Tag Archives: spring

Backroads and roadside photography      

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I’ll begin this article with this quote by photographer Steve McCurry,  “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”

As I began to write this week’s article I thought about his words. I have been hoping to do some traveling this summer, but with the government in British Columbia still telling us not to take unnecessary trips I have been thinking I should just continue to wander nearby back roads.

Maybe it will be a summer that sees those of us with cameras to take a creative and appreciative look at what is out our front door.

This week Jo and I decided to venture a bit further than Pritchard and although we slowed to look for geese paddling in the pond we didn’t bother to get our cameras and continued on down the rural road looking for something new to photograph. Or at the least, something neither of us has photographed in a while.

Jo called me and said she had to make a quick trip to Kamloops and asked if I wanted to go. She suggested we could return home by one of the many back roads and could take the time to make some photos. Of course I wanted to go, I was doing yard work and any excuse to stop doing yard work is good for me. I don’t like mowing, trimming, digging, pulling or driving to the local dump with a loaded truck. I know all that stuff has to be done or my yard would just be a bushy forest with a mostly hidden house.

I had just enough time to pack my cameras in a bag when Jo drove up. I think she was already on the way when she called, she knows me pretty well. I put my 16-35mm lens on one camera and grabbed my Infrared camera that was mounted with 20-40mm.

I haven’t owned the 16-35 very long and am trying to decide if it should replace the 14-24mm I have. Yes, I am still struggling with that wide-angle lens. There are lots of opinions in online forums, but I have plenty of time to make that decision and short trips like the one with Jo would be perfect.

We made the stop Jo had in Kamloops then pulled through the drive-thru at the Dairy Queen. I am glad places like that have continued to stay open through this crisis and after we got a cotton-candy dipped cone for Jo and a milkshake for me I commented that there must be a lot more work for the staff with all the extra sanitizing they must do before and after each customer.

We left Kamloops turned off the highway and as with the trip we took a couple weeks ago to Kelowna, there weren’t too many cars so driving slowly and continually stopping to take pictures was easy.

Spring is always colourful and the day was sunny with lots of white clouds. It was excellent for photography of the country landscape we slowly drove through and it was exciting for IR photography and although I played some with that 16-35mm, most of the photos I made were with my IR camera with the 20-40mm.

Maybe this will be a summer of short excursions. My advice to all those readers that haven’t been beyond their front doors with a camera is; There is always something to photograph and there are a lot of rural roads that aren’t a long drive from home that are waiting to be explored and re-explored. I expect this year the spring will be wet here is BC and there will be lots of new growth and changing environments to point our cameras at. It is also fun to find a new and imaginative way to photograph things we have photographed before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good day to wander with my camera      

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The clouds started moving in this morning and I thought it would be a good day to wander with my camera and see what kind of photos I could get. I like a cloud filled sky, clear blue or heavy overcast grey doesn’t make as interesting backgrounds for scenics.

In the past forty plus years I have walked, ridden horses and motorcycles and this morning drove my car along the winding country road that passes my home. When I first moved to Pritchard the roads were bumpy, rut filled, dusty (or muddy) dirt roads. But that’s in the past and now there is asphalt paving.

I slowly drove up Duck Range road watching for interesting subjects with interesting light. Sometimes the lighting is the only element in a photo that makes it different from those I have taken a hundred times before. I had my IR camera with a 20-40mm attached and because I decided to go past some ponds I had another with my 150-600mm on it.

This morning I kept stopping and switching cameras and as I selected angles to shoot from that I hadn’t tried before. However, the morning was nice and I sometimes I just stopped and looked.

I saw turtles out sunning themselves and the ponds finally had a few ducks paddling around. Roadside reeds were filled with small birds and I could see geese on the warm sunlit hill in the distance. No goslings yet, it is a lot cooler there than down in the valley, where there are already families of geese along the river and photographers from Kamloops, only 40 minutes away, have started posting their shots of geese with goslings from the local park.

