Photo of the Week 2025-08-25

 

On a solo drive up north with plans to pick up some supplies in Tara, I used the opportunity and took a scenic route, visiting several historical mill sites in Grey and Bruce Counties along the way.

 

I made a number of stops, the last being near Park Head where the remnants of the chopping mill proved difficult to capture in an image. They sit on private property, back from the road with an obstructed view from the bridge over the Sauble River. Across the river the property is also private and an occupied residence, so my selection of viewpoints was very restricted. 

 

' Park Head Chopping Mill Ruins '

Working in mid-day sun, I also had an infrared converted camera along and it provided some of my favourite images form the day. Here, shooting from the bridge approach where a path dropped down to river level (for fishing access I suspect), I was able to compose through an opening in the leaves to show a glimpse of the deteriorating structure. Processing the image in high contrast B&W, sets the wood and masonry out in dark nicely against the white foliage.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2023-02-27

 

It's all about what is missing ...

 

' negalith '

Modern city architecture captured in infrared ... from a Saturday morning outing to Downtown Hamilton, ON with a reflections theme in mind.

At the suggestion of a friend, for both theme and location, we met for a morning photo walkabout in and around the Farmer's Market area of Hamilton. He had the idea of capturing reflections in windows of buildings in the downtown core. The theme was selected by a random theme generator he programmed and primed with 20 or so selected themes. The idea behind the generator, to hone photographic skills and vision through pursuit of images relating to a theme while out shooting. I think it worked very well, as did his selection of location for the reflections theme.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-09-12

' log 'n stone '

 

Infrared capture using Kolari IRChrome filter on a dual-spectrum converted (visible & infrared) Canon EOS M camera.

 

I recognize that not everyone enjoys the many different looks of infrared imagery, I do though, very much. I enjoy experimenting with the variety of processing options,, learning more as I go along. It offers a change of pace and can help keep the creative juice flowing.

 

For this image, the filter-camera combination produced an 'aerochrome'-like image with red foliage, blue skies and otherwise normal colouring for the rest of the scene. Typically such an image would be processed to emphasize the red and blue. I arrived at a version that does exactly the opposite and decided I like it. Far from the actual lush green of leaves and grasses, there is enough 'reality' in this set against the lifeless brown to intrigue the viewer.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-08-29

 

It's over two months since returning from Scotland and I still have images to publish ! But I am getting close to exhausting the inventory of yet to be processed, yet to be released captures from the time in 'Alba'.

 

I've never been one to "dump" a large number of images on social media at one time, likely never more than 10, but I'd have to check back to be certain. More often than not, it's no more than a handful and often only one select image, particularly when I'm not showcasing a collection of images from travel or some other photocentric outing.

While working through my set of captures from Glasgow and the time at the Necropolis, I came across one in particular that I very much like. It was from the infrared converted EOS M and converted to B&W in NIK SilverEfex with my favourite high-contrast preset, it just jumped at me. So impressed, I called to the 'missus' and said, "This is a winner, this is an instant favourite, this will be a photo of the week for sure !" Now, it may be a winner to me, one of my favourites, but your mileage may vary ... let me know what you think.

' eternal rest '

Upon seeing this file processed in B&W, I was reminding of something theatrical, something animated, something from a graphic novel or animated video. I still haven't put my finger on just what that is but I have a feeling it was a scene from an animated video. Perhaps a cemetery scene from an animated Batman movie ... where the seated figure, a villain, rises and walks into the night ...  Oh my imagination ;-)

The colour version from another camera and lens combo is interesting in it's own right, just not so much as the IR B&W in my opinion.

  

 

Note: These images are of the grave and memorial to Charles Tennant, Chemist and Industrialist. Hi 'is' one of the more notable residents of the necropolis and namesake of Charles Tennant & Company still in the chemical business today. One does have to wonder at the inspiration behind some of these more unusual memorial sculptures ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DJE

 

Photo of the Week 2022-04-04

With some time to spare during a visit to Eastern Ontario and the Ottawa area, I headed to Pakenham, somewhere I had been meaning to revisit for almost 10 years ...

 

' spring arches '

 

For me, the main attraction in this quaint little village is the Five Span Stone Arch Bridge, reportedly the only stone bridge of it's kind in continental North America. I'll leave you to use the link provided or Google it yourself to enjoy learning about this unique, historic, Ontario bridge.

