Christmas Greetings

Kiwi is guarding the gifts and wishing you a very happy, safe and peaceful Merry Christmas!

Help-Portrait Saskatoon 2013

The Help-Portrait events in Saskatoon have come and gone for another year. We still have a few loose ends to tie up, including repaying those volunteers who fronted the money for much of the event, based on pledges from companies who have yet to step up and fulfill their promises. We may need to take to social media to guilt them into paying up, which is unfortunate, but we cannot bear the cost ourselves nor let them renege.

Words like those are not popular, but as long as any responsibility lays with me I will do my best to make certain our Help-Portrait events remain about serving people, not bureaucracy and broken promises which diminish our ability to focus on the people.

And the people were great!

The photos in this post are from our clients that attended our first event at the Canadian Paraplegic Association here in Saskatoon. I chose to not post photos of all of our CPA participants based on my perception of their willingness to have their photo shared, not on them or the quality of the photo made of them. At the end of the post is a link to the album on Facebook containing the photos, both portraits and candid, from our main event at the White Buffalo Youth Lodge last Saturday, at -34C before wind. More on that shortly.

Lynnett, pictured at the top of the post, requested an autumn scene for her backdrop. Since I was unfamiliar with her and her personality, I had two choices available to her. A somber, darker scene, and the one you see in her photo. Her clothing suited the scene but, as you can read on Challenging Reality in the new year, one of the struggles with winter for a disabled person is the clothing. The bulk, restriction, and simple time and struggle to apply and remove it are hassles, to say the least. One more reason I want future events like this to be in seasons most favourable to disabled folks.

Desirée, Scott and Asha were not letting the weather stop them. We began with Desiree's portrait while Asha colored some Christmas coloring pages we had for the kids. Desiree's photo was just a nice look on a white background. Next, was their family shot. The Light Blaster, the tool we were using to project the backgrounds, did not perform terribly well with a white-ish slide. The winter scene behind them did not stand out the way that we had hoped. Considering how new this tool is to me this was an acceptable portrait but definitely made for something I have now learned. It may help if I use a proper projection screen because they are a certain material that interacts well with all colours and are not just pure white.

Desiree's husband, Scott, is a writer and wanted something with himself somewhere famous for writers. Through our conversations we came up with the concept of looking out a window at the Hollywood sign. For those technically interested, this was accomplished by using a slide printed with a creative commons licensed photo then adding a second slide meant to look like a large bay window. We were pretty happy with the result this produced.

Scott had his look and knew exactly what he wanted. I always enjoy working with people like that, who are willing to accept some direction, know what you are trying to get them to do, but also come with some very well defined ideas of their own.

Jamie and her kids were a bunch of fun. Look at those cute little faces! It took a few tries to get good expressions and of course her little boy would have nothing to do with sitting still. But each time they plopped him down in the chair with some excitement we got about two frames before he was off and running again. It was a lot of fun and we were glad that we could squeeze her in at the very last minute to get her some family photos made in time for Christmas.

Unfortunately for Laura, I was getting pretty tired by the end of the day. I hadn't slept much the night before and my people skills were slipping away as quickly as my alertness. We also came into her session not knowing what she wanted so we started experimenting the slides and seeing what she liked. After the first round I stepped aside and let others work with her. Eric is an amazing guy when it comes to working with people and I know there is plenty I could learn from observing him making photos and interacting.

I had to save the best for last. You probably recognize the first photo Lawrence. I did post it a few days ago but wanted to share it again so that all photos were in the same place. Lawrence came in knowing what he was wanting, with the guitar and some killer sunglasses, faux hawk at the ready after being touched up by our stylists. I had been planning his photo in my mind for weeks because ever since I met him I knew one day I wanted to make a portrait of him.

I certainly hope these are not the last ones.

We toned down the lighting and attempted to fill the background with fog from a handheld fog machine of mine. Unfortunately, it just does not have the output needed for that so we made it useful to add a little bit of character to the intensity of this playing.

He was pretty pumped about the results, but then so were we!

There is no question that without the team pictured below the day could not have been anywhere near the success it was. Many hands make a lot of things possible very quickly. A slight tweak to the light, a small adjustment there or a major change in the overall set up would've taken me hours to complete. It was great to have multiple sets of hands to help me make a day I had been excited about for so long possible.

