Photo of the Week 2014-05-19

Finding Inspiriation: A day-trip this weekend, to Toronto, the AGO and Contact Photography Festival, left me with more questions than answers.

The Contact Photography Festival runs through the month of May each year, spread over much of Toronto at a wide variety of sites. I have made the trek a few of times in recent years and it always involves a lot of walking and searching to find the exhibits. 

This year, Alan, Patrick and I decided to throw in a stop at the AGO to see the Bacon-Moore exhibit and it's a good thing we did. The short story is that I have drawn more of my inspiration from the work of other photographers than from artists in other media. The Contact exhibits that we visited, did very little to inspire me. They served more to show me where I did not want my photographic journey to lead. Some of the work presented was no better than random snapshots that feign artistic vision. Artists / photographers are free to create what they want, to each, their own. But what I saw of this year's Contact was out of touch, a big disappointment in my eyes.

Thankfully there was the time at the AGO. I'm still pondering my first exposure to the work of Bacon and Moore. It was the work by Canadian artist Evan Penny in the "art as therapy" exhibit that caught my eye, and in particular when I read what was written about the work ...

Stretch #1 - by Evan Penny

"He Could be anyone. It is a portrait of the normal anxiety of adult life - the daily background stress around money (among other things), of how it feels  having to compete year after year to keep your head above water ..."

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-01-06

An annual event, the "First Light Challenge", initiated by a friend several years ago, had me out of a warm bed at the cottage and in -15*C (-25*C windchill) at 7:00 am heading for the exposed platform of the lookout tower 20m in the air at the Fathom Five Marine National Park Visitor's Centre in Tobermory. The object of his challenge is to make an image at precisely sunrise on the first day of the new year.

I knew it would be a tad on the chilly side, so I was bundled up in my winter coat, pants and gloves with balaclava, hat and hood up (I should have made a selfie). I had chosen the lookout tower hoping that there may be a break in the clouds, enough to show some hint of sunrise at 8:06 am. I began my climb of the tower in the relative shelter of adjacent cedars and quickly reached an elevation where there was no hiding from the driving wind. Eyes watering and being very careful not to miss step, I negotiated the frozen creaking metal grate stairs and was in position with 20 minutes to spare.

I set up the 5DIII on tripod and made some images of the surrounding views with both it and the 7D handeld, preparing for the final shot. I had in mind to capture a sweeping wide angle landscape from the high vantage point but without the bright sun and colour of sunrise as a focal point, I changed to a shot of the distant shores of Dunks and Little Dunks Bays with the mist coming of the relatively warm waters of Georgian Bay sweeping over the shore and forest at exactly 8:06 am, January 1, 2014.

First Light 2014 - Tobermory, ON

After the challenge shot, I gathered up my gear, carefully tread back down the tower to the car and headed for another location to capture some more images. Below is a serise of shots from the outing. Enjoy !

Tobermory 2014-01-01

My Perch for "Fiirst Light" 2014-01-01

Waves at mouth of Big Tub

Cold New Year Waters

 

Big Tub Light

Big Tub Light in Mist

Winter Shores

All my very best wishes for a safe, happy and healthy 2014.
DJE