Photo of the Week 2018-09-17

Happy Anniversary My Love

Thirty-Five Years ago today, I married the most wonderful young lady. I'm so very happy to have spent all of those years together. Where does the time go ?...

Happy Anniversary My Love

 
... I was reminded the other day, when I ran into a long time friend on my morning walk. We talked in general about time and how it passes quickly when we are happy and things are going well. Judging by how fast 35 years have passed, I'm very, very happy and things are going very, very well.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-12-11

Clark Family Christmas 2017

the silly version

It's been several years now that I've been photographing the Clark Family Christmas gathering, held this year at Bill & Cathy's in Scarborough. This year with 'ugly" Christmas sweaters and Christmas hats and head-wear, everyone eagerly anticipated photo time :-)

Usually they won't cooperate or stop chatting and fidgeting long enough to look at the camera all at the same time. This year was a fair bit better and I pulled off another Masterpiece ... well almost ;-)

Here's the serious version ...

You can see the timelapse assembled from some of the individual images I captured just to get a couple of good ones here ...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dje-pix/38081463495

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year ! 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-07-03

HAPPY CANADA DAY !

Canada Day 2017 Fireworks III

... from the Parks Canada Visitor Centre tower, Tobermory, ON, in windy conditions. The tower movement from wind and people proved a challenge.

At Lynn's suggestion, this year I headed to the to observation tower with the idea of capturing the Canada Day celebration fireworks from a different point of view. Also on my list of objectives were to use in-camera multiple exposure and a wider angle of view.

Arriving at the tower around 9pm, it seemed no-one else had the same idea or at least they hadn't made it there yet. As I climbed the stairs, the wind picked up. A few flights and I was above the tree tops, fully exposed. Concern that the fireworks might be cancelled started to play in my mind. Reaching the top, heading back and returning the next night seemed a 50/50 possibility.

Alone, I began to set up, against the railing, in a corner.  As I set the tripod and attached the camera, others started arriving, a couple at first, and by the time the show started around 10 there were maybe 20 of us up there braving somewhat cool temperature made colder by the wind. With that many, the movement in the tower from weight and wind catching our bodies was more than I had expected. I began to wonder if it was such a good idea from a photography point of view as I would be using long exposures and the movement would be an issue.

As it turned out, for the most part the images I captured were impacted by the tower movement. Not so much as to make them all trash can worthy but enough to disappoint my discerning eye. In addition, I had decided to pack light and brought just the 17-40mm lens which turned out to be too wide even at 40mm given the distance away. The 24-105 would have been more suitable on my full frame DSLR ... oh well, that's what pixels and cropping are for ;-)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-07-04

We were at the cottage again this year for Canada Day and by some accounts (business owners in Tobermory) this year it was busier than any previous year. That's why we make sure we are well stocked with provisions and tend to avoid the insanity that Tobermory has become on long weekends ... that is, all except for the July 1 fireworks. We have to go see the fireworks and Celebrate Canada Day.

Tobermory Celebrates - Canada Day 2016

This year again, we invited friends to come and join us for a few days while we were on vacation and again it was a great time. Good friends, good times, good celebrations, Great Country!

HAPPY CANADA DAY

PS - did you know that the sun sets later in Tobermory than in Guelph? Tobermory is just over a 3 hour drive north, and just above the 45th parallel, 1.7* and roughly 250 km north of Guelph and according to Environment Canada's weather service, this time of year, sunsets 7 minutes later in Tobermory. The image above was made at 10:17 pm and you can still see traces of the sunset on the horizon, nautical twilight.

DJE

Merry Christmas ! (Photo of the Week 2015-12-21)

Just a few more days until Christmas !

I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me to all of you, and if you don't celebrate Christmas as I do, please do not take offence. I warmly welcome your respective holiday wishes and I thank you in advance.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-07-06

I know it's past July 1 but it was only last week and I love celebrating Canada Day ! This year, we were at the cottage with friends and planned the day to include the fireworks in Little Tub Harbour, if the young ones could stay awake ... and they did !

Flowerburst !

This was our first year for viewing the fireworks in "the Tub". Lynn did the planning and although I was a bit skeptical about her choice of location at first, we managed to pull off a great spot for viewing, with Marcy, Matt, Emma and Logan grabbing a park bench and me setting up several metres away on the boardwalk looking across to the ferry dock, close to the display.

Although the boardwalk was full of people (some unable to sit/stand still and not bang the railing and floorboards constantly) I managed to pull off a number of exposures that I was happy with. For all shots I used the same exposure, determined from experience and confirmed with a quick test shot as the festivities began, 17mm, f/8, 15 sec, ISO 100 on my 5D III with the  EF 17-40 f/4L. The "trick" is to set up on a tripod (obviously for the 15 sec exposure) framing the area where most of the pyrotechnics will take place. Then you trip the shutter (remote release recommended) anticipating when the fireworks will explode during the time the shutter is open. Some get missed and others like the shot above, combine for multiple busts in a single frame.

Some others from the show ...

It was the first fireworks show for our younger guests and they did well to manage to stay up a few hours past their normal bed time to join us. When things got started all we could hear was Logan yelling "this is awesome! "

DJE

Photo of the Week 2013-08-26

In Celebration ... a new chapter begins.
 
On Aug 22, Lynn and I took possession of the cottage in Tobermory and what could have been more appropriate than to celebrate with a dram or two of Tobermory (1798 Isle of Mull) Single Malt. It's not what I would normally reach for, but hey with that name, it was entirely right for this occasion.

Late in the evening under clear skies with the sun low on the horizon and sunset colour beginning to intensify, I grabbed the bottle, glass and camera then headed to the chairs down by the shore on the rock. I poured myself a wee dram, placed the glass and bottle on the table ...

... then using sunset as a backdrop and back-light for both the bottle and glass, I made a few exposures before sitting back to celebrate our first sunset in Tobermory.

The Celebration ...

Here are a few others from the first night, of the first weekend ... of many more :-)

DJE