Without the effective work of our stylists people would not have looked at their very best, the way only a skilled aesthetician can make a person look. We greatly appreciate their efforts and how they helped our clients to feel their very best before getting in front of the camera.

Thanks to everyone who made our first Help-Portrait event in Saskatoon a success. I think we will need to do another smaller scale one like this again in the future.

Our event that coincided with the worldwide event on December 7 was held at the White Buffalo Youth Lodge. Like I said earlier in my post, it was -34°C before the wind and we felt it. When we arrived the building was not open yet so we started behind schedule. Certain pieces of gear that we expected to be there did not show up so we were compromising and making do with what we had. The forms we needed our participants to sign so that we could make their photos were forgotten because of too much work being piled on Bruce's shoulders, but that was just a quick photocopy to make them ready to use. And, then, in order to get the motorbikes into the gym we had to remove the vertical post between the double doors in the gym so that they would open wide enough to get the Harleys through.

Once they were in, and we had our booths set up we were ready to roll. Unfortunately, be it ineffective advertising, cold temperatures or whatever other factors, we only served 95 people when we were expecting 300. It was a good day, we had plenty of time to make sure everybody was photograph well because there were no huge lineups at any point but, with all that time in organizing going into it we want to make the most of our time. We will gather our information and put together a document to help refine the process for future years.

The link below should provide you access to Help-Portrait Saskatoon's Facebook album containing the portraits and the candid photos of the day. Please feel free to like the group and stay updated on the news and upcoming events, the they next spring or summer or closer to this time next year.

Help-Portrait Sasktoon 2013 Album

Our day ended with an informal gathering at McGuire's with some food, drinks and a lot of great connecting and conversation. Amanda from Renditure Photography is friends with a researcher at the University who is studying neuroscience and has an art project she is working on to help bring awareness of certain neurological diseases. Because of my circumstances and my skill with still life Amanda asked if I'd be interested in participating in that project. I'm looking forward to potentially participating in it and am quite certain that no other post-Help-Portrait gathering included discussion about photographing rat brains.

I'm certain I will let you know if I have the opportunity to shoot something is interesting is that.

Exhausted But Worth It

After months of planning and a few nights of scarce sleep, we had our first Help-Portrait event in Saskatoon today. I'm exhausted, and it was a very full day but the results below speak for themselves.

We set the bar pretty darn high today and I have more to share in the future that are right up to the standard, as well.

 

  Lawrence - Help-Portrait 2013

  by

  Jay Scott

The thing is, it's amazing what you can accomplish as a disabled photographer when you've got an army of assistants to hold lights, adjust this, tweak that or make what would take me two hours take five minutes. Without them this photo would not have happened.

Thank you, Lawrence, for being such an amazing piece of talent for me to photograph today!

He knows how to play and if you're interested in hearing his work you can find him on YouTube here.

2013 West Coast Vacation Video

Can you believe it!? Finally I am finished the video presentation of our trip to the West Coast. I promised it for a long time, worked on it when I had time, wrestled with the software that I am quite unfamiliar with until I was able to come up with a result that I felt worthy of sharing with you. Then, over 17 hours of time to uploaded to YouTube, two hours for you to to process and get it ready for presentation and it is finally ready. And that does not include the time it took to make all the photos and video clips that were used to create this. But, that was just a bonus of our trip.

For those interested in the technicals, as mentioned in the video, the vast majority of the content was created using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and a Samsung Galaxy S3. A couple of our self photos done by the bay were made on a small Canon power shot. For commentary, my nasal voice was recorded on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 using the voice recorder app. The video was compiled and edited in Lightworks 11.1.1.1d and worked flawlessly once I knew what I was doing with the software. It's been a long time since I did any video editing and this was far more in-depth than anything I had done before. The next video I plan on making embeds multiple frames together and I imagine I will lose a few more handfuls of hair getting that to work the way I want it to. :-)

Aside from the introductory track, the music was provided by David Hildebrandt's album "Instrumental Classics" which he was gracious enough to allow me to use royalty-free since I made the cover photo of that album as well as doing all the photography for his album "Ordinary Man".

The only note that I did not put in the video was the disappointing transition from the same class of highway from the United States to Saskatchewan. If you watch near the end just before the photos at the cabin you will see two highways, the first being in Montana, the second being in Saskatchewan, just minutes apart. I guess we have less population and more highways to maintain but it was a big difference in the comfort of driving just a few kilometers apart.

