Photo of the Week 2025-02-03

 

On the morning we left Callander and headed for our last night in Edinburgh, I took the opportunity to visit a local woodland trail ... to Bracklinn Falls

 

' Keltie Water Falling - H '

Bracklinn Falls are a series of waterfalls north-east of Callander, Scotland on the course of the Keltie Water.

 

I've followed several Scottish/UK photographers on social media for a while and their work has held great appeal for me. 

 

The woodlands they frequent are quite different from what I'm used to at home in Ontario. Many of the trees have twisting and irregular branches presenting quite a different character.  And then they have such great words for rivers, stream, brooks. Abhainn, burn, bàgh, pow, skye are just a few. Those in Gaelic I have no hope of pronouncing correctly and it all simply adds to the appeal.

 

It was absolutely wonderful to explore this short trail and capture just some of the beauty there If this were near home, I would visit frequently ...note to self: get out more and explore places closer to home.

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-11-20

 

' Fall Colour @ Sand River Falls '

' Sand River -  lower falls'

' Sand River Falls - detail '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A return visit for shooting at the Sand River Falls allowed me time to make the short hike from the trailhead up to the lower falls. Apparently there are three falls accessible by the Pinguisibi Trail that starts from the parking lot N-E of the highway but I was with a group of photographers and only had so much time allotted for our stop at this location. Given that, I quickly set out for the nearest (lower) falls after telling the group leader where I was headed (safety first). Along the way I was getting glimpses of the water cascading through the relatively narrow channels of the river. I had been informed that during lower flow levels, much of the jagged and undulating river course is exposed and can be accessed. Not so when the water is high and raging.

Rather than stop on my way up, I chose to head straight to the top of the falls and work my way back, checking out vantage points on the return trek. I arrived at the top of the falls and explored the area, able to walk out on a fairly extensive network of exposed rock and look further upstream hoping for a calm, still water basin before the plunge for some reflection images.

 

There was no upstream still water and I started looking around for other photo ops finding a small maple in full red leaf at the edge of the river just as it starts to plunge. I removed by backpack and placed it away from the water with my tripod and took just my camera out onto the rock in search of a composition that would suit the dramatic red leaves. I found something that worked using my lens wide open at f/4 and zoomed out at 105mm to blur the background a bit and place emphasis on the red leaves in the foreground.

 

A short time later on my way back down, I stopped just below the main plunge and tried a technique to add motion blur to water, one we had discussed the previous evening. There are options in most of the new cameras these days to make and blend multiple exposures in-camera. That option usually outputs a jpeg image and while it may be of sufficient quality, my camera can shoot a maximum of 9 frames in this mode and has the option of keeping the RAW captures as well as the output jpeg which is what I selected. I used the output jpeg on my rear LCD to judge exposure and the blur of the flowing water and retained the RAW files as a fall back. Lighting conditions were rather bright and it was difficult to select a longer shutter speed to help with the motion blur. The water was not blending smooth enough for my liking and I ended up blending the results of 2 sets of 9 RAW images in Photoshop to get the results shown in the additional 2 images above. Of course you can use ND (neutral density) filters to obtain slower shutter speeds and blur water nicely but I wanted to try something new.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-10-10

Someone I recently ran into said "I thought you were still in New Brunswick"and I had to laugh. They had assumed that because I was still posting images from that area, I had not returned home. In some ways they may be correct, memories of that recent trip, any trip or outing for that matter, occupy my mind for some time ...

The namesake of Grand Falls NB was the subject for photos on the morning of my 4th day in the area. Though I had seen the falls during a brief stop the first day and as we passed by on various outings, this was the first time I had gone with the specific purpose of exploring the trails, viewing platforms and vantage points near the falls and downstream gorge. Following is a selection of images I made during that time.

This spot is on my list of places to revisit for further exploration ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-02-01

 

Unlike previous images from exploring Jones Falls with my son Jordan, at Inglis Falls we were not able to access the river below. I know there is a way, but it's not a journey to be rushed and I need to do some more research before making the trek. When we visited briefly, I did make a series of images looking downstream from safety, behind the stone wall near the brink of the falls.

 

Downstream of Inglis

Similar to the images of Jones Falls, I made several exposures hand held at high frame rate to combine as layers in Photoshop to create the flowing water effect.

 

 Downstream of Inglis II

 DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-01-25

 

Following last weeks post I continued with the review and editing of my images from the outing with my son Jordan where we explored above and below Jones Falls just outside of Owen Sound ON. There were a few sets of captures made as I detailed last week, high frame rate, same composition, for combination in post-processing.

 

That meant there were many similar frames, which I tend to rush through without giving much consideration while performing my initial review. Later, trying to clean up those images in the library, I began stacking images from the individual bursts and what do you know, I found a composition that I liked at least as much as the one I posted last week. Not only that, but when I was processing it, I decided that I didn't like the vignette I had used on the previous image and went with my standard small white border ... which I then applied to a version of the previous image as well.

 

Here they are ...

Jones From Below II

 

 

 

Jones From Below rev 1.1

DJE

 

Photo of the Week 2021-01-18

 

Having someone along who enjoys exploring as much as I do helped me get this week's shot. My son Jordan loves exploring outdoors and wanted to see some waterfalls on our recent trek to the cottage, so we made a stop at Jones Falls.

