Photo of the Week 2014-09-01

The last night of the last long weekend of summer ...

About a month ago, I made a first attempt to photograph the night sky over Hay Bay, the Bruce Peninsula and Lake Huron from the shore at our cottage. Conditions were not ideal but seeing the Milky Way appear, lead by many stars as a we sat at the shore enjoying the embers of a campfire, motivated me to give it a go.

Since then, during a week of vacation, an opportunity under much more favourable conditions arose and I was able to make some decent images (blog post 2014-08-18). For that possibility, I had come equipped with a particular lens, with characteristics more suited to night sky photography. I'm not certain how much the improved results were due to the selection of equipment, opposed to the more favourable conditions ...

... but, the results impressed me enough to do some further research on gear and technique in the effort to improve my night sky images more. My research led to an online discussion of lenses and which were recommended for the brand of camera I use. Never needing much of a push to acquire new gear, I picked up a ultra-wide FF lens, the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, a focal length not already covered by something in my kit.

As luck would have it, the next visit to the cottage looked as though it would offer only cloudy night skies and the Rokinon would see use just for landscape and trial images as I became familiar with it's manual focus and manual aperture control. Well luck changed and on the final night, the sun set through clearing skies and by 9:00 pm the first star was visible. I started to gather the equipment I would need and waited for the night to darken.

The challenge on this attempt, a waxing crescent moon throwing a tremendous amount of light over the bay and into the surrounding sky. At this particular point in the lunar cycle, the moon is just slightly west of the Milky Way when looking south across the bay. After making a number of exposures of just the sky, I decided to try a series that would include some of the surrounding landscape, water etc. I ended up including the moon and it's reflection on the bay. It required a fair bit of processing to get the look I wanted and I'm still not totally satisfied, but here it is ...

August Moon & Milky Way

I can can see spending many more nights working to capture the night sky at various locations on "the Bruce."    

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-08-25

A little bit of photography, some sketching, much relaxin' and a lot of family time ...

...  just back from a week on "the Bruce".

It was a great week and both Jordan and Matthew were able to join Lynn and I for at least a couple of "whole family" days at the cottage. Schedules being what they are, it can be difficult to coordinate.

The week was also special because Friday, August 22 was the first anniversary of our plunge into cottage ownership. We've managed to get a lot of use out of it these past 12 months. The week was the third vacation week Lynn and I have spent there and we manage to get there about every other weekend on average, a bit less in winter but still a weekend or two a month. 

Last week's blog post showcased some dramatic night sky images from our shoreline on the Sunday night. Today I present a simple, minimalistic, yet (to me) deeply meaningful image. 

Without going into the details, the boys had been disappointed by initial, highly anticipated  plans for the day getting scuttled. So they set out "to make the best" of things and took the canoe for a paddle to explore the shoreline out around the point at Bonnet Island and into China Cove on a very still, foggy day. They had been gone quite a while when I grabbed a camera and a book and headed down to a chair at the shore. I wanted to get an image of them as they paddled back.

The fog had been rolling in and out all day, never really clearing and sometimes obscuring nearly everything. Half an hour passed when I started to hear voices off in the distance and they slowly came into view around the point. I listened without being able to make out the words, knowing they were enjoying the time together. I picked up the camera and began to make some images of them off in the distance, crossing the mouth of the bay, just open foggy Lake Huron waters in the background.

Something in me stirs when I watch my sons enjoying time together.

together

 DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-08-18

... one bazillion and one, one bazillion and two, one bazillion and ...

On a cool summer evening, Lynn, Jordan and I built a shoreside campfire. For the first while we sat and listened to the crackle of some free cedar kindling, kindly provided by a neighbour. We watched as smoke drifted up and out over the bay until the main wood caught.

Sun had dipped below the horizon when Jordan picked up his acoustic guitar and began to play. First, his own composition, a piece he is working on for me. I intend to use a recording of it as background music for a yet to be created slide show of my fine art images, and perhaps even a studio open house at some point. I love listening to J play anytime, and it's something else when it's beside a campfire.

Lynn was leaning back in one of the "Bruce Chairs" (others might call them Muskoka or Adirondack chairs, but to me they are my "Bruce Chairs"), pointing out the stars as they made their nightly appearance. One, two, three ...

Soon the sky was full of stars, planets, satellites and a few meteors .... and ohhhhh that MIlky Way.

cosmic canvas I

cosmic canvas II

cosmic canvas III

Forget counting ! It turned out to be a wonderful night for watching stars, and for photographing the Milky Way.

DJE  

Photo of the Week 2014-08-11

As a photographic exercise, I spent a couple of hours or more early Sunday morning along the shoreline immediately in front of our cottage. I was simply looking around, capturing the light from the rising sun as it washed over the landscape.

Sometimes I sat, sometimes I stood, sometimes I knelt, just taking it all in and getting different points of view. At first the air was still and carried only the sounds of gulls and terns. Then the rumble of a large passing sailboat, under power, headed out on Lake Huron off Cape Hurd. Gradually the sounds of neighbouring cottagers rising to begin their day could be heard travelling over the still water of the bay, a door closing here, voices over there. This was the background music as my eyes continued to sweep over the terrain, picking out details like grass glistening with dew in the low angle of sunlight, reflections on still water, shadows on the textured rock.

I lost myself and lost track of time for a while. How wonderful. What a way to start my day. There are images to be found in any scene, just let yourself get lost in the process. 

the ground at my feet
morning, in the light of rising sun, near water's edge

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-08-04

Sunset, Moonrise, One Milky Way, Three Meteors and a Bazillion Stars !

There are techniques that can be used to make the Milky Way more prominent in night sky photographs but for my first attempt I chose an approach that would convey a more realistic presentation of what my eyes saw on a clear night, from the shore at our cottage on Hay Bay.

The Bruce Peninsula is a Dark Sky Preserve and I've been meaning to take advantage of my time there to make night sky images. The challenge is that I like morning light, I mean really early morning light, and in order to photograph then it requires that I'm out f bed and heading to a location before or close to sunrise ... 6:00am and earlier these days. With my body's alarm clock set for early rise it's difficult to get past 10:00 pm and I'd definitely need to do that if I was going to capture the Milky Way in the night sky. This required a mid day nap, and what better to do on the August long weekend at the cottage than grab an hour or so in the afternoon for just that.

So in the evening, well rested, armed with a shore-side fire and coffee complete with hooch, I waited until the sun went down ...

  
                                                                                                          and the moon went up ...

 



 ... then the stars came out !

Milky Way 2014-08-01

DJE