World Wide Photo Walking on PEI

For the past 4 years, Scott Kelby has organized a World Wide Photo Walk – a simple social event where several people get together for a small period of time and make images along a predetermined route. What’s different here, is that Scott has managed to organize a walk to take place in over 1100 cities with 30,000 participants all on the same day. The first year, I was lucky enough to be in Vancouver during the date and joined leader David duChemin but since then, I have organized and led the PEI leg of the walk. (2011, 2010, 2009 / group photos)

Today’s Image – Cavendish Beach

With so many locations, it’s impossible for everyone to have perfect weather and unfortunately it was our turn to get the rain. The forecast was actually a heavy rain and high winds storm warning and 60mm of rain falling the day before. Despite this challenge, many walkers still attended this grey morning. I like my colors but due to a foggy and dull morning with little to no color in the sky – black and white it is. (N 46 29.962 W 63 23.376)

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Craft and Vision

The fall season on Prince Edward Island is well under way and the leaves are quickly dieing, changing color and falling to the ground. Although this time of year leading up to winter is great for colors, the window of opportunity is limited to only a couple weeks. As I prepare for an extended photo trip off Island, I have been hoping to get at least a few images of autumn while I have the chance.

Today’s photo was made this past Sunday. If you follow me on Google +, Twitter, or Facebook – you may have seen the iPhone photo while I waited for clouds to fill in the top left.

Today’s Image – Bells Pond

A popular spot within the Islands Photo Clubs, Bells Pond (N 46 23.429 W 63 20.373) feels like an all too often visited location in New Glasgow but after 2 hours of hunting for fall colors, I finally gave up and headed to this familiar spot around 9am. It was a very windy morning with all kinds of motion. After several attempts (98 to be exact) on angles and the right amount of motion, the one I actually selected to share here happens to be the first. While I did try f16 and higher, this image was at f8 at 30s using a polarizer and Hitech Pro Stop 3.0 ND.

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Prince Edward Island Photography

The Island is relatively small and one can drive from coast to coast in only a few hours. With the exception of private property, most places are easily accessible by car but calling PEI home for 30 years can easily ignore all of this and it quickly becomes something taken for granted and routine. When I retired my paintbrush for a camera almost 10 years ago, I was focused on travel and kept my camera unused when at home. That was unfortunate because with a little bit of effort, Prince Edward Island has so much to offer.

With each passing year, my effort to keep my image library growing increases (more about this after today’s photo). It’s a slow process chasing and waiting for interesting light and weather but it can also be a rewarding one.

Today’s Image – Cape Turner

With over 800km of coastline, the high content of rust in the soil produces our visibly red identity which is especially saturated during the first 10 minutes of sunrise or last 10 minutes of sunset. The Gulf Shore Parkway that connects Cavendish and Rustico has many access points down to the beach and the base of our eroding shoreline. Located at N 46 29.087 W 63 18.668, Cape Turner is a somewhat hidden cove with fewer visitors but is unique in that it faces east and directly into the rising sun. As a result, it’s also completely shaded during sunset.

Update: I’ve had a few comments about the over saturated reds and while I had debated toning them down – decided to leave them as the camera recorded it. For the first 10 minutes of a clear day, a longer exposure (only 2 seconds here) really increases the color depth of these reds.

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Hello world!

For the 2nd time since I started this blog in 2001, I have decided to reset the archives and start over. The first major change was on January 1st 2006. After following and being inspired by Sam Javanrouh and David Nightingale, I stopped writing and went to a single photo per day in a 365 styled project. That has now lasted 6 years but not without limitations and challenges. I found myself often playing catch up and quickly posting “filler” photos to stay current. With a design so focused on the image alone, it made for writing about anything else near impossible

So back to a traditional blog I go. Instead of spreading a series of photos over weeks 1 day at a time, I hope to do it over a couple posts. A format that encourages better descriptions, stories and processing techniques.

From a technical point of view, I was using Folderblog to manage content and although super easy to setup and use, this abandoned product is outdated with many limitations. Making the jump to WordPress has many exciting features.

With that being said, here starts the next chapter of the Focused on Light photography and design weblog. For reference, I have archived the last 6 years of photos at 365.focusedonlight.com for for now, will continue to update it.

Today’s Image – St. Peters, Prince Edward Island

Located on the North Shore of PEI, Canada, this outlet from St. Peters Lake is located roughly around N 46 26.368 W 62 46.553. The wide 17mm framing of a strong “S” shaped curve was intended to pull the viewer up and anchored with cloud formations in both top corners. My hopes is that you can feel your feet slightly being wet. Not visible in this image but a cool and windy late August evening was the cause of some fairly aggressive blowing sand.