You can watch it on this embedded video but I may suggest that you click on the YouTube button in the bottom right and watch it on YouTube, in full-screen at full resolution. I took the time to make it is large and crisp as I could so it would be a shame not enjoy it at that quality.

Thanks for watching. Maybe in a few years I will have another video from Vancouver and Victoria to share with you.

2013 CPA Wheelchair Relay

Last Saturday was the Saskatchewan branch of the Canadian Paraplegic Association wheelchair relay. It is their major fundraising event that occurs once a year and occurs only because of the hard work of a lot of people. Delynne was the organizer again this year and she did an excellent job. She recruited top-notch volunteers, including a skilled photographer, had lots of prizes for everyone, great activities for the kids, information stations about wheelchair sports and adaptive videogame technology, a yoga demonstration by Heather Cuttai and some celebrity appearances for the initial relay.

Our very own Mayor Don Atchison was there to say a few words and participate in the initial relay. Since this is my site I will say that I always have to bite my tongue at these times. I'm afraid the City of Saskatoon just cannot be patting itself on the back about putting in a few curb cuts that are completely unusable in the winter and many in the summer, because of snow or the road pavement being higher than the low point of the curb cut which causes a very dangerous lip for the front wheels of a wheelchair. Meanwhile, new businesses are opening, freshly renovated, with inaccessible entrances or washrooms. Costco has a freshly redesigned parking lot with fewer usable disabled persons parking stalls and new strip malls have fewer sidewalk accesses and the ones they do have are often at the front of a parking spot so they are blocked by the vehicles of individuals who insist on pulling up to the curb until their wheels hit and their front spoiler rips off. Thank goodness that ramp is there so they don't damage that spoiler in those instances.

I suggested that they bring in a full zamboni just before the relay starts and dump it in the middle of the track to give our mayor a real feel of getting around by wheelchair, trying to plow through snow.

I suppose a lot of these complaints are part of the reason that I help out with this relay. It is my hope that the suggestions regarding accessibility that the CPA is able to provide businesses with will become laws. Until there is punishment for exclusionary decisions by businesses I don't believe we will have a properly accessible city.

Among our celebrity guests was Becky Richter who, since I first photographed her over four years ago when she was fairly new to wheelchair racing, has won plenty of medals and broken records.

Heather doing her yoga demonstration for us.

Heather's daughter rocking her face paint. She even had a leopardprint shirt on to match.

CTV's own Mike Ciona was our emcee for the fourth year and did his usual excellent job. Subway provided an excellent lunch for us and there were the many prizes provided by smaller businesses from around the city to give to people through draws, trivia competitions and other games.

Of course, there were the large corporate sponsors that are greatly appreciated and make this fundraiser the most beneficial to the longevity and effectiveness of the CPA.

I got a little heavy on the photos of Lawrence, but that guy can move! The sequence of six photos that I took of him making his passing maneuver above was a lot of fun to cycle between to watch him overtake the older gentleman who's reaching for him. Things like that make the day extra fun to participate in.

Some of the groups had the absolute best costumes this year. There were the biker women, as seen in the background of the last photo of Lawrence above, with their fishnet stockings, bicycle helmets and tank tops complete with knee-high stockings.

UPDATE: Angie suggested they may be roller derby players. I'm guessing she's right.

There was the team dressed country style with the fierce, but friendly, attitude to match.

And, of course, there were the Wheel Riders 1, Wheel Riders 2 and the Young Riders, all of whom were dressed in Saskatchewan Roughrider green apparel.

All in all it was a full and busy day with a lot of laughs and a lot of excitement. It's amazing how fast, with a little bit of training, a person can move in a wheelchair. It's also amusing at how someone who's not use to navigating in a wheelchair can come to a corner and push the chair the exact wrong direction that they intend. It was things like that that made for a few of the best laughs and best collisions.

I Was Due

Isn't it often the case? The photographer seldom gets photographed. Nothing like a new tool to test out and learn about to motivate oneself to shoot.

This time I couldn't let Angie be my subject. The lighting I had planned in my mind was not going to be flattering.

Since looking through the slides that came with my Light Blaster I have had an image running through my head that reminded me of Quickman's stage from Megaman 2 for the NES.



