Photo of the Week 2012-07-30

Sometimes it's in the details ...

marsh art

It was a 4:30 am departure on Saturday. Our destination, Luther Marsh, looking for a dramatic sunrise and hoping for misty water.

It was also a bit of a scouting mission for future outings as neither Alan nor I had been here before other than to drive by on our way somewhere else. Fortunately the GRCA has chosen to allow access to the main parking lot and provides a self-serve pay-station for those who choose to arrive early. This is something other Conservation Authorities should adopt. Hamilton and Halton lock the gates to their parking areas and parking on adjacent streets is prohibited. On more than one occasion I have arrived at the posted opening time at a Hamilton location to find the gates still locked, preventing access to photograph in early morning light. I digress ...

Sunrise was welcome if not very spectacular but did provide some warm light for our photography. We spent a few hours walking the trails around the marsh, swatting mosquitoes and horse flies periodically. At times like these my "eye" is challenged to look for something different to capture with the camera. There was a beaver swimming in seemingly random patterns near the damn, breaking the smooth calm of the water and a pair of loons feeding just off shore. There were the reflections of clouds and shoreline details on the water surface and morning light penetrating the trailside forest. And then there were the details.

 ... sometimes it's in the details.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-07-23

I've photographed at this location on the Grand River on several occasions and even sold a large framed print of one of the images. The spot has a quality that comes alive particularly when the sun rises over the trees on the north-east bank of the river. 

morning sun floods the field

We arrived around 6:00 am and after capturing the mist hanging over the river, I moved across the bridge and to the edge of the field just as the sunlight was flooding over the landscape. I moved off of the gravel road and into the field to place one of the larger mist larger spider webs in the foreground of this image. I know one of my companions on this trip snapped a shot of me behind the "No Trespassing" sign. It will no doubt make it to the interwebs at some point ... I will plead guilty.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-07-16

After a couple of late nights (for me anyway) it was an early start at 5:30 am to head north on Hwy 6 so we could catch morning light. The objective was warm sunlight washing over yellow canola fields.

A Wellington County Morning

Alan was driving and as we passed over the Irvine River I startled him by shouting "stop!" after looking east and catching a glimpse of the scene captured in this image. He found a suitable place to pull over on the far side of the bridge and we scrambled back across.

The early hours of daylight offer wonderful light and subtle colours. This time of year that means getting up at O'dark-thirty to head out and be on location before the sun gets too high in the sky and everything is blasted with harsh light. Some think that this is ... well, just stupid. I think this is why they invented the afternoon siesta.

;-)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-07-09

Photo of the Week and a photo experience to remember, all in one ...

Joe, me and "One Light"

... with 300 or so watching.

I attended the One Light, Two Light Seminar in Toronto with the incomparable Joe McNally. This guy is a legend. He has photographed for National Geographic, Life, Sports Illustrated and so many freelance projects it is mind boggling. He's photographed big names like George Lucas, Bill Gates, Cher, Tony Bennett, Gregory Hines to name a few. He's done projects and assignments others can only dream of like "Faces of Ground Zero" . I'd previously attended another of his flash seminars and knew this one too would be well worthwhile.

Joe's always up for a challenge ... that's the only explanation I can come up with for why he would choose me as a subject to begin his lighting demonstration. With just one strobe, on camera, he is capable of manipulating the light, transforming it into something usable. Standing on stage I was trying to keep my attention on what Joe was saying as he took us through the basics of flash coverage, zooming the flash head and finally bouncing the flash off a white background to produce a larger, softer light source as shown in the image above.

One unexpected takeaway for me was the experience of being in front of the camera, particularly with someone like Joe behind it. He certainly has a lot of experience and almost got me to relax for a couple of frames before he let me go back to my seat and concentrate on absorbing all that I could from one of photography's masters.


DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-07-02

This past week has provided some welcome time off. It's been a busy and stressful time over the last 6 months. Now, with my mother settled in at a new location, her health needs looked after 24/7 by great medical staff and personal support workers and the first round of semi-annual inspections completed for work, Lynn and I could finally take a week to unwind.

Plans for a trip down east didn't pan out so we settled on heading up north to the Collingwood area, a location that we both enjoy. Lynn made the arrangements and we enjoyed great food, a eucalyptus steam room, a therapeutic duo-massage and a couple of awesome sunsets.

A Craigleith Sunset

Photographically, sunsets can be kind of cliche but I will never tire of feeling I get watching the sky fill with colour as the sun drops lower and lower.

On an earlier outing, Lynn and I had noticed an area of shoreline just east of Craigleith Provincial Park with a narrow strip of exposed limestone that would be perfect for an evening walk.


The rock shoreline provided many options to include foreground elements in my images. There were large solitary blocks of stone, fracture lines and interesting patterns.

One area of the shoreline in particular came to life as the warm glow of the sun highlighted the wet textured surface. I positioned myself to compose the frame with lines in the foreground and middle ground leading toward the setting sun and lowered myself to get the right amount of reflection off the rock surface.

DJE