Chills

I have been wanting to share this story for awhile. It’s something that has really resonated with me. I know I keep saying this, but I feel like I really do need to keep telling myself how lucky I am. Not trying to sound like I’m bragging, that would just be ridiculous. It’s simply that sometimes life can be hard, and you need to remember the good stuff in bad times.

I’ve had the privilege of working back at the Museum of Anthropology again for the last few months… didn’t I already make this post? I know… This one is new. I am an extremely lucky person to actually make a living as a photographer for the most part, but to make part of my living photographing something that I’m so passionate about… Double passion going on here. Photographing some of the coolest ancient artifacts from all over the world. I did major in Anthro before I switched to study my other passion of photography…So this is seriously the coolest job for me that I can imagine…

It’s ridiculous that I could ever get tired of such a job, but like any job, there was a day during this last contract where a huge rack of miniature pottery was brought into the digi studio. Tiny little pieces all made of clay, and I had to photograph each and every single one of these pieces. It took awhile, as I’m sure you can imagine. Part of my deal is that I have to try and photograph as many objects as I can in a day while maintaining extremely high quality images, no photoshop allowed after all… Lighting, and showcasing each object as it appears in life. Important for research and the archives.

So, after a few days I started getting a little bit bored of these little beautiful South American pieces of pottery that pre-date any European influence. I’m a horrible person… The shots were all macro, so they were taking up some sweet time. The rack I got to photograph after I was finished had Ancient Egyptian mortuary artifacts on it. They were sitting there on their rack watching me with their 4000 year old eyes of Horus… Can you really blame me?

I was photographing one tiny little piece of pottery that was no bigger than 5 centimeters in diameter. It was a little bit lopsided, so I turned it around to try and get a better view of it in case it’s image would ever need to be published. When I turned it I noticed there was a perfectly preserved thumb print in the hardened clay…

That person is gone, and this is their legacy. I swear my heart stopped beating for a few moments. Something that person probably didn’t even think about, and here I am hundreds of years later realizing that one day not too far into the future, I’ll be gone as well; all of us will… I certainly didn’t mind finishing the photographs of the objects on that rack after that… So simple, and so profound. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if it hadn’t been for the macro lens.

I try to remember that every day we spend on this planet is amazing, it really can be a challenge sometimes. I really hope that by sharing this story with you, you might think about how lucky you are to be alive as well. :)

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FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery

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I used to shoot for the Vancouver section of Nightlife Magazine based in Montreal. I used to go check out tons of awesome shows around town and take photos. Lots of great bands, and lots of great performances as well. I did it for a few months with my eyes on two things I wanted access to in particular. I wanted to shoot FUSE at the VAG, and I also wanted to shoot the Queens of the Stone Age concert. Well, unfortunately QOTSA fell through with Nightlife not being able to get me access to the show (I think it was too late). I did however get access to the Art Gallery to photograph FUSE in June 2008. I took the initiative, learning from my previous miss, and I e-mailed the VAG before it was too late. I ended up creating a contract position out of it for myself where I get to photograph every FUSE the Vancouver Art Gallery hosts! I love going and seeing how the Art Gallery has been transformed into something so dynamic and even more creative than I could have envisioned every time. I’m also so lucky to be able to see the talent hosted at the VAG at these events! If you’ve never checked out FUSE, you’re missing out Vancouver!

Here are a few photos from the last FUSE the Vancouver Art Gallery hosted on November 4th, 2011. :)

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A Memorial Remembers Loss

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After I graduated from photography school in 2007, I went and worked with a photo-journalist in New York. Instead of doing stuff like scanning and archiving for him, he gave me an assignment. At first we weren’t sure what I should spend time covering, but after I showed him some of the shots I took when I visited different places around the city, he thought continuing with the shots I took at Ground Zero would give me a little bit of the best insight being a real documentary photographer. I was lucky enough to have him critique my work after the way they he said they do at National Geographic or the New Yorker, which he had first hand experience with.

There isn’t a lot I can write about spending so much time there being an observer. I’m much better at expressing how I feel through the images I take. I think if you take a look at this little bit of work I did you will see for yourself how much residual emotion lies there with the people, and the location itself.

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A little update.

Hi there,

I’ve been working back at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC for the last few months. I am so in love with this job! I love having the ability to put effort into lighting, and making great photographs of the objects I am privileged enough to even see up close.

This contract I’ve had the ability to photograph ancient Egyptian artifacts from the Twentieth Dynasty. When I was looking at these objects I simply could not wrap my brain around the fact that they were over 4000 years old. Considering my frame of reference is a pretty pitiful twenty something years, and even less than that if you only count when you can actually cognitively remember anything.

