We’re so very fortunate that even though the GeoKids attend different schools, they have the same two weeks for spring break! They think they’d like to sit at home “relaxing” in front of a computer screen. But we know better! So we’ve organized some interesting activities (at least they’re interesting to us) to get us out and about in the amazing Bow Valley.
For example, earlier this week we spent the afternoon at the Canadian Museum of Making, a privately owned and operated collection of machinery and tools built and used from 1750 to 1920 in Canada, Britain, and the United States. The machines have been carefully preserved and restored to working order; they are mainly steam-driven and are powered by a huge steam plant located outside the museum building. The Museum’s website includes a wide range of photographs of the machinery (and a wealth of historical information about each machine). To give you some idea of our walk-through experience, here are just a few of the photographs we took on site…
The main reason we arranged to visit this unique location was to provide K with another opportunity to work with a blacksmith. While the blacksmith was guiding K through the process of forging a small axe head (subject of a future post), I slipped outside to photograph a couple of old pieces of equipment in the yard…
I challenged myself to shoot exclusively with a fixed-length lens: the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro. I came away a little more familiar with its capabilities and with considerable insight into opportunities for my own skills development (focus plane, composition, more careful selection of subject matter, giving more thought to the story I’m trying to tell, selecting the most appropriate depth of field, to list a few), as well as (yet) another reminder to always use a tripod.
Is there any particular aspect of photography you’re working on right now? What resources are you finding most helpful as you move up the photography learning curve?