A dull and overcast sky had me thinking of black and white at first, but then I imagined a splash of false colour using infrared. Looking for a n interesting composition, I went about making images on both sides of the river and both upstream and downstream of the bridge. Water in Ontario's Mississippi River was high from the spring melt, flowing fast and full through all five of the arches and I tread carefully on the slippery riverside rock to get this feature image.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-03-21

With spring on the doorstep and a decreasing number of days for snowshoe hikes out on the ice before it gives way to open water, I took advantage of a sunny afternoon ... and of course I took a camera.

 

' ice breaker '

There was much to enjoy as I trekked along the snow and ice covered shoreline. Smaller areas  of open water were beginning to appear in locations where the currents work their way around shoals and exposed rock. Sunlight sparkled off the wind blown ripples of these surfaces. There were interesting patterns and shapes sculpted in the surface the snow by winds off Lake Huron. There were huge mounds out at the edges if the shelf ice further from shore where I dared not tread.

The crunch of my snowshoes on exposed ice became a muted "crump, crump, crump" when I transitioned onto patches of powdered snow. Otherwise the only sounds were from my own heartbeat and breathing. For a while, I sat on an exposed rock and just took it all in.

 

Knowing that this may be the final opportunity for such a trek this winter, I made my way around into China Cove but not before stopping where waves had crashed up driven by the north-west wind as winter strengthened it's grip months before. Now with snow cover gone, melting in the warmth of a bright sunny day, one spot reminded me of a breaking wave frozen in time. 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-02-14

 

Continuing to work with my modified camera (an EOS M converted to dual-spectrum VIS & IR), I explore the potential of infrared during winter ...

 

'Dusky Winter Trail '

Files captured on an infrared modified camera cause me to explore many options and consider different looks. Lately I've been working with a 550nm filter which begins to transmit light in the light green and yellow range up through orange, red into near infrared. Of course the yellow, orange and red are within the visible spectrum and their inclusion adds familiar colours to the file that also includes the colourless (to human eyes) near infrared data.

 

These image files bear no resemblance to the colours seen with my eye and benefit from considerable post processing. Unashamedly, I will experiment with any number of processing programs, plug-ins and presets to create something that satisfies my creative whimsy.

The RAW file for this image received five different treatments of which the "Dusky" version above won out. The others, well, they may just stay on the hard drive as reminders of what the other possibilities are.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-01-31

 

Continuing with this year's creative foray into winter IR photography.

' wonder winterland '

 

The shapes sculpted by wind and snow are wondrous, and in infrared become otherworldly ...
 

Picking up on the conversation from last week, the challenge of lens performance in IR can make things quite interesting. For the image above, I used the Canon EF-M 18-55 standard zoom. The performance of this lens for infrared depends on shooting conditions given my experience. In harsh sunlight it can produce a 'hot spot' in the centre of the frame at medium to small apertures. My default aperture for most shooting is f/8 and for IR, this lens performs better at f/5.6 or lower, making depth of focus an issue for some shots. Taking the image above as an example, I was able to get reasonable focus sharpness at 18mm with f/5.6 for the foreground snow drift, which is the main subject. The background however is nowhere near sharp and this was acceptable as the birch tree and distant cottage chairs provide some context without challenging the main subject for the viewer's attention. No seen, is the hot spot that required some tweaking in post processing to remove a colour and brightness shift. Given the subject of the photo, this was not difficult however with different subject matter it could prove quite challenging.

 

The journey continues ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-01-24

 

Always working to keep the creative juices flowing, I recently combined my desire to get out and hike in the cold fresh air with an idea to try some infrared (IR) photography ... with a manual focus 8mm fish-eye lens.

 

Working in IR offers both significant challenges and broad creative opportunities. The challenges come when switching from 'normal' photography, capturing visible light in a more "what you see is what you get" process to capturing infrared light in a more "what will I be able to create from this" process. The later is more akin to B&W photography in my opinion as we don't see in IR just as we don't see in B&W. Greater familiarity with B&W photography makes that process more intuitive, while IR photography has a greater trial and error component for me at my current level of expertise.

 

 

limestone arch

downstream

down the tracks

 

 

The first challenge comes when selecting the gear that will be used for IR photography. Digital camera sensors, unless modified, are made to see only light in the visible wavelength spectrum. IR filters or a modified camera will be required to get started and there are a number of choices.Camera lenses are designed for optimum performance with visible light and may perform poorly when shooting IR images. There are plenty of online resources that offer information on these aspects of IR photography and Google is your friend if you want to get into it more detail. Alternately, you could send me a question via the comment section or by email and I'll see if I can offer some assistance.

