Eiffel Tower

I took this shot from the roof of a tour bus in Paris. The conditions to take a shot from a moving vehicle is not always ideal, since you are moving while taking pictures. I did have to make a few adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop to correct some lens distortion that did result from taking the shot under these conditions. Pictures like this are always challenging to take since there are often people in front of the desired image that you would prefer not to include in the shot, and it is hard to hold the camera still while moving. However I was fortunate that this was not a major problem in this instance. The light for this shot was quite nice, and I always prefer to have a cloudy sky similar to this case, whereas a clear blue sky can often be uninteresting and dull. The people in the middle distance created an interesting feeling to the overall image.

Le Mont Saint- Michel France

Recently my wife and I took a trip to Paris and central France. Our tour included Paris itself, and central France. The Paris part of the trip was mostly done on foot and by the metro, while central France was seen by bus. Much of the trip included seeing much of the cultural aspects of France, such as the Louvre, several cathedrals in Paris, museums, and several well known tourist attractions. The central France tour was an education in French culture and history.
I brought my Leica M9 with me to document the trip, and take as many scenic photographs as possible, not only for the photography itself, but also as future reference for my watercolour painting. The Leica is the perfect camera for a trip like this. It  is light weight and not too noticeable by people you want to photograph. I brought only one lens, my 28 mm Summicron, and it worked very well as an all purpose lens. It is a wide angle lens, but I tend to take more wide angle shots anyway.
This is a shot of the cathedral at Le Mont Saint-Michel, which is on the coast of France, on a sort of Peninsula. This is a close up of the cathedral at the top of the rock outcrop, in evening light.

Vasabron Bridge Stockholm, Sweden

This is a painting of the Norstedts Publishers building on the Vasabron bridge in Stockholm. I was fortunate to be able to visit Stockholm on a business trip in March. The day was a bit overcast but relatively warm, during a walk that my fellow traveller and I took the last day of our trip to Sweden. I took a photo and had it in my mind that I would like to paint this scene at a later date. My choice of paints was watercolour, and the paper I chose was a 300 lb Arches. A 300 lb watercolour paper does not really need to be stretched beforehand, and so no preparation was required. I used a muted palette by using complementary colours of Quinacridine rose and Viridian, with a little of orange mixed in. The yellow I chose was naples yellow, which is a bit muted to begin with. The cooler tones were a mixture of Ultramarine blue and Ultramarine violet, muted a bit with their complements as well. I'm settling in with a more earth tone range of colours that I mix myself, using Steven Quiller's palette, which includes about 26 colours. I like how the bridge stands out from the background. I think I achieved this by leaving white highlights on the lamp supports on the bridge, as well as the higher contrast that is created between the white and the darker portions of the bridge. I also like how the water seems to sparkle below the bridge. Starting to feel better about my paintings.

Watercolour Painting - Utah landscape

This was an image I photographed a few years ago during a trip to Page Arizona. Page is located very close to the Utah border, and this location was just across the Colorado river. I was on a photographic workshop with Alain Briot, and his workshops never fail to please. This was an amazing location to photograph, and the terrain is very much as you can see in the painting. Unfortunately there is no human figure in the image I took, so the scale is hard to evaluate, but the boulders in the centre of the image are about 6  to 10 feet in diameter. The hoodoo to the right is at least 15 feet high.
I am becoming more familiar with the water colour medium, and I do not have to mentally focus on how to do so as much as I did a year ago. It becomes more natural and instinctive as I spend more time painting. I did use strong colours on this painting, but the actual colour scheme of the real thing is also very bright and colourful.
With watercolour painting it is important to leave some of the white of the paper to create that sparkle that a good watercolour painting should have. I think I could have left more white than I did, but once the paint is down, you can't go back. However, I am relatively pleased  with the effort.

Bighorn Country

This is a recent painting I did of the Bighorn River just as it approaches Crescent Falls. I often go here to take photographs, and the timing was perfect. The sun was just setting in the north. The aspen trees had already turned yellow, and winter was not far off. I am striving to improve my watercolour painting skills, and finally I have a fairly decent painting, after having trashed at least 4 or 5 in a row. It definitely takes time to master the skills required to do watercolour. I hope to improve that as I take a watercolour course with the U of A as part of my Visual Arts program, starting this week. I used a tertiary colour scheme, employing orange, green and violet. The picture plain consists of three layers, the foreground which includes the boulders, the river in the middle distance and the trees and sky in the distance. Most artists use this technique to create a sense of distance in the painting. I don't think that the actual colour translate very well to this upload, but it's close. I think if you look elsewhere on this blog you might find the original photograph.

Summer Day

I find that this image carries a certain peacefulness and calm. I was immediately attracted to it as I was driving down the highway last summer on the way to Drumheller in Alberta. Horizontal lines in an image usually give the sense of calm, and this artistic tool is used by artists to create a quiet mood. I toned down the colour somewhat, something I have been doing with my photos recently. A more saturated colour image would create an uncomfortable feeling that would take away from the mood I wanted to project. Two horizontal lines dominate the image, those being the horizon, and the lower edge at the water. The horizontals are not quite horizontal, with the bottom line curving up, while the horizon curves down. If both lines curved upward, the mood created would be perhaps a bit more joyful, like a big smile. The downward curvature of the horizon sort of opposes the feeling projected by the lower line. A downward sloping line in art can convey a feeling of sadness, but having them both present in the same image creates a contradictory feeling.

Battle River Valley

The Battle River valley is a very picturesque area just west of Wainwright Alberta. This image was taken with my Hasselblad H3D, using a 50 mm lens. The 35 mm equivalent to the medium format 50 mm is about a 35 mm lens. Presently I own 2 lenses that are compatible with the H3D: the 50 mm and the 24 mm lens. I like both lenses for the wide angle perspective that these lenses provide. The majority of my photos are taken with wide angle lenses. I also own a Leica M9 rangefinder which is also a great camera, and I have begun to use the two cameras for different purposes. The Leica is a great camera for photojournalism. The Hasselblad is well known for professional photography in fashion, commercial, and architectural photography. Both cameras have a beautiful colour pallette, and I find the Hasselblad  gives a warmer tone than the Leica. This scene has a painterly feel to it which I like very much. The H3D is a heavy camera, and usually requires a tripod. It weighs as much as a large format camera. It is a sophisticated digital camera with a 31 megapixel back, but quite often I will shoot in manual mode, after having taken a light reading with a hand held light meter. This way I rarely have to repeat the shot at a different setting.