Natural landscapes: the artistry of rock and wood
TREE AND CANADIAN SHIELD ROCK, ARROWHEAD PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO
The spectacular Muskoka cottaging region in the Canadian province of Ontario is rife with amazing lakes and cottages. It also has provincial parks like Arrowhead, where my wife & I camped a few years ago. I was photographing a waterfall when I noticed the play of light on this tree trunk and how it contrasted with the cool blues of the rock in the shade. Made for a pretty cool composition, eh? 🙂
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: after the rain
MISTY MORNING, MONARCH WOODS, KITCHENER, ONTARIO
It was a damp, warm summer morning after significant rain and my wife & I were staying with her brother in this city in the southwestern part of the Canadian province of Ontario. I ventured out at sunrise to this little suburbia-surrounded forest and found a cornucopia of great scenes to photograph. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: the surprise of May snow
SPRING SNOW IN THE FOOTHILLS, SOUTH OF CALGARY, ALBERTA
In the Canadian Rocky Mountains – and their foothills on the eastern slopes in the province of Alberta – you just never know when snow will come. Even May can bring a surprise dump. This was early in the month, before the trees truly began to bud. The combination of snow and dramatic skies made for a very satisfying composition. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Wildlife: Enjoying the sun
SUNNING TURTLE, STANLEY PARK, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
One rock in the water of Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon had six of these turtles on it. That was a great photo subject. But this solitary turtle on a water-surrounded rock provided such a clean, simple composition that I like it even better. Lost Lagoon is a great place to see wildlife in Vancouver. On the day I made this picture, I also photographed mallard and wood ducks, a raccoon in a tree and a great blue heron.
Nikon D90, 70-300 mm. lens.
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Urban landscapes: a touch of morning light
DOWNTOWN TULIPS, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
I was doing modern architecture photography in the downtown core of this glorious western Canadian city when I encountered a little garden of tulips. Then light reflected off an office tower and provided photo opportunities like this. Who would have thought that some of my best flower pictures would come in the middle of soaring skyscrapers? 🙂
Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens.
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Urban landscapes: Houseboats in harbour
HOUSEBOATS, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
The morning light was superb and the water was still enough to create very pleasing reflections of these colourful boats on Canada’s west coast. I did my best to eliminate all the distracting clutter from other boats, then did a lot of ‘burning in’ during processing to further focus your eyes on just these two homes and their reflections. Nikon D90, tripod.
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Rural landscapes: Butchart beauty
TULIPS AND ROSS FOUNTAIN, BUTCHART GARDENS, VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This 55-acre National Historic Site is a stunning tourist attraction on Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast. My wife and I toured it recently and came away pretty stunned at the display of flowers and shrubs (and the roses weren’t even out yet).
I took the Nikon D90 with me, but left the tripod behind and still came up with compositions like this. I used a flash here to fill in the shadows and make the foreground flowers more prominent.
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Rural landscapes: Relic of the past
GRAIN ELEVATORS, DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA
There was a time when these elevators dotted the Canadian prairies like dandelions. But during the past 30 years they’ve been steadily torn down and replaced, when needed, with concrete silos. This one, photographed during the 1990s with my old Pentax 6×7 medium format film camera, is one of them. It’s quite sad, really. This distinctive architecture is unique to the prairies. Tripod, Velvia slide film, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Lighthouse Park
POINT ATKINSON LIGHTHOUSE, WEST VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Living on the Canadian prairies, many hundreds of kilometres from any sort of major body of water, I rarely get the chance to photograph lighthouses. So when I found out about this park during a visit to Vancouver, on Canada’s west coast, I put it on my bucket list. Vancouver is often rainy, but I scored with a fabulous sunrise and near-perfect conditions on this morning. I crouched down as low as possible to get the lighthouse reflected in the pool.
That strange concrete box you see to the right of the lighthouse is a searchlight bunker dating back to the Second World War. Lighthouse Park was staffed by people who watched for potential Japanese attackers between 1941 and ’45.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter, two-stop hard-edge graduated density filter (to darken the sky).
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Natural landscapes: Peace at sunrise
DAYBREAK, PIGEON LAKE, ALBERTA
Photographed in the mid-1990s with my old Pentax 6×7 medium-format film camera, tripod and polarizing filter. This was an incredibly still and glorious sunrise and I came away with several compositions that are still among my favourites today.