As I do every spring, I make regular trips along the road to photograph the fields, turtles, ducks and geese. I am hopping that this will be a good year for gosling photos. I’ll soon see and as I have for so many years, I’ll keep wandering along the backwoods roads, cameras at the ready to see what I can photograph.

I think it was good luck that I went out early this morning. The wind has started and it’s getting dark out. My three kittens just came in and one, Pippin, seems to be explaining why and I am pretty certain some of what she is saying includes directions as to what I am supposed to do for them.

There will be a Canadian Snowbirds flying from Alberta on the way to Kamloops at 1PM to thank all the doctors and nurses that are keeping people alive. I’ll join other residents and the fire trucks down by the Pritchard store. Ha, another photo op! I’ll end this with a quote by American photographer and photojournalist (known for his photo “Afghan Girl”) Steve McCurry,  “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.

It is good to do photography with another photographer.            

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I have written about this in the past, but I want to revisit that topic after my friend and photo-pal Jo McAvany, and I made a quick trip to a local waterfall.

As with most waterfalls in British Columbia this time of year Chase Falls is a muddy, raging, roaring torrent. My goal was make a photograph that showed that raging torrent. I wanted to capture the mood and show the great force and intensity of the spring water coming over the falls.

Jo and I were to meet at the falls. I was a bit late and she had walked down to a location where the path to Chase Falls went under the highway and was just setting her tripod up.

I stopped and we talked then I wandered on to the falls. It was as I expected and I was glad I wore a hat and had brought a small towel to wipe the spray off my camera and lens.

I set up as close as I could safely get at a couple different locations and used different shutter/aperture combinations as I worked to photograph the feeling I wanted from the waterfall.

I was there for some time before Jo finally showed up. I was just collapsing my tripod and preparing to go. She said she was finding some great photos along the fast moving creek. I think she only took one photo of the waterfall before complaining about the cold wind and very wet spray.

We walked back to our cars talking about the photograph and were deciding what time we should leave on Monday morning for a short trip to pick up some film I wanted to stock in my shop when this pandemic finally lets us get back to some kind of (new) normal.

What made me think about how I enjoy doing photography with my friend wasn’t the short trip to the falls and much as it was seeing the photographs she had made.

Jo worked that location so very different than I. Her photos of the fast moving stream reminded me how each photographer sees and visually interprets the world.

Of course I am familiar with being with another photographer at the same location where each of us produces very different images. That was the usual for the 40+ years I spent with my wife Linda. Now it’s my friend Jo that is demonstrating how creatively different two photographers can be, so I am posting two of her images.

I titled this article “It is good to do photography another photographer.” I think that is not only an enjoyable way t enjoy this exciting medium, but also great way to keep oneself fresh and creative.

I’ll end this with a quote by American photographer Jay Maisel, “If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.”

Photographing a spring garden     

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Finally…finally the spring warmth has crept in and we are getting the rain, sun, rain kind of days that are usual this time of year.

I think the plants in my garden that were holding back because of the cold days and nights last week will be exploding in bloom in no time.  I knew I would miss the beginning growth if I hesitated.

I sent a text to my friend Jo inviting her to join me and she showed up a few hours later ready to photograph the garden with me.

In my article last week I wrote, “why not photograph the flowers just as one would do a portrait.” So for our photos I got out two small 2’x2’ backdrops that Jo and I could place behind some of the flowers. Remember that I wrote that I used a small backdrop for flowers and other small items that is made of black velvet material attached to sharpened dowels that easily poke into the ground.

This time I mounted one wireless flash on a light stand, but decided not to use an umbrella. We took turns moving the flash for each other.

Jo shot with my 70-180mm AF macro and I used my 200mm Manual macro.

I also used the uniquely flexible Benbo tripod I wrote about last week. There was a slight intermittent breeze that was possible for Jo to overcome with her AF lens, but my manual lens had to have support, so the tripod was a must for me.