Many of the stages have that metal and pipes look, it is a robot fighting game, after all. But the blue hues from that one in particular had my memory jogged after looking at that slide.

I wasn't sure if the portrayal would come through, but thinking about how much hardware had been in my head, and still is in my neck, I thought a look of transparency, or peek below the surface of my skin, might be interesting as if the metal is being revealed.










Finally, I'm not mad, angry or hostile, but it doesn't take a master photographer to know that a big toothy grin wouldn't work very well for this photo, hence the firm expression.

 

  Self Portrait 09092013 - 2

  by

  Jay Scott

Light Blaster Cuteness

Help-Portrait planning is well underway and my hopes of using my new tool, the Light Blaster, as a part of the CPA event, is looking better. We will give participants the option of having an interesting portrait made but, of course, we will offer a standard studio style portrait if that is what they're interested. It is my hope that we can surpass the common look of a standard studio portrait that has been around for decades. Sure, they look nice, but they have been done billions of times. Unique is where it is at, in my opinion.

So, who do you think were my test subjects? Of course they were Kiwi and Angie. Posing as nicely as they always do for me while I tweak and adjust and struggle to get the look I want.

I know a lot of people have told me I am wrong when I say this, but I do not feel terribly creative. It has taken a lot of time thinking about how to use this tool to create unique photos. The top photo is the best example of what it is capable of. The slide I chose was one of a nebula. I fired it from the back of the chair onto the back of my subjects. You can see the pattern of the slide best on the chair next Kiwi's left side (camera right).

I'm not saying that these photos were the best use of this tool but the more I use it and the more I think about it the more I am beginning to understand its capabilities and get some ideas of how to use it in an original way.

As for taking Kiwi back to her original groomer, I think it was the right choice. She was shaved down perfectly this time, done faster than usual and it is only 10 blocks away instead of across the city.

Just look at those silky smooth shaved down flappy ears. :-) I can't get enough of them.

Finally, I got the chance to try out a new lens to make these photos. Sometimes I hate the idea of buying or selling on Kijiji. You can never be certain what you are getting or who you will be getting it from. This time I hit gold, though. Slightly above the fair market value, I bought a barely used lens to dedicate to the Light Blaster. Just like a slide projector you can use a lens to zoom in or zoom out there by concentrating or widening the projection thrown. Definitely not the quality of lens that I am used to using, but it is in mint condition, with the box with all the manuals and the case. Heck, he even gave it to me in the original bag he brought it home in from Don's Photo. A nice 75-year-old guy, which I did not expect because of how computer savvy he was in our communications, with stories to tell, a big smile and a firm handshake. Those are the type of people I like to deal with on Kijiji. He was not so different from the guy I bought my last flash from a few months ago.

Hey, Goober! Where's the Video?

The editing is going well but the audio is not. I have found that the best tool for recording proper voiceovers is, ironically, my cell phone. Even the microphone that I'm using to dictate this introduces noise and distortion that I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear added to my nasally voice. Thankfully, the computer accepts that noise and distortion amongst the sound of my voice to create coherent text.

Eventually our West Coast vacation video presentation will be posted for your viewing pleasure.

Until then, I will give you a test photo of, who else but, Kiwi. I have an opportunity this coming Wednesday evening to make some photos for a couple that will finally enable me to use the gear and knowledge that I have to create photos I have always wanted to create. Kids are great. But they are active with a short attention span and it is very difficult to get the lighting that I am so passionate about creating with people who are so busy and on the move. Two adults, this Wednesday evening, will change that to something I am very excited to create.

So, I was testing the equipment I have and trying to gain confidence in my frugally purchased equipment. When used properly it can be very effective but I won't deny a little bit of GAS that I have had lately. That is, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I have been looking at some wonderfully effective, but very pricey, lighting equipment lately. Some of which has been purchased by friends and I know they will make good use of it. I also know what I'm capable of creating with what I have without the expensive price tag. However, I have not regretted the times that I have invested good money for good equipment and how it has made creating same photo that I could make with previous equipment just that much easier. Considering the disability I am already fighting against, I will take every advantage I can, without breaking the bank, that is.

So, with the amount of light I believe I can effectively get out of the setup that made the photo above, and the nice early sunset (small camera lights are always more powerful when contrasted to waning daylight) Wednesday night, the session should be a success and maybe the revenue from that can be allocated to a savings fund for when I do need to rent/buy the better gear.

