Photo of the Week 2020-12-28

Well, well, well ...

 

I forgot to get a post out yesterday. I think this makes twice in over 10 years that I've missed making a Photo of the Week post on Monday. So here we go, a day late and backdated to yesterday ;-)

 

' Sleeping Beauty '

 

The back-story: I made a solo trip up to the cottage for a single night just before Christmas to check on things and take some items up so we would have more room in the vehicle the next trip. It also gave me an opportunity to scout around and look for photo opportunities without having to be concerned with passengers.

 

The drive up was mostly unrewarding photographically as the weather was quite blah. After cruising some of the secondary roads north of Wiarton, I managed to photograph a Rough-legged Hawk and grabbed a far off shot of a female Snowy Owl sitting on a fence post out in a farm field, but nothing really noteworthy. That day remained heavily overcast and dull so there were not night sky photo opportunities either.The weather forecast was for rain the next day so I planned to take care of a couple of things and leave early morning with enough time to do some Snowy Owl scouting on the was home.

 

I made a mid-morning departure and about 30 min into the drive I decided to pull off the highway to refill my coffee cup from my thermos. Safely on the shoulder of a side-road, I screwed the cap back on the thermos and looked out the side window to catch ' Sleeping Beauty '

 

 

Sleeping Beauty

Talk about serendipity! I'm not sure I would have noticed this bird as I scanned the area to either side of the highway as I drove along, but there she was. Sitting pretty and completely at rest if not sleeping. I watched for almost an hour and she never moved for nearly 20 minutes when she opened her eyes a bit and shortly after began preening.

I particularly like this image because the owl is perched on a rock in a natural environment as opposed to on a fence post, hydro pole or other man made structure. She stands out well against the darker field grass background.

An there you have it ... a day late and well worth it IMO.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-21

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

 

- Robert Frost -

 

The woods are lovely ...

Wanting some time, both with a camera and in the woods, Preservation Park, close to home on a foggy last day of fall was the perfect spot for a morning wander ...

details: Shot on a dual-spectrum (visible & infrared) converted Canon EOS M with  EF-M 18-55 mm, Kolari 550 nm filter, exposure 1/8 s, f/8, ISO 200. B&W conversion in Adobe LR  Classic, additional processing in Adobe PS CC with Topaz and ON1 software.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-14

 

frosted tapestry

 Sometimes it just takes frosted highlights to make one notice the beauty

of nature's complex roadside tapestry

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-07

 

Huron skies at the end of the day just keep giving and giving ...

 

shoreside sundown

I made a number of single exposures along with bracketed 3 exposure sets to process as HDR should the dynamic range require them to bring out some detail in the darkened foreground. As it turned out, raising the shadow exposure level in Lightroom was not significantly different that merging 3 exposures into an HDR image.I had already done the work on the HDR so I decided to keep it to include in the blog post for my Photo of the Week (POTW).

The sunset sky colours after sun had dropped below the horizon reflected on the boards of the wet dock and the water's surface to make this composition come alive.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-11-30

 

Well ... after considerable deliberation over price increases from the print house I use for my calendars, I've decided to go ahead with a smaller order this year, for the 10th Edition of 'Through the Seasons'

 

I started publishing a calendar 10 years ago. The original intent was to have a project that would focus my attention on review and selection of past images, requiring me to be critical of my own work. Additionally it provided another way to showcase for my images and make them available for purchase in small quantities. Continuing on over time it evolved into a gift we gave members of the family at Christmas, with sales to a few friends and clients here and there.

 

I have one copy of each edition tucked away for posterity and of course I have the source images, some of which have been printed and framed for the house or cottage.

In this, the year of COVID, we will not be getting together with the extended family for Christmas celebrations and with printing price increases I've decided to cut back on the number of calendars ordered. Mailing a calendar out to those we won't see in person just added more to the cost and the logistics of making socially distanced visits to drop them off didn't make sense either given it would require us to enter COVID red-zones.

