Dawn was still in Calgary. I was still sick. But I was feeling a little better and I was playing around with some of my flashes, inspired by the Strobist blog and group on Flickr. Maya was patient with me as I played around and took a lot of experimental pictures of her.

I liked the graphic simplicity of the desk and wall on the right part of the frame contrasted with Maya’s organic shapes. I should have gotten rid of the clutter under the stairs although the old printer and box did serve to separate Maya’s shape from the background.

Shooting and processing notes
I think I was using a snoot at this point, or maybe I was just blocking some of the light with cardboard since the coverage seems awfully broad for a snoot–though maybe I was just balancing with the ambient light since the exposure was 1/10 sec at f4 and ISO 800. This was, again, with the 17-40 F4.0 L.

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I was sick with food poisoning this day and didn’t do much. Even Maya was thwarted by the rain.

I remember shooting several pictures like this and noticing that, depending on how she turned her head or where I moved, her ears either lined up with the railing supports or were between them. I liked the ones with her ears lined up the best.

Shooting and processing notes
Not a lot of thought here. Again shot with the nearly-always-on-my-camera 17-40 F4.0 L. This time at the long end (40mm) and f4. I don’t think I did anything to this except set the white balance in Lightroom.

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Maya watches from The Grooming Spa. With Dawn in Calgary, The Grooming Spa provided day care for Maya while I was at work.

This one had potential but I didn’t spend enough time framing it (and Maya probably wouldn’t have held that pose much longer anyway).

Shooting and processing notes
Another shot with the 17-40 F4.0 L. Again at 17mm and f4. It was dark that morning so this is ISO 800. I didn’t get down low enough or make myself parallel to the plane of the windows so the verticals and horizontals that are so important to this picture were out of whack. I used Photoshop’s lens distortion filter to straighten things out but I didn’t do a great job. Not only does Maya end up looking short and squat, the door on the right is still out of whack. I like the transform tools much better for this kind of thing.

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Dawn gets ready to go to Calgary to help Rae move into her new condominium. Dawn isn’t the only one who is sad.

She doesn’t like this picture of her but the obvious sadness in her face makes this picture for me.

Shooting and processing notes
I messed around with the saturation, vibrance, and tone controls in Lightroom to get a washed-out look and cropped to a square aspect. I shot this with my 17-40 F4.0 L at 17mm and f4. It’s tempting to say that this would have been better with a lens with a wider aperture (and narrower depth of field) but I like including some of the detail of the village there to anchor this picture to the time of year.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: January
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: January 2008 Photoset
Flickr: January 2008 Extras Photoset