Recent Projects - Search and Rescue Dogs

Recently my friends at the Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta (www.sardaa.ca) asked me out for a photo shoot in a building they have access to for training.  Access to buildings is a challenge for their organization.  The University of Alberta stepped in to help offering them the use of the old Dental Pharmacy Building.  This German Sheppard is a certified cadaver dog.  Human teeth, hair and clothing soaked in decomp fluid are used in the training.

Recent Projects - Family Portraits

This couple wanted a photograph to function as the companion to a portrait they'd had taken many years ago.  And of course their dog had to be in it too cuz it's a family portrait after all.  It was a challenging day lighting wise; very bright areas mixed with deep shade.  I used two Canon 580EX strobes camera left and right to even things out, triggered with Pocket Wizard transmitter and receivers.  The photo was taken with my Canon 1Dx using the 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

We'll make this the last in this series of photos of the private residence.

Normally when I photograph a house I withhold the owners name on my blog postings.  This house is so exceptional and with a little internet searching it would be easy to find out who the owners are so I'm going to break the rules this one time.

This house was designed for Mr. and Mrs. John and Barbara Poole.  Bittorf Wensley Architects, Ed Lusis, Contractor.  The drawings for the house are dated 1967.

You can read about the Poole residence at http://maps.edmontonheritage.ca/poole-residence.  You can read an article on the Poole family at: http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/columnists/story.html?id=93255b1c-94cf-4742-884a-115628531ac6

Recent Projects - Private Residence

As delightful as this house is in warm weather, in winter it is absolutely stunning.  When I was around to take this photo I commented to the owner that if I lived here I'd never get anything done - I'd be outside staring at it all the time or hiding out within.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

This is the main entrance to this private residence.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

Houses with pools are not common in Edmonton - indoor pools even less so.  The owners of this house used this pool every day.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

A Hallmark of a Bittorf Wensley house was the constant orientation of the inside to the outside world.  In later houses the frame around a window like this would have been altogether absent as the glass would have been held in place by the cedar wall finish.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

Architectural photographer John Fulker took a photograph similar to this many years ago; it was featured in the Capital Modern Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Alberta a few years ago.  You can see it at: http://capitalmodernedmonton.com/buildings-by-area/poole-residence/

Recent Projects - Private Residence

The Scots have a word for a room such this; it's called an Inglenook which is defined as a nook by a large open fireplace; also: a bench or settle occupying this nook.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

This photograph was taken mid morning on a perfect autumn day.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

This is a view of the rear of the house just after sunset on a cool autumn evening.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

This is the dining room of this private residence.  Getting the white balance and exposure correct on these shots requires planning and effort - plus some experimentation.  The sun was very low in the sky and lighting up the sideboard brightly plus there's the fluorescent light in the kitchen on the distant left.

I used two stobes fire remotely to correct the white balance and did a little blending in photo shop to even our the very bright and very dark areas.  Using the Canon 17mm TSE lens allows me to shoot the bottom and top of the scene in and then I merge the two photos together into one large, square file.  This technique nearly doubles effective megapixels of the camera.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

When I worked in the Wensley office is the late 70s projects were often photographed in black and white.  So this photo is a through back to that era.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

The is the main entrance of the private residence in Edmonton.

Recent Projects - Private Residence

In the mid-1960s one of Edmonton's most prominent architectural firms was Bittorf Wensley Architects.  Don Bittorf and Jim Wensley went their separate ways in the early 1970's.  Both were exemplary practitioners and highly skilled at their craft.  This Bittorf Wensley house is on a large wooded site in one of Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods and was designed for one of Edmonton's most prominent Edmonton families.  The house was put up for sale recently and I was asked to take some photos of it before the keys are turned over.

This is the view of the approach to the front entrance

Recent Projects - Car Dealership

This is the view of the show room from the top of the stairs at Koch Ford Lincoln.

Recent Projects - Car Dealership

By my count this is the 7th car dealership I've photographed in the last couple of years.  This is the new home of Koch Ford Lincoln in south Edmonton.

Recent Projects - Maternity Shoot

Our friend Sheri asked me if I'd be interested in tackling a series of maternity photos.  One should always opt in for a chance to photograph good looking people I think.  This is one of my favourites from this session.

Worlds Fastest Spaniel

The Canon 1Dx shoots at up to 14 frames per second and sounds like an automatic weapon at that capture rate.  I don't use that feature often so when I go back to it I'm usually a little taken aback by just how fast that is.  The camera can be set to various auto-focus scenarios; one of which is for subjects moving in an unpredictable manner - I call this the Welsh Springer Spaniel setting.

Canon 1Dx with Canon 24-70 f/4.0 L lens; ISO 1000, 70mm, f/4.0 @ 1/4000 second.  RAW file edited in Adobe Lightroom for white balance correction, highlights and shadow enhancement, clarity, saturation and tonal adjustment.  Final edit and polishing in Adobe Photoshop.  The subject is my dog 'Banjo' photographed in the Buena Vista Park off-leash are on 2013 October 16.

Remembrance Day

I remember a time when you'd see a car with veterans registration plates on it and the driver was typically an elderly man; a veteran of World Ware II or maybe the Korean war.  Nowadays a car with such a registration plate could just as easily be driven by someone half my age and there's every possibility the driver could be female.

What do you say to someone who has put themselves in harms way for us?  There are no words big enough to express that kind of gratitude.

Photographed at the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in London, August 2013.

Hipstamatic week @ jim Dobie Photography

We'll let this be the last Hipstamatic photo for a while; the thing that struck about this scene was the way the clouds swirled in a way that made it look like they are emerging from behind the trees at the bottom of the frame.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photogrraphy

I am always on the look out for interesting walls that I may one day use as a back drop for a portrait assignment.  I came across this one whilst out on an architectural assignment.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photogrraphy

The way the colours are rendered in this photo are reminiscent of a fine old oil painting.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photogrraphy

The clouds almost look the blast from an explosion in this Hipstamatic photo.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photogrraphy

These mushrooms were standing in fashion that made them look like a little alien family.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photogrraphy

While the results with the Hipstamatic app are always a little bit of a surprise, after a while you get a sense of how it will respond to particular scenes and lighting circumstances.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photography

This rather foreboding image was made just before sunset one evening as I walked the dogs.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photography

Canadian Geese make their way south on an autumn evening.

Hipstamatic Week @ Jim Dobie Photography

Foe the next few days I will post photos taken with the iPhone Hipstamatic.  Here's the first, photographed in a river valley park.

Recent Projects

CD cases are square so you need at least one square format photo.  This was among the last photos we took that day.  Vaughan's music is available on iTunes - search for Vaughan Hoy.