.  Great few days of adventuring around the badlands snapping photos. -Randy

~ 106/365 Sunset Walk ~

106/365
Went for a walk with Jenn and we saw the sun setting, so decided to make this my pic of the day. :)  Warm day, finally nice to be outside and enjoying some spring like weather. -Randy PS- Processed this on LR5 beta and I am really digging it.

~ 64/365 Gross Winter mix with Spring Day ~

64/365
Just a gross time of year....today was GROSS, if you're not sure why just trust me it was.  If you wanna know feel free to ask me privately.  However the snow is melting and exposing all the dirt and getting ready for spring.  Always a bleh time of year.  This shot is just to show the balance of melting and winter that is happening. -Randy

~ 32/365 Big Church ~

32/365
1 month down, 11 to go.......decided to drive down the street and shoot this big silver dome church that we have lived nearby for years.  Love the distortion from the wide angle.  :)  Can finally see it nice and juicy on full frame. :) -Randy

~ 14/365 An Apple a Day ~

Today was a good old Monday, feeling tired and just wanting to get it over with.  Got home and was not sure what would be my picture of the day.  Seeing this bowl of apples just seemed perfect, nice and easy.  So I set up to shoot an HDR, shot 7 exposures for this shot.  Then edited it using photomatix pro.  Added some presets in lightroom and here is the 14th picture of 2013.

Random Friday Thoughts

Well, it was a really tough week for me and here I am on Friday feeling kind of sad.  There are some amazing things for me to feel happy about, but I am just feeling a bit down and out and gut kicked.  Definitely need to do something soon to get myself out of this mood.  I really think a photo shoot would do that but sadly I don't have any plans to shoot this weekend.  I think I will venture out at some point with my camera and shoot some nature/life.  Even if it just the cats.  I think I might be in a strong need of stepping away from portrait work and just do more nature/life for awhile.  I am having a hard time dealing with people lately.  Just feeling under appreciated from people these days.  I know it is just the mood I am in, but I really feel like moving in to a cabin in the wild and ceasing contact with people....hehehhe.....I just think I am almost at a breaking point with my patience.

The good news is it's Friday and I can work out my issues and hopefully get re-focused and ready to rock with a more positive attitude for Monday.  I am excited for some upcoming photography work and new people to work with.  I am fortunate to have some amazing friends and yet it's the flake friends and shallow people that I am allowing to drag my feelings down.  I need to put my blinders on some days and FB and ignore some of the things I see.  Either that or delete some "friends" that do not fit the true definition of a friend.  Sad part is if I deleted all the FB "friends" I might be only left with 5 or 6, hehehhe and I do like to share my photography with people so I'd be losing that enjoyment I get over sharing my work with people.  I guess there are lots of other places to share my work and maybe I should consider having an extended break from FB in an attempt to re-gain some of my sanity from dealing with some of the craziness there.  In a world where everyone is connected with social media and technology it seems strange a person can feel so alone.  I think I am in that boat lately and it sucks.

Okay, enough of this pity party blog......I'm going to switch on positive mode now and put my smile on even if it's a tough act.  I'll post some recent pictures taken out in the local country side.  :) Enjoy and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :) :)

~ SPRING ~

Spring is here and I am excited to go out with my camera.  Not going to write much, just share some current spring time images from recent adventures with my camera.

~ 100/365 Church ~

Hit the 100 mark on my 365. I have enjoyed this a lot. Some of my face 365 shooters are:

SOME other 365 shooters

Olga: She is a SUPER awesome photographer. Love her ideas and her images of nature and life inspire me. She obviously sees beauty in this world and captures it with her camera. I am a BIG fan.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37470369@N07/

Owen: he challenged me to so this 365 project and does awesome shots every day, not sure how he does it but he rocks. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40106711@N04/

~ Shandro Area Church ~

This picture was taken in the Shandro area, near Andrew. I am shooting a wedding there this summer. I went out to scout the location and snapped this shot. Today was a good day, got my passport application in, now wait 2 weeks to get it. Jenn and I attended Harry Potter, GOOD MOVIE!!! The theater staff in Sherwood Park were all dressed up as characters from the movie, that was pretty cool. :)

Photography Mentor

For photographers intersted in sharing and learning more about photography from other photographers, check out this cool website. It was shared with me by Smileyeyes and has some cool features. You can have your work critiqued by your peers and there is also live interviews done with professional photographers. I have not had much time to do much on the site but it sure looks interesting and possibly helpful. :) Here it is photography mentor.

It's hard to believe Christmas is so close...such a busy time of year for a lot of people. Stressful too, with people shopping, making travel plans to be with families. It sure is easy to get lost in the confusion and mad hustle. I am looking forward to just having time with Jenn and our 3 cats. Yesterday was fun, Nestor came by to visit and watched the Grey Cup with me. It was Finnigan, Nestor and me, the 3 dudes, watching the game. Finnigan is just a cool cat, loves to chill out. I also got 2 achievements on NBA 2k8, versus my buddy Nestor. Kobe Bryant's and Kevin Garnett's. I'd like to get NBA 2k9 so Nestor and I can continue our rivalry in the next edition of basketball.

It's a very busy week ahead and I sure hope to stay away from getting sick. I will have to drink a ton of water today and just have lots of sleep. Anyway, not much is new, had a maternity shoot cancelled on the weekend so I am kind of slowing down the photography. I am excited to be doing a photo shoot coming up of a Dodge Viper. That will be very cool...it's a portrait session...more details to come and hopefully some pictures. Other then that NOT a whole lot on the photography front for moi. Just a lot of things to wrap up from previous shoots and always edits to do, I could never run our of material to edit. Mass hard drives full of images, sitting and waiting for me to work on. I am not sure how other photographers are but I never get to edit even half of the shots I would like to.

HDR Photography

HDR Images are amazing. They really fascinate me and I think I am REALLY going to try and capture some images and play around with HDR in the near future more. It allows for some really interesting images that a camera just can't do with one image. However taking multiple exposures and blending them together is interesting and can lead to some pretty cool results.

Nathan Elson has some cool examples of buildings he shot in Calgary on his blog. He did some amazing shots there and I am hoping to get some good results as well. I'll maybe post some examples here or on my website should I get some worthy shots worth sharing. :)

Well, Calgary won last night, grrrrrrrrrr, so much for the sweep. Just hoping it's over in 5 or 6 and the Sharks win! :) This picture is of Cory Cardinal (best bud) and Chris Jericho (WWE Superstar) and moi (tall goofy guy) - Cory won tickets to a WWE PPV in Edmonton from the Edmonton Sun. We got to meet Chris Jericho and Victoria (women's champ) and get pics and autographs. It was right after Wrestlemania when Chris Bennoit (RIP) won.

-Randy