But there will be a '2021 Through the Seasons' calendar, they will just be more ... 'exclusive'.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-11-23

I've made a lot of images at or from our neighbour's dock in the last while. With the late fall sun setting off Cape Hurd, it provides a nice vantage point and gives me a foreground element to work with. In this image, it's the reflection of the red sunlight on the dock side-boards in that foreground that make the shot ... in my opinion.

 

' dock ablaze '

 

Sunset arrives early these days up at the tip of the peninsula. To catch the sun's orb as it hits the horizon, I need to be out well before 5:00, earlier if I want to capture the sun higher in the sky with it reflecting off the water. Earlier on this day, a sunset image didn't seem likely. The sun was well behind a layer of heavy cloud and it appeared they might be no sunset colour to speak of. 

 

But when I went out to fire up the BBQ grill for dinner, a developing red hue sent me inside to grab a camera :-)

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-11-16

  

Certain trees will always catch my attention ... in particular, stands of  Birch, Aspen and Poplar will grab my eye and the lens of my camera.The alignment of their white to grey trunks stand in contrast to the surrounding foliage and provide a strong vertical element for any composition.

 

Fall Aspen Grove

 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2020-11-09

 

An alternate route for a regular trip can offer some visual stimulation, particularly during the colourful fall season ...

 

Sunlight streamed through broken cloud cover and over the top edge of the escarpment to spill over this group of trees and light up their yellow leaves.

 

Five of a Kind

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-11-02

 

November has arrived, colours have faded and leaves are fallen. Soon scenes like this will be blanketed in white ...

 

Fall Farmhouse

 

While processing this image, I decided to try several different techniques. Here are the results in a collage ...

 

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-10-26

 

There are certain subjects or scenes that repeatedly catch my eye, some I have photographed multiple times, some successfully, others not. 

 

This tree at Wilson Flats has been catching my eye since I first visited quite a few years ago. I've never been able to capture it in a way that I like ... until it stood in it's brilliant fall colour, under the sun on a day of broken clouds ...

 

that tree

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-10-19

An image was selected and queued up for the P.O.T.W. ... then the weather cooperated on a Saturday hike with cousin Steve who had come to spend some time with us up at the cottage. We had selected a trail that would show him the Georgian Bay shoreline from an escarpment lookout and from water level. Halfway Log Dump was the perfect spot to offer both views, and the weather cooperated for just long enough for us to get the hike in ...

 

Rock Overhang & Cave Point

West to Cave Point and Bear's Rump Island

East to High Dump and Cabot Head

West end of the boulder beach

It was great that Steve got up to our place for a visit, and that the weather was decent for our hike. It took a while but now he's seen autumn on the Bruce ... we want to show him winter.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-10-12

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

 

Well it's already Thanksgiving, with the fall colours that began to arrive in late September now on full display. I've been finishing renovations at the cottage, catching up with social media posts from my backlog of images during the downtime up there. There wasn't much from autumn to post until now ...

 

fall farm fencepost

Not entirely without some photography time before September was gone, I did manage to get out for a drive on the local backroads around Puslinch one morning to capture my first images of fall 2020. A few more can be seen in my recent social media posts ( Facebook , Flickr , Instagram ).

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-10-05

There are times when there is nothing recent that I'm moved to process and post. During such times I look to the catalogue and the collection of images I have accumulated for something to share. I have some candidates flagged for processing, some have already been processed and some flagged and ready for posting.

There are also times like the past couple of weeks, where I've captured a number of images I'm eager to review, process and share, and ... there is a bit of a backlog. I've been here before. I'm able to post new content frequently to my social media accounts. The number may dwindle over the coming days as the emotion attached to seeing, responding, capturing fades and the internal editor asserts himself. We'll see which make the cut and what hits the cutting room floor ...

 

At the moment, there are several sunset images in the queue, all from Hay Bay, Tobermory. So for this week, I'll share back to back sunsets from Sept 20 & 21 as summer 2020 slipped into history ...

Cloudless September Sunset

amethyst adieu

I'm contemplating a sunset calendar project ... thoughts?