I will have some things to say about this year's Help-Portrait events coming up and encourage you, if you have any interest, to get involved. Few things in my life have been as rewarding as participating in these events.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Dark Sky Lilies

 

  Dark Sky Lilies

  by

  Jay Scott

I love lilies but have photographed them to death. It was time to get creative.

For those interested, the flash from below and from camera left both had a full CTB and full window green gel. The WB was shifted in post with the above photo being the result.

Just More of Our Kiwi

Kiwi - July 2013 by Jay Scott

Kiwi was due for a photo following her recent haircut and I had a new Manfrotto HD Flex Arm to try out.

Both cooperated nicely. She certainly gave me a great look.

Good to be Home

Gas Works Park and the Space Needle by Jay Scott

Well, we are home. We have been for almost a week now if you have noticed on Instagram and Twitter.

It was a good trip and before we left I was not sure if that amount of driving, travel and hotel stays would be too much for me but even with our hotel in Seattle be less than ideal we made it in pretty good shape. I would not want to do it too many times per year but are already quickly forgetting the negative things and considering what we will do when we go back.

For about 80% of our trip the camera on my phone was adequate. But there were times, like for the above photo at Gas Works Park, that I desperately wanted my DSLR to create photos that I could see in my mind but could not replicate with the limitations of a smart phone camera. However, not having to worry about it and not have that additional weight on the unexpectedly hilly and uneven terrain of the West Coast was definitely a welcome burden relieved. I was not expecting to need as much help as I did from Angie but I was not too proud to receive it because I needed to be in good shape to get us safely through the traffic we were not accustomed to driving in.

I'm not complaining. I would say that in general all of the drivers seemed more skillful, more alert and more considerate than in Saskatchewan. However, with the lack of freeways in Vancouver and the remarkable pace on the freeways and multilevel clover leaves, off ramps and other unexpected features it was certainly a steep learning curve for me. Only a handful of times did we need to be excused for an unintentional mistake on the roads. Unfortunately, we did get bumped in the rear when a driver, who was blocking the intersection, tried to get out of it and left a couple of circular scratches on my rear bumper from the screws of his front license plate. It happens but was not the best way to begin our first day in Seattle. The intersection both of us were crossing through and turning left at was turning onto a very steep hill and so he may have accidentally popped the clutch or something simple like that. I'm hoping that a small dab of touchup paint will cover it up nicely.

My favorite photos from the trip is the one of the top but my second favorite is definitely this one of a bronze photographer taking a photo of his friends in the early 1900s. Angie snuck in their to add a nice modern touch to my photo. :-)

I will be compiling a video with a slideshow and short clips but it may take a while for me to complete so I thought I would share my few favorite shots from the trip.

So many photos like this, surrounded by beautiful greenery and nature make me think of the mosquitoes one might need to endure. This is not the case on the West Coast. Beautiful weather, unbelievable greenery, the different more comfortable feel to the air, no mosquitoes… I can understand why it is such a popular place to live. However, there are those significant deterrents such as the cost of living, the cost of housing, the cost of gas, the health insurance premiums and then, of course, those unbelievable hills.

By vehicle, the hills are manageable and we were very impressed that we were almost always able to find good parking wherever we wanted to go. Of course, my handicap placard helped us out in a few instances and it is not that parking was cheap, but it was available and accessible. I thought Alberta was doing a good job with a handicap parking spaces. If only Saskatchewan would get theer act together and start making things a little more equitable here.

Finally, I did not get to meet Chase Jarvis, himself. But his producer, and everyone else at his studio, put on an excellent barbecue for us where we had an opportunity sit and talk with them for well over an hour, enjoying just being in a place that I wanted to experience for so long, have a photo with them and make our journey that much more worth the distance, cost and effort.

Finally, I could go on trying to recollect all of the details of our trip but Angie is well on the way of having that beautifully completed a series of posts on her blog. Have a look at it and check back as she tells the tale of our West Coast vacation over the next few days.

Back to the Zoo - 2

My last post spoke about the zoo but I had yet to get to animal photos in the previous post. Hopefully by the time you read this we are having a top-notch time in Vancouver and starting to get excited about the next leg of our trip down to Seattle.

