Tag Archives: Northern Ontario

Photography

Sailors Warning

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My last morning at Pukaskaw National Park I slept in by a half hour. Crawling out of my sleeping bag and grabbing my camera gear, I quickly headed towards Hattie Cove. I was greeted by a spectacular color display in the morning light. The sky and clouds were brilliantly colored. I setup my tripod and camera and captured the above scene. This type of view is ever changing. It is a matter of watching the changing lighting. It is a matter of taking a number of shots. You are looking for that optimal composition.

I proceeded to do some research on the subject and came up with theses facts. A red sky in the morning , sailor’s warning. Most times weather moves West to East, blown by the westerly trades wind. Meaning that storm systems generally move in from the West. The colorful sky that can be observed at dawn and dusk are caused by the sun’s rays been split into the colors of the spectrum as they pass through the atmosphere and bounce off the water vapor and particles in the atmosphere.

I will be up at Pukaskaw National Park next week for a week of photographing. So until next time happy trails

Photography

The River Flows

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The idea of this composition is to show the beautiful rock texture and the color of the water. With that in mind I have my flow in with the waterfalls in background. Flow out of the water at the bottom right corner of the composition. The tripod was set low to eliminate some water in the upper pool. On the left of the composition the rock in foreground gives added depth. I experimented with various shutter speeds to obtain character in the water. The water here is a wonderful turquoise blue. There is just enough green to give a final touch. There is also a little wildflower growing on the rock in the foreground. This location was in the Wolf Lake area North of Kukagami Lake region.

That is it for now. Thank you for stopping by. Until next time happy trails

Photography

An Evening in Paradise

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Tuesday afternoon I had decided to go back up by Wolf Lake to where I had photographed in June. The location was the series of waterfalls at Lagoon Paradise. By now the water levels will have dropped exposing the colorful rocks that were underwater. I picked up Gerard Leduc mid afternoon and we were soon on our way. We stopped at Tim Horton’s to pick up our coffee and then we headed East on Highway 17. It was a nice sunny day with a slight breeze. Just great to be out. It was not long before we turned off onto the Kukagami Road. We were now traveling on gravel roads. As we approached the Y, I turned left onto the Matagamasi Road. We drove past Bassfin Lake heading North.

It was an uneventful trip to our destination, but always some nice scenery to observe. We were soon at the drop off point and I parked the Ford Escape. Gerard and I loaded up our camera gear and started hiking up the logging  road. Picking up the trail off the road, the sound of  running water soon reached our ears. The humidity appeared to be high here among the trees and both of us were sweating. It is a fifteen minute walk to the waterfalls. We arrived at the water’s edge and found a good place to sit by the upper pool. Gerard and I ate our sandwiches while we waited for the sun to drop lower. Just being here observing the scene around us was a pleasure. I always enjoy the sound of running water.

There was some heavy cloud cover overhead that hid the sun for brief periods. I set up my tripod and 7d to capture the scene you see above. I now had a chance to try out my new 70 to 200 f4 Canon L series lens. It allowed me to get a better and tighter composition than my Canon 24 to 135 zoom would do. Especially for this particular photo. I loved the color of the rocks in this scene. Also I fell in love with the fern in the upper right hand corner. It is these little attentions to detail that can make or break a good composition. You also get a wide variety of earth  colors. I using a faster shutter speed I was able to get some very unique patterns in the water. It was then just a matter of waiting for the sun to hid behind a cloud to start shooting.

Suddenly the quiet was interrupted by a splash of water to my right. A young couple with their son and daughter had just arrived and were soon swimming in the pool. In conversation with the Father I learned that this was there first time here. They had learned about Paradise Lagoon from a guy on CBC Radio One talking about this location and the fact that it was located within the Greater City of Sudbury. I am also starting to see evidence of garbage in the form of water bottles and so forth. The price you pay for too many people finding these locations. Shortly afterwards five teenage boys showed up and were having a great time at the pool. This pretty much put an end to photographing for this evening. Also the fact that I had forgot to charge my batteries for the camera didn’t help.

While that is it for this week. Thank you for the comments and stopping by. Every one have a safe Civic Holiday long weekend. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

Unique Cloud

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Back in June when I was at Pukaskaskwa National Park, I spent an evening photographing sunsets and clouds. My equipment was set up on a viewing platform on the Manitou Miikana Trail, “The Spirit Trail”. As I was photographing one scene, I looked behind me and saw this unique cloud formation that had turned an unique orange color. I reversed the camera on my tripod, found some foreground and composed the above shot. Because I had to deal with wind I kept the foreground dark to avoid any blurriness and for your eye to view the sky.

Well that is it for this week. The Killarney Art Show was a fun filled weekend. Made a little money and met some wonderful people. So until next time, happy trails.

