Burlington Sound of Music Festival

You know it's Father's Day weekend in Burlington when the Sound of Music Festival is on!  It's a great, free concert the city puts on annually.  There are a lot of great bands playing this year.  Including Bedouin Soundclash, Emerson Drive, Crash Karma, Stereos, Jimmy Rankin, and Tokyo Police Club, just to name a few!  There are tons of things to do with the family including, rides, vendors, food, you name it, it's there.  Luckily, for me, I was able to get media access this year and look forward to bringing you guys some great photos from the concerts and events that will be going on over the weekend.  I encourage you all to bring your family down for the fun this weekend.  I look forward to seeing you there!  If you see me there, feel free to say hello.

/dg

Back from Snowmobiling

Alrighty! I'm back from my holiday. Had a great time with great friends and family. Time to get back to reality though. I have to go to work today! Blah! But before I go here are some samples of my trip. Non-edited

Snowmobiling 2011

So, I'm officially on my way to Newfoundland for my annual snowmobiling trip with my father and uncles! Seven days of being completely unreachable and disconnected from the outside world! Tough stuff for a tech junkie. All is not lost however. I'll be shooting a tonne of photos and can't wait to share them with you all upon my return. See you in a week friends!
/DG

DIY Light Tent

Want that professional looking photo of a product you're going to sell on ebay?  Or maybe just a great looking photo of a nicknack you like?  Don't want to pay ~$100 for a light box/tent?  Build one yourself!  It's super-easy! I made mine in about an hour and it cost me all of $12.  Borrowing from the idea set out on the strobist website, here. I set out to make my own light box to just practice on shooting products.  It was a lot easier to do that I thought it would be.  All you need is a box, preferably equal to, or greater than, 12"x12"x12".  The more square, the box, the easier it is.  Tape, tape measure, scissors, box cutter, tissue paper, Bristol board, and time. Basically, you just cut out 3 windows into the box, and tape them over with tissue paper.  The paper acts as a diffuser for your flash(es).  The Bristol board acts as your seamless background, so you'll want to curve it in the box without creasing it.  Then you just setup your flashes on either side of the box, or on top and fire away!  The results are pretty great!  Here's a picture of my ghetto light tent, and a sample picture to go with it.  You don't need to spend a lot to get great results, you just need the right ideas!

/DG

FD to m4/3 Adapter

As many of you know already, I own a Panasonic GF1.  I really love this little camera it's fantastic.  If you're in the market for a camera that's big on quality but small on side.  You really owe it to yourself to check one out.  The lenses are interchangeable (similar to a DSLR), but there's no mirror inside and the image sensor is about half that of a 35mm sensor you'd find on a high end Canon or Nikon SLR.  But, the ability to change lenses really opens up a whole new (old) world for you.  There are tons of adapters for these micro 4/3rds cameras.  You can convert pretty much any lens onto one of these with ease.  Recently, I purchased an adapter to convert Canon's old FD mount lenses to my GF1.  I had a 50mm f/3.5 macro lens in my possession I just had to try out with it.  I was extremely impressed by how well it works! I should note though, that you need to use manual lenses to do this, meaning that you can't use autofocus or lenses with motors for the diaphragm to change the aperture.  It has to be manual (You can use auto focus/auto aperture lenses but you have to shoot with them wide open all the time, which isn't ideal, or you can set the aperture on your Canon/Nikon, press the depth of field preview button and then disconnect the lens with your finger still on the DOF preview button, but that's a kluge).  Anyway, the real great thing about using these older lenses is that you can by them for cheap on ebay, kijiji, or your local camera store.  To get a macro lens from Panasonic/Leica it would run you about $1000 for their 45mm Macro with image stabilization.  You can pick up one of these Canon 50mm for about $100-$150 used in good condition.  This is a great idea if you're not interested in always carrying around your DSLR when you go out.  Or, if you don't want to buy a DSLR this is a great route to go.  You can check out some of the pictures I shot with it on my Flickr account, here.  Enjoy!

/DG