It’s been 2 years since I’ve gotten the Canon T3. Before I started photography, I only use Photoshop tools such as Level and Curve to edit my JPEG photos. I didn’t know the limitations of JPEG images until I discover RAW image format and Adobe Lightroom.

My photography friends were the one that showed me how to use Adobe Lightroom to edit RAW image files. At first I find it very tedious having to edit every photo for it to look “nicer”. But then I noticed that I am able to turn no-so-ideal images into decent ones! Ok I’m not saying you can take a really crappy photo and turn it into an award winning one. But photos that might not look good straight out of the camera can get a make over in Lightroom. So now, unless the image is super blurry or way over or under exposed, I’ll keep it and see what I can do when I post-process it.

Here are some recent photos I took when I went to Faubourg for afternoon tea. There were a lot of clouds that day, with the sun occasionally breaking out. As we were leaving the cafe, I wanted to take images of the pastries inside the display window. I do not have a polarizing filter for my lens so there was quite a bit of reflection from the window. This, combined with the cloudy weather, made the image look quite dull. Here are the two “best” image I had of the pastries from outside the cafe. I managed to get rid of some reflection by taking the photos at an angle and having the camera very close to the window:

After adjusting the images, they now look like this:

The before and after is quite different right? There’s so much you can do with Lightroom. Even after a year or so of using this software, I have only explored the basic functions to improve my photos. Eventually, I’d like to play around with it to add different photo filters/styles such as high contrast black and white, vintage and lomography.

I started photography about 2 years ago when my husband gave me my first DSLR, the Canon T3, as our “pre-wedding” present. Since then, I’ve tried to learn photography by shooting at everything from flowers and buildings to weddings and events. Of all the different types of photos that I’ve shoot, my favourite would be wedding/events since I like the fact that the photos actually tell a story. I’ll be able to practice more wedding photoshoots this summer and in order to prepare myself, I am using Bandit for shooting practice.

Bandit is quite hard to shoot. He is constantly moving and it’s hard to know what he is going to do next. I also don’t prefer to use treats to make him look or act a certain way as I prefer to capture him doing whatever he is doing for the most natural expression. I find that if I use a treat to lure him, he will always look the same in every photo.

Here’s the latest photoshoot with Bandit where we made him jump and introduce him to a new toy.

[Above: Bandit at 13 months old. Below: Bandit at 10 weeks old.]

Here are the rest of the photos I took of the distillery. My favourite photos is the one with the scooters.

(If you’ve missed part 1, read it here) Day 2 of our Whistler trip consisted of a visit to the farmers market and play time near the creek. It was the Turkey Sale weekend up at Whistler so the village was packed with people. I’ve never been to the farmers market there so early in the morning the three of us walked up to Blackcome village to check it out.

Bandit went out of control at the farmers market. There were way more people here than at the Trout Lake farmers market that we are used to going. He went around picking up all the food he can find on the ground so we had to give him a lecture to get him focused again. I didn’t buy anything since we weren’t planning to do any cooking at Whistler. We picked up lunch at one of the vendors that sell something called Jeggs. Turned out it’s a variation of Okonomiyaki.

After lunch we walked back towards Whistler Village using one of the many trails available. Along the way we found a path down to the creek and decided to see if Bandit would like to play in the water. He sure did! I’ve never seen him so active in water before. Maybe it’s because the creek have moving water, vs the still water at Trout Lake.

We used pieces of wood to lure Bandit into the creek and after a bit he started running in and out, testing the depths of the water. There were also large pieces of wood lying around and he’d try to pick them up.

It’s a good thing I brought our long line since our normal leash (6 ft.) is obviously too short for Bandit to explore further into the creek.

We played by the creek for about 1 hour and then took an hour short hike. All of us were super tired. We went back to the room and left Bandit there to rest. We took this time to walk around the village to see where we should go for dinner. Bandit was resting peacefully while we were gone. I guess he was really tired out by the play time at the creek. He slept through the night, only waking up 2-3 times when a bunch of noisy people walk past our door. Next time we know to give him a workout before having him stay over night at a hotel.

Overall this little trip was a great experience for all of us. Bandit learned to sleep in an unfamiliar environment and that playing in the water is no big deal. I’m planning to take Bandit snowshoeing during winter. Hopefully he’ll like it!

[Hmm...where are we going?]

[Yawn...are we there yet?]

[Well guess I'll take a nap before we get there.]

 [Time to stretch my legs! Where are we going PaPa?]

We decided to take a pit stop at Shannon Falls so that Bandit can stretch his legs and go on a potty break. Bandit was very curious of the surrounds since it feels very different that the park near our neighbourhood.

[What's that up there PaPa?]

[On the road again...back to sleep for me.]

[We're here at Whistler!]

We arrived at Whistler just before 4:00pm. After checking in at Summit Lodge, we took Bandit for a walk in the village. There were so many people at Whistler! It’s probably because it’s the Thanksgiving weekend, the weather is super nice and they had the Turkey Sale that weekend as well. Anyways, Bandit wasn’t sure what to do, he wanted to sniff everything since there are quite a bit of crap on the ground and there are so many dogs around too. However most dog owners didn’t want to meet and greet so Bandit didn’t get to play much.

[Yes PaPa?]

[MaMa brought my blankie and favourite toys!]

[Dinner time! I got the cube and PaPa got takeout.]

We took a walk after dinner for Bandit’s last potty break and I took this photo for fun. It turned out much better than I thought!  Through out the night, Bandit would bark occasionally because he’d hear other people walking pass in the hallway or he can hear other dogs outside. It took a long time before he’d quite down. To stop him from running straight to the door, we use the coffee table to block off the access. I didn’t get much sleep that night since every time he barks I’d wake up to calm him. My plan is to get him super tired the next day so we can finally get some sleep!