Just Returned From Oregon

OK, maybe I have been back a few weeks, but work for shows has kept me busy.  My wife Heather and I spent a terrific week photographing in Oregon.  The primary goal I had was to visit the Portland Japanese Garden and capture some pretty fall colours there.  Having seen photos over the years of the Garden, it has always been high on my list of places to visit.  We visited nearly every morning.  Usually there was a nice light fog in the garden at opening that provided just the right touch to keep everything moist and saturated.  Wow!!

For professional photographers... or anyone that plans to sell photos they make there, you must take out a Photographer's membership at the garden.  So $150 later, I had my membership and was able to capture some fantastic images.  I hope you like them.

Northern Lights

I was at an art show in Yorkton, SK this past weekend.  After setting up the show, I was headed to the campground I planned to stay at.  However, I noticed a flicker of light in the sky and realized that the Northern Lights were making an appearance.  Not just any appearance though.... A GRAND appearance!


I drove out of town and found a grid road that I hoped would provide some interesting foreground material for the show.  However, I found nothing but fields.  So rather than risk missing the show, I pulled over and began shooting.  There was also a full moon so often the fields were quite well lit which is unusual.


Each exposure was only 6 seconds long.  Taken with a 24mm lens opened up to f2.8.  My ASA was set to 1600.  All I could do was think WOW!!!


Brent

Fire Dance

Fire In The Sky

Stellar Mist

Another day another storm

My wife and I were on our way home from the gallery Sunday night when we had to pass right through an ugly storm.  Lots of rain and heavy hail.  So heavy we had to pull off the road and wait for things to pass over.

As we drove away towards the clear skies ahead, I told my wife to keep watch behind us for a rainbow.  The conditions were right since the sun was now out and if I turned to face the storm, the sun would be behind me.  A couple of minutes down the road, Heather got real excited that a rainbow had appeared.  So I pulled off onto a grid road and positioned myself to see the rainbow with some wind turbines that were built in the Moosomin area last year.

Wow!!  Definitely the nicest rainbow I have ever photographed.  I hope you like it!

Brent

Storm Chasing

Last night my wife and I were going to go to a movie for the first time in ages. We were just leaving the house when we both looked up and saw quite the storm boiling over our heads. It was a few miles across and other than where the storm was, it was sunny.

My wife suggested that we chase the storm rather than going to the movie and after a few seconds, I thought that maybe that was a good idea. As it turned out, we followed the storm along its edges for about 15-20 miles taking lots of images along the way.

Here are a few that really made me smile!!

Cattle Round Up

I was fortunate enough to be able to photograph Ken Piller's cattle round up and branding this year for the second time. It is quite the site to see men and women on horseback moving a cattle herd from the top of the Qu'Appelle Valley to the bottom where corrals had been erected to allow them to process this years calves.

This is like stepping back in time and some of the things done would make PETA members unhappy. But this is a traditional event that has been carried out on ranches for countless years. So if you are concerned about any of the images showing things that might be thought of as cruel, please skip today's BLOG entry.

This young man is the Heeler. He goes into the coral with the calves now separated from their mothers and ropes a calf by both of its back feet. The calf is then pulled out of the coral where a device called a Nord Fork is placed around the calve's neck. Between the Nord Fork and the Heeler putting a little tension on his rope, the calf is immobilized so that it may be processed.

Once the calf is being securely held, it will be vaccinated, branded, tagged on its ear and if it is a bull calf, it may be castrated which means it will grow to be a steer intended for our dinner plates. Sounds awful, but once you actually see this being done, there is little too it. This little girl is nine years old and is about to vaccinate this calf.

Here the ear tag is being placed with a small plastic gun that looks like one used for piercing someones ear (only much bigger of course).

And at the end of the day, the spurs get hung up and everyone settles in for a nice dinner before heading home. A long tough day is done and several hundred calves have been processed and and are returned to the pasture with their mothers.

A fascinating day and I'm grateful Ken and his friends let me come out and see the round up.

Prongua, SK Elevator

I happened to discover this elevator about a year ago while doing an art show in the Battlefords. I wasn't lucky enough to capture a great shot of it last year though. So this year, I was better prepared and I think I made a nice capture of the old Sentinel.

