Fun in the Sky – PEI Aerial Photography
I spend alot of time looking at maps. Either it be paper or software, I like having that overview visual of any location I’m photographing. In fact – When the software I use to keep my images organized announced all the newest and latest features – I was most excited for the ability to tag images to a digital map. Having this overview is great but seeing it for yourself is a completely different experience and what can be better then flying over Prince Edward Island in a small 4 seater Cessna?
Holding out for good weather can be frustrating but I recently took to the skies for my first flight of 2012. Here are just a few of the images created in early July 2012.
I really need to do this more often.
Today’s Image – Cape Tryon
I have talked about this lighthouse a few times in previous posts as it’s one of the most photographed and famous of the 63 lighthouses surrounding Prince Edward Island. It also happens to be declared as surplus and the risk of loosing it is very real. The land from the Cape Tryon Lighthouse (lower right) all the way to the New London Lighthouse (center top) is all part of the L.M. Montgomery Seashore.
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.
Under the Heat (with Honest Image Critiques)
We live in a world that’s politically incorrect to be negative. In this world where we can do no wrong, you’ll often see complaints among photographers about how Facebook and Flickr, etc are a celebration of everyones work. It has the maximum encouragement because every single photo is the best and those that break that trend are looked down on. Which is totally fair because it’s all personal preferences. There is a reason there is no dislike button. It’s how these sites were designed to work. Negative commenting just looks bad.
So I’m not suggesting this type of commenting is wrong and the support is needed but if it were all true, we’d all be fantastic and if we were all fantastic, how does one feel the need to improve? Finding critiques is hard and receiving qualified critiques is even harder. The two local competitions that I know of are held by the PPOC and PEI Photo Club. While at different levels, the live judging is a great experience to watch. You can learn so much even on the prints that are not your own. And whether I agree with the comments or not, I want to hear the negatives just as much, if not more than the positive ones. After all, I already liked the photo enough to share it.
For the past two years, I have volunteered my time to help organize the photo print show for the PEI Photo Club and part of the exhibit involves hiring judges to provide constructive reviews for each and every print. Judges range from photographers, painters, instructors, designers and gallery owners. I don’t remember all of the positive comments but I do remember all of the negative ones still 3 years later. They have forever greatly impacted my opinions on the specific elements the comments were referring to.
If you’re local to PEI and that alone is not enough incentive to participate, we have put together a nice little bundle of prizes this year that might possibly rival the generous sponsorship from Think Tank Photo last year. This year I approached all the self publishing educators that I’ve personally bought from and asked for help. I was hoping at least 1 would reply but I’m happy to say all but 2 responded and I feel we have a real winning team of support this year from: Craft & Vision, Kelby Training, The Luminous Landscape, Guy Tal, Bruce Percy, oopoomoo, Jay & Varina Patel, OPC Magazine, Stuck in Customs, flatbooks and Atlantic Photo Supply.
This years show will be opened to the public in downtown Charlottetown from July 9th – 30th at The Guild Gallery. Full details can be found at www.peiphotoclub.com.
Today’s Image – Breathing Warm Light
Made during a Cirque du Soleil parade down Great George Street in Charlottetown, this free to attend parade at dusk was the march to the waterfront for their stage performance during the Summerfest Festival in 2010. This was my most successful image from last years show.
and here are some more of my other entries over the past years.
The Guiding Light
I need to be careful or this blog could easily turn into a save the lighthouse campaign. Last week I made a post about the upcoming deadline when several island lighthouses will be shut down. I followed that up with a post about Saving of the Brighton Beach Range Light. At that time, it was very unclear to me which ones and how many of these structures were in danger.
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?
Annual Photoblog Awards
First inspired by Noah Grey, Sam Javanrouh and David Nightingale, I retired my weblog and jumped on the photoblog bandwagon back in late 2005 and challenged myself to post a new photo every single day. The concept of a photoblog was simple. It was about the image and any text was secondary and often hidden behind a link. Click on the photo, see the next one.
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.
Subscribing to Software
The most important tool I have to do my job is Photoshop. Both in terms of photography but as well as illustrations, graphics and page layouts. Along with Lightroom and occasional use of Illustrator, InDesign, Bridge and Acrobat, Adobe plays a big role in my daily life.
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.
Predicting Weather
Today was interesting. What started with very high wind warnings mixed with rain and snow fall followed by a night without electricity, the sky was looking dark and dull at 6 am. I made the mistake to stay home and watch what could have been the most dramatic sunrise of the year to date. Snooze you lose.
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.
Welcome to 2012
The older we get, the faster time starts to move and here we are already looking at a 2012 calendar. Best wishes in what ever adventures the new year will bring you. I know the list of tasks I want to accomplish this year is already fairly long.
Today started as a very grey and rainy day with no signs of any chance of sunlight through the thick overcast. With a few hours to kill before a meeting, I started driving out of town with the intentions of looking for locations when the weather was not so dull. What I was not expecting was the sky to completely open up after about 30 minutes of driving west of Summerside and by sunset – having 60 minutes of clear skies.
Today’s Image – Cape Egmont Lighthouse
This evening to kick start 2012 was particularly challenge with cold temperatures and wind gusts almost reaching 50km/h. Wind is for sure more difficult to shoot in then freezing temperatures. Add the salt water spray from the sea to a 25 second exposure in the wind and you get this oddly foggy image from a dirty lens. I still think it’s a keeper. The Lighthouse in Cape Egmont is located at N 46 24.107 W 64 08.002 and relatively easy to access via a single lane gravel road.
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)