Photo of the Week 2016-10-31

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Halloween Bat

Appropriately, for this time of year, I had an encounter with a bat while on an early evening walk along the cottage road with Murphy. It was still fairly light out and at first I thought it was a small bird, perhaps a chickadee but it's flight was quite erratic. When I got a closer look, I was surprised to find it was a bat. I've only encountered them later in the evening, when the light has almost disappeared, they come out to feed on the flying bugs.

I hurried back to the cottage to drop Murph off, get a camera and telephoto lens, and get back to see if I could get some shots. Well let me tell you, the little guy may not have been that fast but with the flight pattern zigging and zagging all over the place it was one of the most difficult subjects I've yet tried to photograph.

There wasn't much light left for photography, let alone something using a high shutter speed to freeze the motion. I turned up the ISO to 6400 on the 7DII and started trying to track the bat in flight with the 70-300 L I had mounted. While I managed to get a few images nearly in focus, there were far more with a blurry bat or no bat at all. I tried zooming out and getting the bat in frame, locking focus tracking on it, then zooming in as it flew towards me but it was far too erratic. I ended up setting focus to about 3m, setting the zoom to 70mm, ISO 6400, f/4 @ 1/1250 s shutter speed and waiting until the bat came around for another circuit over and around my head. When I thought it was within 3m, I just pointed the lens at it without looking through the viewfinder and sprayed away at 10 frames a second (thank you 7DII) until the buffer was full. I did this several times and managed a couple of images where you could identify the subject as a bat. The lead image is one of the better ones, cropped significantly to approx 20% of the original frame and processed for Halloween. Here is the original ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-10-24

I enjoy all of the seasons but fall is my favourite time of year for hikes and photography outdoors. After a spring and summer of fresh lush greens, there is a slow warming of colour while the greens take on a yellow hue. As temperatures drop the pace quickens, the colours rush through variations of gold, orange and red. Having only weekends with time available for photography, the change seems to happen so fast that I'm only able to capture a fraction of it through my lens.

This past weekend I went out for a drive in search of colour. Overcast skies, flat light and spits of rain here and there were not the inspiration that I had hoped for. Looking for something a bit different, I ended up in the quaint town of Elora. It's always an interesting place to photograph and this time of year I expected that there might be some colour splashed about to make for some interesting images. While I didn't find the vibrant colours in many of the areas I chose to explore, a shaft of sunlight fell on a patch of red down one alley as I walked by, and of course I had to go check it out.

Fall Creeper on Wall

Red Creeper

Soon, as fall matures and gives way to winter, this red and other warm colours will be gone. Winter will arrive with it's cool palette of tones.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-10-17

Recently, I was again reminded of how easy it is to get lazy with photography and let yourself rush through an outing, either because you are with someone who is not also photographing, or if you are being distracted by something else. If you let yourself get lazy and resort to just clicking and rushing onto the next thing, the resulting images can be good but  ... they could be better if you spend time working a location to find a compelling subject, capture that certain angle of view or wait for the light to be just right.

Such was the case while out for a short hike a few days ago with Lynn and Murphy. Both  these companions are normally very patient with me when I bring a camera along (... and I always bring a camera). After trekking out to Mermaid Cove, a picturesque little spot just outside the village of Tobermory, I had rather quickly grabbed a number of images showing the view out over the water. Being photographically lazy, I might have then said "let's go" so as not to press the patience of my companions. Instead I sat down to take in the scenery and peaceful sounds of wind and lapping water.

Lynn joined me on the bench and after a while, pointed me to a section shoreline commenting how she liked the moss and the natural path created by the rock ledge. The same area had caught my attention so I got up and spent some time working this little area along the shoreline. The sun was to the south, behind the trees, bathing this area in shade and a soft cool light that made the greens and yellows fresh and vibrant. 

I selected this composition from the the dozen or so I had made, as the best of the set.

yellow, green and rock XI

  DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-10-10

On a rainy fall day, Jordan and I decided to hike the Burnt Point Trail, BPNP/FFNMP, Tobermory in search of mushrooms and were overwhelmed. There were more types and sizes all along the trail ... so many in fact that I had to stop making photos and finish our hike or I would still be there ...

lil' puffers

... and here's a collage showing many of those I managed to photograph.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-10-03

I recently started working with a new client, 'piper & oak' distinctively different home decor and furniture in Paris, ON. They have a selection of my framed fine art prints to compliment their furniture and home decor offerings, one of which has already sold.

I had promised the owner, Sarah, that I would come back and re-shoot an image made just over 5 years ago during a visit to Paris. The original image had captured the back of the main street shops facing the Grand River and as luck would have it, I had excluded the building that is now home to 'piper & oak'. So on a gloomy Oct 1 morning with heavy grey skies and intermittent rain, I returned for another walkabout and to see if I might be able to capture this time.

Shops along the Grand 2016

Somehow a sepia treatment, as with the original image, just seemed to suit a scene that without certain keys to modern time, looks as though it could have been made decades ago.

I wandered some streets and areas along the river making images for a couple of hours, working to stir the creativity. In the end,  I think the best shot from the outing was of the Library facade where I had to stand on the sidewalk right in front of the building to get something without parked cars or people distractions. Looking straight up with an ultra-wide angle gave an interesting composition.

Library, Paris, ON

While out shooting, I was reminded of the enjoyment I get from wandering around town with a camera, picking out details, broad scenes or just simple vignettes from everyday surroundings. Choosing different locations has always kept the interest level up, whether it is different trails, or different towns and cities. On this outing I managed to get in a couple hours of mindful photo wandering despite the rain that did make me cut things a bit short. 

DJE