Today, my friend and I participated in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk in downtown Vancouver. A handful of folks came down to Coal Harbour and walked along the Sea Wall for an hour or so, taking lots of pictures. It was a dark and cloudy day, threatening to rain - but luckily it didn’t. This photo is of one of the few houseboats scattered throughout the marinas in Coal Harbour. It’s by far one of the most eye-catching. Nothing special to take this photo – just stood on the Sea Wall and zoomed right in on it with an 18-200mm IS lens with my camera on a monopod. I just love the insanely bright colours, and the word “karma” over the door. Such an adorable little houseboat. More photos from the Coal Harbour walk to come over the next couple of weeks, and then next month you’ll be getting a taste of the U.S.A. when I return from a week-long trip through three states. So stay tuned!

Okay folks, it’s time to get back into the regular weekly photo sharing, after several very hectic and busy weekends. Today, I’ve got two unique photos to share with you. On the left, you see a hawk against a black backdrop. On the right, a purple flower, also against a black backdrop. So what’s so unique about these photos? Neither one was really photographed against a black backdrop.  The hawk is in the hands of its trainer, while the flower is on a yellowed linoleum floor. So you’re thinking Photoshop, right? Wrong. Both of these photos were taken using a flash curtain to achieve the blacked out background. The front and rear flash curtain features can usually be found in your DSLR’s menu. Try each one out with a few test shots and see if you can replicate the above photos!

My apologies for the missed post last week due to technical errors once again. And as you know, today is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, when four planes were hijacked and crashed in various locations in the U.S. It’s important to remember the events, and the thousands of innocent lives lost that day.

For this reason, I am not posting a photo of my own today, but am instead sharing the above four images that were blogged by others elsewhere on the Internet to help us remember. New York’s skyline and the lives of all those affected by the events on that day have been forever changed. My heart is with the families of the victims today, whose pain I can only begin to imagine. Let’s continue to support our American neighbours on this difficult day of remembrance of the worst tragedy of our time. Ten years later, it doesn’t get any easier.

While the above pictures are all in remembrance of the destruction of the WTC towers in New York, also remember the heroic passengers and crew of Flight 93 that crashed in a field, and the victims of Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon.

Photography was an integral part of spreading the terrible breaking news worldwide as it happened, as dicussed in this CTV News article published today, which I encourage you to read. I will not be sharing any of the photos from the day of the events, as they are painful for some to look at, and can be found easily on the Internet. I have shared only the four commemorative images seen above*.

I am yet to visit New York myself, but will be there at the end of the year, at which time I will take and share some photos of my own of the beautiful memorial that has been constructed at the site of the WTC towers.

*The above four images have been blogged and re-blogged via Tumblr multiple times today, and I take absolutely no credit for having created any of them myself. I stress that the four images in today’s post are NOT copyright of Anndi Photography.

As you can see, this week I am not showcasing one photo, but instead many photos on the website of one of our recent clients. Just something different to give you an idea of the type of work we do. This is the site of Progressive Automations, a Richmond-based company producing actuators and related engineering parts. An actuator is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system, according to Wikipedia. Anyway, virtually all of the product photos you see on their new website were taken by Anndi Photography a few weeks ago. They employed us to reshoot their inventory so that they would have large, high-res photos to use in redesigning their website. Check it out for a great sample of our work and the many different items that we can photograph!

This photo was taken at Barnet Marine Park in Burnaby, where I used to attend dragon boating practices. This water flows into Burrard Inlet on the left, and down to Rocky Point Park on the right. What you see here is a derelict pier (if it can even be called that anymore). There are a lot of these old, broken-down wooden structures along the water, and no more actual piers in this area. It is very common to see bald eagles here, swooping down on the water to catch fish, sitting on the wooden pylons you see down at the end there, and chilling out in the many trees that are behind me as I took this photo. Nothing special for this photo, just added a touch of saturation in post-processing.

Okay folks, we’re back with a new photo this week! This is Rocky Point Park in Port Moody again, this time at sunset. This was taken from the end of the long pier in the park, using an N6 neutral density filter and an 8-point filter to create the “burst” around the setting sun. Next week: more piers… but different parks. =)

So last week, we saw photos from a Vancouver Canadians minor league baseball game. As promised, this week’s photos are of the Fireworks Extravaganza show that followed the game! Here we see the field being prepped for the show, as well as some of the cool pyrotechnics on display. As you can probably tell, the fireworks are done directly on the field, at close range, with the technicians (who looked like firefighters) standing right in the action. For these reasons, the fireworks show was slightly smaller scale than one you might see from a beach. As far as photographing fireworks, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. I’ve heard some people say they prefer a slower shutter speed to capture falling light trails. I prefer a quicker shutter speed to make the fireworks appear crisp, as well as sparkly (using an eight-point “star” filter). Either way, you’ll probably always want to use Manual mode on your DSLR to capture fireworks.

My friends and I attended a minor league baseball game in Vancouver last weekend; these are some shots of one of the plays. The Vancouver Canadians were batting against the Boise Hawks at the Canadians own Nat Bailey Stadium. For those of you who may not know, Vancouver Canadians players  often go on to play major league ball for the Toronto Blue Jays. These photos were shot in a burst using a quick shutter speed to capture the action in a succession of photos without too much motion blur. Unfortunately, the net surrounding the seating area to protect viewers from stray balls interferes with photos. The game was called due to rain, and the Canadians won 3-2. Here’s a hint for next week’s photoblog: the game was followed by a Fireworks Extravaganza show…

Here’s a photo of some paddlers at Rocky Point Park in Port Moody. This shot caught my eye due to the bright colour of the yellow boats against the vivid blue water and green trees in the background. The combination of saturated colours makes for an eye-catching image. No tricks to this picture, just a plain old UV filter and a touch of post-processing.