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Photography

Morning on The Manitou

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The Manitou River starts its journey at the South end of Lake Manitou on Manitoulin Island,Ontario.Manitoulin Island is the largest fresh water island in the world.The Manitou River is approximately 15 km long,The river ends at Michaels Bay on the South side of Manitoulin Island into Lake Huron.I had previously explored the Manitou River the evening before.I had determined that the best shot was to be had in the early morning.

Paul Smith and I arrived on location before daybreak and set up our photo equipment.It was a great morning.This portion of the river forms a S shape.With that in mind I placed the cedar tree at the top of the photo for depth.The sun actually lit up this tree first.The real bonus was when he morning light highlighted the clump of grass on the shore giving off a yelow orange effect plus a bit of reflection.You never know what you will get at times.There was mist on the river that morning.As time progressed a beam of light started on the right hand side of the photo.As I waited the beam of light slowly made its way to the left.The composition was slowly coming togrther.The last piece of the composition occured when the water turned golden in the foreground.After that happened the highlights on the water got too harsh.Now I took approximately 40 shots of this location.I used the second last shot to get the composition you see above.

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

Photography

Daybreak on the French

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This photo dates back to last August. I was blessed with two mornings in a row of some exceptional lighting and atmosphere.The location was the French River at the Flat Rapids Campsite in The French River Provincial Park. The early morning sunlight started to filter through the trees on the point.This gave a beautiful glow in that area.Mist in the background,calm waters and colour in the sky on the left. The rock detail in the foreground is very detailed.

I was able to set my Canon 7D and tripod on a bit of slope to give me elevation and create more space between the two points.One thing I will point out is that being out on location time and time again is how you will get these kind of shots.Also take lots of shots.

I received a 10th place finish out of 455 entries at the Countryside Art Exhibition  last week.I am much pleased with the results.You can check the website here.

http://www.lightspacetime.com/countryside-art-exhibition-november-2012/

Those of you who like a challenge should enter these shows.Well that is it for now.Until next time happy trails.

Photography

A Beam of Light

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Jan Winther and I had arrived at our destination lake shortly after dawn. This jewel of a little lake is 80 km up on a gravel logging road.As you travel North you steady climb to a higher elevation.Which means at this time of year it is colder here than at home.We had been observing frost on the trees,but no ice on the lakes and swamps we passed.

After a five minute hike into where we were going to photograph,Jan and I set up our photographic equipment.There is a small island at one end of this little lake that we wanted to work with.I will talk about this island in another post.The lake surface was mirror calm,there was some mist and the air was crisp.The sun was just coming through the trees.

I am always watching around me at all times.The lighting is constantly changing dramatically or very supple.So be aware and you may rewarded with that award winning composition. Many times it is never the shot you came to get.The above scene is an example of that.I relocated to capture the beam of light coming over the water.I put the point on the left side as my lead in.There was just enough mist to create some mood.The real highlight of this photo is the sunlight filtering through the trees on the far shore.This is when it feels good to be a photographer capturing that moment of lighting.I had already made four trips here in the past two weeks to get the exposures I want.The only hang up I have with this photo is the blue tinge on the evergreen trunks.But that is the way it is so I leave it be.At this time of year the shoreline vegetation is a reddish brown in colour.This helps to offset the vast amounts of green due to the evergreens.

Well that is it for now.Thank you everyone for coming and visiting.So until next time happy trails.

Photography

The Extremist

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The Extremist.

I re-posted this article by friend Jan Winther with his permission.I must say that I am quite honoured to be wrote about.So thank you Jan.

My good friend Ken Bennison asked me to come with him on a trip up the West Branch this past weekend. But before I get to that, I should explain the title on this blog post. It came up as we were waiting for the light to be in the perfect spot, and for the wind to die down a bit.
Extremist is (what I learned on this trip)  more or less what his own family affectionately calls him, and it refers to the way he approaches his photography. There is a very good reason why Ken is an incredible artist/landscape photographer. He does what a lot of other people wont do. He gets up at an ungodly hour, drive,hike or canoe for hours, (obviously not at the same time, but most of the time he will have to do all three to get to his location of choice.) And when he gets there he will explore the area, figure out what he want to shot, and wait for the perfect conditions to happen. Ken is not afraid to wait for hours for his shot. He knows exactly what he wants in a picture, and if the conditions aren’t there, he wont even take the camera out of the bag, because he wont be able to use the shot anyway, so if he doesn’t get the shot, he will simply return to the same spot again and again until he gets the shot he has in his mind. And the results speaks for themselves. Check out his website. I should mention that Ken’s is shooting with a Canon 7D, one lens (28-135mm) and his trusty SLIK tripod. Yes, Ken only use one lens.

