Today’s Image – Green Gables in Winter

Cavendish is home to the popular tourist attraction Anne of Green Gables. Visitors and fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery travel from around the world to visit this house all summer long but very few walk these grounds in the middle of winter. The Green Gables Heritage Place is included in this years 75th anniversary celebrations of PEI National Park.

Cavendish is also the home to several family adventure parks. Here sits a quiet Cavendish amusement park under a blanket of snow waiting for the excitement of spring.

You may be asking yourself what the heck is a Bloggie? I kind of did too. It’s no Webby but I remember 12 years ago when the Bloggie awards were first introduced. A fun little competition that actually received a fair bit of attention. Fast forward to 2012 and I had forgotten all about them until Sandee left me a comment this morning letting me know how she found my site through the 2012 nominations. Surprise. Not only did someone take the effort to nominate this weblog but Focused on Light has actually some how ended up as a finalist for “Best Photography of a Weblog”.

And of course, now that I’m aware of the nomination, the competitor in me would like to win so I’m going to run with it. If you agree with the nomination, please consider voting at http://2012.bloggi.es/. Voting ends Feb 18th and you could help me win 2,012 pennies.

It’s oddly timed due to a recent archives reset. So much has changed since I started this weblog back in 2001 and originally under the domain newrecruit.org. Somebody must be visiting and maybe even reading it.

Today’s Image – Traces of Snow and Ice

A small stream that runs under the Gulf Shore Parkway from Rollings Pond out to the beach. While deep in parts, if you are careful, you can navigate your way out to the center by rock hopping without getting your feet wet. You will find this location (N 46 27.790 W 63 17.936) just past the entrance to PEI National Park on the North Rustico side.

I realize this topic has been abused to no end but for those not familiar, the original purpose of hdr (or high dynamic range) was to deal with the range of light that the eye can see but the camera can not. Our eyes can adjust for high contrast scenes from the very bright to the very dark. The technology in today’s cameras can’t do that yet forcing us to make a creative decision to either silhouette the shadows or over expose and blow out the highlights. In these high contrast scenes, the camera can not physically record what the eye sees.

Today’s Image – South Rim of the Grand Canyon

In late October, I went on a trip through the American Southwest to experience first hand the landscape that has become so famous among photographers. My first night at the Grand Canyon was a good example of the vast range of light. With bright white snow at my feet, a dark and deep canyon in the distance and a bright setting sun behind a bank of clouds, the scene was simply more then a camera could handle in a single exposure without compromises.

Before and After

The technical difficulties are apparent. As a photographer with today’s limitations, you are forced to make an exposure decision. Make one area too dark or one area too bright. To record as much details as I could, I made 3 images from this location with the intention of using the best from each.

The following image shows the before and after. Use the slider to transition between them. The photo on the right side is the compromise exposing for the canyon which makes the top left very bright. The left side is what a little bit of blending 3 images together can accomplish. I can assure you that to the eye, all areas including the colors of sunset as well as the canyon floor were visible.

Why start with the brighter image? If we are familiar with the concept of exposing to the right — to capture the highest quality of detail with the least amount of noise, we make the image brighter than it should be without clipping the highlights. When you get back to the computer, you darken the image back down to where it should be and the areas that are blown out and can not be recovered, are merged in from the other darker exposures. There are several different ways to do this so I’ll save the actual steps for a future post.

The idea behind this entire post got stuck in my head while preparing an artists statement. Hardware manufactures are not the be all and end all so let’s not look down on post processing as a whole. Software is created to compensate for what hardware still can’t do. Don’t let technology be your handcuffs.

With the permission of Carol Livingstone (President of the PEI Lighthouse Society ⁽¹⁾), I am making available The Guiding Light Newsletter (PDF). This semiannual publication that is available only to members provides a full list of updates and the current status of our 63 lighthouses and ranges. If you refer to page 20, you’ll see the list of lighthouses currently not being petitioned.

