A Winter Field Trip (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

I am often surprised by the beauty found in the simple moments, such as the sun reflecting in the water behind a wharf. The green polypropolyne rope just made the scene all the richer!

New Year's Day (Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

I can remember the first time I made an ice image at Peggy's Cove, clear as day, though it was over 20 years ago. I've been going back every New Year I can - not to seek out the image I made then, but to celebrate the making of images, plain and simple.

Digital original, two frame exposure blend, two frame digital stitch

As soon as I saw this rock pool, I switched my lens to the 17mm tilt-shift, and inverted my tripod head so the camera could be as close to the rock as possibe; through using the tilt I was able to get infinite depth of field along the surface of the rock (one of the few times I have used the tilt on this lens). The final image was assembled from four frames - two exposures each, stitched together left to right.

My New Office (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

My new office is finally complete; this is one of the best designs I have done yet - the sudden realization that I could make the desk 11" deep (no need to accommodate deep monitors, like a decade ago) brought everything together; the keyboard and mouse are on a freestanding "table" of just the right height!

What is invisible in the image are the eighteen 4' long, 18" deep shelves full of prints!

A Journey to Yarmouth Light (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

On a walk along the government wharf in Yarmouth, I came across this great pile of tires covered with barnacles at the bottom, and practically pristine at the top. A tight composition with a long lens simplified the scene and create a really pleasing composition.

Digital original, 4 frame exposure blend, 2 frame stitch

The day was bland with little in the way of drama or colour to the sky. Rather than lament the lack of co-operative weather, I decided to focus on working with long exposures. In the end, two 2 minute exposures were perfect for the water and subtle sky blur.

A Visit to Yarmouth (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

When I arrived in Yarmouth, I came across this leaf within a green-house; being early November, the shock of green and yellow caught my eye, and approached with a macro lens, I was able to throw the clutter surroundings out of focus, and bring the attention to where it should be!

Digital original

On the beach west of Yarmouth, I spent some time experimenting with wave panning - using a longer shutter speed, and moving the camera with a wave, to create an interesting mix of camera and subject motion. The results were not very consistent, but when the process worked, it was magical, so it is certainly something I will continue to explore.

Digital original

The last images of the day were made on the Yarmouth fisherman's wharf, though from the above image it's hard to know where I was. Though I made images of the boats, wharf and associated detritus, it was the side of this shed, and the formal quality of the scene that really caught my eye.

A Train, a Tree and a Fence (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

A side effect of teaching, and leading so many class-related field trips is I spend a lot of time with a camera in hand, in the same spaces time and time again. The down side to this is visual fatigue - finding it hard to see clearly due to having photographed the same place so often. The advantage is know when the train will be coming!

A Macro Photography Workshop (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

When teaching a macro workshop, a large part of the process is providing hands-on experience, both to model process and technique, and from time to time, to capture something that really engages me. in this case, the very soft hint of purple on this flower bud drew me in!

Digital original

My favourite image of the workshop was also the simpliest - a small watch gear on a mirror. I used the Canon 65mm Micro lens for the image, set to a 3x magnification.

A Waterfront Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

The first field trip for the fall Photo 101 course saw me take the students for a jaunt along the Halifax waterfront. A space I know well, I always keep my eyes open for a new subject, perspective or composition. In this case, the harbour was really calm, and the sky, reflected in the water, looked very unusual - the perfect counterpoint to the warm morning light on the edge of the tire.

Digital original

Though I gravitate to ultra-wide lenses, there is a true pleasure in the simple reduction that long lenses can lend to an image - in this case, the chaos and riot of a docked tall ship is replaced with a graphic composition of the bowsprit.

Digital original

The last images of the field trip used my long lens (a Sigma 120-400mm) to make abstract images of the high-rise buildings that face the waterfront. An easy image to make in a larger city, Halifax is gradually becoming more "glass faced" as new and renovated buildings begin to mark the sky-line.

A Field Trip to the Dingle (Haalifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

A double-edged sword of teaching photography is that one ends up going to the same places for field trips time and time again. The down side of this is that, in repetition comes over familiarity - that which is interesting and engaging the first couple of times is simply overlooked at later periods. On the flip side, when faced with "nothing to photograph", I tend to fall back to practicing composition -simply making visual design with the world around me. This image of the door of the Dingle Tower is a great example of this.

Digital original

The other easy thing to do when at a loss for things to photograph, is fall back on macro; everything is different when close up, and often the familiar and mundae becomes engaging...the brass stud in this door for example changes completely when viewed close.

Digital original

An image like this always serves two purposes; on the immediate level, it is a really pleasing image of a rusty pole, but it also gets the "textures" keyword, which means it likely will appear in a digital composite image...someday.

Yarmouth Photography Club Talk (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared original, two image stitch

On the evening of Saturday, October 3, 2012, I will be presenting to the Yarmouth Photography Club. I will present an overview of my photographic journey, beginning with my work with the Nude through to my more recent explorations of colour and Gothic Architecture. In addition to the presentation (by projection) I will bring a number of original prints for the club members to view.