When You've Got The Blues

"Quiet Dusk"

Dusk. Things quiet down. Bird song is amplified. Music carries from the distant pier. The water barely moves. We walk the trail by the local marina and here and there a couple sits on benches overlooking the restful scenery, letting the calm do the talking. I let it call to my camera on this particular night.

Why haven't I used this wonderful low light more often?

We see in colour, we see in black & white, but I have struggled with seeing in 'blues' I'll confess. There are only subtle, gradual changes from highlight to shadow. From one tone to another to distinguish shape and line. If anything, the blues of dusk cause me to really pay attention to the light, where it plays, where it disappears, what and how it illuminates and not as much on good composition to also carry a story.

When you've got the blues that come with dusk's final light, you are forced to sacrifice blatant contrast for more subtle details, in order to preserve mood and perception. And in processing, you have personal considerations galore. Do I remain true to the colour cast? Do I only accentuate the light skimming over the objects in the foreground? Across the water?

I decide it's not necessary to see every bold detail on the boats, we know they are there and that's enough for the image. I decide I love how the light grew intense near the sun's connection to the horizon and keep that intensity. I keep the composition consistent with the lily pads mimicking the clouds above.

When all is said and done, how lovely and quiet the evening was comes rushing back to me. You'll all see something different, which is just as wonderful. It's what I love about the arts period.

Have a great week, and thanks for this ramble in the dusk.

Reflections ~ Exploration Thursday

"Reflections" EPPC #3

Was working on the upcoming challenge for the Epic Personal Photo Challenge group's next theme "Friends" when I realised I hadn't posted my last EPPC image for the theme "Reflections".

I had done a similar image years before but hadn't worked with lighting at that point and wanted a new take on it. And the three reflections happening in the image.... were all there before I started processing. In camera.

Now a magician usually doesn't reveal their secrets, but it was just so darn fun to set up and photograph that I'll tell you how to at least get the glass to flip that dual background I set up with white and red seamless.

Water inside anything clear eventually flips whatever is reflected behind it if you pull the glass far enough away from the object behind, in this case the overlapped seamless. In fact, the more objects you have, the better the illusion as seen in my first example done about four years ago.

Give this a try! There's a ton of ways this could be used in a photo... get your creativity on! And by all means, please join us at the EPPC on Facebook if you'd like to follow along with our themes and join in. We've already more than twenty group members and growing steadily.

Thanks for the ramble gang! See you here tomorrow!

Critical Mass ~ Mono Monday

"Sky Inside Out"

It's a simple thing. But a necessary ingredient for photography. It's defined differently by everyone, and can change depending on the situation. Hopefully it's more of a conscious decision towards having it in a photo, than an unconscious one, but either way, when it's there... you know it.

I'm talking about impact. And photographs without it generally get lost in the shuffle. And it starts when you're out with the camera. I've been out with photographers on walks often and there's two kinds of photographers, or so it feels like. There's the photographer who only raises their camera when a scene or subject really strikes them as interesting or beautiful or dramatic or informative... and later they post them and the impact carries over to the viewer. And I've also seen photographers who simply shoot anything within range and then say, "that might look good in the computer later. Guess we'll see!"

Tell me that's not you. At least not all the time.

Impact. You find it everywhere but it's up to you how to make the most of it. Great shapes could provide it. Great light. Great lines. A cool perspective. An unexpected moment on a street corner, a burst of isolated color... the sky's the limit. But I don't know if we approach our photography this way enough.

And rarely can you create the impact needed later in photoshop if it's lacking somewhere in the image to begin with. I cringe when I hear new photographers decide that instead of honing their camera skills or compositional skills, that what MUST be lacking is more photoshop. I'm sorry, but processing is there to enhance what you already have. And if what you have isn't cutting it already, no amount of digital darkroom is going to make it fabulous. You can't enhance what isn't there. But on the flip side, if you have a great photograph be careful you don't lessen the impact it has by not processing an image carefully so as to preserve it either. It's a balancing act you learn over time. Add personal vision and you have the makings of a pretty great photograph if you make all your choices intentional ones.