“Any lighthouses not claimed by community groups or municipalities by May 31 will either be put up for sale to the public or torn down.” CBC

Download the January 2012 issue of The Guiding Light. (PDF)

Today’s Image – Cape Tryon Lighthouse

With access only through private property, this light is located on the north shore west of Cavendish in the French River and Park Corner area. The still active Cape Tryon Lighthouse is a bit of a staple in Island marketing and an often photographed location. I had a chance to visit early this morning under some very chilly conditions. The regular high coastal winds did not help. The Cape Tryon Lighthouse is located on land currently trying to be protected from development by the L.M. Montgomery Land Trust.

This lighthouse is one of the many listed on page 20. What will be it’s fate on June 1st 2012?

The lighthouse is not in a harbour but on the outer coast in open water. At 40.7 feet tall and a two-second flash every six seconds, it’s job is a warning of the shallow water extending out from the coast.

The lighthouse itself sits on the edge of a coastline with heights of 110 feet.

Footer Notes

⁽¹⁾ The purpose of the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse society is to aid in the preservation of lighthouses of the area and to work with the Canadian Coast Guard and other agencies, to achieve the safekeeping of the buildings, artifacts and records of Prince Edward Island Lighthouses. Membership to PEI Lighthouse Society is $35.00 annually and includes two issues of The Guiding Light as well as a 50% discount for two at the nine open lighthouses. This free distribution of The Guiding Light is a one time only endeavour because it is so important for Islanders to get the facts and act now to petition for one of our unclaimed lighthouses. The funds help to aid in the efforts to preserve these historic beacons for future generations.

I was relatively successful with regular posts and by 2009 had generated a small audience. To start 2012, Focused on Light was listed for the 3rd year in row as a finalist in the yearly Photoblog Awards – a fun competition voted on by the photoblog community.

2011: Best North American Photoblog
2011: Best Landscape Photoblog
2010: Best North American Photoblog
2009: Best North American Photoblog

This year I am unintentionally challenging myself by flipping this website upside down and back to a more traditional weblog. The process broke any and all subscription feeds which will surely hurt traffic. I will also not be updating daily but attempting to provide much more context and stories to the images I post. We’ll soon see if this change was for better or worse.

If you own a photoblog or weblog of your own, feel free to link to it in the comments so I can learn more about you.

Today’s Image – A New Beginning

One more from the archives before I set out tomorrow to create new work. Some of the best sunrises are when the sky is completely overcast. If you’re lucky, there may be a small opening for the sun to light everything up from below. This early morning in June 2010 offered just that for only a minute or two. It still remains as one of my favorites.

With CS6 on the doorstep for a release in the very near future, Adobe has announced a pricing change starting Jan 1st 2013 that will drop the 3 version old upgrade rule to 1 qualifying only the most recent version to be upgraded. All other users would go to a subscription model (or pay full price again).

I currently subscribe to a licenses for InDesign and it works great. I pay for it when I need it. Photoshop on the other hand is daily. It’s a $200 upgrade every 18 months which averages out to roughly $12 a month. Pretty good considering my full salary is based on what I can do with it. However, this pricing model does not force you to upgrade. For the casual user, you may only want to pay the $200 upgrade every 3 versions (or approximately every 4.5 years).

While it’s kind of implied that subscription rates will drop for CS6 (it’s currently $50/month per app), it’s not for certain and while I’m currently more then willing to pay $10-$15 per app each month to always have the latest, once we commit to a subscription arrangement with Adobe, there is no going back. What happens in 2 or 3 years when the monthly rates triple? Skipping an upgrade will no longer be an option and we must upgrade regardless of what Adobe releases.

Imagine a world where all commercial software was subscription based similar to how many web services work.

It’s coming.

Today’s Image – Waters Edge

It has been a week of desk work so today’s image comes from the 2010 archives. A 3.2 second exposure of the tide coming in and minutes away from disturbing a resting shell in the sand. The idea feels appropriate for the topic. We are on that edge where traditional desktop software is changing.

