Photo of the Week 2017-09-25

Last week on the blog, I posted an image showing early fall colour here in Ontario ... this past week, while on vacation at the cottage in Tobermory, fall colour is not so prominent. Oh there are branches here and there, and some isolated trees showing fall chroma but for the most part, fall splendour is yet to fully arrive.

It is still early, only 3 days into official fall actually, and with a lack of colourful fall foliage for inspiration, I turned to a particular piece of kit to stir the creative juices ... the Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 UMC Fish-Eye CS II, a manual focus, manual aperture lens for crop sensors (that can be used on full frame to obtain an almost complete circular image). The 8mm focal length on my Canon 7D mkII provides an effective focal length (efl) of ~13mm ... pretty damn wide, ultra wide in fact. So wide that you have to watch for your own shadow when the sun is over your shoulder, your wife and dog who may be accompanying you and at times, your own feet! Yes it's that wide! 167º field of view in fact :-/

Using a fish-eye lens requires some getting used to, well maybe more than some. I definitely still need to practice more and go to this lens more often to become more proficient. For those unfamiliar with photographing using a fish-eye, vertical and horizontal lines distort drastically the closer they are to the edges of the frame until they warp almost beyond recognition. This can be used to great effect, and also easily to the point of over use as the novelty soon wears off.

For me, the best use of the fish-eye recently was to enable capture of sweeping scenic images where the horizon can be placed in the middle of the frame with a significant emphasis on the foreground. I find this works both with 'landscape' and 'portrait' orientation where the landscape orientation shows the traditional panoramic scene and the portrait orientation emphasizes the foreground and expansive sky overhead. Cropping for final composition is always an option, but where's the fun in that, I like pushing myself to deliver a composition in camera with this uniquely challenging focal length.

Here is a sampling of images from the week that illustrate what I've described ...

rock it ultra-wide II - landscape

rock it ultra-wide I - portrait

lighthouse off-centre starts to distort (lean)

crop just the centre for a horizontal pano

distortion from pointing down ... watch those shadows!

I loved working with the 8mm on my 7D II this past week ... now what should I do next week? Hmmmm ......

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-09-18

I've noticed the tell tale signs for a while now., particularly on the drive to and from the cottage. Greens beginning to yellow, conifers looking less lush, hints of orange and red ... and then it's here.

Fall colour has arrived early for 2017. 

early colour

 DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-09-11

With Lynn heading to TO for a family get together and Murphy needing some supervision (he had some minor surgery and between him chewing off the leg bandage to pull out stitches, then replacement staples and him throwing up from the meds), I decided to take him up to the cottage for some one-on-one time.

Keeping to shortened walks and not straying too far from the cottage, it was a relaxing couple of days of reading, puttering about, reading, more puttering and more reading, with a little shore-side siesta time. 

Saturday evening delivered a glorious sunset over Lake Huron. With the days getting shorter and the sun now setting just to the north of the point, I was able to catch this scene, though I had to put down my drink, get out of my chair and walk about 100'.

This scene reminded me so much of sunset on the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Ucluelet.
 

west coast sunset ... in the east

#100feetfromwhereilive 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-09-04

The Journey ...

"The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other ... again and again and again. And if you allow yourself opportunity to be present throughout the entirety of the trek, you will witness beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit.
- author unknown -

beauty from recent steps of the journey ...

fluke rock

It's easy to lose perspective in the 'churn' that presses to invade daily life. Maintaining a connection to the outdoors, to trees, water and fresh air provides the reminder that beauty is all around, more abundant in some areas than others, but all around nonetheless.

A recent conversation with a long time friend helped me get some perspective back, to stop being fixated only on the summit, reminding me to fully enjoy the journey of getting there ... thanks ST.
 
DJE