Photo of the Week 2017-01-30

Ontario Parks recently posted a great article on etiquette for nature photography to their Facebook page. I shared and posted the following to my Photography page:

"Great article from Ontario Parks that made me do a quick "gut check" on my practices when photographing. I never bait, work to maintain a suitable distance, never chase/follow wildlife, don't use recorded calls, don't destroy habitat ... but I admit I could improve by always sticking to the marked trails.
My wildlife and nature photos may not be as "impressive" as some of those from others ... but I'm OK with that. And I'll keep working in a responsible way to get better ones."

So this weekend, while up at my 'happy place', armed with some intel on the location of a male snowy owl (code named Popeye ;-), I headed out early Saturday morning making the drive to said location. Arriving just after sunrise on a very overcast day with intermittent snow squalls, I prowled the grid if rural concessions and side roads in search of my target. Driving with 3 cameras on the front passenger seat within reach should something catch my eye, also keeping an eye out for other cars approaching from behind, I edged over to stop and frequently scan the surrounding area with binoculars (a little more convenient that using the camera).

Only 40 minutes or so after arriving in the area, I spotted something white on top of a leaning utility pole up ahead at the edge of a narrow side road. Stopping the car, I grabbed a camera and zoomed in, Yup ! It was a male snowy. Zipping up my jacket and putting on hat & gloves, I grabbed some gear (spare battery too when it's cold) and got out to slowly approach, stopping to snap shots at various points.

Staying aware to maintain suitable distance from the owl in my eagerness to get a good image, I stopped to make the image below, which I call 'Q-Tip'

Q-Tip

The image was made at 400mm on my 7DII so he's still a good distance away. I had checked the frame on the camera LCD and was satisfied that I had at least one decent shot so I decided to stand and wait for a bit and observe the bird's behaviour. He remained settled in position, feathers ruffling with the wind, swivelling his head from side to side as they do while listening, hunting for prey. I waited a good 5 min without moving, then decided to move another 20m or so closer. I looked down to be sure of my footing on the icy road and when I looked back up he was in flight dropping down to skim across the field behind some bushes at the edge of a drainage ditch. I had no chance to catch him in flight but walked up to the pole where he had perched to have a look around. I managed to locate him again, far off, perched on a fence post out in the middle of the fields. I stayed and watched, just taking in another experience with these lovely birds.

The tech ...

Using high-end gear for photography has many benefits ... and it's not all about the megapixels. My 7DII has a 20.2 MP sensor, high by some standards but not others considering the 36,42 and 50 MP sensors available in the highest end DSLR/Mirrorless cameras these days. Still, the 7DII captures an file that can be cropped significantly and still provide a quality image. 'Q-Tip' as shown above is roughly a 90% crop (for compositional purposes) of the the original 20.2 MP image. To show the extreme crop possible with high quality images from this (and other high-end cameras), consider the image below, cropped from the already 90% image above. This is cropped to roughly 20% of the original (and then upscaled in Lightroom to 1200x1200 for web viewing) and still shows nice detail.

Q-Tip (crop)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-01-23

With winter being more off-and-on spring, wet, cold and damp, I don't mind not being at the cottage for a weekend, besides, it provided an opportunity to visit Matt in TO. We met up for breakfast Saturday morning before he started work at Sanagan's Meat Locker.

Kensington Market is always a great place to photograph so I took one of my smaller cameras, the EOS M3, along in my pocket because I knew there would be something to shoot. I found this on our way back to the car park, in a lane way off Augusta Ave.

mirror brick graffiti

An added bonus was being able to pick up some killer short ribs to cook for dinner on Sunday and a loaf of sourdough from Blackbird Baking Co. I think we'll make this a regular thing, at least monthly, while Matt's back in TO.

DJE

Lost to flame ...

Everton, a favourite place to photograph. The cascade flowing down through the narrow gorge, the swirling pools, the headwater pond, the stream below and the mill .... ahhhh the mill. 

Historic Hortop Mill is no more, destroyed by fire just one day ago .... suspicious and sad, very sad. Read the newspaper article here. 

  

Goodbye old friend ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-01-16

I've recently had a couple of conversations online regarding how I "see" what I photograph, so ... here's my thought process while creating two different compositions, two quite different interpretations of one scene.

Composition can significantly alter mood and feel and it can make or break an image. That's one reason I usually survey the location and make a number of different images from different viewpoints or at different focal lengths when I'm out photographing.