It ended up being a very nice day but by mid afternoon it looked like those heavy clouds were rolling in again and the sun would be gone well before sunset. I decided for the second time to stay home. Another mistake as the sun once again proved me wrong. Trying not to write off the complete day and only 30 minutes before sunset, I quickly made my way downtown to Victoria Park to make 6 images before days end.

I have pretty much accepted that I can’t predict how the light will be.

Today’s Image – Brighton Beach Range Front

Ice breaking away into the North (Yorke) River at the west end of Victoria Park and the start of the community of Brighton. In the distance is the range light that shines directly out to the entrance of the Charlottetown Harbour. Charlottetown City Councillor Rob Lantz wrote a blog post earlier this week titled “Saving the Brighton Beach Range Light” which relates to the post I made yesterday.

The Lighthouse map issued by the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society has 63 listed in total making it the highest concentration of lighthouses in any province or state in North America. 21 are already decommissioned, 13 are listed as private and only 3 not accessible by car. 9 are opened to the public.

Today’s Image – St. Peter’s Harbour Lighthouse

With upwards of 60 lighthouses and ranges around our small coastline – not all of them are still in great shape. Particularly the one just west of Greenwich. It has for sure seen better days. Nested in the dunes, this lighthouse is accessible by an unpaved road or a long walk on the beach.

Cape Tryon Lighthouse

Built in 1905, the lighthouse lives along the highest cliffs on the island but completely surrounded by private property. This land is part of the L.M. Montgomery Land Trust. Tryon is easily one of the favorites among visitors and photographers.

Wood Islands Lighthouse

If you arrive or depart from Nova Scotia via the Ferry, this is one of the 3 lighthouses/ranges you’ll be greeted with at the terminals. Built in 1876.

New London Lighthouse

Built in 1876, this lighthouse is located at the beach entrance from French River and the opening of New London Bay. Across the bay is a view of the Cavendish sand dunes. This lighthouse is currently one of the few nominated for the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act.

Seacow Head Lighthouse

Built in 1864 and one of the oldest wood frame towers standing in the Maritimes, this lighthouse overlooks the Confederation Bridge from a distance. (just barely visible at this resolution)

Cape Bear Lighthouse

Built in 1881 and tucked away in the trees, this building hugs very closely to the cliffs edge.

Covehead Harbour Lighthouse

Built in 1967, this is one of the easiest lighthouses to find and possibly the most visited due to it’s location inside the National Park. It might as well be considered part of the Gulf Shore Parkway Drive.

Parks Canada has also has recently announced that entrance fees will remain the same. However, a summer never goes by where locals do not complain about paying for beach access. (Possibly the same people who believe the Confederation Bridge should be free). While I don’t know how the money is spent or what the operating costs are compared to a provincial park – this “fortune” that we’re always complaining about is only a $20 annual pass.

Today’s Image – A Frozen Bowley Pond

Bowley Pond is in Greenwich and became part of the National Park in 1998.

Life on the Pond

While I tend to shy away from portraits or weddings, most types of photography can relate to this. My primary interest is documenting the natural world and it’s surprising how fast that changes. With today’s development demands for more land, our environmental problems with climate change and the natural progression of mother nature, the world we live in changes at a very rapid pace.

What is today was not what it was 10 years ago and is not what it will be 10 years from now.

Today’s Image – Erosion

If you ever visit the coast of Prince Edward Island, you’ll quickly find that no matter where you go, platforms of sandstone rock stand freely in the open waters. It’s hard to imagine that the coastline actually extended out that far at one time. In a few short years, these final remains will also be forever lost – but new ones will form as the process continues to shape this province.

It’s Important

To continue with the point of importance – my second photographic love is for events and sports. Another style of photography that often only allows for one chance. One could argue that a concert performance is not unique because the next will most likely be similar. However. This past summer I was working for Festivals & Events PEI covering the Cavendish Beach Music Festival and one of the most memorable performances for me that day was a very energetic performance by one particular band that had everyone on their feet. Nobody in that venue could have ever predicted that the following morning, the base player would lose his life in a vehicle accident on the way home. The images made that evening would be of this individuals last performance.

Carry a camera always and shoot often.