Time to make a conscious decision to use impact as one of the first tools of the craft. Keep it foremost in your mind along with finding great light... and then have fun!

Thanks for the mini rant/ramble... have a fantastic week friends!

Invitation to Imagine ~ Exploration Thursday!

"The Dreamer's Forrest"

I have been waiting to post this image for about a week now, and will be delighted to know what your reaction is. It's been quite sometime since I've been able to stretch my abstract skills while out on a countryside photo jaunt, and I was anxious to process this image most out of my last outing's results.

I know most people find it difficult to interpret how they feel about abstract art or photography. Most see a bunch of shapes or colors or concepts that require some mysterious code to unlock their importance. But really, an abstract piece is simply a photographer's invitation to unleash your imagination for a bit, and allow yourself to step away from the practical. And it's inspired (at least for me) by something very real that caught my eye and seemed magical somehow. And then I simply strive to share my interpretation of that object or scene with all of you. Take a moment and decide what you might be looking at in the image above, before we continue.

What I love about abstract images is that the underlying significance of the whole piece can simply be how light was reflecting off a tree, or how a close-up of a leaf out of context can look like a miniature landscape, or how a piece of rust can look prehistoric in a macro lens. It just begs you to put aside how you label what you see, and look for new possibilities. I find that exciting. For it seems like the imagination is rarely called upon during the daily grind, and  even the imagination can get rusty from lack of use.

The image above (which you know you can click on to enlarge) was the result of noticing the calm water along the shore before the St.Jacobs dam rushed along the river bed... and I began to look for interesting subjects in the shade since the sun was mighty strong that afternoon. I zoomed in on the reflection of a Poplar tree several feet away, rising up through a tangle of brambles and over the water. With my circular polarizer on the zoom, I was able to cut the reflection enough to see the form and color of the tree. I thought it looked like what a scene in a dream would look like if someone could step into it for a moment. You can see the odd ripple, and some blur, and it requires the viewer to determine if it was in the lens or if I processed it to look specifically like a reflection to begin with.

It's just a reflection. I did some minor brightening to allow the dark details to be a bit more visible. That was it.

It's a call to use your imagination folks. Don't make abstracts so complicated you can't enjoy them. It takes creativity to first capture it, and then the viewers ingenuity to really see and absorb.

Thanks for the interpretive ramble! Have a super day gang!

Being Thankful

"Place For Reflection"

Here in Canada we're getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. So I've relaxed my Floral Friday routine in order to post a photo from my photo jaunt last Wednesday... and to say thank you.

Thank you for reading my little blog as often as I post to it.

Thank you for sending me your encouraging emails, your great comments, and for many of you, your long distance support. If my google stats are correct, thank you for reading from places like the U.K, India, Texas, and for that one person in the Congo... I'm happy to have my photographic ramblings entertain you every week.

To my mentors, and my friends on a quest to express life through their own photographic vision... thank you for involving yourselves in my personal journey. You guys keep me extremely inspired. And grounded. I've been very grateful. I hope I show it often enough.

To my friends... thank you for putting up with my obsession and encouraging it to continue. You're all extremely fabulous :) And thank you for pulling me away from my desk and computer often enough to remember that life still has room for fun no matter what project is looming.

To my sweet family, immediate and extended. My cheer leading section, and my very constant support. I'm grateful for how often you humour me when the lens is stuck in your face, or when I have to be out shooting at all hours, in all weather, in inconvenient locations. For when I'm cranky after my shoot disappoints. Or when I have to do taxes... in the middle of the dining room... while you wait for supper... to arrive in take-out form... again.

And finally, to my Lord and Savior, who is continually doing a new work in me personally, which as a result flows into my photography and business. And has been the source of my obsession with the beauty and design He established for us to enjoy.

Just the very tip top of the list of thankfulness for me.

