A Pregnancy Session with Lavender (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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I first worked with Lavender in 2007, and we have worked together numerous times since then, so when she let me know she was pregnant, and expecting in the spring, I enthusiastically offered to document the pregnancy as she wished. While this ended up being a single session, it was still great to have the chance to continue working with her, and help to document such a magical time in her life.

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We worked in what would shortly become her child's nursery, taking advantage of the room's newly painted walls, and lovely natural light. After an opening series of images of Lavender posing on the bed, I moved it out of the way, and worked with the window light and large empty wall beside it. I really loved how the window cast a soft shadow on the wall, and focused the composition around this.

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The last set of images I made were focused on Lavender's belly, and her hands. This has always been something I have enjoyed photographing, and in this setting, with such wonderful side light, it worked out perfect.

Photo 101 Field Trip (Downtown Halifax)

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The primary focus of this field trip was working with urban scenes and architecture, and as such, I spent the entire session working with my ultra-wide lens, photographing the buildings in downtown Halifax. I particularly like this first image, with the monument to fallen peace officers being dwarfed by the bank buildings across the street.

Digital original, 2 image stitch

I am not a fan of most modern/new architecture - and the new Halifax Convention Centre is no exception to this; I have watched it being built over the past two years, and have no affection or appreciation for its form. That being said, with the right sky, and some dramatic shifting on my 17mm TS-E lens, I was able to make an image which at least makes the most of what I am not impressed it...the title of this image is "Stabbing the Sky".

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The final image here is one of my more successful images of the new Halifax City Library; I have made many images of the entire structure, but on this afternoon, I caught a glimpse across Spring Garden road of the building behind a tree, and was drawn to the graphic quality of the sight.

A Photo 101 Field Trip (Point Pleasant Park, Halifax)

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I feel that photography is all about balance, and worked hard with the above composition of the container pier to get the balance right - a large, empty sky balancing a small point on interest in the foreground, with two people walking on the shore.

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At the very end of the field trip, as I was walking back to the car, I noticed some rust, and made a final composition.

Winter, Water & Ice Field Trip #3 (Papermill Lake River, Bedford, Nova Scotia)

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This was the first Winter, Water & Ice field trip to really present the full experience. Snow covered ground, lovely ice formations, and swiftly moving water. My first image (above) was of a really unusual ice formation on the bottom of a fallen tree - just lovely to work with.

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I could have worked along this stream for hours, with little gems like the above presenting themselves every couple of feet.

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In the end, this field trip was fabulous - the blend of the running water with crystalline ice and powder-white snow made for such a beautiful morning of photography (and lovely images).

Winter, Water & Ice Field Trip #2 (The Dingle, Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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This field trip started working along the edge of the small stream that runs through the Dingle down to the North West Arm. All along the river were small patches of ice, perfect for photographing with a macro lens.

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As we got closer to the small falls at the bottom of the stream, where were more occurrences of ice and running water in the same space - the real focus of the Winter, Water & Ice field trip series.

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My favorite image of the field trip was a classic - the bottom of the small waterfall. A small ball of ice had formed on the rock at the bottom, and the fall swept around on both sides - perfect.

Photo 101 Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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The large black bouy outside of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic proved to be the ideal subject for a hands-on discussion and demonstration of exposure control

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As the field trip progressed, the sky slowly shifted from cloudy, to cloudy with some breaks, showing the blue sky above - perfect for infrared!

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The last set of images I made saw us back at the Maritime Museum - this time talking about the potential of super-wide lenses - up close, and personal!

Winter, Water & Ice Field Trip #1 (Frog Pond, Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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The first field trip of the Winter, Water & Ice series of 2017 presented an interesting challenge. While the days have been well below freezing, there has been no snow, so the field trip had to be focused on the small amount of ice formed by splash-water along side a small stream.

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Fortunately, as a result of a short scouting trip the day before, I was able to print the students to a number of spaces at Frog Pond with significant patches of ice, and while it was small and localized, it did have lots of potential for macro ice images.

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In the end, while the intent of the field trip was to focus on combining moving water and ice in images, I spent most of my time focused on ice along, enjoying the play of light on the surface.

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

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Since 2008, I have spent almost every afternoon of New Year's day at Peggy's cove, photographing the first light of the New Year with any and all photographers who wish to join me. This year was mild and snow-less, which meant I focused on the ocean, and water pools, where usually I am seeking out ice.

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Overall, I prefer when winter photography focused on...well, winter - this afternoon of photograph was little different from what I would do during the summer...except it was quite chilly.

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The best photographs of the day were actually made on the way home - a large lake by the side of the highway had a thin sheet of water over the ice, which perfectly reflected the sky and landscape around it.

Architecture Experiments (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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One of the challenges I've been trying to work through is how to deal with my lack of attraction to modern/new architecture; I have such a love for the Gothic/medieval period that anything remotely new just isn't of interest. Yet I live in a city where the oldest structure is from 1749. So I have begin to experiment with abstracting architecture, in an attempt to celebrate what I like, without having to focus on what I don't.

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My early experiments are successful, to a degree - I made long-exposure motion-blurred images of a new apartment building, and then experimented with post production techniques mirroring and blended images together, to further abstract the subject.

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In the end, I am not certain it does what I am looking for, but I do think it is visually successful, and worth continuing to experiment with. Will it become a major new direction, and solve my frustration, I cannot say, but it is, at the very least, not a total failure. 

Ingrid, the Ireland Portfolio Talk (VewPoint Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia)