Studio Tour

Well this post goes back a long way. It's been sitting in my draft file for four years - from when my son, Alex was about to graduate from Metalworks - the production company which has kept him employed ever since.

One evening in December of 2010, Alex helped a friend who needed to complete a project for his sound mixing course at Metalworks.

He needed to record a song and do the post production work on the piece.

Alex doing a sound test.

Alex was to play guitar for young songwriter and vocalist Danielle. She's a very talented young performer. The song was her own composition, Say Goodbye.

Some of the equipment in the mixing room. Alex tells me these are called digital processing units.

An overall view of the mixing board..

.. which can also be seen here.

Alex hadn't laid eyes on the music before that night, and they were just going through it for the first time.

Here's a video of their very first rough go-round. Alex's guitar was the only sound actually being picked up and recorded. Danielle's voice and the metronome you can hear were just to keep him on track, and the vocals were to be added once all of the tracks had been successfully recorded. Ultimately, Alex played rhythm and bass.

I'm told it got much better with a bit of practice and eventually the other tracks were recorded. He never did get a copy of the finished piece.

I've searched online for it every now and then to see if I can complete this post with the more polished recording but never found it. I did recently find a video of Danielle singing her composition in front of an audience. She accompanied her own self on guitar. She's a talented girl.

That's it for your mini-tour of a Metalworks mixing room.

In the Right Light

All of these photos were taken in September and early October. The lake looks nothing like this right now. In fact it's frozen over, snow-covered and melting into icky slush with today's rain. It looked much prettier a couple of months back so I figured I'd pull some of those pics for you instead. I hope you enjoy them. 

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary." - Aaron Rose

They say that photography is all about shadow and light. Of course it is. It's also about opportunity, equipment and a huge dose of luck. But just for the sake of being agreeable, this post is all about light and its ever-present shadows.


This was a very overcast day. I know, it doesn't look all that gloomy but it was dark just moments before and moments after this photo was snapped. The clouds parted ever so briefly, allowing the sun to shine its light - creating vibrant colours and a few dark shadows. The contrast just makes everything come alive.






On a different day, it rained off and on throughout the daylight hours. We counted no fewer than 4 different rainbows between us. Only a bit of this one showed up but it was rather vibrant, and you can see the rain falling from the clouds above where that lovely sunshine fell.





One evening, the clouds seemed to be lit from the side creating a soft pink edge - like an illuminated shelf of cloud.





Sunset on our bay is rarely full of deep, saturated colours because we face east. Behind us is where the real colour is happening but that's blocked by the hills which lie west of us. Every now and then, there's a sunset that must explode with such intensity for those facing west, that its bounce and reflection paints the sky and water of our eastern view. And we're not complaining for one itty bitty moment.






Please indulge me. I can not resist taking image after image when the sky is like this. I'm only going to show you a few. Note how the moon had already risen on this lovely evening in early September.






One more showing the wavelets forming from a passing boat.






Incoming ripples and the moon reflecting on the water.






And a final close up of the colours on the lake's rolling surface. You can add your own sound effects.






Oh just one more - I couldn't resist. A bird flying through a pink sky while wispy clouds kiss the moon's cheek in passing.






We're oh so incredibly lucky that full moons happen to rise over the lake, directly in front of our door. Here's that lovely glowing orb just before it cleared the treetops across the bay. This was actually the night after the full moon - but close enough.






And here it was the night before, sliding in and out of subtle colours of the clouds. What shall it wear tonight to make its October début?

With a bit of luck, shadow and light can go a long way.

More photos coming up soon.