Golden Sand
The blue/yellow polarizing filter is something I rarely use but when I arrived at the beach and realized I had forgotten my standard neutral polarizer — that was as good of an excuse as any to add some color.
Today’s Image – Golden Sand
Sand ripples and reflections in Brackley Beach, PEI National Park.
Big Week of Birding
I am still not a very good birder. I can hear them. Sometimes I can see them. But more often than not, I can’t identify them. If I’m lucky, they’ll land at a close enough distance for an ok photograph.
It’s now June and we’re in the middle of birding week.
The full schedule of events is posted on the Parks Canada website.
“Prince Edward Island National Park is hosting its first-ever Big Week of Birding June 1-10 in honour of its 75th anniversary and inviting beginner and advanced birders to take part” – The Guardian
Today’s Image – The Iconic Bald Eagle
The Gaspereau are running and it’s the season when the eagles gather around the shore lines to feed on fish. While the images I made were not technically perfect, they are still pretty good reference shots. For a giant intimidating bird, they are extremely fearful and incredibly difficult to get close to on Prince Edward Island.
A Photographers Travel Checklist
It’s that time again when I must recheck and recheck again to make sure I have all the necessities before packing the camera on a plane and traveling off to a location not-so-close to home. I will soon be in Iceland with a few photographer friends and while packing light is always the priority — having enough to get by for a couple weeks is a concern as well.
My pack list from my American Southwest adventure this past fall proved to be successful but I must admit with all the restrictions and frustrations of travel — I do miss the days when all I had was a small pocket camera.
Today’s Image – Virgin River in Zion National Park
In the spirit of travel and because I’m not yet in Iceland, today’s image is flash back from my November trip to the Southwest National Parks. The first stop was Zion National Park and here I am along side the Pa’rus trail (N 37 12.894 W 112 58.524) in the Virgin River looking south.
The Handcuffs and Temptation of Stock Agencies
Someone finds your work on Flickr. They contact Getty Images to buy it. Getty Images contacts you for permission to sell it to their buyer. Do you do it?
The Dance With Wildlife
It can be challenging at the best of times to come close enough with wildlife. There is always that dance to position yourself in the hopes you do not disturb or scare the bird into flying away. You repeat the cycle of slowing moving closer as they slowly move further away. With each step closer, you fire off a few frames just in case it’s your last.
Today’s Image – Red-winged Blackbird
This small Red-winged Blackbird was special and tolerated my presence more than usual. However, what I was not expecting, was right before I got to that “I can almost fill the frame” distance, my cell phone started to ring.
Coincidence or not and now patent pending — this little guy answered the call.
Prince Edward Island Prints
I have been enjoying printing so much with the new printer, I mentioned last week that I would mail out a free print to a random commenter on Facebook. I had a hard time selecting only 1 — so I selected 4 names from the 161 entries I received (If I could, I’d send something to everyone). After copying all the names into a spreadsheet, I asked my soon-to-be-wife across the room for 2 random numbers and then I used random.org to select two more names. The 4 recipients by random draw were Paula Hughes, Wendy Mumma, Noel Clancey and Amber Phillips. Thank you to all those that were interested.
Lets do this again in late June but here on the blog to avoid the no contests on Facebook TOS. Subscribe to this blog by email or by rss if you would like to stay informed of future print give aways.
If you would still like a print now, for the next week until May 27th 2012, I will ship any 8.5×11 print you want for a reduced introduction price of $20 (shipping and taxes included).
Visit www.stephendesroches.com/prints for complete details.
Today’s Image – Prince Edward Island Fine Art Photography Prints
All prints are created on a heavy 300+ g/m² fine art acid-free paper using the latest in Epsons Ultrachrome K3 inks. Printed on 8.5×11 sheets with large white borders, the dimensions of the image are custom to the artist and will require custom matting. To make this truly fine art, I do not want to be hand cuffed by pre-determined paper or frame sizes. 8×10 is just not acceptable for everything.
Examples on how to mat are listed here: www.stephendesroches.com/prints
Changing of the Seasons
Spring is well under way and with the snow and ice long gone — temperatures often still require dressing fairly warm with hats and gloves. The water is moving, shades of green are filling in and before long, summer will be here and I’ll be complaining how hot is it. ;-)
Today’s Image – Island Spring Stream
Nature at times can be quite a mess of details and colours. Here’s trying to organize and make sense of it all in a single image. There is a fair bit to absorb in this one.
2012 Canada East Wrestling
This past weekend, wrestlers from as far away as Ontario gathered in Charlottetown for the 2012 Canada East Wrestling Festival. Over the course of two days, several hundred matches took place and I joined Spin Photo Sports Photography and The Picture Guy as an additional shooter on the mat.
Today’s Image – Wrestling at Cody Banks Arena, Charlottetown, PEI
After 8 hours of not stop coverage shooting from mat level, I feel like I might have been in a match myself. This and the next 25 images are some of my favourites from what I shot on Saturday.
The color files and prints are available from the Spin Photo website.
A Co-op Photography Art Gallery in Charlottetown?
When I’m in Halifax, I try to stop in for a visit at the ViewPoint Gallery on Barrington — a shared street level gallery space operated by a hand selected membership. It’s kind of like an advanced photo club and part of me is slightly jealous a similar concept doesn’t exist in Charlottetown.
I was recently invited over to Truro to speak at a morning seminar to the ImageMakers Photography Club and took the opportunity to keep going into downtown Halifax to attend the opening reception of a show at ViewPoint sponsored by Atlantic Photo Supply. Photographers from around the maritimes of all skill levels showcased 155 powerful images in commercial, wedding, portrait and fine art categories. The basis of the show was to celebrate the expansion of Atlantic Photo Supply.
If you are in Halifax before June 3rd, this months display at ViewPoint is a collection of infrared images by the always popular Eric Boutilier-Brown. I’m going to miss it but was lucky enough to be in Halifax for Eric’s previous two shows Frozen Light and Symmetry in Stone. I would like to point out this one single image “The Gift” and it’s description. The photographers in the crowd will enjoy the technical specs.
Today’s Image – The Power and Importance of the Buoy
Here, I am playing in the water at North Rustico (N 46 27.362 W 63 17.408) trying to frame and illustrate the role of the red and green buoy that fishing boats must enter and exit between. On either side is shallow and lined with unforgiving rocks.