Ode to the Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens

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About 3 years ago when I decided to start taking my shooting seriously, I also decided that I was going to need a fisheye lens. What action sports photographer doesnt have a fisheye right? Being a Canon shooter gave me two options, the Canon 15mm Fisheye or the Sigma 15mm Fisheye. At the time I remember reading something posted on the website Wheels And Wax.com saying that the two were nearly identical in image quality. I had just bought a 70-200 2.8L IS so I though i’d save the money and buy my one and only non-canon lens with the …

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SIA Vegas – Tradeshow Banners

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The annual ski industry trade show, SIA, has been and gone in Las Vegas last week. I wasn’t there myself but here is a few photos of some of my photos that were used at the show in various booths. All the original shots were taken with the 8 megapixel Canon 1DMKIIN. So if you every wandered how big you could blow up these photos , check it out!

Winter gloves for photographers – The POW Photog

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Another question that comes up quite often from readers of this blog and visitors to my site is “what gloves do you wear when you are shooting in the snow?” I’ve seen this question discussed on several other photography websites too, it’s not just ski and snowboard photogs who are in need of a decent pair of winter shooting gloves. Of course the problem is that we want to stay warm but also retain the use of our finger tips for operating the camera controls and most importantly, the shutter button. Wearing a think pair of winter gloves, it’s all …

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Behind the Shot: Lake Wakatipu Long Lens

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An instantly recognizable scene for anyone that happens to have driven this road south of Queenstown in New Zealand. As landscape photography locations go, it’s an easy one to get to since it’s right on the side of the highway. The main reason I wanted to include this photo is to share a side-by-side comparison with this main photo, and another that was taken in the exact same location using a wide angle lens. I find that a lot of people tend to gravitate towards wide angle shots for landscape images, and whilst it’s true that they work best for …

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What kind of memory cards do I use?

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Here’s a quick post on a question I get asked quite often. What kind of memory cards do I use? I exclusively use the Sandisk Extreme III memory cards. When I first got into photography I had the 2GB vesrsions of this card and I have never experienced a single failure. I think it’s safe to say that most photographers pick one type of card and unless they experience any failures, most likely stick with that type/brand for a very long time. The thing that initially attracted me to these cards was that they are rated down to -25 degrees …

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I’m back – but where have I been……?

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The lack of updates over the last few weeks might lead you to believe that I have been off adventuring round the world chasing snow storms….not quite. It’s been a strange winter here in British Columbia. The snow didn’t really come in November and December leaving the mountains still looking like mountain bike resorts. A lot of my plans went down the plughole and I was left twiddling my thumbs for a few weeks. Then on December 26th Vancouver received nearly 60cm of snow (though nearby Whistler got only a couple of inches). With more snow than Vancouver had ever …

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Deep Winter Photo Challenge – The Aftermath

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A couple of months ago I was invited to take part in the Deep Winter photo challenge here in Whistler, BC. The idea behind the competition is that 5 invited photographers assemble a team of riders to shoot with for 3 days and the resulting photos are combined into a slideshow of approximately 3 minutes. The shows are judged by a panel of photo editors from various magazines and all the shows are played to a crowd of hundreds of people at one of the hotels in Whistler. We shot the photos between the 6th and 8th of January and …

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Backup Backup Backup.

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I thought I should wirte a quick post on the importance of backing up your files and photos from your computer. I’m writing this from an internet cafe, the hard drive from my computer has terminally failed for the second time in less that 12 months. Hard disks are mechanical, all mechanical things will eventually fail, theres no question of that. Its just a matter of time. When will they fail? For the most part you can never tell, but they will, trust me. Now, im not panicking about this, I am very careful about backing up my files so …

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5DMKII – Quick video test

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The snow has been falling in Vancouver, and that means its time to shoot urban! I took a break from shooting stills yesterday though to film for a couple of minutes with my 5DMKII to see just what sort of video you can get with fast moving subjects and panning. I think I have a lot to learn about video if i’m to put it to good use. As usual, pointing a camera at a snowy scene provides less than stellar results from autoexposure mechanisms. Snow is typically rendered 2/3 of a stop or more underexposed as the camera exposes …

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UpDown Magazine feature and portfolio

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A couple of months ago I was interviewed by a writer from the UpDown Magazine. A Canadian magazine available in Montreal,Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary areas that explores the arts and culture of life on the snow. These were the photos that were also featured in the magazine:

Deep Winter Photo Challenge

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I’m pleased to announce that I have been chosen to take part in the Arcteryx Deep Winter Photo Challenge!