We were fortunate that the day was overcast. That made it easy to use a wide aperture to soften the background while still being able to underexpose the ambient light.

As I wrote last week, “The exposure was made exactly the same way I would have made it if photographing a person in an outdoor studio. Slightly underexpose the ambient light, position the flash for the best light direction, and continue to make tests until I got lighting that would flatter my subject.”

We wandered the garden looking for those flowers and plants that are early blooming and those that are just showing buds at the end of their branches.

For me, photographing my garden is a time consuming process that includes a tripod, an off-camera flash, a backdrop and a lot of walking around to find the right shape in the right location.

I met a biologist that decided to take up photography. He mostly used natural light and occasionally one of those inexpensive constant light kits. He would cut the plant that he wanted to photograph and use a clamp to position it. For me the process of photographing a flower usually includes its life cycle from the cool days of early spring to snowy winter days. So plant clippers, clamps and lights that plug into an electric outlet don’t work for me at all. I photographed the garden a few days ago. There has been rain and warm sun since then and I think it’ll rain again tomorrow. That mean I can expect may garden to have gone through a transition and photographing it will be a new experience. Spring, summer, fall and winter. It always is.

I will admit that I am not a gardener. I rarely remove weeds unless the get in the way of something I am doing. I don’t go through plant catalogues in the spring and can’t begin to name the plants that grow in my garden. But I do like to photograph those things that grow or just reside in my yard. My wife used to complain that I enjoyed the photography more than her garden. I disagreed. I like the garden because I like to photograph it.

Photographing the garden is calming and can be creative for those that take the time. That said here is a quote by Canadian photographer Freeman Patterson that I have used before.

In his book, “Photography and the Art of Seeing” he wrote, “ Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense, means using your senses, you intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you.”

Lighting flowers with off-camera flash   

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I intended to spend some time this week photographing the spring garden.

Last week I was sure that the days and nights would warm and I would have lots of colour to point my camera at. However, as with all the other surprising changes this year has brought the weather turned cold and although there is a lot of green in my yard there isn’t much else. With that I thought I’d repost this article I wrote in April 2014.

“The snow has finally, and at last, left the north side of our house. It’s barely been gone two weeks; nevertheless, that means two weeks of new growth in my wife’s garden.

My wife mentioned the crocuses were coming up everywhere I thought I’d check to see if there were any left after a weekend visit with our two granddaughters who like to pick flowers. As it turned out the girls hadn’t got them all and there were many more coming up everywhere. So I decided I should select a couple plants to photograph before the bloom was over.

I had been making notes in preparation for a workshop on using flash outdoors that I planned on leading the May.

I thought why not photograph the flowers just as I would do a portrait of a person. I got out a small 2’x2’ backdrop and placed it behind some of the flowers. That small backdrop, especially constructed for flowers and other small items, is made of black velvet material attached to sharpened dowels that easily poke into the ground.

I mounted two wireless flashes on light stands, and put a 40-inch umbrella on one placed shoulder height to my right and a 30-inch on the other positioned low to the ground on the left.

Needing to shoot low, I used my favourite garden tripod, the uniquely flexible Benbo. The Benbo tripod allows each leg to be independently positioned, and instead of a vertical center column configuration that most tripods have, the Benbo has a column that fits off center and when the legs, which go in almost any direction, are splayed out flat, the camera can be positioned just off the ground.

I mounted my 200mm macro lens on my camera. That focal length let me situate the camera several feet away from the crocuses so I wouldn’t have to put an end to the new growth coming up everywhere in my wife’s garden while still letting me have a close focus.

The exposure was made exactly the same way I would have made it if photographing a person in an outdoor studio. Slightly underexpose the ambient light, reposition the flashes for the best light direction, and continue to make tests until I got lighting that would flatter my subject.

Lighting a subject with off-camera flash is fun, and putting up a backdrop ensures that it is even more so. It doesn’t matter who or what the subject is because I like to use a flash.