Thanks for letting me post it for all to see today, and have a terrific long weekend everyone.

Exploration Thursday!

"In the Square"

Something fun for today. A bit of city life inside the glass front of an office building in London to be exact. Where I wandered around for a day on my own, riding the tubes (wee! love the underground) and trying not to get so lost that I'd miss my flight. The next morning. But that's another story.

I love reflections. As if you can't tell. This one is more fun than most because of the way the building is constructed. It is a massive compilation of angles and rectangles jutting out in intervals all the way up the building. And it sits in a corner. So this shot gives you views down two different street corners. The obvious being the scene that includes the bus and another tourist photographing something across from a cathedral. The other view being a glimpse of the newer office buildings across from it all, blue against the sky. A sort of contrast, and yet very complimentary. And the image serves as a great reminder of that wonderful day out.

I wandered the whole area. And I did find my way back to the hotel. And I did make my flight that morning. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Have I told you about the time before that, when I lost my passport?

Maybe next time.

Have a great day folks, and thanks for the ramble.



Colorful Reflections ~ Telephoto Tuesday!

"Birch on Big Yurkie Lake"

( 1/6 sec @ F/18, ISO 100, 200mm fl, 55-200 mm Nikkor Telephoto zoom, overcast late
day, pattern metering, tripod, remote shutter release)

Last week I did a post about a reflection at an intersection, this week I thought I'd post about a natural reflection I photographed not that long ago, up near the Madawaskas area this past fall. I'll come right out and say... this is not a pristine image, it's not technically flawless by any means, but I love it for it's symmetry, colors, and the memories it brings back of that road trip. Well, some of them, as I ended up being sick as a dog this particular day. But I couldn't let that stop me, I had one chance to photograph  this beautiful lake. We were photographing all day, all the way home starting from the Ottawa Valley... a 6 hour drive I managed to lengthen to 11. And Big Yurkie Lake was on the way. It was a goal of mine to spend quite some time there, it's only entrance a jog at the side of the rural highway. Then you walked in. And you didn't know where to start pointing your camera!

I had my sights set on Big Yurkie because two years before I had gotten some quick shots of it while on the road with my family, but quick shots were all they were and I regretted not taking more time. You're forced to walk along the very narrow shoreline the entire time, and I hadn't used a tripod. And Big Yurkie always seems to be overcast, with dark, dark shores across the water, not a soul in sight, and usually within a half an hour it begins to lightly rain. Makes for a very mysterious spot.

This shot is from the opposite side of the lake, far enough away that I had to stand on an outcropping as far as I could safely go with my camera and tripod, and zoom in to the fullest focal length my telephoto lens would give me, 200mm. I turned off the lens' Vibration Reduction mode since I was using the tripod and remote shutter release, as this causes the lens to fight against the anchoring a tripod gives. There was such a dark sky that I used a long exposure to get enough light and the tripod was a must. Because of a slight breeze on the water, the trees are slightly blurred, giving a soft effect that I would have preferred more crisp at the time, but have come to terms with now. And the one thing that stood out, helping to divide the composition where reflections and nature met was a floating remnant of birch tree.

Shortly after this shot, true to form, it began a light rain, and so we went back to the car as I didn't need to be more sick than I already was. But I was happy... I'd caught a true representation of the moody Big Yurkie, beautiful and untouched. And that's what mattered.

I excited to share another image with you all today... this one comes from a good friend and someone I consider a mentor. After the post last week of the city reflection, he sent me his own reflection taken with a telephoto, in Boston and it's another perfect example of seeing a select composition within the enormity of the city. I particularly like the warm brick reflected back in the scene, the great contrasting lines, and the bit of tree coming into the frame adding to the perspective. Brilliant.


Thanks Dave Pratt for allowing me to post your wonderful image, and if any else has been following the different themes throughout the week and you'd like to send me your photograph to add to my next blog, give me a shout in the comments below and I will send you my email address pronto! Thanks for letting me ramble on folks, and have a fabulous day!