 

Jones From Below

Jordan was rather eager to try and get below the falls. I knew from previous visits that there was a way to descend into the gorge and signs led to a point that looked a bit sketchy covered with ice and snow. Exploring a bit further, we found a much easier option and without ice cleats and winter hikers, were able to get down to river level.

 

Getting an image from this vantage point had been on my list for some time. Although conditions weren't perfect for photography, I'll take what I got  and consider it a decent first attempt.

 

Notes: I did not bring a tripod with me on what was expected to be just a quick, short trek. As I do with HDR captures in cases like this, using the highest frame rate of the camera, 4fps for the EOS M3, I made a number of hand held exposures then imported some as layers in Photoshop, auto aligned the layers, stacked them as a smart object and set the blend mode to mean for a flowing water effect. The result was processed as I normally would with plugins (i.e.Topaz, Anthropics, or ON1)

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-11-19

A recent visit to Ottawa offered the opportunity for the first snowy winter hike of the season (although it's still technically fall) and the chosen location was Parc de la Gatineau / Gatineau Park across the river in Quebec.

Freshly fallen snow painting the landscape in marshmallow white and crisp cold air tingling exposed skin awoke familiar sensations. We set out from the Meech Lake head of trails (P11) with the idea of a short outing to enjoy the fresh air. Along the way, a side trail sign indicating "ruins" piqued my interest and just had to be explored ... and what a treat was in store.

Wilson Ruins

We came across the "Willson Ruins" at the end of Little Meech Lake where the water flows out and tumbles down a steep sections of rapids. The impromptu encounter provided an intriguing opportunity to learn about yet another tidbit of Canadian history. You can follow the link above to find out more for yourself if you desire.

Subsequent reading on Parc de la Gatineau has placed it on my list of "must return to" sites. Fantastic fall colours, wonderful waterfalls and the MacKenzie King Estate all remain to be explored ...

DJE

 

Photo of the Week 2015-02-23

With all the publicity Niagara Falls has received in recent days, very cold temperatures causing much to freeze, I decided it was time for a trip there and some photography.

the watcher II

One of the challenges of photographing a location like Niagara Falls is to create something interesting, something different from all the tourist snapshots and that can be difficult when access to shooting locations is restricted and so scripted by the walkways, lookouts, barriers and such. Oh ya, and for my purposes, selfies were out of the question and man there were a zillion people standing with their backs to the falls holding phones, P&S cameras, and GoPros, quite a few on selfi-sticks. 

My plan for "different" would be to mount my 70-300 telephoto zoom on my new 7D MkII, allowing me to pick out details of the frozen bits while giving the new camera body a first run. It was snowing a fine snow in addition to the frozen mist from the falls so the improved weather resistance of  the 7DII would come in handy too.

As it was, I shot with the 7DII and tele setup as we walked up the walkway from Murray St. to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and then switched to the 5DIII with 24-105 for some wider shots as we walked back before going for dinner. Thew resulting set of images included a number of potential candidates for "photo of the week" and as I began writing this blog post I was still undecided on whether I would select just one image or post several form the outing.

Given that I have a few people following the blog who have begun asking questions about my images, process, equipment and other aspects of my photography, I thought I would provide some of these details up front. I shot a total of about 80 images during two separate sessions at the falls, one before dinner, the other much shorter and after dinner to try a few images of the falls under coloured spot lights. I've already mentioned the gear I used and the reasons for my choices. Back at home I renamed and imported the RAW files into my Lightroom 5 Catalogue and keyworded for equipment used, location and subject specifics. 

Next was a first review where I rate candidates for processing 1,2 or3 stars and X for duplicates and deletes. Then I go back through and choose an image to work with. Once I make adjustments for exposure and white balance, I usually apply these to all images from that camera for the day. Then I decide if other processing is required. In the case of the Niagara Falls images, the light was flat, flat, flat so I bumped up the contrast on some and processed further in NIK Color Efex to add some tonal contrast. All images from this shoot got the same treatment in NIK, a program that I love.

That's about it, and this week I'm left with 17 images that make a decent set to show from the outing. This is way more than I normally get but it was dramatic Niagara Falls after all. A few of those images are presented throughout this blog post. It would have been tough to pick just one, but the lead image, "the watcher II" is one of my favourites..

DJE

Winter Wonderland

Over the Christmas holidays I took another trip to the Bruce Peninsula and ultimately Tobermory. Three of us started out on the morning of Dec 28, taking a "scenic route" beginning on Hwy 6 towards Owen Sound. North of Durham we found ourselves driving through an area that had recently received a thick blanket of snow. We spotted a small bridge and creek only a few meters off the highway. It was the first stop of the trip and well worth it.

Just off the Beaten Path


Winter Creek


A little farther on, we decided on another quick stop, this time at Inglis Falls just south of Owen Sound. I think Inglis is one of the most picturesque falls in Southern Ontario. I had never visited there for photography in winter. I made a few quick exposures before we continued on ...

Inglis Iced Over


Inglis Frozen Downstream


... more from the trip in the coming days.

DJE