 

Once the decisions related to camera, filter and lens have been made, it's on to the capture phase of working in IR. This is really just the process of collecting the raw materials that will be crafted into a final image. For the most part, infrared images straight out of camera (using filters or a converted camera) are not the end result in this genre. I say for the most part, because this is really a more abstract pursuit but that depends on the artist ...

... yes the "Artist", and like all art, it may or may not be for you whether photographer or viewer.

 

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 2020-08-17

 

 

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 2020-08-03

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 2020-06-01

Walking in Wellington

Wellington fields

It had been since before the start of the COVID pandemic that I had spent some time with my oldest son Matt. At his suggestion, Lynn and I met he and Claire in Wellington, ON, approximately half-way between Guelph and Ottawa, for a socially distanced walk on their Millennium Trail followed by a nice picnic.

We hiked the trail along a former rail line heading east from the centre of town, stopping here and there for one of us to make a photo or to spot some of the numerous birds and sights. I decided to break out the infrared camera which had the Kolari IR Chrome filter attached. The bright sunshine, blue sky and fluffy white clouds would make for some surreal images. Almost 2 hours later, we turned around and headed back to the vehicles and the delicious foods we had brought for our picnic.

We found a spot in a nearby municipal park, laid out a couple of blankets, enjoyed chatting and the company until temperatures dropped and the breeze got up. Rain was approaching and it signalled a good time to pack up to say our goodbyes with our distanced hugs and farewells.

Millennium Trail

caterpillars on a stick

farm under blue skies

Walking in Wellington

A Wellington Barn

laneway to barn

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-03-09

Shooting as much as I do, it's easy for images to slide further and further back into lesser seen sections of the catalogue. I've taken to flagging images in various ways in an effort to minimize this. Some are flagged for future processing, others are processed and flagged as candidates for posting, still others, the best, are flagged to be printed.Still, some fall through the cracks and it's a pleasant surprise when they are "rediscovered".

Recently while performing some file maintenance on the image catalogue recently, I spotted shot that I had planned to work on but, as happens, had found a crack. Perhaps because it is and infrared capture that typically needs some processing to evaluate properly, I had not flagged it, perhaps because I was focused on another series of images. I can't recall.

"Rediscovered", I immediately flagged it and later processed it with standard Red-Blue channel swap, cropped in the Golden Ratio and processed it with a little contrast tweak.

Spring Creek - IR

This week's photo was captured one morning while exploring the backroads of the Bruce Peninsula. After making some conventional exposures of the scene, I used the infrared modified EOS M to capture this scene with 590 nm filter. 



DJE

Photo of the Weel 2019-12-09

My foray into infrared digital has had me exploring photography with unmodified DSLR's with lens mounted IR filters requiring the use of a tripod for long exposures, and infrared modified P&S camera allowing handheld exposures, and lately an infrared modified mirrorless camera. This latest camera is modified for dual-spectrum, visible and infrared sensitivity, allowing the use of various wavelength lens mounted IR filters to attain the variety of 'looks' possible with infrared. This setup is by far the most flexible and exposures can be hand held and previewed on the LCD screen..

Along the way, 550nm, 590nm, 720nm, 850nm IR filters have been used and recently a new IR filter developed by KolariVision, the IRChrome which quite closely replicates the results obtained by using Kodak Colour IR file, a.k.a Aerochrome.

The Aerochrome look can be simulated by processing exposures made with the 550nm filter, sometimes requiring a considerable amount of work in photo editing software. Unexpectedly, I encountered a resource online that helped me develop a Photoshop action that can work on visible light (non-IR) captures. I was able to achieve some very satisfying results with this method. Following are some examples ...

' almost there ' (faux Aerochrome)

morning trail light (faux Aerochrome)

that special place (faux Aerochrome)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-12-02

"Variety is the spice of life"

... I find this to be true in my photographic life.

When people discover that photography is a passion for me, they frequently ask me what I photograph. My usual response is something like "mostly nature, landscape and wildlife", though in truth, I enjoy photographing just about everything.