The other day I photographed a headdress from the northern great plains of Saskatchewan. Having the ability to set-up the headdress as to give it a look like it was being photographed on somebody’s head; really seeing it in all it’s glory. I guess the only way to get my point across is to say it gave me the chills. Like the kind you get when you feel the interconnectedness of every living bit of energy in the universe giving you a little reminder that you are in-fact part of its beautiful chaos.

Even just being able to see it up close, I was in awe. The beadwork on the headband, and the two foot long Bald Eagle feathers woven into it. I couldn’t believe how large the feathers were! Bald Eagles are unbelievable animals. I’ve read that in some first nations practices when they hunted and killed an animal they would thank the spirit and the body of the animal, and they would reassure it that every part of it was going to help the hunter’s family survive. The eagle being such a powerful, symbolic animal; its feathers were a sign of rank and accomplishment. The headdress I photographed would have most definitely belonged to a Chief. It photographed beautifully :) .

When I first started back at MOA I was faced with a photographic challenge. I was pumped to put it quite plainly. I was told that we had to photograph about 10 oversized objects in one of the temporarily closed galleries. I had to mount one of their $40,000 camera bodies, and digital backs to the ceiling, and without being able to see what I was looking at through the viewfinder, I had to climb a ladder up to the camera, and set everything prior to exposure.

Deciding to study with a technical background in photography was a good decision! With the assistance of my amazing fellow museum staff I was able to get the measurements of the objects needing photography. From there I was able to calculate what focal length each object needed. This made my life a lot easier in the long run. I then knew when I had to change lenses… pretty much completely eliminating the need for test shots, other than for object placement. Also better for the objects themselves, most of which don’t like being overly handled too much.

I can’t post photos of the objects I’ve photographed on here unless I get permission from curators at the museum. You can, however, check out small resolution versions of the photographs in their online collection.

Here are a few shots I took from the ceiling set-up! Hope you enjoy. :)

-K

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2010 in review! Yay!

Thanks to everyone who’s been checking me out! ;)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 3 times

 

In 2010, there were 9 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 19 posts. There were 12 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 6mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was November 7th with 84 views. The most popular post that day was Final day of the CWC in Tofino 2010.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Final day of the CWC in Tofino 2010 November 2010

2

About Kyla Bailey Photography August 2009
1 comment

3

The Strange Dream January 2010
1 comment

4

Culture Shock! January 2010
1 comment

5

Geology and hiking. Two thumbs up… each. July 2010

Final day of the CWC in Tofino 2010

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Here’s some more photos I took at the O’Neill Cold Water Classic out in Tofino. This time from October 14th, 2010.  For the final, the weather ended up being wicked for photography! Take a look…

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More from the Cold Water Classic…

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Here are some photos I took from the CWC in Tofino on October 13th. I didn’t realize I left my favorite shot of Pete Devries at home on my laptop. I’ll have to post that one later! Hope you enjoy! :)

KB

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Cold Water Classic.

I was hoping to make this post earlier but moving, not having internet and working non stop for the last three weeks have prevented me from doing so.

I was out in Tofino last week photographing the O’Neill Cold Water Classic. I wanted to get my surf portfolio started… What better time to do it than when the best of the best are competing so close to home? When I wasn’t shooting, I managed to catch some waves as well. Probably four of the best days of my life.

I’ve been snowboarding for a long time. I’m pretty new to surfing but I cannot get enough of it. It is totally amazing. The ocean is alive, it is probably the most evident element on the earth that reminds us that it is in fact living, and it does have a pulse. For years I’ve been standing on mountains admiring the immensity and intricacies of the geological that have slowly been transforming and changing for billions of years. I now have a new found respect for the power of these immediate and abrupt breaking waves. I never really thought about it that much until now. The different spheres of the earth are connected and they effect one another, but they are all so incredibly different.

You can’t really compare the two sports. People figured that because I’ve been snowboarding for so long, obviously I could surf too. Maybe once you’re actually up on the board your balance and proficiency for one sport can be carried over and used to figure out the other. On a mountain you don’t have to know how to catch the snow, and you don’t have to read the snow behind you to calculate what is going to happen when it reaches you, and what will happen after it passes you. When you’re snowboarding, you’re the one moving and changing depending on the terrain. In the ocean you have to understand that you’re playing by the rules of the waves. Both sports provide you with a good workout, but on a surfboard you have to paddle as well. There’s nothing like waking up the day after a good surf feeling the sore muscles in your back and arms!

Tofino is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Actually, the entire West Coast of British Columbia is pretty incredible. I’ve seen some pretty cool things, but the rugged nature on the west coast of Vancouver Island is humbling beyond anything I’ve seen so far.

