First Rink Shoot

Yesterday, I woke up bright and early before College and joined the AMAZING skaters at Mariposa. I know a few of them, and they said that they would be delighted to help out with my personal portfolio (and they knew they could get some cool shots too!).

The shoot started out with a very warm welcome from all the skaters on the ice. From young to old, their spirit was absolutely breathtaking, as they both trained, yet  played hard as well. They glided across the ice just like birds on a warm summer's day.

They were all excellent, and very photogenic. Camera wise, the rink is a mess trying to get a decent shot. The lighting is horrible and skaters move very fast, which is a terrible combination for photos. As I described to the skaters about the situation, they seemed surprised how hard it was. They pointed to the lights above and said that it was very bring in the rink. That maybe so to the human eye, but not to an SLR camera. Since the skaters were moving so fast, I had to change the shutter speed so it was going very fast (around 1/500 of a second) But since the shutter was moving faster (so they wouldn't be blurry) there was less light coming into the lens, so I had to raise the ISO (the sensitivity of the camera in regards to light), however, a greater ISO means more fuzziness, so I needed to find the right balance (which turned out to be a shutter speed of 1/500 and an ISO of around 800). I shot in both JPEG and RAW formats, so it would be easier to edit most shots.

 After just over an hour of fun, I believed I got my shots. I still cannot believe that such an amazing place is so near, yet I never spent time at the rink. A small yet important lesson learned.

In the end, the shots turned out, and many friends were made. I spent an hour or two fixing the salvageable shots up and uploaded them to Facebook for the skaters and my website. I learned that RAW makes it so I don't have to worry 'too' much about the lighting in the rink, however, I learned a lot in regards to both the camera (and different lenses and filters I used) as well as the social and editing aspects of photography.

I can't wait for next time!


All of the new photos can be found at http://www.henrybailliebrown.com/sports.html

An amazing practice.

Getting on a New Aircraft (DA-40)

Hopefully tomorrow (If the weather holds up!) I will be flying the DA-40 for the first time. I have so far been rated in a few gliders, Learned to fly in a DA-20 and have flown a C-172 for a year now. I am very excited for this new experience, and cannot wait for the stories I will have to share.

I have been studying the aircraft for a while now: checklists, the 'red' pages, airspeeds, systems, etc... I feel a little odd about being able to "feather" the propeller, but I feel I will manage just fine with a little practice. Best of all, the aircraft that I will be flying out of Collingwood has a G1000 glass cockpit - even newer than the G500 glass cockpit and normal steam gages that I am used to. I cannot wait to get flying! Here's hoping that the weather holds up for us!

A Watermark that is a little "too" good.

While still constructing my portfolio site henrybailliebrown.com, I recently redesigned my watermark that I put onto my photos that I post on my site. Before I changed the watermark, it was a nice red "Henry Baillie-Brown" with some red paint dabs in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Seeing a few other photos with the "new 'x' design", I decided to change it due to the rise in copyright issues on the internet. I feel a lot more safer with the new watermark, yet I feel like it is affecting the actual photo now. My father says that it does not look professional anymore, and can tell that I am paranoid, but it gives me security knowing that no matter what, people cannot simply crop out my name anymore.

How the new watermark works. As seen in one of my photos.

I feel as though I am at a crossroads, especially since I want to extend my portfolio into other places such as Flicker and DeviantArt. I am starting to lean to go back to the old one so viewers can enjoy the photos more. Only a little more thought will tell.

Canadian Olympic Skating Team is Ready for the Olympics!

This year marks the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, and many of my friends, family and I are excited for the Canadian Skating Team!

I am very fortunate to have many, many friends involved with Mariposa, the Canadian skating community. With the Canadian Olympic Team being announced just yesterday, the pair skating duo Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam made the team! (From Mariposa and know them). The Canadian Skating team is very young this year, yet marks remarkable opportunity with such amazing youth competing. The torch has indeed, been passed down to the next generation of Canadian Athletes. 

Check Out the Official Skate Canada Site here!

They have all worked so incredibly hard, and it is AMAZING to see athletes that I know from my hometown being involved. My many skating friends, as well as my friends and family are so amazed and happy for all of the athletes who made the cut for the Olympic team. I feel so very fortunate to be connected to the Olympics through friends.

Alex and Mitch recently became Bronze medalists within all of Canada!

The image above is from their Tumblr account located here.

Best of luck, everyone! Bonne Chance, and GO FOR GOLD! GO CANADA GO! :^D

Why So hard? - A Story of Motivation During the "Winter Brain-fart"

Have you ever said you wanted to do something, but never got around to it? It is indeed a very annoying feeling. When you have the same word file, task, idea, etc.. for days on end, practically sitting in front of you, yet procrastination, laziness or just general avoidance takes over.

It really is a weird concept. If I want to do something so badly (such as writing a story) why then does it take so much effort and motivation to even start it - let alone stick with it?

It is a phenomenon seen much this time of year, but I personally feel affected by this "mini-plauge" of the winter brain-fart.

Besides this post, things have not been the most exciting or productive. Hopefully, being active again and sticking at it will get me out of this darn loop soon!

Have a good day, all!

;^)

Funding Cutbacks in Cadets Canada

An old photo of me and fellow Cadet friends with our winter Cadet parkas, a soon to be extinct uniform part.

With budget cuts across the board, the Cadets are once again affected. Now, cadets are only going to receive ONLY one uniform, and that is it. No more PT gear (gray cadet gear such as shirts and shorts), no more running shoes and most surprisingly, no more parkas. The last one really surprised me. Sea, Air and Army cadets throughout Canada operate all year around, and they are losing so much. The organization is run out of love for the program, and many volunteers as well. I know for a fact that my old squadron and it's sponsoring committee has some of the greatest volunteers out there, and now, after all of their hard work, they can no longer warm their cadets because Harper wants to spend millions of dollars on his election ads instead of parkas for Cadets across Canada.

While the effects of the cuts are actually from the Department of Defense (DND) they are indeed cut from the reduced DND funding from the government, which, could have vocalized its support for the Cadets program; a youth program which indeed creates amazing new generations of aspiring Canadians.

Both myself, as well as many other fellow retired Cadets are saddened by the recent years' decline in many fields of the cadet program, and wish that the next generation will be able to experience those amazing adventures we were able to experience. I encourage you to write to your MP if you live in Canada, and help support Cadets Canada.

After being involved with it for more than 7 years in my life, I still make connections through the program, and will always be, inside, a proud cadet.

Carry on.