In the past month alone, I have photographed a variety of subject matter, with a variety of cameras, in a variety of styles. Travel, Documentary, Nature, Wildlife, Landscape, Street, and Infrared are all genres that my photography has touched in a short few weeks. Photography really is a 'Journey' for me, an enjoyable, sometimes whimsical, sometimes frustrating, always enlightening journey.

Here's a sampling of what I saw through my lens in November 2019. None of these have been shared prior to this post, though others from the respective outings may have ... enjoy.

Alan Doyle

not so shy

As my 'bio' reads: "My library of work could be described as a somewhat eclectic collection but primarily covers the outdoors, landscape, nature and wildlife. I make images of scenes and subjects that move me visually, sharing them with others through my photographic fine art prints and online."

To everyone who follows me on the 'journey' offering encouragement and comment, I sincerely thank you. To those who don't yet, I invite you to follow along.



DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-11-25

Departing from my recent string of woodland / forest images, I went on an urban walkabout in Hamilton with Grant, Patrick and my IR camera sporting a 550nm filter. With Alan missing, the ‘4 Musketeers’ became the ‘3 Amigos’ and we spent a couple of hours shooting downtown streets, back alleys and details ...

' zoned '

My objective was to use a 550nm filter (which allows a portion of visible light to pass) and find a unique "look" with through post-processing. It was less 'work' than I anticipated. Post processing involves a little saturation boost and some tonal contrast. I used a couple of presets in a lesser-known Photoshop plug-in, Smart Photo Editor by Anthropics. I'll be experimenting to recreate this look in ON1 Photo Raw.

Here's a collage of some images from the outing.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-09-16

I've put the sunset photo posts on hold while I've been out exploring the world with my infrared converted camera. Not everyone will be a fan of this recent work, I get that and I'm OK with it. This blog and the path of it's posts log a 'Photographic Journey', one that is still underway, turning unexpectedly at times and perhaps looping back at others, always moving ... not necessarily forward, sometimes slow, imperceptibly slow, sometimes quickly ... always exploring.

In recent weeks, I've been deliberately concentrating on photographing heritage bridges in the Grand River Watershed in infrared then post processing using different methods ... exploring.

For this week's images of the Irvine Street Bridge north of Salem, the processing took a curve when the overcast skies created a blue colour cast to anything not foliage. Blue concrete and limestone rock simply did not look right. I guess one could say that the IR images I been posting all don't look right, but in this case I was exploring alternate processing methods and they just didn't give me what I was after ... until I removed the blue.

And now we have 'sans bleu'

Irvine Street Bridge - IR sans bleu

Irvine River - IR sans bleu

Irvine Arch - IR sans bleu

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-09-09

Inspired by photographing and researching the history of the "Stone Road Bridge", I've noted the locations of a number of other interesting bridges to photograph in the Grand River Watershed.

After returning from a photo outing, I found the paper "ARCH, TRUSS & BEAM - The Grand River Watershed Heritage Bridge Inventory. Previously aware of some of these bridges, I've decided to add them and others to a list of locations to photograph.

The project started with captures in Infrared (IR) and may continue in IR, or it may wander into something different. We'll see ...

In this post, I continue with these images of Chamber's Bridge, a bridge I had visited several times previously. The first visit resulted in a favourite image of a fly fisherman casting his line.

This time I wanted to capture the bridge, in infrared

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-09-02

Finding your way forward in a creative life is challenging, even vexing at times. The journey is fraught with choices, decisions of where to go, what to do, which path to take. There are as many options as imagination will allow.

Having these choices provides near unlimited freedom of where you may go, literally and figuratively. Making a choice can be daunting if you over analyze as I am known to do, or ...

... it can be as easy as just taking the next step, one step at a time as they say (whoever "they" are, I've never been sure).

I've learned that for me, there needs to be some purpose in those steps. Without purpose, it's really just wandering around and although that can be alright for a brief time, if left too long, yo can wander off. The end result being that you end up just going through motions. This is where I think I've had been the last while ... how long? It doesn't matter.

What matters is getting back the feeling that I am on track and creating with some kind of intent. Hence my recent decision to get out and visit some locations that I've had on my list for a while. Last week's image was made at one of those locations and that outing spawned an idea to photograph other vintage bridges to tell their story.

This week's image is from a location that catches my ever and my interest every time I pass by. With a plan to photograph it in infrared and explore what it is that intrigues me, I set out with some purpose ... and a way forward.

DJE