Kerr Photography - Victoria, BC, Professional Photographer » Adventure

Olympic Sailing – Victoria, BC

Matthew — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:00:43 +0000

This morning I got the opportunity to photograph Canadian Olympic Hopefuls Hannah Meers (skipper) and Erin Flanagan (crew) as they practiced in the cold waters off Oak Bay. We started the morning by getting the boat ready (I drank my latte) at 7:45 and we were on the water by 8:20. The air was frigid, the clouds were dark and the sun wasn’t fully awake yet. It started to rain. Thankfully, the rain did hold off for the most part, but it was still way colder than it needed to be. I think we were on the water for about 2 hours in total while the girls trained (Hannah with bare feet). It’s been a while since I was on the water when it was this cold and photographically speaking, my hands were too numb to fully grab my lens. Not to mention that my knees are bruised from being bounced around the zodiac, I’ll remember to bring knee pads next time.
They sail the international 470 dinghy in the women’s division. The 470 first became an Olympic class in 1976, and is one of nine types of sailboats raced in the Olympics. Both Hannah and Erin grew up in southern Alberta and thus, their team name is Wild Rose Girls. You can find them and follow them on Facebook here or follow them on twitter with @Meers_Flanagan. The two are on their way to Miami in the following weeks to continue their training.

Expiration

Matthew — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:36:53 +0000

So, I was over in Vancouver a couple weeks ago (not for a hockey game) and was able to spend the morning with my lady and a friend of her family-friend who oddly enough went to the same photography school as I did. We wandered down to Granville Island and had some lunch in the market and then cruised on over the bridge. I, for the first time (just before the wedding) took my Minolta out to play. These are two of my favourite shots from that trip.

We didn’t just go over for Granville Island market food, we actually went over to see the musical Wicked. If you ever, ever get a chance to see it, I recommend it with the highest of all recommendations.

I like this. Thoughts? Post them in the comments box!

New Zealand

Matthew — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:27:39 +0000

I started watching The Lord of the Rings the other day and I remembered when I rode a horse through what was, Rohan. Yes, I am a nerd.

Photography from the Mountain

Matthew — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:16:44 +0000

So, I missed the Tasty Tuesday this week. And that would be because I was packing for a ski trip in which I left on Tuesday. Whatever, it’s a poor excuse. Other than the ski trip, I don’t have much to report on this week. I will be posting a Tasty Tuesday this week and it will be something from way back.
In the meantime, here’s the video from the weekend. It was really cold while we were up there (-20°C in the morning and a balmy -17°C in the sun) at Mount Washington. The video is from all over the mountainside. Make sure to watch it in HD. If you’re on a mobile device, here’s the youtube link

Bondi

Matthew — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 18:38:47 +0000

I hoped to have some fashion pictures for you this week but they won’t be ready for at least another month. Why? Simple, they haven’t been taken yet. In any case, here is a panoramic stitch that I took while I was in Australia. This is a composition of probably 6 pictures. What do you think?Click to enlarge

Inukshuk

Matthew — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:15:46 +0000

Near the beginning of my trip through New Zealand, my girlfriend and I took a train down the north island from Auckland to Wellington (12 hours) and then, the next day, hopped on a ferry that took us to the south island (4 hours) and then another train, on the same day, to Christchurch. The following day we were on a bus, for about 9 hours that took us all the way to Queenstown. It was a long trip, and me being as sick as a dog made it feel even longer. We stopped at Lake Tekapo (seen in the “Northern Hemisphere” post). I took some time down at the lake front to reflect. It was then that I took a few pictures of the area and then started to make my way back to the bus. However, on my way back I noticed that the rocks were perfect stacking rocks. I stopped and had a quick look around and found 4 or 5 great spots to leave a bit of Canada behind. So, I started stacking and made an inukshuk.
I hope that in doing this, another Canadian, on another bus, found this and thought of home. I know that I would.

Old Town

Matthew — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:53:42 +0000

When I was in Sydney this past October, I spent one afternoon wandering around The Rocks. It’s the oldest part of Sydney (or Australia) in terms of European views. It was also the day of the Melbourne Cup. The streets were crowded with people celebrating the race, and they were all dressed to the nines. Below is one of my pictures from this afternoon.A simple door that led to a patio. It used to be a General Store, now it’s a museum. The door doesn’t work (I tried), but I’d like to think that the deliveries came through there from the back ally.

Fine Art Vision

Matthew — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:56:14 +0000

This past fall, my girlfriend and I took some time off work/school and traveled for 4 months in the southern hemisphere. Specifically, Australia and New Zealand. I won’t go in to where we went and what we did (if you’re curious, visit msquareddownunder.wordpress.com) but I will give some details about what I saw and how it affected me personally and professionally.