I hope you like it,

Brent

A Huge Suprise

The Arnold Foster Award is the highest award that the Regina Photo Club bestows upon members that have shown a lifetime of service an/or achievement in Photography. Named after a wonderful man that was a fixture in the club until his passing at 101 years of age, the award is bestowed upon a member when all previous recipients of the award select someone they feel is deserving of the honour.

Much to my suprise, I was selected to receive the award this past weekend. Wow, who would have ever thought!! I was to use an English phrase, gobsmacked!

A little history:
I have been involved in photography for nearly 35 years now. It has always been something I have done. One look through family photos or photos friends have of me in high school almost always shows me with a camera by my side. But in 2004, the desire to do something with my daughter who was showing some interest in photography led to me suggesting that we visit the Regina Photo Club as something to do together (Kept her away from those boy punks that I once was as an added benefit!).

Who would have known that it would be a life altering decision! We attended meetings and made friends with people and found our own little place within the club. Before long, even my wife was coming to the club for meetings. I was so enjoying our time there twice a month. As luck would have it, we also made friends with the Club President and her husband that was the Competitions Director. The two of them really inspired me to want to do more. I owe both of them a huge thanks for the inspiration that they gave me. DJ and Glen.... Thank you so much!

Sadly after a couple of years, DJ accepted a job offer in Medicine Hat and the club lost the ships captain and first officer as they moved 5 hours away. Somehow, I stepped up and before I knew it, I was elected President, my wife Heather was the Competitions Director and even my daughter Jennifer was on the club executive as a member at large. We were now involved so deep there was no getting out.

That decision to try and step into the oh so large void left by DJ and Glen was scarey and I don't think we ever filled the loss fully. But we worked hard and I continued to draw inspiration from what was done before we took the helm. This included stepping out and attempting to sell my art work. That was another scary proposition, but with the support of my wife Heather and support from DJ and Glen too, we made the leap and hung out a shingle at art shows.

The rest is history! My photography business has grown so large that we now have a gallery of our own and continue to put smiles on peoples faces at all the art shows we do throughout the year. It has been a grand journey and I would not be here if it were not for being in the shadow of some important people that I need to thank!

Many thanks to :

My Wife Heather for unending support! Her assistence and willingness to let me spend far too much money on my mistakes as I grew in the art were amazing. She has always been there pushing me to do more and do it as best as it could be done.

My daughter Jennifer for going out to club meetings with a lame old man just so he had a little father daughter outing once in a while.

Donna-Joy Tuplin for being a dynamic club leader and supporter of everyone's work in the club. My hat is off to the greatest Captain that the club ever had!

Glen Tuplin for taking photographs that inspired me to want to make art as good as his.

The Regina Photo Club as a whole. The fellowship and environment have made me grow so much.

And last but by no means least, my oldest brother Garry who got me into photography so long ago. He has always pushed me to be better, gone out shooting with his little Bro and came and swung a hammer for a month with me to build our gallery last year. He gave up blood, sweat and tears (especially when he whacked his thumb). I look forward to the next time he and I can go out shooting together.

So I suggest to you that if you want to grow in photography or any other art, get out and meet people with the same interest. Goto a club. Make friends and develop friendly rivalrys. These things will follow you the rest of your life and may well put you on the path to developing something special!

Thanks everyone!!

Brent

Visit From The Maryfield Red Hat Ladies!

Well gosh what a great afternoon we had in the gallery today. There were many people visiting us from all across Canada. Folks from New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and of course Saskatchewan natives passing through on their travels.

But the highlight of the day today was our visit from the Red Hat Ladies group from Maryfield, SK. We enjoyed having eight great ladies that had Heather and I hopping to give them nice service. Heather and I have such a long way to go in being a good Waitress and Waiter!! I have the art part of the business figured out, but the food... not so much.

Many thanks to: Sharon, Gayle, Doreen, Charlotte, Doris, Viola, Jan and Beverly! We hope they liked us enough to come back!!!

It is done...

Well the gallery construction is complete. There are only a few details left to complete and we have opened the doors to the public for the first time.

The culmination of one years work...