For me portraiture is all about adding light. It was also really nice to spend some time outdoors in the garden and see it coming to life in the spring.

 

 

 

A spring drive with my infrared camera.

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The bright sunny spring day was perfect for infrared photography.

I hadn’t used my old camera that I had converted to infrared for quite a while. The last time it was used was by my friend Jo last February. The images Jo made in on that winter day were a fun change for her from the colourful photographs she was used to with her big 36mp Nikon.

Infrared is always a crowd pleaser and using an infrared camera is the best way to step away from what other photographers are doing.

After my failures at finding and photographing those tricky geese I figured it was time to get that IR camera out. I charged the batteries, set the white balance, made sure I had an empty memory card, mounted my ever-so-sharp Sigma 20-40mm lens on it, finished my cup of coffee and finally sat it on the seat beside me as I drove off to see what there was waiting for me to photograph in the next few hours.

I drove the rural roads around my home for a while, and then decided to check out the waterfall a bit down the highway.

There was lots of fast spring runoff water coming over the falls, but the little canyon was still in too much shade. To get dramatic infrared photographs of the falls I prefer a wide shot that includes vegetation. But on this day the shade made my unaltered infrared image mostly brown with only a few slashes of bright light drifting down to make some features blue. Without strong light the there won’t be bright white foliage and the final image wouldn’t be much different than a normal black and white picture. So I gave up and crossed through the small town of Chase to the lakeside.

The lakeside was in bright morning sun with blue sky and was perfect for infrared. There weren’t many people and the small grassy beach park was empty.

Infrared creates a completely different feeling. I have written before that using a modified camera is an exploration that moves a photographer far from the usual camera image and the final effect is quite unworldly. The bluer the sky, the greater the likelihood of that unworldly effect; and things that are white or have been turned white (like trees) can glow with an ethereal brightness.

My camera produces images that are limited it colour range. Unlike many modern infrared conversions that give many dramatic colours, the original pictures from my old 6mp camera are mostly shades of brown and blue. By altering the colour channels I can get a few different colours, but much of the time I prefer B&W.

At his writing I am thinking it might be time to see what Lifepixel.com has for sale with a newer, higher megapixel camera.

Black and white makes me think about the subject first and then the light, or how a subject looks in a particular light. Infrared, on the other hand, makes me think about the light first and then includes the subject. Of course the subject, and how it is composed and framed is important, but some things don’t look very different (depending on how the IR light is absorbed) than a colour image converted to black and white. With my old camera I must be thinking about the light first and then choose subjects that I think will look like they are photographed with infrared.

To me using an IR camera is always an exploration and certainly a discovery. And the best think about using infrared is how it allows me to create photographs “that are far from the usual.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spring Vancouver Camera Swap Meet.  

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Spring comes so much earlier at the coast than where I live.

My friends Jo, Laurie, Habiba and I made the trek to Vancouver for the spring used camera equipment sale, and we couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant day.

The sky was clear and the rain that usually has us rushing from our truck to the building was uncharacteristically missing.

Last October Laurie and I had decided we needed help at our tables so Laurie somehow convinced his wife, Habiba, to come and I couldn’t have kept Jo away with a stick. She had wanted to come ever since reading my articles about the great time I always have.

I warned Jo and Habiba that our day would start early. We had a quick 6AM breakfast at our hotel and jumped into Laurie’s equipment packed truck to drive to the show by 7:30AM. Then rushed to unpack and have our tables ready before the Vancouver Camera Swap Meet and sale at 9AM.

Laurie and I always go though the guessing game of What will Sell? Last time anything from the 1970s was popular and digital equipment was totally ignored so we packed our tables with film cameras and old manual lenses.

I did bring several modern digital lenses, but the younger crowd showed little interest in them opting instead to go with the camera types that I had used before most of them were born.

