The joy of being streamside
The music of running water
The sunlight filtering through
The cedar trees
A fallen cedar tree beckons
A place of peace and solitude
Tag Archives: sunlight
Entrance to Killarney Lake
Late evening.
Killarney Lake
Killarney Provincial Park
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Storm Appoaching
St Mary’s Lake, BC. I was set up photographing St Mary’s Lake from the side of the mountain. The lighting began to change dramatically to my left. The sky was darkening. There was more shadows appearing. You can see the rain approaching through the valley on the left. But still some sunlight breaking through the clouds. The mountain side became awash with light.
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When I am walking with Trees
Painting by Pierre AJ Sabourin En Plein Air Landscape Artists
Thank you Pierre for use of your painting. It inspired this poem
When I’m walking with Trees
A forgotten path beckons
Through an ancient forest
Covered in lichen and moss
When I’m walking with trees
My body is relaxing
My energy is flowing
My soul becomes of the forest
As I listen, to the forest sounds
The air is calm
The morning sunlight filtering
On the forest floor dancing
When I’m walking with trees
When I’m walking with trees
My body is relaxing
My energy is flowing
The path twists and turns
Over time worn rock
I have this feeling
Being watched from above
A light appears ahead
As closer I walk
The light it intensifies
Then before my eyes, fading
I hear a song
As I walk along
It is the trees whispering
A hush voice singing
A gentle caress upon my cheek
It is the morning breeze
Cool and fresh, a lover’s touch
When I’m walking with trees
When I’m walking with trees
My body is relaxing
My energy is flowing
The trees appear to nod
As I pass by
The air is clear
The sounds I hear
The brush of a branch
Gently upon my shoulder
It has been awhile
For now I smile
Ken Bennison
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Magic Of Light
A cafe in hand
A chair beckons
A mountainous view
Off to the east
Darkening in the coming
Of the night
A refreshing cool breeze
Dispersing the day’s heat
The parrots have returned
To where ever they roost
The white plumed garza
Long since gone
The sky dark and threatening
Clouds a somber grey
A beam of light
Emerging from the clouds
To cast a golden ray
In a moment of glory
Over a rounded hill
As the clouds roll on
The light slowly fades
Darkness descends once again
While I sip my cafe
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Black Spruce
There is a small lake in Superior Provincial Park alongside Highway 17. It is named Moose Lake. There is a clump of skeletal Black Spruce that caught my eye. I first saw this set up in 2013. We were always passing by at the wrong time. Bad lighting. This year Maureen and I spent 5 days at Superior Provincial Park in late August.
What attracts me to this scene. The Black Spruce. As the sun lowers in the sky, the grayish color of the dead Spruce becomes more intense. The grey color stands out in a sea of green. The channel leading back to these skeletal trees gives me a lead in. An added bonus is that the late evening sun was highlighting the hill in the background. This in turn created a golden reflection in the foreground. Now I did not want to show to much of this golden reflection. Therefore I kept it tight. Doing this allowed for more lead in to the Black Spruce. Showing too much of this colorful reflecting would lead to a distraction. For depth we have four layers here. The shoreline, Black Spruce, The evergreens behind and then the sunlit hill in back.
You may ask me if I knew that the hills would light up. The answer would be no. But I have also seen this many times . I had set my composition in the camera on the tripod. Taken a few shots. Then low and behold the hills lit up. I quickly started shooting and shortly the lighting was gone. Be there. That is all I can tell you. The Black Spruce always adds drama to your work. You can not miss them when they are in the dead form.
Another week has gone by, so until next time happy trails
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The Nature of Light
This photo was taken on a small creek that runs out of Johnny Lake in Killarney Provincial Park. My partner, Paul Smith and I were exploring along the creek. As we made our way through wooded growth to the shoreline , I suddenly noticed the strong glow of lighting on the grasses and trees. Now there was cloud cover moving overhead rather quickly. This meant the sunlight came and went. It was late afternoon so the angle of light was right. Moving quickly I set up my tripod and Canon 7D at the creeks edge. Due to the large amount of green and yellow I kept the reflections to a minimum. The dead wood broke up the mass of green on the right. There is shadow in the background and the creek takes a bend. It was a matter of waiting for the sun to pop out from behind the moving clouds. This photo shows you what the right lighting can do to your composition. Normally this would be just an ordinary shot.
Well that is it for this week. I thank you all who came for a visit. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone and there families a Merry Christmas, especially the little ones. The campfire is beckoning and the tea is ready. So until next time happy trails
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Bog Island
I discovered this little bog island at the far end of a small shallow lake a few years ago. It is located up the Westbranch behind Webbwood Ontario. I fell in love with the potential of a composition that could be had here. This little island had character. From the shape of the vegetation; some deadheads and a clump of small evergreens. The main problem here was to be able to separate the island from the background. The lake is nestled amongst Spruce trees so everything would blend in. You would then get a bland photo.
With that in mind I needed good lighting. Luckily, were I was able to set up my tripod and Canon EOS 7d the shoreline sloped upwards. This allowed me to get some separation from the far shoreline. This shot worked best in November. The sun is low to the horizon. The vegetation on the island turns a orange, red color. That helps relieve a lot of green. Now the trick is to get the right lighting. You have to have that island stand out from the background. That is very important. I made many trips to this location until I got it right. Early morning did not create the required lighting.
Finally it all came together. It was a beautiful sunny November afternoon. It was 3:30 Pm. The sunlight lit the island up like a torch. The light was coming from the left which was good. I was now getting sun flares in my lens. I used my hat to block the sun flares and shot the above photo. What also helps this composition is the lighting in the background. You can see individual branches being lit up. This is what turns an ordinary photo into a dramatic composition. Lighting.
The above photo was accepted at the 119th Toronto International Salon of Photography.
Well I will close for now. So until next time happy trails.
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Sunlit Grass
Jan Winther and I were walking the shoreline of a small lake up the Westbranch.It was mid-morning.The wind was calm with mist rolling off the shores of this lake.Now this is a lake that is pretty much down in a hollow.The Tamarack trees are now bare.The lakes this far North are surrounded mostly by evergreens.
We are now into November,the days are shorter and cooler.The sun travels at a lower elevation now.This means the sunlight takes longer to penetrate through the trees on the hillsides during early morning.With that in mind,just close your eyes and envision a scene of a small lake in the Boreal Forest.The evergreens hug the shoreline.The sunlight is penetrating through the trees on the East side were the trees cascade down the hillside to the lake.There is mist covering the lake’s surface.There is no wind.The surrounding landscape is reflecting on the surface.This is a scene that I come across many times in my travels.To be there is a joy and to be able to photograph these scenes is a blessing.
With all that said Jan and I both turned and saw the sunlight highlighting the clump of grass protruding from the lake edge.There was mist moving slowly from the shore.The background was in shadow as the sun has not penetrated that area yet.I waded slowly out into the water.I wanted to make as little disturbance as possible for the scene was only ten feet from me.The tripod and Canon 7d was set up.I composed my shot,then waited for the water to calm down again and took my shot. I intentionally kept the background dark to keep the focus on the sunlit grass and mist.
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The Extremist
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.
Ken Bennison's Photography 