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-28

 

This week's post comes as a bit of lesson, a reminder or tip if you will. It's not breakthrough, just a basic, fundamental reminder ...

 

TIP: When you are using any of the 'AUTO" options on your camera, remember to keep an eye on what values these auto modes are setting, you may find them unacceptable, or you might have accidentally switched out of an auto mode altogether.

The back-story:

 

I'd been working to fixate less on the technical aspects when out shooting and just let myself react more to the scenes in front of me. I may have become a little too reliant on the camera to take care of the exposure settings, at least on my causal walks. I didn't pay enough attention and some otherwise decent images from a wonderful outing in the misty morning woods suffered :-/

 

I have my Canon EOS M5 set up by default to use Auto ISO. The camera also has a customizable "Dial Function Button" on top of the body at the right side. I've had ISO set as one of the options for this button as a quick way to make adjustments when in manual mode. Why are these details significant? Well, on more than on occasion I have managed to bump this DF Button, changing ISO a 'notch", which happened to be from Auto ISO to ISO 25,600. I'm not sure if I did this accidentally with my thumb while adjusting exposure compensation (the dial beside it) or in just general handling of the camera as I walk around with it slung over my shoulder. Somehow it happened and I didn't notice when I was out in the bush one morning to capture some wonderful light.

 

As expected, the resulting photos suffer greatly from noise and poor detail but I decided to see to what extent I could salvage them with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI. They are nowhere near printing standards, but almost make passable images at web resolution and I'm hopeful that publishing this post will help me remember to check camera settings more often while I'm out shooting.

 

glowing leaves

 

a forest trail

Note to self:  Don't fixate but also don't forget to watch your exposure settings

 

DJE

 

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Photo of the Week 2020-09-21

 

obstruction

Always drawn to the darkness within, rough brittle branches make it difficult to penetrate the slender closely spaced trunks in this area of the woods without getting scratched or poked to the point of bleeding. 

 

As if to impede access through this family of small trees, one alone seems to block the way, obstructing access for all but the most determined. Up to now, I've only stopped to peer through into the shadows and photograph ... one day I will forge a path in.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-14

 

woodland spirit

I've long pondered a project that would have me presenting a collection of images  conveying the sense of spirit I sense in some members of the arboreal community. I'd started a working document to explore the lexicon such a collection would use to title and describe such images. Those that follow my photography may (or may not) know how I select a title for a particular image. This can come quickly and easily as I select a subject scene and prepare my composition or it can come from the sub-conscious working of my mind as I move on to other things. Sometimes it's a struggle and on few occasions it never comes.I've often wondered why one way one time and another way the next ... a exercise for perhaps another time, fuelled by a whisky or two.

 

The scenes and subjects of the forest, that I react to, regularly have a perceived persona or character. Anthropomorphism is long rooted in human culture and storytelling. Perhaps most frequently associated with animals, domestic or wild, it also has it's application to trees, so I am by no means alone in this.

This weeks photo, ' woodland spirit ', is a first addition to the collection and a good example. I'll be adding more as I re-discover them in my image library and out in the woods ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-07

Tanglewood (in colour)

Reviewing the image catalogue, looking for images from Guelph, I came across this version of an image originally processed and published in B&W.

Over time preferences may change. With new processing software development and skills, alternate or improved renditions of old images may be possible. It's not often that I go back and re-envision an image but it's an interesting exercise, one I should perhaps explore more often.

This image, made shortly after I'd upgraded one of my camera bodies to the full-frame 5D MkIII, caught my eye again a while back. At that time I reprocessed a colour version and saved it off to the hard drive ... and kinda forgot about it until I stumbled on it recently.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-31

' a familiar scene '

I regularly walk past this location just off the road near our cottage. The morning light filters through the trees to illuminate an area of moss surrounding the base of an old snag in a way that always makes me take notice.

The scene has intrigued me for several years now and always confounded my attempts to capture it as I "see" it. That is until the other day when my 'morning walk' was delayed until just after noon. There were heavy broken clouds and in a moment when the sun streamed through an opening and washed over just as I walked by ... of course with a camera over my shoulder.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-24

Another weekend, another weekend hike with Jordan. This time, we hiked in Forks of the Credit Provincial Park and headed for the mill ruins at Cataract Falls.