Personally, I am relieved not to be using film anymore. I got my first DSLR back in 2001 and haven’t looked back since. However, I will admit talking with young photographers excited with film is fun. I don’t know how long this craze will last, but there are lots of people searching for and listening to records these days and like that “retro” trend I expect film will be popular for some time to come, and I will continue to search out and sell cameras from the 1960s and 1970s.

As usual the camera sale was packed and I saw friends from years past and, as always, made new friends.

Talking with other photographers is so much fun.

This was Jo’s first camera sale. I had talked about what we’d be doing and what the sale would be like, but I knew she had no idea of the all-day frenzy.

The Vancouver Camera swap meet is non-stop fun from 7:30AM to 4PM. And although Jo is a great photographer and quick study, the cameras that filled the table were not what she had ever used. But a camera is a camera and she dove in head first talking with and showing cameras to the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. Way to go Jo.

I do hope she won’t be upset with me for including a photo of her at our table just minutes before the things got going.

In my last article I asked. “What keeps me coming back year after year?” Then answered “The people, of course”.   I also wrote that this camera event has, “ Antique, vintage, digital, and everything else for photography, new and used.

Looking at, touching and discussing some precious piece of camera equipment with someone you just met is darn fun, almost as much fun as making pictures.

The Vancouver camera show and sale is over for now, but Jo, Laurie and I are already talking about returning for the October show.

Those that read my last article about the camera sale must forgive me for again using a quote by the famous Canadian singer Celine Dion again, but is just seems to fit so well.

“I don’t know if the camera likes me, but I do like the camera”.

 

 

 

Photographing Fallis Pond on a warm spring evening.  

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I had been wondering how the pond up the road from my home was changing since my visit was only two weeks ago when the geese and ducks were wandering around on a thin layer of ice.

At that time the surrounding fields were beginning to turn green and the pond inhabitants seemed ready for spring. On that visit, other than a noisy goose on hill warning everyone of my presence, the pond was quiet.

This time I had checked my Honda’s manual and there wasn’t a stealth mode. But I suspected the geese would be hidden away nesting and doubted there would be any birds at all to photograph.

As I stopped at the pond and rolled down my window I was bombarded by a cacophony of sound. The sounds were not so much a warning as a celebration.

I pulled the car around and stopped at a high flat spot on the road so I would be out of danger from country drivers more intent on getting home along the winding road than watching for a parked car.

Although I had my camera and lens ready I just sat for a while listening to the discordant music of that country pond. There must have been hundreds of singing birds hidden out of sight.

As for the geese, I could see a few searching heads in the distance and there was only one big fellow guarding by the fence line.

The sun was low and the pond was reflecting colors that ducks swam through.

Not wanting to return with an empty memory card I took the opportunity to photograph two geese I spotted huddled close by and a bird or two perched on lifeless reeds still poking out along the pond’s edge.

I could have sat there till dark enjoying the evening concert, but I decided to head home, driving slowly in hopes of seeing other subject in the fading light.

I’ll return in a week or two just to keep up with the changes. There won’t be goslings or ducklings for me to photograph for about 30 days, but I the pond is only a short drive from my home, and I am sure there will be lots of “spring” opportunities to photograph as I wait.

I headed to Vancouver this past weekend with my camera. The substantial change of scenery was invigorating. I went with 3 friends and took the chance to wander the coast for some late afternoon. Ahh….the exciting life of a photographer.

My first geese photos of the year.  

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The ice has been melting along the river all week long and I wondered if the pond up on Duck Range had melted enough for the geese to return.

The days have been warm, but the nights were staying at freezing or near freezing. However, in spite of the day’s constant drizzle of cool rain I was curious to see if there were geese on the pond and if there were any goslings yet.

I suspected I was early, but grabbed my camera, put the ISO up to 800, then mounted my 150-600mm on it, tossed the beanbag on the front seat of my car and headed out up the road to see.

I slowed down just before getting to the pond and rolled my window down. Hmmm, there is a hint that I am from a past generation. I haven’t seen a car that one must actually turn a crank to “roll down” a window in years. Anyway I pressed the switch and the window slowly and quietly sank out of sight.