Anyway, so this past weekend we were up at the West branch north of Webbwood, Ontario. A place I haven’t been to in 2 years, so it was nice to go there again, and revisit some of the places I  have shot before. Examples of previous posts can be found here, here and here. We are about 80 km (~50 Miles) in the bush, driving on a gravel logging road. The weather was perfect. No wind, sunshine and frost in the air. After have shot at a couple of locations, we wound up at the little lake where I had taken the Moonshine shot a couple of years ago. All of a sudden the sunshine starts to come through the trees, and lights up some grasses in the lake. Being the extremist that Ken is, gets up and wades out into the shallow waters. Ankle deep in loon and beaver crap he sets up his tripod and starts to compose a shot. I thought this would be a good time to get a shot of him in action, so I took a few shots of him shooting this sunlit grass, with some mist in the background.

Photography

On The Hillside

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Jan Winthers and I continued driving up the Westbranch, looking for a photo opportunity we spotted a location that was interesting.The camera gear was quickly set up.It was approaching lunch time.The day was great and it was warming up.I composed a few shots and headed back to my Ford Explorer to pack the gear away.

I looked down the road and noticed the lighting on the evergreens.The branches of the Birches were sparkling.Taken note of the Birches beside me,they were not covered in frost.The hillside before me was beautiful.So,I rest up my Canon 7D and tripod and made the above shot.I did not want the gravel road in the scene.This shot is all about light and shadow.The dark evergreens contrasting with the Birch trees along with the sunlight highlighting the trees to a yellowish tinge.As many times you travel a location,it is always amazing the shots that are available for you to take.Whether it is the time of year,the lighting available or something you may not have noticed.Even the angle you look at a subject will give you a different perspective to the composition.At this time of year the sun is lower in the sky and the air is colder.Those two conditions will have an effect on your compositions.

Finishing up our shooting,it was time to find a campsite up the road and have lunch.A short way on, I pulled into a campsite under the Jack Pines.A small lake was across the road for our viewing pleasure.Before long I had water boiling in a pot on my Coleman camp stove.With our camp chairs set up,Jan and I enjoyed our lunch with a hot tea.

Well that s it for now.Thank you everyone for stopping by.The tea is still hot so until next time happy trails.

Photography

A Reflective View

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This past Saturday, myself and fellow photographer Jan Winters journeyed up the Westbranch,North of Webbwood. Our aim was to have a fun day as we travelled forestry roads looking for photographic opportunities, It started out cold,a chilly -5 C.The trees were frost covered.

On our way back down the Westbranch I had promised Jan we would stop at Gordon Chutes for him to photograph.Jan has a love for waterfalls,so this was a good chance for him to get some shooting in.It was now late evening and there was not much daylight available.I have photographed here many times.Whether for a day or just a quick stop in.The water level of the river was low.

As I was crossing the smooth rocks that are normally covered with flowing water I looked up at the rock face on the far side of the river.There was a beautiful glow from the setting sun.With not much time to spare,I did a quick set up to capture the scene before me.But as I looked ahead of me I noticed this beautiful reflection in a pool ahead of me.Wow this is really getting interesting.So now I re-aligned the camera and tripod to capture the reflection and the rock face.I also noticed that there was pink edged clouds moving in.I checked to see which direction the clouds were moving and waited.The clouds were coming towards me.Then it all came together.The result was the photo you see above.

It never seems to matter how many times you photographed a location,there is always a possibility for a shot. I have always liked that rock face but could could never do anything with it. Well low and behold it happened.The warm glow on the rocks did not last long.It was now getting darker and time to head home.It had been another lovely day in the backwoods.Jan enjoyed the experience.Jan has a great blog,so check it out here.

http://imagesbyjw.com/

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

Photography

Awash in Colour

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On my last trip into O S A Lake,Killarney Provincial Park the weather was cool,wet and windy.The above locations is one of my favourites for the structure of the La Cloche Mountains.This particular rock face had a necklace of Fall colours adorning it. It had stopped raining late that afternoon leaving the landscape wet and saturated.The cloud cover was heavy and grey.The sun had not come out yet.

I used the two points as my lead in, showing just a touch of reflections in the foreground.This should make my good friend Bill Whittaker smile in regards to water and reflections.This is an ongoing topic we have.Past the two points is more water.There is a pink tinge on the rocks that gives a unique feel to the composition. Two days later there was large areas bare of colour due to the weather.