Unfortunately, the trail past the ruins and viewing platform have been closed and well fenced-off while replacement of the platform is under consideration. Not to be thwarted in our attempts to get a view of the ruins and falls, we followed the trail to the north side of the river and turned onto the Elora-Cataract Trailway and found a path down the upper slope of the gorge to the rail line and crossed to a fenced location where we could overlook the ruins and river with a view upstream.

 

Credit River Upstream at Cataract Falls

 

 

 

Canon EOS M - Kolari Dual Spectrum (IR & vis) Conversion

Canon EF-M 11-22 f/4-5.6 IS STM @ f/8

Kolari 590nm Filter

1/100 s, ISO 100

 

It was 5 years since I had last visited and 10 or 15 since I first visited. Sadly, the increased foot traffic and use of the park over that time has changed it's character ... not for the better. Like many parks and trails that see overuse, footpaths are well worn but the infuriating signs of disrespectful visitors, ignorant of their impact, were far too numerous. Discarded used diapers, food containers, dozens of empty water bottles, tissue and toilet paper were to be found in the trailside bushes ... without having to look very hard :-(

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-17

 

 

A trip to Silvercreek Conservation Area for a weekend outing had me reaching for my infrared modified camera and hoping that the lush green of the forest would provide suitable scenery.

A short way into the hike I noticed a small sapling bending over the downstream watercourse and thought to make it the main focus of a composition. I found a route down to the creek from the adjacent trail and started framing up the scene. Realizing that the 11-22mm lens I had would require me to get closer to the subject tree, I started working my way along. When I next experimented with a composition, I was still too far away to emphasize that tree ... but ... a larger serpentine trunk made for a perfect additional point of interest and the main focus of the image.

Shot with my EOS-M dual-spectrum modified camera with 590 nm Kolari infrared filter. Custom white balance set to green foliage with reds desaturated in post.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-10

Following a recent web presentation for Orchid Fest 2020, I turned my gaze downward on my walkabouts on "the Bruce', not just to watch for the Massasauga Rattlesnakes that seem to be more numerous this year, but to watch for some of the 44 species of Orchid that make their home there.

The season for Yellow Lady's Slipper (large & small) has come and gone this year. And I was surprised to find Striped Coralroot growing on our cottage property a few weeks back, Then a short while ago, thanks to the webinar, I noticed Helleborine growing in several spots around the perimeter of our property.

Helleborine Orchid Flower

Helleborine

 

Helleborine Plant

As you could read in the links I've provided, Helleborine (Broadleaf Hellleborine, Common Helleborine) is found widely over the North-Eastern US and Easter Canada. It's considered a common non-native species that can actually become invasive. Not as flashy as the Yellow Lady's Slipper or Showy Lady's Slipper, it can be easy to miss. The flowers are small (1cm) and generally point downwards making it east to overlook their miniature beauty ... unless you are specifically on the lookout for some of the natural treasures 'the Bruce' has to offer.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-03

We always have choices ...

From a group outing to Terre Bleu Lavender Farm, Milton, ON

As soon as our host, Ian, mentioned this door during the orientation session, I envisioned a shot of the door open, looking through and out over a lavender field. I decided to make different versions, the infrared in a separate capture, the selective colour is alternate post processing.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-27

Once every 6,766 years ...

Finding Neowise

The NW view from the Tugs Deck in Tobermory at twilight, with little Neowise below the Big Dipper, above the last vestiges of a Huron Sunset.
 

I had attempted to see and photograph the comet Neowise a few days earlier but cloud cover obscured the SW night sky, thwarting the effort. With clear sky forecast from 10pm midnight, conditions were perfect for another go.

It took a while to 'see' it, even though online resources had me looking in the correct spot. The lights from the Dock and Chi-Cheemaun made if difficult for my eyes to adjust to the dark (I really wish there were a way to dim the dock lights and those of the ferry but still manage to maintain security in the area). As it got closer to 11pm, the sky had darkened enough for long exposures on the camera to pick up the faint tail and orb of Neowise.