I drove very slow hoping I wouldn’t disturb the geese. Ha, fat chance! From the rise above the pond there began a loud racket of honking sound. There went my attempt at sneaking up on the anything near that pond. I’ll have to check my Honda’s manual to see if there is a stealth mode.

The pond was filled with ducks and geese, but no ducklings or goslings yet.

I photographed the three sentinels before they could find cover. Then drove past and turned around so I could stop and shoot from the cover of my car.

Much of the pond still had a smooth cover of ice and there were more than one kind of duck paddling along the edge or just standing enjoying the slight drizzle that had been going all day.

I photographed the ducks and what geese I could see on the pond and tried to get some good photos of the geese that noisily flew off.   I didn’t do badly, but I think some of the avid bird photographers I know in Kamloops would have been better prepared than I was when the pond exploded with splashing water and flapping feathers.

I stayed for a while and the pond calmed down and became quiet giving me at least a chance to photograph the ducks and geese that finally decided to ignore me.

Those that read my articles about trying to photograph the pond’s geese last year will remember my disappointment because they were nesting and feeding on the opposite side of the hill. This was my first trip to the pond to photograph the geese and I am determined to get some good shots this year and plan on a weekly visit.

I left the beanbag in my car just in case.

Black and White Photography 

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chrysanthemum

Red Crown Gas

Fat Cat on a warm spring morning

Granville street bridge

Thompson River by Jo McAvany

Country street

Spring is on the way and with it is blossoming colour.

Only a week ago the walk from the driveway to my home was frozen with snow still clinging to the rocks that hold the garden back. However, yesterday morning the walk was almost dry with grass beginning to frame the border.

One would think that the talk from photographers stopping by my shop would be about spring colours. Ahh…but there was not even a word about how nice it would be to photograph all that springing colour.

The first phone call of the morning was from a frustrated student that needed to complete an assignment asking me if I sold Ilford black and white film. I don’t.

A bit later a fellow I hadn’t seen for a while stopped to say hello and we talked about shooting infrared. He was hoping I could help him find an infrared camera.

I had just this past week missed out on a good deal on a converted camera, but the spring used camera sale will be at the end of next month in Vancouver and I suggested he join me there.

That conversation continued when he showed me some black and white infrared photographs that he had found online.

Later that afternoon my friend Drew showed up just as another photographer and I were admiring some of the excellent images made by members of a Facebook black and white photography group.

The three of us looked at pictures and talked about B&W until closing time.

One would think with the ease that modern DSLRs make colourful photographs that there would be little serious interest in black and white. After all, to make a good B&W image one should use some kind of editing program that allows adjustment of the different colour tonality.

I am sure the numbers of photographers that actually produce B&W are few compared to colour, but there are many avid groups on Facebook and Flickr that are dedicated to what has become to be called “monochrome” photography.

I pick and choose which of my images gets converted. Sometimes the subject deserves to be shown as B&W. And when I mentioned to my close friend and photo-partner, Jo McAvany that I was going to write about black and white she insisted that I stop by to get a B&W photo of the river she had taken earlier in the day.

I still remember the time when colour was almost non-existent. Once in a while someone would have the money and shoot a roll of colour, but most of the families in the neighbourhood I grew up in only could afford black and white film. Some people didn’t like colour pictures. I remember my aunt critically looking at some pictures at a family gathering that they “just didn’t look natural”. And as I have written before, when I first got into photography I preferred B&W.

I strongly believe a successful black and white photograph depends on its ability to communicate. It doesn’t depend on eye-catching colours for its’ visual presentation. Those B&W images that stand out combine attention to light, shadow, composition and perspective.

Ted Grant, widely regarded as the father of Canadian photojournalism wrote,

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!”

I think that black and white photography is far from being left behind, and in my opinion, with the current processing software, updates in high quality printers, and printing papers black and white image-making will continue to be an option for many serious photographers.