While the surfers were in the water waiting for another set there were massive bald eagles circling overhead calling to each other. The entire beach is surrounded by old growth forest that has been around longer than people in Europe even knew of the Americas. There is wildlife hiding behind every corner, (last time I was there I ran face first into a bear). When you see the rain forest it’s evident that the entire ecosystem is in itself a living thing. From here you step out on to the beach and see the light green waves against the dark green ocean…

I rented a telephoto lens from a company called Canada Lens Rentals in London Ontario. I found that compared to rental places in Vancouver it was even cheaper, even after shipping and everything. Here’s a link to their website. The lens did the job for sure, and everything about renting was simple enough and ran smoothly. I’d definitely recommend renting from here!

I’ll be posting some of the photos from the event, and I’ll be updating my website as well. It may take a couple days as I still don’t have the internet at home… I definitely got some wicked shots, so check back again soon!

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Canon vs. Nikon… and some other stuff.

Alright… I’ve been shooting for over 10 years. Whoa… almost 20! I’m getting old. I started shooting when I was 7 using my dad’s old Pentax MX, which he had before I was even alive.

I remember when I was little being confused by an old clock when my dad was teaching me how to tell the time. I must have been about 3. I figured now that I could tell the time, I should be able to use his camera. NOPE… that was off limits. He made that quite evident. Ever since then, that camera was like a god… Sitting up on his mighty mahogany book shelf with it’s massive all-seeing eye that reflected and refracted all different colors of light back at me. It left me in complete and utter wonderment. Convex glass is amazing; to this day, I’m still amazed. I wasn’t allowed to touch it until I was about 7 and a half… And what a day it was.

Honestly, my favorite camera out of all of the ones I own, is my 4×5 camera. It is completely and utterly unbelievable. You work hard for the images you take, and you don’t always get the results you want… It’s heavy, and so is the tripod it sits on. It’s not easy to set-up, It leaks light unless you ensure every single part of the bellows is properly in place. It’s easy to destroy the film, the focus, the exposure, the horizon line… You name it. It takes practice to get good photographs with it. That to me is the way photography should be. I’m never letting go of that camera. You can pry it out of my cold dead hands. When you get a good image from that camera, you’ve worked for it. Your reward is that you can blow it up billboard size and it’ll look more amazing than anything on earth.

I have a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Not so fast… Hear me out. It is definitely my second favorite camera. To be honest with you… Digital still doesn’t compare in many ways to film. The MkII is pretty amazing though. I really don’t like how people buy DSLRs now and call themselves photographers. I spent around $30,000 to go to a wicked, very intense photography school. Yes, I can probably kick your butt… Unless you’re also a professional, in which case… maybe we can talk.

Anyway… Canon vs. Nikon. Honestly, both companies are great. Both make great lenses, and great cameras. Technology is constantly changing though, and both are constantly fighting seemingly to no avail. One of my hugest pet peeves, aside from people who buy DSLRs and suddenly think they’re entitled to being called a photographer, are people who are so strongly opinionated towards one or the other. Who has the time to keep up with this overly debated battle anyway?

Canon may be noisier… but Nikon can’t live in 12 MP land forever… artifacting will leave you with worse results. I blow a lot of my images up for clients. I also shoot at a reasonable ISO, and for that Canon is definitely better. Unless you’re blowing them up, you won’t really notice the noise from a canon (only at high ISOs), or artifacting from a nikon anyway… Problems no matter which way you look. And none of those problems at all if you’re just another “DSLR owner” printing 4x6s of whatever.

For some reason I always pictured myself with Nikon gear when I was a kid, and I started shooting Nikon when I was in school… One reason why I shoot Canon now is because there was somebody I knew who shot Nikon that was so unbelievably annoying that I avoided it on purpose.

That was a few years ago, and I’ve definitely had the opportunity to switch. In a lot of camera stores they’ll promote the Nikon gear, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that they make more money when they sell Nikon gear… I’m sticking with my canon. They do make their own sensors, and always have, which is a gold star in my book. After using both companies equipment: I’m more familiar with one over the other, it feels better in my hand, I understand the menu, the cameras themselves are prettier (in my opinion)… I’ve also had less problems with canon. Weird considering I’ve never even owned anything other than Canon… Hasselblad, Pentax, Calumet, and maybe a few other film camera brands, (the names of which I can’t remember off the top of my head). It boils down to preference with my experience.

Bottom line, it doesn’t really matter. If you get great images, kudos you. If you’re shooting Nikon or Canon, I don’t really wanna hear about it. Just be happy with what you’ve chosen, and please remember to leave the real work for the pros. ;)

Check out this video… Amazing!

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