I cannot help but wonder about how excited, and even anxious, I will be feeling when this post goes live. You see, if you haven't read on Twitter by now, we have been invited to stop in at Chase Jarvis' studio this coming Tuesday. I do not have a lot of things on my bucket list, and it's not for the wrong reasons, but one of the things on that list is to meet Chase Jarvis. There is a good possibility that he will not be there. The episode of Chase Jarvis Live that was scheduled to be on Wednesday was postponed. We were going to be part of that studio audience, which would've been cool. Just stopping in to see the studio is great with me. If he happens to be there, well, it will be even more amazing. To be part of a studio audience of 50 people would be great. To meet him one-on-one would be amazing.

Now, as much as I talk about him so highly, I know that without a strong crew behind him he could not do all that he does. Regardless of his presence, meeting that team will be great. Seeing in person where so many of the shows I watch online have been made will be excellent. Whenever I need the motivation to start shooting again or continue working on something that has been on the back burner it only takes a couple of his videos on YouTube or reading his blog to get me back in gear.

In my previous post I spoke about the attractiveness of being able to share a photo so quickly and easily through services like Instagram. It was Chase the first came up with the idea with his groundbreaking app, Best Camera, which had the features adopted by future apps, but before the social media integration had come as far as it has today. More than a few great ideas and trends have started in the back of his mind.

Creative Live, the free online educational tool for creatives, was founded by him and is steadily gaining momentum and maintaining quality instructors. Both of these apps have changed the industry. He was one of the first people to do extensive behind-the-scenes videos of how he worked. This and Creative Live brought much criticism from people who feel that he is giving away the secrets of the industry. Everyone is a photographer today and, as shown by so many people, hard work and uniqueness is what stands out over some collection of Gnostic trade secrets. That could be said for so many fields long before the digital age.

Maybe in years to come I will scratch Joe Mcnally and David Hobby off my bucket list, too.

Back to the zoo photos. This piece of shrub that had grown through the fence, before the shrub was trimmed way back, at first looked like a dead rodent hanging waiting to be snacked on. When I got closer I knew immediately what it was but the fact that it was hanging from the fence of the red fox enclosure made me initially think it was lunch.

New do. 'Nuff said.

This is your consolation photo. I'm afraid that the few day-old baby sheep that I was struggling to get a great shot of (the slope by this enclosure is absolutely terrible to stop on with a wheelchair to get a photo without rolling away) saw that his mama had left for the other side of the enclosure and he dutifully followed her. All I got was the cutest little blur of legs and baby fresh wool.

I'm still itching to have a photo session in this portion of the zoo. When those trees are in full bloom, probably about the time this is posted, they are just beautiful, smell amazing and are a fairytale setting for a round of photos.

It's not a smile, but it's not aggressive, either. I don't know what got the bears so excited but they were very energetic and entertaining when I first got there. The second photo is not one of boredom or sadness, but resting. Whatever they were up to it tired them out.

We may hit up the zoo in Seattle if time and weather cooperates. Until then, these photos should keep me in good shape until we are home and I can return to unwind from what will probably be two very busy and full weeks. No doubt I will have the full report for you in the days to come.

Until then, I ask that you continue to visit Challenging-Reality. Posts will be occurring there every Monday morning for many months to come and your support is appreciated. I appreciate the views but what I really need is you could take the 5 seconds it takes to share it on Facebook or Twitter or wherever else you partake in social media. Spread the word to your friends and feel free to leave a comment, drop me an e-mail or let me know how you think it could be better, easier to navigate or find what people are looking for or any other thoughts and feedback that would make it more worthy of the content I worked so hard on to be shared, so that it may help the individuals it is intended to help.

Thanks!

Back to the Zoo

After a few days of heavy exercise wheeling down by the river and around the forestry farm park, I took my next visit to have a much more leisurely pace and make sure that it was a photo-centric visit.

Knowing that I would not be taking my DSLR on our upcoming vacation I thought I would give smart phone photography greater attention. It should not be difficult to determine which photos were made with the phone and which ones were made with the DSLR, but I must say that I am very impressed with the image quality produced by my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of the images produced by my Pentax K10D. As long as the amount and quality of light are respectable, and with a little tweak of the white balance and exposure compensation, that tiny little chip can record some very fine images.