An example of this can be seen in the two images below. For this first image, I used a tighter crop, zooming in on the scene (43mm with my 24-105 Sigma on 5D MkIII according to EXIF). This composition creates a dramatic image, emphasizing the warm orange-gold glow of the sun spilling into the clouds and reflecting onto the ice and open waters of the bay. I chose to position the ice ridge in the foreground bottom of the image to provide an anchor point for the viewer to step into the scene. I also decided to place the horizon in the centre of the image vertically, against the "rule of thirds", as I preferred a balance between cloudy sky and frozen waters.

Huron Sunset I (2017-01-14)

For this second image, made while standing in the same spot, I zoomed out (24mm with my 24-105 Sigma on 5D MkIII according to EXIF) to include more of the surrounding grey sky, ice and shoreline trees. I still chose to place the sun 1/3 of the way into the frame from the left but I lowered the horizon a touch, otherwise I felt there was too much foreground with little interest. I also decided on a slightly brighter exposure by 1/3 stop to lighten the foreground ice and snow. This alters the mood of the image to some degree, making it less dramatic but more pleasing in my opinion. The result is an image showing the context of a glorious Huron sunset

Huron Sunset II (2017-01-14)

To me, they are both print worthy images. I like both, for different reasons. You can let me know what you think.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-01-09

I love photographing landscape and nature but regular forays into other genres with different subject matter helps me to exercise my creative muscles. For me they key is to be open to opportunities and recognize or orchestrate them as they present themselves.

... case in point, during everyday conversation recently, Lynn mentioned that a friend of hers from work was getting two new horses, Rocky Mountain Horses. Now although I had heard of them before, I went to the internet to see if they were what I thought and they were. Sooooo .... I asked Lynn to check with her friend and see if it would be OK for me to drop in on the weekend to photograph them.

The friends graciously accepted my request and after our stop at the local market on Saturday morning, in -18*C temperatures, we headed out to the farm where I got to meet Megan, Gunner, Emma and Donna.

Tammy's Herd

I enjoyed the interaction with these beautiful animals, so curious and social. I think Donna was flirting with me, giving me the eye in this next image. What do you think?

flirting

While we were there, we had a tour of the barn and there are always great details in a barn. In this case I was drawn to some tack hanging near a window where I made the image below.
 

tack

I'm very grateful to Tammy and Chad for their hospitality and hope to be returning at some point to shoot, maybe when the snow is flying.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-01-02

One morning recently, I headed out to test a new lens I had picked up. My intent was to do some shots with it on both of my DSLR bodies along with another lens for comparison. The light was very dull and grey due to the heavy cloud cover and I limited my shooting to trees and bushes at various distances across a rolling uncultivated farm field.

The outing was purely intended to be a technical exercise given the poor conditions for shooting ... however, the route to the field I had chosen took me right by a favourite old scene. I had recently heard in the news that there had been a fire at this old abandoned farmhouse and immediately my heart sank. So many of the old farm houses and barns are being lost to neglect and fires and hopes of reviving their charm is lost with them.

Whether from careless use of fire by the homeless using it for shelter or from misadventure of some local youth, this historic stone farmhouse is forever transformed. On this day, I was particularly struck by how it's boarded up windows gave the appearance of lights being on inside ... 

' ... but nobody's home'

Just over two years ago I photographed this same house. In the light mist of an early afternoon it still held some promise of being brought back to life. I fear now that it will be condemned, to be torn down or to be left to fully deteriorate from neglect. 

DJE

First Light 2017

Best Wishes for Health and Happiness in 2017

Those that have followed me for some time will know that it has become tradition to make an image at official sunrise on the first day of a new year. It started as a challenge from my good friend Alan Norsworthy, first I think to just get out of bed early on New Years Day, but also more ... to start the new year off on the right foot photographically.

It requires one to get up and out before really knowing what the morning will bring. It requires some measure of dedication to making images and, from me, some measure of planning to select a location and envision the photographic possibilities so that arriving on location in mostly dark, I can do final checks and get set up.

This year I selected the pier at Dyers Bay on the Bruce Peninsula, a location that would afford a look at the sun rising over Georgian Bay, should the cloud cover cooperate and actually provide that look. Indeed it did and another 'First Light Challenge' is in the bag.

First Light 2017

DJE