Photography

An Evening Reposed

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My last evening at Pukaskaw Provincial Park. I decided to check out the beach nearest the mouth of the Pic River. This beach is the largest near the campgrounds. The beach was covered with driftwood at the high water mark. As I traversed the beach looking for a photographic composition, moose tracks could be seen in the sand. They were old, as debris was filling the tracks. The sun was slowly setting, a nice breeze was wafting in from the Lake Superior. Half way down the lake there was a rock outcropping all by itself at the edge of the beach. In the background was an island.

I set up my tripod low so that I could eliminate as much of the water surface between the rock outcrop in the foreground  and the the far island. There is a bit of color in the late evening sky. But nothing dramatic. There is a stark contrast between the black of the volcanic rock and the bold colors of the lichen that forms on theses rocks. Add a couple little plants to the recipe to create this composition. This location is worth a few more trips to photograph.

Well that is it for now. The 36th La Cloche Art Show is now in full swing. It runs till Sunday July 14th from 11 a.m. – to 5:00 p.m.

Two of my works is on display there.

Thank you everyone for stopping by for a visit. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

Isle In The Mist

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My wife Maureen and I returned last Friday from a week at Pukaskwa National Park. This has been a dream trip for me with late morning breakfasts and late evening suppers. The week soared by very quickly as I explored and photographed. Believe it or not I have barely covered this vast wilderness. To be sure there are many more trips to this wonderful park. Maureen and I will be returning in August.

Lake Superior is a vast inland lake. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world with 10% of the world’s surface fresh water. This is a land of rugged shorelines, ancient landscape of the Canadian Shield. This is a lake that one has to respect. From its cold waters, sudden storms and heavy fog you can create beautiful compositions. To sit up on a hill and just observe the magnitude of this landscape is something to behold. With bold sky s, rolling hills and rugged shorelines interspersed with many islands. The wind blows cold. This is a living  inland sea.

Maureen and I met wonderful folks here. From John and Garth who are the hosts at the park, to the individual people who work here and share their passion  for the park. If an opportunity ever comes to visit Pukaskwa National Park be sure  to stop by of an evening to chat with John and Garth at their campfire. They are very knowledgeable about the park.

The above photo was the result of a fog that rolled in about mid afternoon. This is something that happens fairly often. This makes for some very interesting photography. At times you can see nothing and then the fog recedes to allow you to capture the scene as you like. I was standing on the platform at the Manito Miikana Trail looking towards the South when I created this composition.

I will go into more detail on this wonderful park in the future. Its history as well as geological and vegetation facts. Well that is it for now. I have a lot of digital files to go through and process. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

An Evening at Bassfin Lake

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On Tuesday I drove up the Matagamasi Road for a late evening shoot at Bassfin Lake. This lake is easily accessible from the road, making it ideal for photographing. Bassfin Lake has a variety of islands to work with. The shorelines have some interesting rock structures to work with. This is also a lake to capture some interesting sunsets. What I am always after is rock structures and trees.

Upon arrival there was a bit of wind blowing. As the sun lowered to the horizon the wind started to abate. With the sun almost at the horizon point I captured the above scene that was a point of land jutting into the lake. The sun was filtering through the scattering of evergreens to create some very interesting light patterns. This is the type of lighting that can turn an ordinary scene into a thing of beauty. The water in the foreground is kept to a minimal. The rock on the shoreline gives depth and added contrast to the scene. This is Northern Ontario. As the sun went down the misquotes came swarming  around me. I had to step back from my camera in hopes of keeping them from messing up my photos. If there are too many in front of the lens, you will end up with  blurry spots in the composition. Another issue at the moment is pine pollen. This stuff is everywhere. In the water, in the air and on land. Whichever way the wind is blowing you will see the yellowish green pollen along the shoreline.

The 36th Annual La Cloche Art Show is coming up. For more info on submissions and dates check here.

http://laclocheartshow.wordpress.com/

Well that is it for this week. Thank you for stopping by. Until next week happy trails

Photography

A Magical Pool

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The past Saturday morning dawned cloudy with mist. I drove into Jan Winther’s driveway around 7:30. We loaded up our gear. First stop was Tim Horton’s to grab some coffee. Our goal was to travel up the Matagamasi Road to explore for photographic possibilities. We headed out of Sudbury travelling East on Hwy 17. In a short time we turned onto the Kukagami Road and headed North. It was not long before we reached the Matagamasi Road turnoff. The gravel road was in good condition.

As we traveled, Jan and I scouted out the various lakes we passed along the road. There were a number of locations that were worth while to come back to. As we drove further North the country became more and more hilly. It is very heavily forested here. There is also logging in progress up here. Being the week-end I had no worries about logging trucks. They do not operate on week-ends. We soon left the lakeside homes and were now traveling in wilderness areas. As we drove along a moose appeared in front of us. It ambled up the road and disappeared back into the bush.

