Dad’s Dory

I was looking forward to photographing "Dad’s Dory" again this year. I started photographing it back in 2009 and I found that by going back I was beginning to appreciate the challenge of coming up with something different. Among other things I was delighted to find that the light was never the same, it was a learning experience for sure.

Still Waters at Forest Pond

I asked my buddy Leo about “Dad’s Dory” and he reported “the bottom’s gone right out of ‘er”! It looks like it won’t see the water ever again. As we say in these parts, “she’s gone b’y”! The dory is a banks dory and is about 50 years old, his Dad used to own it.

Dad’s Dory

He is looking for a dory to replace it, would anyone know where he might get one? I should add we are in St John’s Newfoundland. When we get one we’ll put it in Forest Pond and Leo will look after it. I’ll be sure to take some photographs and post them here

Floating on Clouds

C'est la vie.

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Hope You Enjoy the Sunrise

Sunrises are like snowflakes no two are alike. But what might be surprising is that this is not only a day to day observation for a sunrise will change dramatically from one minute to the next, for example …

Below are 5 photo’s taken yesterday over a 14 minute period at Cape Spear Newfoundland, each unique in its own way. Hope you enjoy the sunrise!

Cape Spear Sunrise 5:51am


Cape Spear Sunrise 5:53 am


Cape Spear Sunrise 5:55am


Cape Spear Sunrise 6:00am


Cape Spear Sunrise 6:05am

With each sunrise we begin a new day, with new opportunities.

I don’t know if anyone ever said it better than the Philosopher King, Marcus Aurelius. “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love”.

Hope you enjoyed the sunrise! :-)

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Spaceship Earth

There is a lot of great night sky photography out there. Its beauty can inspire others to learn more about the immense and complex beauty of the cosmos.

Amazingly we are travelling through the vastness of space on Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth is spinning on it's axis at 1,800 kph and revolving around the Sun at 54,000 kph. Our Solar System is moving throughout our Milky Way Galaxy at 180,000 kph. And our Milky Way Galaxy is moving in our local group of galaxies at 1,080,000 kph. Sorry I don't know how fast our group of galaxies are moving throughout the universe! And perhaps the universe is moving too?

It's funny how sometimes we might be driving down the street at 60kph and feel we are driving fast! :-)

Cabot Tower - Spinning Through Space 


Photography can teach those of us who are fortunate enough to call ourselves photographers so much. But we can also use it as a means to share and bring to others this beauty and wonder. To inspire people, in this way more will learn to appreciate and care for this wonderful planet. After all the Earth is our home!

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Catchlights

The eyes can say so much about a person, they are the window to the soul. The eyes are also an open book for photographers. The revealing catchlights contain a lot of information about how the subject is being lit because the catchlights are a reflection of the main light source. Catchlights can reveal some very important information including the direction, shape and relative size of the lighting source among other things.
  

 

The creative photographer can mould or create a style of catchlight. Also, many manufacturers of light modifying equipment offer umbrellas with covered ribs so that they would appear less noticeable, as they can look like unattractive veins in people’s eyes. Some manufacturers offer attachments for soft boxes to make the resulting catchlights look like a window. What you do and how you do it is a matter of your imagination. 

In this example as you can see despite the fact that the umbrella ribs are hidden behind the fabric they can be seen. However when this portrait is viewed at a normal viewing distance the lines are hardly noticeable and the lighting quite large and pleasing.

 

Personally I like the light source at 10 or 2 o’clock. When lighting a person be careful not to raise the light to high, darkening the eye sockets, leaving the eyes in shadow creating a raccoon effect. The eyes can say so much! 

These are just some of my thoughts on flash photography, what are yours?

The Good Old Day’s

It seems no matter how old you are you can recount “The Good Old Day’s”. For many of us photographers here in Newfoundland we think of the arrival of the behemoths of the sea in the spring. Large icebergs would move down from the arctic via the Labrador Sea staging a grand show. It’s been so long since we’ve seen anything but a few drabs of ice in this part of Newfoundland we now talk as if we’ll never see the big bergs again.

King of the Sea

…. taken in 1996

A lot of people might think Newfoundland is in the far north however I would like to point out that St John’s is at 47.561485 degrees north latitude, further south than our sister city of Vancouver, further south than Seattle Washington. Our climate is colder than these cities because of the path of the ocean currents. In eastern North America the warmer Gulf Stream from the Gulf of Mexico flows out into the middle of the North Atlantic missing Newfoundland, providing milder temperatures to Western Europe including Britain. London being further north at 51.5171 degrees N.

It’s about to turn April 2012 and there’s a bit of ice around, who knows maybe this will be the year? Maybe?

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! This is not an Iceberg!

….  taken March 25, 2012. A friend told me you might call this an iceberg if you were from Toronto. :-)

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Any comments or ideas of what you would like to see on this blog please feel free to post here I’ll be sure to reply!