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Randy Vanderveen photography is owned and operated by Randy Vanderveen, an award-winning photographer with two decades of experience. The company can meet all your photographic needs whether you require commercial work for brochures, catalogs or annual reports; editorial work; or portraiture for weddings and families in the Peace River Country of northwest Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Call or email us (click here) for a quote on a job or licensing fees for photos. (780) 897-6478. Feel free to check out the weekly Viewfinder blog.

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Thursday
04Mar2010

Into the frame

DateThursday, March 4, 2010 at 12:48

Grovedale, Alberta 13/02/10 Dale Thompson walks behind a harnessed team of horses as he makes his way over to a sled with bunks on it to haul firewood. One of my biggest short comings as a photographer is shooting too tight.

When I was at SAIT, my photojournalism instructor emphasized filling the frame and I think I took that advice too much to heart.

Sometimes negative space — the area which doesn't contain your photo subject — can be as important as the subject itself in telling a story in a photo.

(Cropping portraits also makes you realize that shooting tight isn't always the answer. When you shoot a portrait, crop it to 8x10 and lose all the space around the person, you begin to realize you need to shoot a little looser. It also comes into play when shooting athletes like figure skaters, gymnasts and artists like dancers. They want to see their pointed toes and fingers so they can see how good their technique is. Shooting tight is better suited for newspapers so the viewer can get a quick read of the photo whether it is a full page or one column image.)

I still have a tendency to shoot too tight but I am trying and make a conscious effort to shoot a little looser. (With the resolution of today's digital cameras cropping into a photo is a little less invasive than doing so using a Nikon D1H).

This photo is a prime example of when shooting looser helps with the story.

I could have shot this tight on Dale, the man at the reins, and his team, (although shooting tight from behind would have been an ugly shot) but shooting looser allows the viewer to see where he is going, the country he is going into, the weather conditions etc.

It adds the adverbs and adjectives to the photo sentence of "A man drives a team of horses".

On a secondary note, usually when you shoot people getting their face in the photo is desireable, but in this case shooting Dale as he drives the team away adds depth. It also adds the leading lines of the trailing reins which wouldn't be visible if he was coming towards the camera.

 

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Friday
26Feb2010

Beyond the Obvious

DateFriday, February 26, 2010 at 16:57

 

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Yuma, Arizona The shadows of palm trees are projected on to the wall of a Yuma building by the setting sun.

When taking photos sometimes you need to go beyond the obvious to find something interesting.

The palm trees casting these shadows presented a problem to photograph.

First, getting into a position to show them aesthetically was difficult and second they would have blended into the background of the buildings surrounding them.

However, the trees' shape is unique and by focussing on the shadows they cast rather than the trees themselves a unique photo was captured.

Sometimes just photographing detail, a pattern or shadows and light can make an otherwise boring photo turn into something interesting.

••••

My beautiful wife, Cheryl and I spent the past week in the sunshine of Yuma, Arizona, visiting my in-laws. It was great to get out of the wintry weather for awhile.

However, it is also great to be back home. In just over a week I will be among four local pros mentoring some budding photographers during the 2010 Arctic Winter Games.

It should be a good opportunity to see the craft from the view point of someone else. I am looking forward to it.

 

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Tuesday
16Feb2010

Playing shy

DateTuesday, February 16, 2010 at 12:00

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie, Alberta A white-tail deer bounds off flashing its tail in a warning to others nearby. White-tail are more wary than their mule deer cousins.

If you are a hunter, a nature photographer or a budding naturalist, you probably are aware that white-tails are a little more flighty than muleys, which will often just stand still watching even if you are relatively close.

Sometimes as photographers, we are guilty of being too wary and shy.

We don't feel comfortable approaching people to take their photos. Even after almost twenty years of having to approach strangers and get their names, I still find it hard at times.

However, just the act of doing it makes the task easier the next time.

Another area photographers can be shy about is trying something new. Go for it.

You never know whether you have the talent to shoot sports, portraits, still lifes, etc. until you try and the more you work at it the better you get.

Why not assign yourself the task of shooting something or someone you never have before? There is no sense in running away from every new thing.