First off, my gear. If I am ever to do it again, and there is a high possibility of more traveling, I will, without a doubt, bring more gear. Regardless of what all of the travel books, offices, and the things people might say about traveling with stuff you don’t want stolen, forget it all. It may have applied 10 or even 5 years ago, but not anymore. We would be staying in hostels where people would leave their laptop, camera and mobile on their bed in a 6 person dorm and leave. For the night. Not saying that it’s very smart, but stuff doesn’t have a lot of theft appeal when there is so much around. It seems like everyone these days is backpacking with their laptop. And to think that I was worried about taking my iPhone. The camera that I did take down there was the Panasonic DMC-LX3. A decent “high-end-point-and-shoot” camera. It’s on par with the G11 variant from Canon. In my opinion, it performed admirably and to its credit, within its specifications. As soon as I tried to use the camera as I would my Nikon D3 (obviously a higher level than a point-and-shoot) I found that it lacked, immensely. I also, in my glorious spat of wisdom, didn’t bring a tripod. Why? Maybe you can answer that, I just don’t know. I did however bring a flash and a wireless transmitter for the hotshoe. I used it once. Okay, twice, but the second time was only to see if the thing was still working after three and a half months of shoving in to my backpack (it didn’t work). All said and done, there are reasons why I went with a push-here-dummy camera and why I didn’t bring my SLR and lenses: size, weight, insurance, theft-o-meter, and the massive files my camera produces would have caused me to go for broke on memory cards (they’re really expensive down-under). The camera worked for why I wanted it but there were times when I was kicking myself for not bringing a bigger camera. It would have let me take so many shots where I simply stated “I wish I had my…” but then held my tongue for fear of my girlfriend actually kicking me for bringing up that ‘issue’ one more time.

Second, I found that my vision changed quite a bit in the 3 months of Australia and 3 weeks of New Zealand. At first I was in awe of where I was, taking pictures of palm trees on beaches, which for obvious reasons we just don’t get on Vancouver Island. Halfway through the trip my vision switched from flowing water over rocks in the middle of a jungle to skyscrapers, buildings, bridges, architecture. It could be because north of Brisbane (about halfway down the coast) there aren’t any cities, unless you count Cairns (which, you can’t really). I think it was also because I was tired of that, time to move on and try something else. It changed again a number of times as we traversed the country but the thing that really stuck was the landscapes. I took those throughout the whole trip, something I wasn’t fully expecting. Obviously I was thinking that I would really dig the views but something kept me seeing them differently every time. I liked it. I started taking pictures of people on the street by the time we got to Melbourne (the end of our Aussie trip) and, unfortunately, didn’t have enough time to fulfill that genre on my trip. It’s something I’d like to do more. By the time I got to New Zealand, I figured I would enjoy my time there, but it was the ‘end’ of my trip and I was thinking of home.

New Zealand is an undersold resource of raw natural beauty. Now I know why so many photographers go there for their personal work. (By the way, I know this post is long, but thanks for sticking through it if you’ve made it this far. I won’t rant much longer.) In a quick fit of math I deduced that of all the pictures I took in Australia I only ‘like’ 18% of them. On the other hand, in New Zealand I’m in the range of 23%. I think this is due to the landscape and pure visual inspiration that NZ pukes in to your lap (note: visual inspiration, not literary inspiration).
My conclusion to this atypically long post, I like being a photographer and I liked that I was so limited with my gear while traveling. I grew in terms of my personal vision and as to what I can do professionally. Although, I wouldn’t want to do it again in the future, but if ever I were to get trapped in a spacial rift and be sent back in time, I would (more than likely) do it the same way again.

The pictures (shameless plug: for sale in print) that I’ve published with this post are a few of the fine art versions of my travels through Australia, all shot on the LX3 and converted in Bridge/Lightroom/Photoshop/Lightroom. Yes, they went through Lightroom twice.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave comments below, I won’t bite.

Northern Hemisphere

Matthew — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:56:32 +0000

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I’m home from my travel this “fall” down in Australia and New Zealand. I’m going to be going hard over the next couple of weeks on the pictures that I took down there and I’ll be setting up a small gallery that I’ll link to at that time. Over the next month or two I’m also going to be putting out a “casting call” of sorts for some photo ideas that I thought of during my inspirational trip, so if you’re interested in finding out what those may be or how you can be involved, message me on Facebook or email me. Thanks for being patient with me while I completely ignored this blog on my trip and look forward to more exciting things to come in the new year!

Matthew

Australia

Matthew — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:45:32 +0000

As of September 1^st, 2010 my girlfriend and I will be making a trip down south. We’re going to be starting in Cairns and heading south to Melbourne. Once we reach Melbourne, we will hop over to Auckland, NZ for a couple weeks and then we should be on our way home.
What camera(s) will I be taking? Well, sadly only 2. I went out and purchased a small PHD Camera (Push Here Dummy) for the majority of my pictures. I’m also taking my iPhone. Yes, it’s a camera too and yes, I like taking pictures with it. The camera that I purchased (for you gear junkies out there) is the Panasonic LX3. It’s essentially the Canon G10 but with an f/2.0 Leica lens.

For those of you who want to keep track of me while I’m down there, I’m going to try and update my blog and my twitter feed as often as possible. I’ll also be posting pictures as much as possible too. If anybody is in dire need of me email would probably work best as I won’t have a real phone with me.