Often I get the question “How far away were you when you shot this?”. Well, that depends. It’s no secret that I have a 600mm lens and that gets me quite close at times. Other times, not enough. Another question is “What were your settings?”. That question tends to irk me. Settings alone do not define a picture. Even more when the settings asked for don’t include the most important information.

Distance. Asking for Shutter speed, aperture and ISO values is useless if you have no clue as to the distance the picture was shot. Without the distance, any lens can give the results required. I can shoot a turkey with a 20mm lens and get great results.

Read more: Shooting long

When the first signs of owls are showing in Manitoba, I can always find a way to get out and shoot them. Photographically speaking of course. In general, owls don’t like to be seen, by humans or even less, by their potential food.

When driving though the countryside in search for new owls (last weekend we clocked 500km… again), the first thing we look at is the above type of picture. The tell-tale shape of the Great Grey Owl. The fact that you see this does not mean you will get a good shot, though.

Read more: Owling for a day

Lately I have been prone to headaches. They are mostly related to work. Not so much the work itself, but more the way it has to be done. Sitting in a chair. There are not many ways to do programming while walking around or doing sit-ups. Forget about push-ups. None of that can be done if you need to work on a keyboard.

Last week was a week of horror for me. Four days and nights of a low and medium grade headache. None of the advertised pills/gels/powders had any effect. So it was time to do something else.

Read more: Treating a headache

It seems that the last year has seen some “holes” in my posting on my blog. Sometimes, the daily chores become overwhelming and get in the way of leisure and healthy living. And unless I now get up at 4am, this doesn’t seem to look different for the new year.

Should I be making New Year’s Resolutions? Nah, I don’t think so. Those resolutions tend to go to New Year’s Heaven as soon as the Christmas Tree has been put away. New Year’s Eve already breaks a few rules and by the end of January everything is back to what it was before. I think I will be doing it differently this year.

Read more: A new year ahead

When you only come back with one single usable picture after a whole day driving around in the countryside, something is “off”. What remains with me is the desire to get more pictures and show something in my blog.

That’s not always easy. Most often I have to wait until the next week to go out and shoot again. So, I went again the following week …

Read more: Wintry outings

Sometimes we see a post on the internet summing up the price of a photo shoot that someone wants to have done for free. While the amounts in those messages are often exaggerated, the message itself rings true.

So here is my breakdown of this single image:

Read more: The price of an image

By now you have noticed that skies in Manitoba can get pretty wild. This time I will throw in the funky-coloured skies as well. From green to bright orange to ominous blue and back to normal. Whatever you can call normal in Manitoba. In many places the saying goes like “You don’t like the weather in […] ? Wait five minutes!” This is particularly true for Manitoba in Summer.

Even if for some pictures I have waited considerably longer than five minutes.

Read more: Skies of Manitoba (10)