It may have been a coincidence but the fact that it was a reduced cost day the day prior to my visit seemed a bit obvious to me. Not just by the peacefulness of a Zen garden interrupted by a paper coffee cup, but just other aspects of the park that made it feel like it had been visited by a number of non-regular patrons. I know it's not "my" park, but I care about the place and begin to wonder about the type of person that would intentionally placed it there instead of carrying the additional 10 yards to the garbage can. I would have been unable to reach it without damaging plants or the garden so I just made my ironic photo. People walking by seconds later politely asked me if I had forgotten my coffee. I let them know that I would never do that but it made for an interesting photo.

So many of the plants with small blooms were nearly in full force. I hope that by the time I am able to return to the park it is a nice mix of the smaller flowers and larger ones that will be coming into their prime.

The perfect example that the best camera is the one you have with you: I was just about to make a photo of this path with my phone, which over grows early in the season and is impassable for me by wheelchair. Just as I was about to make the photo I heard the rustling in the shrubs, the squirrel popped out onto the path paused while I made the photo and ran off across the garden into the shrubs on the other side.

I have had many people ask me why in the world am I not taking my DSLR on our vacation to Vancouver and Seattle. My response has been that the amount of distance we will travel on foot will mean energy spent. Carrying a case with an appropriate amount of equipment would consume additional energy. I do not have a "travel lens" as many people do. I have lenses for specific purposes and in order to get the full gamut of ranges you need all lenses. It means off quality but it also means maximum weight.

As well, so many of the photos that I would make would be snapshots. Snapshots can be made with a phone. It is when I am making a photo, with lighting and significant intention, that I insist on optimum quality. The biggest exception where I am convinced I will miss the DSLR is when we see massive things where an ultra-wide-angle lens would be the exact tool for the job.

In addition to the weight factor, it may end up being more of a source of worry or unwanted attention for us. Add to that the time I would want to take to make my photos just right would add up and prevent us from seeing as much as we could. Not that the whole vacation is going to be rushing to cram in as much as we possibly can, but I do not know when or if I will ever get back to Vancouver and Seattle. I do want to take in as much as we can while there.

I have always been very diligent about taking an ample amount of gear with me so that I am always prepared, should I need it. I'm pretty sure that there is only been a few times that I needed the extensive load I've taken with me, and I was glad to have it, but I am skilled enough that I would have been able to make a fine photo with what I had. Many of the mentors that I follow online have downsized significantly, lately. They still have their full setups for big jobs but for travel they have something smaller that allows them to be more discreet, make a photo much more quickly and save their energy by not calling 15 pounds of gear everywhere they go. Not that I have to mindlessly follow the herd, but their decisions have lightened my firm stance of carrying everything just in case. Perhaps this trip will further lighten it or solidify it further. The biggest thing, though, is that they are carrying smaller but very capable cameras.

My problem is that most of the smaller cameras I cannot handle and when you add up the cost of running a second system you start getting into the price range of Elinchrom Quadra Rangers which I confess to being curious about.

I believe that the convenience of my phone will be nice and, as much as a lot of people find it to be quicker to make a photo with, I find that adjusting my settings using a touchscreen takes five times as long as the dials and buttons on my DSLR which I can adjust my sleep. However, with this phone, as with the squirrel on the path photo above, I can get angles that I cannot get easily with my DSLR. The reason being that thanks to the Android operating system on the phone I can fire the camera with my voice. Of course there is an app for that in the iTunes store for you iPhone users, but it'll cost you; nothing new for anyone who pays the Apple tax. ;)

The image quality is just fine, the macro capability is impressive and I will bring along my usual flashlight and a reflector so that if I do want to take the time to create an intentional photo I will have a few tools to help it stand out from the average snapshot.

The final reason for me being comfortable taking only my phone is the ability to share so easily. As much as I do not care for the filters Instagram or similar photo sharing apps include, they do allow you to get your photos posted to multiple locations very quickly and easily. It took me a long time to get on board with Instagram, mainly because the camera on the iPod just didn't cut it and I didn't have any other tool that shared to Instagram at the time. Now that I have my phone Instagram is quickly becoming my favorite social media tool. You can find me on Instagram @jayscottphotography (link opens a new window to my gallery) or view the posts as they show up in my Twitter feed which can be viewed on the site near the bottom of the right-hand navigation bar.