I had chosen a good viewpoint, but not a good platform from which to photograph. The small deck, that provides access to the area of Little Tub where snorkelers go to see the sunken remains of the Tugs, was transmitting vibration from the waves striking it's supports, making most exposures (10 - 20 s) show as jittery points of light. I found I could not zoom in and get a larger image of he comet without exaggerating the issue and without skyline for context, I found it wasn't a really interesting composition anyway.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-20

Saturday night after dinner, the winds got up, the trees started to buffet around, the skies started to darken, there was thunder and then this passed overhead ...

evening stormfront

The rain started before I could get back inside and it came down, boy did it come down. Then in the morning, the skies were grey and heavy and it started to thunder and rain heavy again.

This image is a panorama stitched together in LR Classic from 6 vertical orientation frames, providing a wider view of the scene than I could capture in a single frame at 18mm on the M5 crop sensor.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-13

Sometimes it's the right place at the right time ... fully prepared or not !

After stopping on an evening walk to use our friend's new dock as a different vantage point for some sunset photos I was underwhelmed with the show. Chilled from the dropping temperature and wind of Lake Huron I headed back to the cottage for the night ...

They call it Devil Island
(... and now I think I know why)

... but I had to head back out looking for the lens cap I had dropped somewhere along the route I had taken. I checked all of the places I stopped, including the deck and when I got to the end of the road I got distracted by the sky ablaze through the trees. Investigating a little further, I made my way a short few meters through the bush to what used to be shoreline, but the water level is up and now into the trees leaving no room for dry footing and a clear view out over the water.

Suffice to say I got my shoes and pants soaking wet ... but I got the shot !

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-06

Scanning though the library for files captured with a particular camera, I came across an image that I had marked for processing and never got back to ... that was in 2014 ;-)

Well, this weekend it was time. I recall the outing with a couple of friends where we explored the trails around Spencer Gorge in Dundas. I'm not even sure if the trails are still accessible as I'd heard part of the route was closed after landowners finally got fed up with the nonsense taking place in and around their home. (that is another story entirely and you can read about it here if you like). But when we explored on an October morning back in 2014 it was lovely.

I recall working to find the right composition of a scene with a fence skirting the edge of the trail with large overhanging branches for an old maple tree. It was during a time when I was experimenting with camera modes and setting and I screwed up a number of shots, overexposing by almost 2 stops ... talk about expose to the right. I really liked the scene and one composition I processed for an B&W sketch effect, marked it and others for further processing and that was it ... until now.

With the original capture overexposed,  I got the idea (from my recent buttercup image) to work with it an create a higher key, more ethereal version of the image and eventually worked up a B&W image and finally one corrected for the overexposure (ain't the new processing tools wonderful ;-)

I like 'em all. You decide if you like one better than the others.

Grand Old Maple (as captured)

Grand Old Maple (B&W)

Grand Old Maple (recovered)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-06-29

On the longest day of the year I decided to go out and capture sunset.

Sunset Road

I noticed the colour of the sky out our front window and grabbed a camera as I made for the truck to find a location where I could capture something more than just a sunset on the horizon. I ended up on the crest of the hill above Wilson Flats.

After making this shot, I went down to the river parking lot where I ran into Denis from our local photo club and we chatted until the mosquitoes made us say goodnight and head inside the vehicles.

... and now the sun turns around and starts it's march south in the evening sky.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-06-22

Slippers ... slippers ... slippers ...

Spring is a wonderful time on 'the Bruce' with the wildflowers making an appearance to add splashes of colour along trails, in the woods and along the roadways. Special among these flowers are the orchids and their most common variety the Yellow Lady's Slipper. They emerge and delight for only a brief period before fading and ultimately dying off for another season.

Over the last couple of weeks, I spent some time capturing the Yellow Lady's Slippers I see in the area close the cottage, before they wither and disappear for another year.

burgundy sepals

fading beauty

DJE