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Natural landscapes: a mushroom moment
SPRING MUSHROOMS, PRESQUILE PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO
I didn’t realize mushrooms grew in spring…always thought they were a late summer-autumn thing. So it was a nice surprise to encounter these beauties amongst a sea of spring green on a cloudy morning in this park along the shores of Lake Ontario.
A shallow depth of field was important here, to ensure the background would complement, rather than compete, with the main point of interest. Photographed on slide film with Nikon FM2 camera and tripod, then scanned onto a CD.
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Natural landscapes: Cathedral Grove trilliums
SPRING TRILLIUMS, VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA
I don’t know where trilliums grow outside of Canada, but in this country I always thought they were only found in southern Ontario. So it was quite a surprise to encounter them in glorious MacMillan Provincial Park in Canada’s westernmost province.
My wife and I toured this old-growth forest, known as Cathedral Grove, right after a rainstorm and that made for wet, saturated colours. Perfect for flower photography. Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: missed a spot
CLEANING THE BELL BUILDING, CALGARY, ALBERTA
Would you want to be doing this at 7 a.m. on a Sunday? Alone and with nothing but a few ropes holding you up? The weather was grey and I was not hopeful for good photographs when I spotted this dude doing his thing. I detoured, parked on the street below and hand-held my Nikon D90 and 70-300 mm. lens to make this composition, twisting the camera to create diagonal lines. I don’t think he ever knew he was being photographed.
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Natural landscapes: spring dew
APPLE BLOSSOMS, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
After my very wintery previous “spring” post (you can see it here: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-ij), I had to go for a REAL spring photo. Those of you who check out my work regularly know that Greenwood, east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is a favourite photography locale and I often go to that stock of pictures to find you something appropriate to enjoy.
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: the glory(?) of spring snow
SPRING SUNRISE, KANANASKIS COUNTRY, ALBERTA
Yes, this photograph was made in April. In the Canadian Rocky Mountains, snow is a possibility any month of the year, though it’s not likely during July and August. You’re looking at Hwy. 40 in Kananaskis, a region that’s little known to tourists (they go for the world-renowned Banff National Park), but a favourite destination for Albertans. The peak is The Wedge. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the slow rush of spring
APRIL ICE, DUFFINS CREEK, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
Spring is a fitful season in many parts of Canada, appearing to arrive one day, then vanishing the next. But that creates wonderful icy scenes like this, captured in one of my favourite photo locales east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city). Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the rush of waves
GREENPOINT, PACIFIC RIM NATIONAL PARK, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This stunning coastline is along the west coast of Vancouver Island, a glorious windswept part of Canada that is simply stunning. My wife & I were there in April 2012 and I found this high vantage point to show you a memorable vista. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: when old & new collide
AWAITING DAYBREAK, NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO
There wasn’t going to be a sunrise on this cloudy spring day, but ‘blue hour’ – the 45 minutes before daybreak – turned out to be a fine time for a long exposure of this historic waterworks and the gigantic hotels on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I used a darkening filter on Nikon D90 in order to get as long an exposure as possible and blur the water. Of course, an exposure this long required a tripod, too.
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Rural landscapes: spring at the church
BALLS FALLS CONSERVATION AREA, JORDAN, ONTARIO
Balls Falls was established by Jacob Ball, a United Empire Loyalist (a supporter of Britain) who left the United States after the American revolution. In 1783, he was granted land in Niagara, upon which a village was eventually started. The acreage, which includes a pair of glorious waterfalls, was bought by the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority in 1962 and turned into a conservation area.
It’s a great place for nature and rural photography; in this case, I had a great sky and slanting early-morning light to work with and it beautifully highlighted the historic church. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and possibly a graduated density filter on the sky.
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Natural landscapes: the photographer’s shadow
SPRING MORNING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOOTHILLS, ALBERTA
I spotted this giant boulder while driving on a remote country road in southwest Alberta and knew it would provide for several useful compositions. I didn’t expect to be part of them, but when I looked through the viewfinder, I saw the shadow would make a good secondary point of interest after your eyes wandered over the rock. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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