Back in 2007 I made what can only be called as one of the best road trips around, (I need to find a road to beat it), where I took a relaxed drive looking at the beautiful countryside of Canada.

Landing in Calgary, Canada. I was very close to being sent packing as my passport picture had a door frame in the background, the background had to be a solid colour.. grrr but they let me in…

From there on I took my hire car for a memorable trip to the Canadian Rockies, heading west out of Calgary on the highway 40 until you hit highway 93, at this point it changes from flat land to huge mountains with picturesque lakes along the drive up to Jasper, I split the trip into a few days worth of travel stopping at Banff and Jasper for a few days each.

In the end I have too many great pictures to post but a few of the special memories are shown below. Starting at the south of highway 93 and heading north.

The first picture is of the cascade ponds just outside Banff, early one morning as the freezing night is being burnt away at sunrise. It was cold and a very early wake up, but sooo worth it.

Picture number two is of Peyto lake, yes its that colour, such a vivid and bright colour for a stretch of water. And quite a view as you have a purpose built viewing point a little distance from the road on the drive north to Jasper.

Picture 3 is from just outside Jasper as the northern end of highway 93, a place called cottonwood slough, a place you can easily miss and on the day had the most perfect reflections and clouds overlooking the marsh land and a mini lake.

The next picture is just a mile up the road at Pyramid lake, given because of the mountains that overlook the lake. The wind was up and down all day but a 30minute wait produced the near mirror perfect reflection and another stunning view.

The last picture is from my drive back south and again is of Peyto lake again to give a bit of comparison as to how good the weather was on my drive up. This time Peyto lake with clouds.

Overall my trip to Canada was a success, I enjoyed it so much after all the expectations I had built up for the trip. But I have unfinished business and need to return to Canada and drive from Calgary to the west coast and visit a few more places on the way. I think I could spend weeks and not see all I want to. And maybe one day I will.

In the future I will post a different set of pictures from the trip, the animals and a bit more on the Rockies themselves, not just the lakes that you pass on the drive, not that I have posted all the lakes I visited, far from it, but 5 pictures was more than enough for now.

Andy

Its like getting blood out of a stone taking pictures of Nephews (Nathan and Jake), midday and still they are still not awake after a night on the town. But managed to get a couple of decent pictures out in a field in the country side away from too many distractions in the backgroud, along with  little fun on the bike in a local field.

The first two are of the eldest Nathan followed by the younger taller Jake.

As he rode up on his bike I had to take a picture of him showing off on one wheel as he went along the field.

Andy

A few sample images taken in a house not a studio. I try and take all the equipment I need to make them look clean and studio like but fun and relaxed. The result was a nice relaxed enviroment and a set of photographs taken in a home where people feel more relaxed, the bright lights of a studio can change how people act for no reason if they are not used to it.

full colour image

soft look image

clean white studio look

colour saturation changed

black and white effect

colour saturation changed.

Just a small collection of the photographs taken on the afternoon showing some of the different effects that can be obtained from on location in a house.

Andy

Yes, as the title gives away this is all about cars.

This year (2nd Aug 2009) I made it to watch the British Touring Cars again at Snetterton race circuit. In my youth many years ago this used to be a yearly trip, but I had a rather long hiatus in going. But I made it in the end. Again I ended up being out on a hot summers day in the UK, and long may they continue.

Having not been for a while I had forgotten how fast they go from one race to the next, over the course of the day 15 races of various car classes and one or two rather dented cars which is always a good thing if no one is injured.

In all I had taken over 400 photos that day, trying out panning and different shutter speeds, to get the feeling of movement in what’s a still picture at the end of the day, I didn’t want to take a picture of a car with the wheels perfectly clear making it look like it was just parked up. You will see the effect in the different pictures below and how much the background is blurred along with the wheels of the cars, it will vary from picture to picture as I experimented.

Anyway onto the pictures from the day…

Gotta love the Porches and old classic cars. Just got to decide which photo to frame out of all the ones I took… A nice decision to have.

Andy

Megan just seems to love having her picture taken and luckily is a willing test subject for photos as you will see in future posts. All the following were taken within a few minutes drive in the local countryside, fields, woods and gates were all used to give the locations some background etc….. The day in question being a warm and sunny day.. shock horror, this is the UK after all.

The images were post processed in Adobe Lightroom to give different looks to the pictures. I was trying out new things as ever, some work and some don’t. I like the effects I tried on this day.

All the pictures are using off camera flash, with a bounce umbrella to change how each scenes looks.

Well I cant post all the images but a lot were taken in a few hours that day, The less said about Chris and his love for a certain tree the better, but he is a carpenter I mean cabinet maker :D….

Roll on more photography I say.

Andy