Shooting in Shade

This shot was taken last year in the spring near Wainwright, Alberta, on a deserted farm. The sun was quite bright, being midday, but I was able to find a sheltered area behind the farmhouse. It was quite windy, and therefore the grass shows lots of movement. I liked the shapes of the two trees, forming a repeating pattern, which is always desirable in any composition. A wide angle lens, my WATE Leica lens set to 18 mm, was used to take the shot. I was very close to the tree in the foreground, almost standing right over it. But the wide angle gives it some depth. The image was shot with TMAX 100 film, and scanned. Its always a good idea to shoot landscapes in the shade during midday, thus eliminating a high contrast range that you would encounter in open sun.

Farm Scene

This shot was taken about a year ago, with my Leica M7, a film camera. I was shooting with Delta 400 I believe, and the tonality I achieved is really wonderful. This image was always appealing to me, and I think it had to do with the white trailer in the centre of the image, standing out because of the contrast. Without that white subject, in the midst of the grey tonality of the majority of the scene, it would be a bit boring. The tonality of the sky also lends an appealing aspect to the scene as a whole. The negative was scanned into my Mac, and was touched up a bit to achieve the proper contrast of the original negative, which was lost in the scan. One of my favourite shots.

Toronto Back Alley

This is one of my favourite images that I took in Toronto last winter. Taken just off Queen street, I was drawn to it initially by the graffiti seen in the right side of the frame. But I found the alley and the buildings of greater interest. The image has good repetition of shapes and lines, resulting in a good composition, as well as a central focal point, as defined by the alley which draws the eye to the centre of the photograph. The strong verticals are balanced by the horizontal lines, making the whole composition interesting. The day I took this shot, the weather was dreary, and the sky was grey, but even in this kind of light, nice colour and tonality is evident. Taken with my Leica M9, 50 mm Summicron.

Leica Black and White jpegs

It's been a while since I posted, and i thought I would start again with a black and white jpeg, straight out of my Leica M9. This is a picture of my mother in law, Nancy. She objected to me taking the shot, but I took it anyway. I took it because I had just finished reading an article by Thorsten Overgaard, about jpegs taken with the Leica M9. They are not your run of the mill jpegs. Leica does something to them that makes it hard to discriminate them from a DNG file. Fine detail is held in the file, and the wonderful Leica lenses suffer little from glare problems when shooting into a bright background. In addition, I also used a gold reflector to shine some light back into her face.

I like Thorsten Overgaard's analyses of the Leica M9, since he uses it in all his photography. He works for Getty Images, and shoots a variety of commercial images. He gives workshops around the world, some for the "filthy rich". His weekly blog gives a lot of good information about Leica in general, and a lot of instruction on how to shoot in the digital age. I highly recommend him.

Yellowstone Meadow

My trip to Yellowstone did not yield a large number of images due to inclement weather, which is to be expected in the fall, but I did manage to obtain a few that I liked. This time of year can yield beautiful scenes. The skies are what make this area such a rich area for landscapes. I did find that when the sun was out, the result was very high contrast light, and it was sometimes difficult to get a decent exposure, without blowing the highlights. At one point I was mistakenly shooting in jpeg format, and the result was disastrous. My highlights could not be recovered from the jpegs. In contrast, my raw files, while having high contrast, were able to be recovered in my raw converter. Never shoot raw! This image, thankfully, was shot in raw mode.

Love affair with Trees

My love affair with trees continues. My favorite subject matter has always been trees. This shot, taken in Toronto's High Park, is an example of what I look for when it comes to trees. I love the tall trees that inhabit this area, and Ontario as a whole is a great place to see the beautiful maples, oaks, and elms. I like the repetitive shapes that the branches offer, and repetition is a great tool to produce a harmonious image. All great photographers and artists use this ploy. Speaking of art, I will be exploring painting with real paint soon. It remains to be seen how soon I will post them on my blog, though. It will take some time for me to perfect my technique. I have had a few years of art instruction to fall back on, but I know my first work will not be the greatest. Mostly I have to work on the technical aspects of painting. I'm looking at trying out water color, oils, and acrylic A few of my favorite artists are Gordon MacKenzie, Robert Genn, and Doris McCarthy.

Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch in Arches National Park, in Utah, is one of the most photographed locations in the park. I was on a workshop with Alain and Natalie Briot in May 2010. We had to get up at about 5:30, and drive for about 30 minutes to get to the trail leading to the arch. When we arrived, we were a bit surprised to see about 25 photographers already set up, waiting for the sun to rise. The goal was to photograph the sun as it appeared through the arch. The area in from of the arch spans not more than 25 or 30 feet, so it was very crowded and difficult to set up. However, everyone was very polite, and all of us were able to get a decent shot, as the sun appeared through the arch. The bright red under the arch is very real. The sun casts a beautiful glow under the arch, and it lasted for several minutes. The shot was over when the sun was no longer visible under the arch, and the red glow disappeared. The shoot lasted for about an hour, so there was plenty of time to get a few good shots.

Behind the arch is a shear cliff, dropping hundreds of feet. Bikers like to ride their mountain bikes over the arch, but that sport is not for me. I wonder how many have gone over the edge.