Self Portrait, Calgary skyline - January 5th, 2011

I look a little startled here. Out of the fifteen or twenty attempts to get the shot, I was only in focus in two of them, and pretty much had the same facial expression in both. All the other shots the camera focused on the downtown skyline and I was reduced to a blur. In those blurry shots I'm sure my facial expression was the kind that would melt hearts and inspire poetry.

Actually, I was inspired by a thread on flickr and really wanted to go out and make some shots with my flashes. Although I don't have the same kind of subject matter as many of those pictures I still had to get out and do it.

I had to drop off some stuff at my sisters house, so on the way back I stopped in a bike-path parking lot on 26th Ave S.E. that overlooks the Deerfoot valley and the downtown skyline. My goal was to get in, get a shot and get out. If I can get quick at this kind of shot people will stop groaning when I say I want to take a picture with my umbrella`s and flashes.

So, I got out of the car, setup one flash on a light stand and the other on a gorilla pod and mounted the camera to the tripod with a remote shutter release plugged into it.

At first there wasn't anyone in the parking lot with me, then a car drove in while I was still organizing my stuff. I hesitated about continuing but after a few seconds I thought what the heck and continued on. I made shots until the batteries in one of the flashes gave out on me.

By the time I was done there were three or four cars in the parking lot. Somehow I'd become self absorbed enough that I didn't notice. I felt a little self conscious but that passed as I busied myself with putting everything away.

Thanks for looking.
brad.