Photo of the Week 2017-07-31

I decided to change things up this weekend, not go to the cottage and spend the time paying visits to a couple of friends ...

On Saturday morning, Lynn and I headed to Paris, ON to visit 'Piper & Oak", the Home Decor and Furniture store owned by a couple of friends. I missed their 1 yr Anniversary when I was on vacation over the July 1 Holiday and was long overdue to pop in and say hi.

We decided to go early and have breakfast in town then walk around for a while exploring. I decided to take my infrared converted camera for a different look to the images I might make. A change of scenery, a different camera have a way of getting the creative juices flowing and Saturday it was no different.

River Walker

Made while we sat on the deck of 2 Rivers Restaurant waiting for breakfast to arrive, the sun was shining warm and bright, fly fisherman were working the pools and eddies along a wide shallow section of the Grand River when one decided to walk along to the next promising spot.

The surreal quality of IR images processed in false colour or B&W always awakens my vision, causing me to look at things differently, making me pre-visualize while I scan the scene looking for compositions with potential.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-07-24

On a weekend of what others called so-so weather I barely even noticed as I managed to make a few images that passed muster. First there was my image of the cloud formation over Lake Huron approaching sunset on Friday night, then the morning light on a spruce as we started our hike to Burnt Point on Saturday, followed by an image of a perched Turkey Vulture shortly after we had arrived home after the hike.

All of these had already been posted online when I sat down to select an image for this weekly blog post so I went back through what I had captured to see what I could salvage ...

setting sun vista

 ... and it turned out to be one from Friday night where the colours of the sky were reflected on the waters of Bonnet Cove.

When will I stop photographing sunsets ... hopefully never ;-)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-07-17

Morning Sun at Dunks Point

It was a great hike with Lynn, Tracy, Murphy and Indy ... although the rain started to fall as we arrived at the parking area, we all were prepared with WP jackets and headed out towards Mermaid Cove. The connector trail to the Burnt Point Loop is a great point to access this trail and quickly get to the beautiful views from Burnt Point & Dunks Point.

With the sun hidden behind heavy cloud, the views from the first two lookout areas were washed out and lacking atmosphere. Had it been pouring rain, there may have been some mood to capture, but as it was, we just continued along the trail with the dogs.

Arriving at the third lookout spot, Dunks Point, the sun was breaking through the clouds and I was able to capture it spilling over the shoreline with heavier skies in the background.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-07-10

While on vacation last week, we decided to take a sunset cruise. It's closing in in four years since we bought the cottage and there are a few "tourist things" we have yet to do. This cruise was one of them.

We had decided to tack on an extra night, Monday, after the long weekend and that night provided a clear sky, and calm if a little chilly, conditions for the cruise. It was cool to see the shoreline between Tobermory and Cave Point from the water having experienced most of it on land while hiking sections of the Bruce Trail.

cave o' wonder

Though the scenery was gorgeous, it proved difficult to capture images that convey the beauty and scale of the escarpment shoreline. From all the images I made, I selected this from just south of Indian Head Cove and cropped to remove what sky was in the original frame to give a sense of what I felt as we passed along the shore.

I continue to try new post processing software to replace the NIK Collection that Google has abandoned . For this image I performed basic adjustments in LR, Topaz Suite and reverted back to NIK Color Efex for the vignette/border that I have yet to find a alternate app for.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-07-03

HAPPY CANADA DAY !

Canada Day 2017 Fireworks III

... from the Parks Canada Visitor Centre tower, Tobermory, ON, in windy conditions. The tower movement from wind and people proved a challenge.

At Lynn's suggestion, this year I headed to the to observation tower with the idea of capturing the Canada Day celebration fireworks from a different point of view. Also on my list of objectives were to use in-camera multiple exposure and a wider angle of view.

Arriving at the tower around 9pm, it seemed no-one else had the same idea or at least they hadn't made it there yet. As I climbed the stairs, the wind picked up. A few flights and I was above the tree tops, fully exposed. Concern that the fireworks might be cancelled started to play in my mind. Reaching the top, heading back and returning the next night seemed a 50/50 possibility.

Alone, I began to set up, against the railing, in a corner.  As I set the tripod and attached the camera, others started arriving, a couple at first, and by the time the show started around 10 there were maybe 20 of us up there braving somewhat cool temperature made colder by the wind. With that many, the movement in the tower from weight and wind catching our bodies was more than I had expected. I began to wonder if it was such a good idea from a photography point of view as I would be using long exposures and the movement would be an issue.

As it turned out, for the most part the images I captured were impacted by the tower movement. Not so much as to make them all trash can worthy but enough to disappoint my discerning eye. In addition, I had decided to pack light and brought just the 17-40mm lens which turned out to be too wide even at 40mm given the distance away. The 24-105 would have been more suitable on my full frame DSLR ... oh well, that's what pixels and cropping are for ;-)

DJE