New Year's Day

With only one exception since 2007, I have started each New Year with a photography outing to Peggy's Cove, inviting students to join me for lunch, and then photography, to ring in the new year. This year, because of COVID-19, things had to be a little different, as the restaurant was closed, and gathering had to be with social distancing and masks.

Digital original, 30 frame focus blend

Having received my Canon EOS 5R only a couple of weeks before, this was one of my first chances to work with it, and I took full advantage of the opportunity, spending much of my time exploring the focus bracketing feature, which takes multiple images focused at slightly different distances, creating a series of photographs progressively focusing through a composition. These images can be combined in post production to create images with exceptional depth of field - impossible images that could not be created in any other way.

Digital original, 40 frame focus blend

For most of the time I spent at Peggy's Cove, I made compositions taking advantage of this technique - capturing well over 700 course files in the process. Some failed (due to poor technique on my part), but those that worked were really quite lovely, creating sharp, detailed images that could not be created any other way!

Digital original

The last images of the session were made of the evening sky, as sunset approached - simple images with simple beauty.