 

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Tuesday
09Feb2010

Foggy mornings

DateTuesday, February 9, 2010 at 12:42

Grande Prairie, Alberta 08/02/10 Photo Randy Vanderveen A crane flies trusses to the roof of the PointsWest Living project under construction on the city's west side north of Grande Prairie Mitsubishi Monday morning, Feb. as fog surrounds the site. The project is just one of the larger construction projects underway in the Swan City.

Photography sometimes involves taking the old Nike slogan to heart "Just Do It".

Often times it seems like it would be easier to not go out when it is foggy, snowing, raining, cold, cloudy, too hot, or fill-in-the-blank. It would be easier to just postpone going out and getting photos.

However, just the act of getting out there and photographing when you don't feel like it means you are improving your craft.

It means you may be thinking outside the box and actually making photos instead of just taking them. Conditions like fog force you to try and be creative in the use of white balance, under and over-exposure etc.

Why not head outdoors on a self-assignment to see what sort of photos you can create on a day when you really don't feel like it.

Imagine if the crew working on the building in the photo above had the same attitude that we often have when it comes to doing things.

How long do you think a project like this would take if the entire crew only worked when it was warm and sunny?

The contractor would soon go out of business.

But by getting out there and working regardless of the conditions  — with the exception of when the weather becomes a safety hazard itself — the project progresses on time and with a much better chance of being on budget.

Sometimes these same lessons can apply to our daily lives too.

If we don't do something because we have a sniffle or not prepared to try something new because it is different, we are short changing ourselves.

•••
I don't know about you but I really like checking out the work of other photographers. There are some who are well known like Joe McNally, Sports Illustrated's Robert Beck or National Geographic Traveler's Bob Krist; however, there are also some incredible photographers that many people are unaware of.
Cameron Davidson has aerial photographs that are amazing and Matt Mendelsohn, who I have mentioned before,  has to be one of my favourite portrait and wedding photographers.
I enjoy checking out updates to these photographers' respective web sites and blogs and the variety can be quite diverse, but I find it quite inspiring.
Do you have a photographer whose work you admire? Is there a blog you follow regularly? 
Often by checking out the work of others at the top of their craft, we can better own skills by becoming inspired to work harder at our photography.
If you have interests that don't include photography like writing, music, carving etc., the same thing applies. The internet is a wonderful resource in that aspect as you can become exposed to the work of others with your same interests and talents that you never would otherwise. You can be inspired by others around the world.
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Tuesday
02Feb2010

Sometimes it is the little things

DateTuesday, February 2, 2010 at 13:32

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie, Alberta A macro shot showing both mature mountain pine beetles and those in the larvae stage on a dime to show their relative size. Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie, Alberta This winter more than 15,000 beetle-infested trees are going to be cut down just in the Evergreen Park — the Grande Prairie-area fairgrounds — vicinity alone. While tiny the mountain pine beetle thanks in part to its huge numbers is beginning to devastate the forests in northwestern Alberta just like the insect did in British Columbia.

I am sure you have heard the expression "Don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff."

While the expression might apply to worry in our lives it doesn't apply to forgetting to look after the little things whether it is in our business, our photography, or our relationships with our families.

I am not saying a person needs to worry about every little thing, advice I really need to personally take to heart, however, if we don't look after the little things when they arise soon they become big things.

While the mountain pine beetles pictured above are examples of this, there are many others. Even something simple like regular maintenance on a car, house or camera is a small task, but failing to do it regularly results in some big problems further down the road.

On the other hand, little gestures compounded can also do great things.

The world has seen an example of that recently with giving to Haiti.

Much of the money donated for the relief efforts have come in denominations of $5, $10, $20, or even $100 and yet it has added up to millions in total.

Even the development of habits both good and bad work this way. To develop a good habit like exercise isn't done by starting off by running a marathon daily as soon as a person decides he or she needs to get more exercise. Rather it is by perhaps walking a half-hour a day to start off or running a half-mile. Eventually you might get to the point where you are in good enough shape to compete in a marathon, but you need to start somewhere and usually with something small.

Proof that it by looking after the small things in our lives will result in the big things in our lives being dealt with too.

For those of you interested in photography it is the same way — you aren't going to be a Yousuf Karsh the first time you take a photo, however, by working on your craft, experimenting and shooting photographs and analyzing and studying both what went right and what didn't, you will improve your skills and who knows...

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