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Murphy, our Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrirer turns 3 today.
It hardly seems that long ago that we brought an 8 week old, tiny, caramel and black coloured pup home. Murph is a great companion for Lynn and I as we hike the local trails, something we need to do more.
Yesterday we decided to hike around Rattlesnake Point. Murph enjoyed the fallen leaves and new smells so much he was a bounding handful on leash for Lynn at first. Eventually he settled down, as he always does and he sat in the dappled soft light filtering through what remains of the leaves for this candid portrait.
He'll be getting a haircut shortly so that he has time for some to grow back before the winter comes. In the meantime, Lynn is constantly combing the debris and burrs out of his coat. Yesterday was no exception.
Another hike next week ...
DJE
Sunrise at Lighthouse Lake
On the final day in Killarney, we decided against hiking the Chikanishing Trail because of an ailing knee belonging to my travel companion. There was enough else yet to see and photograph so we headed back to the area near the lighthouse in the town of Killarney.
A section of Lighthouse Lake near the car park was particularly interesting with pines along the shoreline and several contrasting areas showing fall colour. As I walked out onto a rock point jutting into the lake, the sun starting to break over some pines to illuminate trees along the west shore. I sat listening to the sounds of morning and waited for the sun to rise enough to reach the red leaves and made my image, or images to be more precise.
In order to show detail in both the shaded foreground and brightly lit shoreline in the distance, I resorted to High Dynamic Range processing. The image above is the product of 3 exposures (-2,0,+2) processed in Photoshop CS5 with NIK HDR Efex Pro. I think it conveys the morning scene quite well.
DJE
looking back
... another lesson learned.
It is important to have others look at your work and provide feedback. "Others" can mean friends, family, casual or experienced photographers. Each can provide their own insight into your images.
By chance, I was looking through images from my library when my wife shuffled up beside me to ask a question and noticed shots of my eldest son and his girlfriend that I had taken almost exactly a year ago. They were part of an exercise I had chosen to advance my skills by simulating a couples shoot. I had looked through the images many times and it took my wife to draw my attention to the image above. She saw something that maybe I had missed. There is a quality about the image that I like. It makes me smile ...
On a related note, this week's photo was taken 2010-10-17, exactly a year ago to the day this blog post is being published. There is a profound significance to 10-17 in my life. It was my father's birthday. Today he would have been 80. Those who have read the "About Me" section of this blog or my flickr profile will know that it was Dad that got me started on this photographic journey. Looking back, I have so much to thank him for and I'm glad I took the time to tell him while I could.
Happy Birthday Dad.
DJE
glowing leaves
DJE
This week I found it more difficult to pick a "photo of the week" with Canadian Thanksgiving and the spectacular local fall colours competing with my recent trip to Killarney Provincial Park and my library of images.
Why my library of images? Because I have been going through all the digital images and scans I have going back to 2002 as I prepare for a Photo Show 'n Sale with some fellow local photographers during the Guelph Studio Tour, Oct 14,15,16. Our group has arranged for a room in Dublin United Church, Guelph to show our work concurrent with the studio tour. I've been busy reviewing the library, preparing images for printing and burning through ink and paper to get ready for the show. It's always great to go back through the library and see what I have, where I've been photographically.
This aside, I simply cannot choose anything other than a Killarney image for this week. I've been planning for my trip to this location for almost two years and ...
... WOW, what a place. My main goal was to make the day-hike to "The Crack" and capture some sweeping landscape vistas of the quartzite white LaCloche mountain canvas painted with fall colours.
Autumn arrives at "The Crack"
I can hardly leave you with just one image from "The Crack" ...
This from the trail across the quartzite as we came out of the forest and had our destination in sight.
almost there
This showing the mystical white rock that makes the place very special.
cracked view
This at the edge of "The Crack" that you climb to get to the top, the view is the reward for your efforts.Guardians
In my mind, I'm still there ...
takin' it all in... 
DJE
mistical beast
I've written about this at least one before, and it is worth repeating again ... "the best camera, is the one that you have with you".
...no camera, no image ... that is why I travel virtually everywhere with a camera. Oh sure there are cameras in just about every cell phone available today but I'm talking about something a little better. Cell phone cameras a fine for the casual photographer and may even do in a pinch for those who are more serious. I travel with a G12 close at hand the majority of the time and I get some seriously high quality images with this high end "point & shoot".
... case in point, I was on my way to the second stop of my work day on Friday morning. It was a misty early fall morning with the rising sun obscured by a dense layer of fog gently moving through the low lying fields and ravines. Turning onto a local concession road, I noticed some horses on the side of a hill with the sun pushing through the fog behind them the scene was too good to pass by. A few moments later I was back on my way and looking forward to the evening when I could download the images and enjoy what I had captured ... "mistical beast" is my favourite of the bunch.
An interesting background note is that following my photo outing last week where I also captured images in the mist, my companion on that day remarked that he had always wanted to find a white horse in a misty field ... guess I scooped him.
DJE
