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 2024-05-13

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 2016-02-01

I have mixed feelings when it comes to certain projects and challenges applied to creative pursuits. For those not familiar with the idea, the intent is to begin a project or participate in a challenge with the goal of pushing yourself out of a creative rut or to learn new elements of your craft. For example, in photographic terms, a "365 Project" is one that requires the participant to make and post one photo every day for a year, hence the 356 reference. A challenge could be to restrict the number of photos you make on a particular day, or to use only a fixed focal length lens for a period of time. There are countless other variations both that are touted frequently on social media and in photographic circles.

Why do I have mixed feelings about these? Well I think sometime they are perceived or expected to be the magic cure for what ails one creatively, be it the dreaded 'block', lack of variety, or some other affliction. I think they can work from time to time or be part of the solution, but in my experience they can also add to the frustration at times when you just really need to take a break. Other times they can be just what the creative doctor ordered and get you to try something new. They can open up a whole new creative world to experience or push you to learn a new skill or technique. The difficulty is knowing what is right at what time.

Recently a friend, Karen VonKnobloch, invited me to a 7 Day Nature Photography Challenge on Facebook. This challenge was not to go out and make new images, but to select images from your library and post one each day for a week. The challenge was 'thrown down' at a time when Karen knew I was searching for some additional activity and interaction with my photography. I was looking for the spark, to reignite the flame that I felt might be fading. She cleverly helped me find it in my own work. So here are my selections from the 7 Day Nature Challenge.

morning whispers

perched

falls in the clouds

Algonquin Winter Sunset

Winter Morning at Little Cove - III

Cold Dawn at Silver Falls

Autumn at 'the Crack'

During the 7 Days I was posting these images to FB, another friend suggested 7 Days of Tobermory ... and it spawned further ideas for 7 Days of Hay Bay and 7 Days of the Bruce, all subjects that stir my photographic passion. It seems in this case, the spark was in the challenge and the fuel for the fire in my own work.
DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-12-31

Getting away for a couple of days between Christmas and New Years for some winter photography has become somewhat of a tradition (How long does it take to make something a tradition ? ... I dunno, it just feels like a tradition). For the past couple of years our destination has been Tobermorey and we thought we would change it up a bit this year by heading to Algonquin Park. The initial idea was to reserve a yurt and stay at Mew Lake Campground in the park which would allow us to get an early start to locations a bit more removed from the highway and possibly allow us to see some wildlife. As it turned out, the yurts were all booked so we went the more conventional route of booking rooms at a local Inn ... not a bad call given that temperatures dropped to -18*C the first night.

Rising from a warm bed to head out in the dark when temperatures are -18*C requires a bit of determination and a dose of encouragement from having another photographer along to keep you from rolling over for some more "zzzzzz" time. When we had the gear packed in then vehicle and climbed in, the temp gauge on the dash read -16*C but it had dropped to -18*C within a couple of minutes of setting out across Hwy 60 and stayed there until well after sun had risen.

Arriving at Mew Lake, we scouted around and selected a suitable spot to park and gear up for a hike on snowshoes in search of a spot to capture sunrise. It was not long before I was in a position to see morning light as it bounced off some clouds as it began to warm the day.

-18*C and rising

There is something about breathing deeply in the cold morning air and having your nostrils freeze together ... It was the start of another great day.

DJE

"shh ... can you hear it ..."

... was the subject line of an email from one of my photo buddies today. He was asking if I could hear the call of Algonquin Park beckoning us to return in a few short weeks. I couldn't make out anything yet, but this sent me into the archive of images from last year's trip.

... and now not only can I hear, but I can feel it too.

Algonquin morning


sunset shoreline



Algonquin moose


... how long to we leave?

DJE