With two weeks to go until we kick off TechDays in Toronto, the team is doing the final preparations to deliver an amazing experience to everyone who attends.

One of the things that I’ll be taking care of during the events is photography.  I’ve already got the Nikon D200 and D300 ready to go, and with [...]]]>

With two weeks to go until we kick off TechDays in Toronto, the team is doing the final preparations to deliver an amazing experience to everyone who attends.

One of the things that I’ll be taking care of during the events is photography.  I’ve already got the Nikon D200 and D300 ready to go, and with any luck I’ll have Nikon D90 in time for the conference as well.  The guys at Nikon are absolutely amazing and make sure that my team have access to the latest gear to capture and share the experience at the event for those of you who aren’t able to attend.   Of course I’ll be posting the photos to my flickr page as well as to the TechDays group on flickr.  I’ll also be tagging everything with TechDays_CA.

One thing I have learned from previous events is that sometimes you need to be in more than one place at once.  Normally as a photographer that is hard to do, however, with the help of a little technology life just got easier.  I have been using PocketWizard Plus IIs for a while now to trigger remote flashes, but after reading the PocketWizard blog and Vincent LaForet’s blog post on remote cameras at the Olympics, I realized I had only been using my PocketWizards for half of what they could do.  A quick search turned up FlashZebra.com and the cables that I was looking for – the ones that allow me to remotely trigger a camera.  I have placed my order so I just need to wait for the package to arrive and I’m one step closer to being in two places at once.

If you are attending TechDays and want to chat about cameras, I’ll be the guy with all the Nikon stuff hanging off me.  If you haven’t already bought your ticket there is still time to get your ticket before the early bird pricing ends on October 15th – visit http://techdays.ca for all the details.

The most recent one is a Paul Tracy photo that I took  with my Nikon D200 in Toronto on July 6, 2007.  The photo is included in [...]]]> I’m pretty open about people using the photos I post to flickr as I have them under a Creative Commons license.  I always enjoy seeing where they land. 

The most recent one is a Paul Tracy photo that I took  with my Nikon D200 in Toronto on July 6, 2007.  The photo is included in a post about Paul Tracy making his return at the Edmonton Indy this weekend – The 'Thrill From West Hill' Is Back! | Element of Speed

Here is the original photo and link back to the set on Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157600689404182/

Today I spent the day volunteering with the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride (SNKCR) during their [...]]]> One of the things I love about working for Microsoft (and I think I have mentioned before) is the fact that I get to take days off to volunteer my time in the community.  Today was one of those days.

Today I spent the day volunteering with the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride (SNKCR) during their stop in Toronto.  It's a ride from coast to coast to raise money to help children live with and beyond cancer.  My portion of the day was spent at Trinity Square as well as Sick Kids Hospital for various parts of the event.

Not only did I have the chance to photograph all the cyclists that have been riding from Vancouver, but also the local riders who are riding on this stage of the route.

At Sick Kids there were speeches from Dr. Blanchette from Sick Kids as well as the President of Sears Canada.  While down at Trinity Square there were speeches from Toronto Mayor David Miller as well as the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, David Onley.  I have met David Onley a couple of times in the past during his time at CP24, so it was a pleasure to say hello to him again today.

I'll be posting all my photos to flickr over the next few days, so keep checking the following address: http://flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157605602589479/

Every year I spend a few days down by the lake to enjoy the Champ Car and support series races.  Every year they seem to tweak the name in some way – so this year it is the "Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto".  For the last couple of years I have had media credentials which [...]]]> [Originally posted to http://on10.net/Blogs/bjeans/day-1-at-the-toronto-grand-prix/]

Every year I spend a few days down by the lake to enjoy the Champ Car and support series races.  Every year they seem to tweak the name in some way – so this year it is the "Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto".  For the last couple of years I have had media credentials which means I have access to the media centre and a wifi connection so I can post this stuff real-time.  Unfortunately shooting video in the pits isn't an option unless you are one of the broadcast outlets (fair enough) so I'll resort to telling the story with photos, and besides, it's a great first outing for the Nikon gear that I'm trying out – I'll post on that later.

Given that I can't shoot video, one of the things I have been on the lookout for is the interesting use of technology and specifically what the teams are running on their laptops in the pits.  The good news is I have yet to see a machine that isn't running Windows.  While every machine I saw in the pits was running Windows XP, almost every PC I saw in the photo lounge was running Windows Vista – very cool.

At the end of the first day – here is the provisional top 3

If you are in Toronto and at the race send me an email if you want to connect, or if you have a questions you would like to see if I can get answered, let me know.

All of my photos are online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157600689404182/

I just came across the following article on PopPhoto.com that talks about some of the features in Vista that are most relevant for Photographers. 

Without reprinting the entire article they outline 4 key areas:

If you are a photographer and wondering about Vista, I encourage you to read the article [...]]]> [Cross posted to http://on10.net/Blogs/bjeans/windows-vista-whats-in-it-for-photographers/]

I just came across the following article on PopPhoto.com that talks about some of the features in Vista that are most relevant for Photographers. 

Without reprinting the entire article they outline 4 key areas:

1. Windows Photo Gallery
2. RAW support
3. Media Center
4. Forward-Looking Approach

If you are a photographer and wondering about Vista, I encourage you to read the article and let me know if you have any questions.  Additionally, you may want to take a look at the Microsoft PhotoBlog at http://blogs.msdn.com/pix/ and specifically their FAQ at http://blogs.msdn.com/pix/pages/FAQ.aspx which address some of the common questions.

The photos are from the following flickr set (http://flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157600287368149/) and are featured as part of the following story: http://www.nowpublic.com/green_governer_schwarzenegger_drives_around_vancouver_in_suburbans_motorcade

As you may know, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in town meeting with Dalton McGuinty and they made a quick stop at MaRS for some presentations.  I managed [...]]]> I'm down here at MaRS in downtown Toronto with Mark Relph and couple of other Microsoft folks for the MESH Conference.  However, that isn't the focus of this post. 

As you may know, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in town meeting with Dalton McGuinty and they made a quick stop at MaRS for some presentations.  I managed to stake out a great spot to grab some photos as they left the building.

The rest of the photos I took are at: http://flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157600287368149/