Photo of the Week 2024-05-27

 

Sticking with images from my recent Algonquin excursion, I've chosen a couple of the iconic Algonquin Moose. What trip to Algonquin is undertaken without fingers crossed in hope of seeing one of these large wild animals?

 

' late for dinner '

' late for dinner II '

Fingers crossed or not, we had not seen a moose since the very brief (too brief to get a photo) encounter with a skittish male very early that morning. It was late in our day and we were heading across the park on Hwy 60 and back to the hotel with minutes left in our window of opportunity. Sun was officially setting, it was within minutes of 8:30 pm when the excited shout of "moose" resounded in the vehicle.

 

At a roadside marsh pond, a decent sized male with sprouting antlers was having a late dinner. He allowed us to approach while continuing to munch away, looking up only periodically to check that we were still there.

 

The light was poor requiring me to shoot at ISO 6400 handheld with a shutter speed of only 1/40s in burst mode to get anything resembling a sharply focused shot. We were close enough that I zoomed back out to less than max 400mm of my EF 100-400 L II and pulsed away with short bursts whenever there was an opportunity for something different which wasn't often as this big fells just wanted to dip his snout into the water for another tender mouthful.

 

Hit rate at ISO6400 f/5-5.6 and 1/30-1/40s exposure was low as to be expected but I had to try. Thankfully these couple were good enough for some follow up processing with Topaz DeNoise AI and some finishing touches in PS/ON1

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-05-20

 

I'm still working through images from a couple of weeks ago in Algonquin with Jesse Villemaire of Follow Me North Photography. During our stop at the Lake of Two Rivers campground where I made last week's image, I took time to work some interesting compositions along the sandy shoreline.

 

' Algonquin Abstract '

I found this interesting driftwood log embedded at water's edge and worked the scene while the conditions were calm and clear.
 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-05-13

With a small group of photo friends, I steered the 4Runner, full of camera gear, to Algonquin this past week for a meet up with Jesse Villemaire of Follow Me North Photography. We had booked a full day small group session and the weather looked like it would cooperate after a switch of days to miss some incoming rain.

After an early, 5am pickup at our hotel, Jesse began by stopping at the west park entrance for a review of appropriate gear and settings for the low light conditions we would have should we encounter any wildlife out in the dawn hours. Although our group all had a level of experience with photography, his frequent reminders to check our gear settings were welcome as he took us around to some of his favourite and productive photo spots along the Hwy 60 corridor through the park.

Beyond the fundamentals of lens selection and camera settings, Jesse shared a number of tips with our group, ranging from composition to wildlife behaviour. On our stop at the Lake of Two Rivers campground, one particular suggestion sparked something with me and I used it to advantage in the following image, one of my favourites for the day.

' Algonquin Morning '

What was the suggestion? Well as we extricated ourselves from the van and organized ourselves, he suggested that we might use a beached canoe for a foreground element in our images. The canoe, a rental unit, didn't appeal to my aesthetic and I looked for something else. I had been working to improve my use of foreground elements in many recent shots and here there were a couple of driftwood remnants buried in the sand at water's edge that caught my interest. I proceeded to work the scene to use them in the foreground and composed to include the additional (as Jesse might say, 3rd element) element of the sun starburst and reflection in the image.

It took me some time to find the right position, right, left, up, down, shift over, shift back, lower ... etc., etc. to get the horizon centred, sun and reflection in the middle and the driftwood near the lower 1/3 intersection. Oh ya ... and the pièce de résistance, that tiny little starburst where the driftwood meets the water ;-)

Thanks (again) to Jesse, who captured a behind the scenes image of me at work, generously allowing me to share his shot here.

Think you might want to go shooting in Algonquin and need some inspiration, a guide, mentorship, I highly suggest you check out Follow Me North and consider some time with Jesse and Susan.

 

A day-long / long-day outing in Algonquin Park was just what the photo-doctor ordered ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-05-06

 

 Letting the creative loose with some simulated ICM multiple-exposure ...

 

' memories of a winter morning '

I haven't been intentionally avoiding photography, but it seems a while since I've been out specifically for photography. Between getting the golf season started in Myrtle beach over a month ago and a shed project at the cottage the cameras have mostly sat dormant.Things will change with a short photo specific Algonquin adventure to start next week.

Leading up to that, I've been looking at some previous images marked for processing and some notes about techniques I've made over time. My Canon R5 allows for in camera multiple exposure and I want to become familiar with the options and possible results using this feature. For now, I've experimented with simulating the anticipated effects with some post processing.

 

DJE