I received an email that my artwork titled “Daybreak”  has been selected as an Honorable Mention of the 2012 Landscape Art Contest, an international juried art competition. Mywork will have a full page feature in Artist Portfolio Magazine Issue 10.

Bill Whittaker has a website you may like to check out.

http://billwhittaker.scarf.ca/

Well that is it for this week folks.Thanks for visiting and till next time happy trails.

Photography

Tamarack

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This is the time of year that the Tamarack are in their full Fall color before shedding.Tamarack are a species of Larch that is native to Canada.The name Tamarack is the Algonquian name for the species and means “wood used for snowshoes“.The leaves are needle like and turn bright yellow before falling in the Autumn.The Tamarack are commonly found in swamps, bogs, and other low-land areas.

Gerard Leduc arrived shortly after 7:00 A.M. and we were soon on our way to the Westbranch North of Webbwood in Northern Ontario. A quick stop for gas at the Espanola turn-off and a couple of Tim Horton‘s coffee to start the day,we were soon traveling up the Westbranch searching for Tamarack to photograph.There are lots of Tamarack to photograph but find a composition to work.

We stopped at Gordon Chutes at the 20 km mark and Gerard took a few shots of the waterfalls.The falls is part of the Wakanashing River.We continued North photographing as we went.At the 70 km area there are a few lakes to photograph by the road.The moose hunters were out in full force.That meant we had to wear orange jackets for protection.

Since the last rains the water levels of the various creeks had risen,but still not a normal levels.As we drove along we spotted a male Spruce Grouse doing his display.I pulled over so that we could observe this very pretty bird in all his glory.There must be a female nearby.A large creek was now running along the West side of the road.I spotted the Tamarack on the far creek bank. Pulling over Gerard and I set up the tripods and cameras to start photographing.It was a cloudy morning with the sun coming out now and then.I opted to do a close up shot of the bottom of the Tamarack and the resulting reflection to create my composition.There was a nice pattern to be had here.It was just a matter of waiting for the sun to pop out and light up the leaves,turning them a golden yellow.The sun would go back behind the moving clouds and one would wait once again for it to come out again.The thing is you do not want to much sunlight or you will blow out the highlights.

Well that is it for this time.Thank you for visiting and until next time happy trails

 

Photography

O S A Lake Part 3

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By now after a day and a half of rain,dampness along with cool temperatures the weather cleared up.It was now late Thursday afternoon.It is always interesting to watch the grey clouds moving past you and then you spot some blue sky.Within an hour the sky had cleared and the wind had switched to the West.Now it was just a matter of waiting for the evening light and hopefully the wind would calm down.O S A Lake is a large lake prone to windy conditions.I cooked up a meal of Uncle Ben’s rice and canned meat.A nice hot cup of tea to end the meal and we were ready to photograph.

Paul Smith and I had some decent photographing that evening,but you had to watch the wind.In the more open water the wind did not settle down.I captured the above scene on the South side of the island we camped on.I loved the rock structure the protruded out into the lake for its detail.I had photographed this same scene in June.But now I had Fall color and the water level was down considerably since June.Thus exposing more rock structure.There was an old length of a tree jutting into the lake.I put it into the bottom right of the picture.For once I had some decent cloud patterns.

At this time of year darkness comes early.Paul built up a fire and we enjoyed its warmth for a few hours.You could feel the air cooling down now and tomorrow we head home.Thank you everyone for your comments and coming for a visit.Until next time happy trails.

Photography

O S A Lake Fall 2012 Part 2

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Tuesday morning arrived to the sound of wind in the trees.This was a morning to sleep in.It was an uneventful day as we waited for the weather to change.On Wednesday morning we were able to put in some photographing time.As we paddled the shorelines I was looking for something different to work with.I particularly wanted to find some Fall colors  in among the evergreens.I was able to achieve that with the above composition.

Here you have a mix of orange,red and yellow for Fall colors nestled among the evergreens.When I first saw this I was straight on to the composition.By moving more to my left and setting up my Canon 7D on the tripod I feel I would give the scene a more 3D effect .The evergreens show various shades of green and there are shadows to create more depth.

I think that this photo printed on canvas as a gallery wrap in say a 24″x36″ size would look great on the wall.It will give you peace and harmony as you envision being on a far shoreline observing the scene before you.

Well that is it for this week.I will finish up the trip early next week.So until next time happy trails.