Now for something completely different

I was blessed to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding this past weekend. It was a wonderful event and even though she has been gone from home awhile now and even though we see her alot.... The father daughter dance definitely brought a few tears to my eyes as it really sinks in that she is gone and starting a family of her own.

She sure looked great. Someone was kind enough to take this shot of us as we gave her away.

The house has not been the same with her gone.

It's really starting to look like something!

Well here we are only 16 days away from what we hope is opening day for the Extraordinary Light Gallery and the Arabica Art Cafe. It has been a long haul with lots of back breaking work.

We have had the best contractor in the world (Tim Hovdestad of Westward Homes in Moosomin) working away with us allowing me to do as much of the work as I possibly could to save some money on the building. It has been interesting and fun and difficult. Definitely a life experience. I have to say that should this turn out so successful that I open another gallery somewhere else as well, I will not do any of the work next time. I'm tired, old and beat. It's time to slow down a bit.

Here are some pictures of the gallery as it was last weekend. There are some random bits of art hanging on the walls just to get it off the floors. There is still lots to do, but this is really starting to show off what things are going to look like.

April Begins At The Extraordinary Light Gallery

Well we have made yet more progress on our soon to open business venture. In early April, we arrived to find the drywall taping completed in the living quarters and much to our suprise, the walls were all primed.

So I set to work painting the living area. We decided to go for a warm chocolate family of colours. It would help offset the super bright colours in the main gallery that are so not what we would choose to live with. We also decided the kitchen counters would be tiled. Our regular home has granite counters and we love them but could not see putting that kind of money into the living quarters of the gallery. Luckily, Heather found some super 18" Travertine tiles that we could use for the counter. So another nice warm tone will be added to the oak cabinets in the kitchen.

Two coats of paint later and here is the result.

I will have more photos soon of the finished tile counter. We can't wait to get the place open!!

Let there be flooring

Well another couple of weeks have past since we installed all the hanging lighting in the gallery. This past weekend, we went back and began to install the finished flooring on the main floor. We chose a hard wearing and attractive dark laminate flooring for the gallery last fall. A sale came up and we purchased it early due to the great pricing. So the flooring has been sitting in the gallery for months waiting for its time to be installed.

We worked hard and completed about 1200 square feet of the flooring!!! There is only a small area of laminate remaining in a hallway which we left undone for now due to the drywall taper, electrician and plumbers that are still coming and going up and down the hallway.

The picture is of the food service area in the gallery with Heather smiling at our success with the flooring installation. It looks beautiful. It was hard work for the two of us, but once we could look at it knowing it was finished, it became worth the work.

Of interest were the two floor mounted receptacles that had to be installed. I understand the need to keep them from getting wet while cleaning floors, but wow, were they complex things to get installed properly. I also discovered that the electrician had left that circuit live for some reason.... discovered it the hard way..... Oh well, it provided Heather with a laugh!!

So progress was made and we are continuing hard at things. More for you next week!!

Brent

Let There Be Light

Well progress on the Extraordinary Light Gallery and its cafe has been made again. This past weekend we hung all the track lighting in the art area. The tracks were hung using threaded rod in a pendant mount fashion.

This was an interesting job. We located the lights on the floor and then used a laser plumb bob to put a dot of light on the ceiling where we wanted to suspend the tracks. Then I would climb a ladder and determine if the spot was directly under a truss or not using a stud sensor. We would then shift the tracks on the floor until they were lined up under a truss (for sections running parallel to a truss). Once we had a section under a truss, we would mark off hanger holes on the sections running perpendicular to the truss at 2 foot intervals (The truss spacing). Then I would drill the hanger holes and use the laser plumb bob to shoot a dot of light right from where the

hole was drilled onto the ceiling. Then it was up the ladder to install a hanger bracket with the laser passing a dot through the hole for the threaded rod. It made it a piece of cake.

There were a couple of large boxes that had lights in them as well that were hung. The boxes have 4 lights in them to create puddles of light on parts of the gallery floor. These boxes we hung using 1/8" aircraft cable. Overkill for the light weight of the boxes, but it looked more substantial.

Next we will move onto laying the finished floor in the gallery. It is a very exciting time!!!