Significant Changes

I routinely visit Covehead in PEI National Park and I still can’t believe how much can and has changed from year to year. What once was a sand dune, is now a clear view out to sea.

Today’s Image – New Stream at Covehead

A year ago and this stream did not exist. The lake (pond?) in the distance was not accessible and separated by a sand dune but today is part of the beach and connected to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I do not have a great before image but if we compare it to this image of the Northern Lights looking in the opposite direction, you can get a sense of the separation. Using Google maps, we can still see at N 46 25.746 W 63 09.117 how isolated it was just last summer.

Painting With Light

It has been many years since I last finished a painting using traditional mediums and I have a desk full of paints, inks, pens and brushes that now only collect dust. I’ve completely surrendered to the digital world but although I’ve stopped mixing paints, I still feel like I create images with a similar purpose routinely reminding myself artist first, photographer second.

Comparing the two can be interesting. If I was to frame the same scene and take the necessary time to paint only what was in front of me – what would I include and what would I not include? That mental reminder will keep you monitoring the frames edges before clicking away.

The majority of my work is not shot for clients. It’s not created for stock. And I am never thinking about sales. My goal is to create something visually attractive that might possibly look good as a print on my wall. How would this look as a 40 inch fine art piece on canvas?

If others enjoy it too, that’s all the more rewarding.

Today’s Image – The End of the Rainbow

Tonight had a little bit of everything in the National Park near Covehead (N 46 25.797 W 63 08.490). A mix of good light, heavy storm clouds, a light rain followed up by a rainbow. I spend over an hour photographing this rock and with almost 100 frames to show for it, this was my selected keeper for angle and wave movement. I’ll keep the rest and revisit them some day.

Northern Lights over PEI

The Aurora is something we rarely see on Prince Edward Island but for the past week it feels like it has been routinely in the news due to high CME activity. Some of the images coming out of Iceland and western Canada have been incredible but despite all – I have not heard of anyone local to PEI witness the show this week.

Landscape and nature photography can often be rewarding but also very frustration with one trip after another to the same location time and time again – only to return without what you went for. We chase weather and we chase light. Two forces that are hard to predict and over the past 7 days, I have fallen asleep more than once parked in my car staring at the sky in the early hours of the morning on the north shore.

Today’s Image – Prince Edward Island Northern Lights

As rare as it may be – the lights can be seen when all the stars align. This is an image from last summer in the National Park. The posts you see next to the road are the relatively new don’t park here along the Gulf Parkway. This particular night remains to be the first and only night I have witnessed the show in person.

PEI National Park

2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the National Park System on Prince Edward Island and park officials are preparing for a year of celebrations. I believe the actual anniversary is in April so keep an eye on Parks and People for updates and events as we get closer to summer.

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.

Read more »

Bryce Canyon National Park

What a busy month. After returning on Nov 15th, it has been three weeks of little to no photography. My days, evenings, sometimes nights have been mostly occupied with design and post processing behind a desk. Add the quickly approaching holiday season and if feels like time has completely disappeared.

In fact, the only time the camera has left the house was for a college football championship that I was asked to cover – which I gladly did. Next to landscapes and nature – sports photography is just as exciting and challenging. Both styles has that feel of a hunt for a perfect frame with no second chances. Here are 55 images from the game on Facebook. Congrats to our local team.

Today’s Image – Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon is a land of hoodoos – several tall, thin spire rock formations. While preparing for this trip, I was warned several times that not only was I heading towards top tourist destinations but also top destinations for photographers. While prepared for the typical everyone has a camera in today’s world situation, I was still shocked at the numbers. I am use to being alone until 7am or later and even this close to winter, it felt like every hiker in Zion National Park was carrying a tripod. In Bryce, the trails were lined with tripods all pointing in the same direction. When I arrived about an hour before sunrise, it felt like I was late to some party. I had also stumbled into several workshops on 3 different days.

I have now shared 26 images from my American Southwest trip but still only scratching the survace of what might be good enough to share. There will be many more to come. See them all at 365.focusedonlight.com or on Facebook.

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)

Read more »