Our goal for this trip was to locate a series of waterfalls further North. Paul Smith set me up for the location. We were now in the Wolf Mountain, Wolf Lake. This area contains the largest expanse of old growth Red Pine. This wilderness area is in pristine country. It has protected status. I will be journeying up to Wolf Lake in the near future. For now  I will look for the waterfalls location. Using both map and GPS, Jan and I soon found our jump off point. As we loaded up our camera gear it started to rain. Hiking up an old logging road, the rain continuing to fall, we were soon drenched. Walking down the road, a marshy area came into view. This part of the road was totally flooded. Checking my GPS we discovered that we were now off course. Backtracking on the road, we soon discovered a trail heading in the direction we wanted to go. It was soon discovered that this was a well used trail. As we approached the waterway the sound of running water came to our ears.

Upon arrival we were enthralled by the beauty of this series of small waterfalls nestled among the rocks. The water was crystal clear. The rocks were colorful. The water flow was quite fast now. By now we were water logged from the rain. As a matter of fact it was now coming down harder. We elected to head back to the vehicle and have lunch. I tell you the mosquito population is quite heavy up here. Just before we arrived back at the Ford Escape the Heavens opened more and the rain was now deluging everything.   There was water running everywhere and puddles were there was none before. About an hour and a half later the rain stopped. I headed back to the waterfalls and Jan elected to stay in the vehicle.

This is a very magical location. The photo above is of the upper pool. There is just a hint of a waterfalls cascading down through the rocks into a crystal clear pool of water. I used rocks for the foreground to enclose the pool. The boughs of the cedars are very lacy looking here. A hint of color by the red fallen pine needles on the rocks. Using this effect I hope to create that magical effect in a very special locale. You could close your eyes and hear elves and children of the woods splashing in the pool. These are locations were you can tune out the world. You hear the sound of water tumbling along. The quiet whisper of the wind in the cedars. There is no better place to be.

While that is  it for now. Thank you for stopping by. I hope that I have created a magical moment for you. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

When The Hills Light Up

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A hot Spring day. Time to head for the hills. I loaded up my camera gear and fishing equipment into my Ford Escape. It was late afternoon when I headed North of Capreol. I retraced my route from last week . I drove up to the North River where I crossed over and continued North. Three times I had to pull over to allow logging trucks to pass by. They have the right of way. The gravel roads up here are narrow.

On my first trip up here I had spotted a nice piece of rock face up in the hills. Great lighting on the trees and a unique rock face with character. I figured that I would stop here    in the evening on the way back and photograph the scene. The hill had lost its uniqueness by evening due to there being no lighting on the trees. This location has just been logged over. Thus exposing the rock face from the road. When I arrived late afternoon yesterday, the lighting was wonderful. I hiked up an exposed ridge to get a clear view of my subject. The wind was quite strong and gusting. I bumped my iso up to 400. This allowed for a shutter speed of 250 to stop the wind movement. The clouds were moving fairly quickly so it was a matter of watching the lighting and waiting for some decent clouds to pass by in a nice blue sky.

Finishing up I headed further North. There were a couple of lads standing by some forestry equipment so I stopped for a bit of conversation. Always nice to talk to people up here as you can pick up useful information on the area you are travelling in. Moving on I reached the 45 km mark and parked by the river. Time for supper. I set up my chair and cooler at the edge of the river in the shade of a clump of trees. It is so nice to do this. With the sound of the river flowing by. A nice wind to keep you cool. Very few blackflies to annoy you. Even the smell is good. Finishing my supper I retrieved my fishing gear and proceeded to make a few casts. It was still too early to catch any Walleye. But a good way to pass some time waiting for evening to approach.

Well that is it for this week. Thank you for stopping by. Until next time happy trails

Photography

The Lonely Pine

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I traveled North of Capreol last Friday. This time I traveled on a different road going North. Beautiful sunny day but a cool North wind. I found a couple locations that could provide a composition. But it was not to be this day. The wind never let up into the evening. I will return at another date.

The above photo was taken on the previous trip North of Capreol. Jan Winthers and I were heading back to Capreol late in the evening  when we saw this nice piece of rock outcropping located on the far shoreline of a small swampy lake alongside of the road. There was a small pine tree located on the rock face that looked interesting. The quartz like rock face had many angles to it which creates  that unique depth. There are reddish colored pine needles trapped in the crevices to add more color. Now the trick here is to separated this single pine tree from the trees in the background. There is some lighting from the sun on some of the boughs that allows this little tree to stand out. I shot the composition vertical to complement the trunk of the pine tree. Also this kept things tight and not too busy.

There is a call for entries at the upcoming La Cloche Art Show. Check there website here.

http://laclocheartshow.wordpress.com/

Well that is it for now. Thank you for stopping by. Until next time happy trails.