Topaz Clarity along the Rosseau River

Lower Rosseau Falls, Muskoka, Ontario

I have been having a rather hectic week. Last weekend was our annual opening of the cottage on Horseshoe Lake in Ontario’s Parry Sound region, and there is always tons of work to be done to get it ready for the coming season. After much of the work was completed it was time to take a break and make the short drive over to Lower Rosseau Falls on the Rosseau River in Ontario’s Muskoka District. It almost felt like an autumn photo trip as many of the newly emerging maple leaves were brilliant reds and yellows.

These two images have been processed differently than usual as I having been using the new photoshop plug-in Clarity from Topaz Labs. I have only first begun to use the software but so far I am loving the way it naturally boosts the contrast in the images. To find out more about this new product from Topaz Labs please click here. And if you decide to purchase the software use the coupon code “claritynew” and pay a mere $29.99 US. That’s exactly what I did tonight!

Do remember to click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions and let me know what you think of the Topaz Clarity treatment.

Lower Rosseau Falls, Muskoka, Ontario

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Last Chance to Enter Sigma’s Scholarship Contest

Rosseau River, Muskoka, Ontario

The April 30, 2013 deadline to enter the Sigma Canada Scholarship Contest is fast approaching. If you are a student enrolled in an accredited Canadian University or College photography program and photograph with Sigma lenses you still have one day left to enter for your chance to win the grand prize of $3000 towards your tuition or a $1000 gear package from Gentec International, the distributor for Sigma lenses in Canada, for the second prize finalists. To find out more about the contest and how to enter please click here.

Sigma lenses are extremely well made and produce stunning results. The images accompanying this post were photographed with the Sigma 8-16mm f4.5-5.6 DC HSM an ultra wide-angle lens that produces very sharp images with well controlled distortion. Please click on each of the photos to see the larger, sharper versions and check out the results.

Best of luck to all who enter the contest

Rosseau River, Muskoka, Ontario

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A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

Crepuscular Rays

Been swamped lately not too mention switching my computer over to a much more powerful system which has not been going well at all. I decided to upgrade to Photoshop CS6 but need to contact Adobe due to verification failure warnings. You gotta love it when you download legitimate software, yet cannot install it, because after the license key is verified Adobe warns that the software “appears to be counterfeit.”  After trying to resolve this issue through the ‘chat’ feature of Adobe’s customer support center I have been informed that I need to call Adobe on Monday to fix this issue.

In the meantime, I thought I would share these images that were captured during the summer and processed just prior to my photoshop issues.

Please click on the photos to see the larger, sharper version of each.

A Fractalius Rendering of Autumn Sugar Maple Leaf on Interuppted Fern

Black & White  Swirling Pattern in Granite

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Autumn’s Frosty Details

 

Frosted Oak Sapling

Yikes! I was going through some old folders of photos the other day and I came across this series of frosty photos that were photographed during one final walk at the cottage prior to closing up for the winter – way back in 2009. Not sure if it I forgot about them, never found the time to optimize them, or waited for them to get better with age. Each photo was created with my Nikon D200 and the Nikon 105mm Micro lens firmly mounted on a tripod. The images with the Sugar Maple leaves on Haircap Moss were essentially set-up. Often when it looks like there will be frost in the forecast, I will typically look for a few colorful leaves that are in decent condition and lay them out on the moss for a preconceived compositional idea. While I lay sound asleep the frost does its thing, and I awake before the sun has a chance to melt the frosted elements.

Please remember to click on the photos to see the larger, sharper version of each.

Autumn Sugar Maple Leaf on Haircap Moss with Reindeer Lichen

Autumn Oak and Frost

Autumn Sugar Maple Leaf on Haircap Moss

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Intimate Landscapes at Muskoka’s High Falls

High Falls on the Muskoka River

Please note: starting with this post you can now ‘click-to-enlarge’ on each of the images in this post and all future posts to see much larger versions of the images. I hope you enjoy this updated feature of the blog and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new views.

High Falls has long been one of most impressive waterfalls in Ontario’s Muskoka Region. It is easily located near the town of Bracebridge. A few years ago the town of Bracebridge began diverting much of the flow, especially in winter, for hydro-electric power, but this has by no means lessened the photographic possibilities that abound at this location. In my opinion it has actually created more photographic opportunities, especially the intimate variety of landscapes. The reduced flow has also exposed some wonderful rock formations for intimate views of the remaining cascades that can be found here, however, one must keep in  mind that the exposed rocks have been smoothed over time, by the constant flow of water and can be quite slippery and even dangerous if folks do not proceed with caution. On Friday, I drove an hour and a half north of my home, in the wee hours of the morning, to arrive at first light, and hopefully well ahead of the predicted rainfall. I was able to get in about three hours of photography before the rains arrived and forced me to pack up and head for home.

When I arrive on site, setting-up my tripod is often one of the last steps I take when photographing a scene. First and foremost I will walk around, camera in hand, and frame possible image opportunities. Once I find the compositions I want I will then position my tripod to capture the scenes I have chosen. Each of the images in this post was photograph using a Nikon polarizing filter on my 12-24mm lens. This polarizing filter is designed to eliminate vignetting on wide angle lenses such as the 12-24mm lens. The polarizing filter is also the absolute, must-have filter for landscape photography.

New to this post is the ‘click-to-enlarge’ feature for each of the images posted. Please click on each image to view the larger version and take a moment to let me know which is your favorite and why.

High Falls on the Muskoka River

High Falls on the Muskoka River

High Falls on the Muskoka River

Little High Falls on Pott’s Creek

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Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Herons are one of my favorite birds to encounter. I often photograph them from my canoe on Horseshoe Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario. The problem is that they are often difficult to approach here in Ontario. While I was out shooting fall colours at Stubb’s Falls on the Little East River in Arrowhead Provincial Park I encountered a ridiculously , cooperative Great Blue Heron. I was able to get so close to this bird that I had to back-up, at times, due to the minimum focusing distance of my 80-400mm VR lens, which is 7.5 feet. The base of Stubb’s Falls has many large boulders in the river making it difficult to capture a clean background, but I tried to work with the difficult elements before me, to capture a sense of place for this bird as it hunted in the fast flowing waters of the Little East River.

Since this heron was being so cooperative I decided to try some long exposures to blur the water for creative effect. The three images below have had their backgrounds slightly blurred in photoshop. The white foam floating by in the background does create some distraction for me, but this was the scene before me and what I meant by difficult elements to work with. I hope you find them interesting nonetheless.

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Seguin Recreation Trail

Small Lake At Sunrise, Seguin Recreation Trail

While out shooting fall colour about three weeks ago I wanted to visit one of my most favorite trails in Ontario – The Seguin Recreation Trail. This trail is not far from my family cottage on Horseshoe Lake. Sometimes I will drive out to the access point on Highway 69 and other times I will walk a one hour, woodland path off the cottage road out to this trail. For this day’s shoot I decided to drive out to the access point. The trail is no longer open to automobile traffic, only hiking, cycling and ATVs are permitted.

The Seguin Recreation Trail is rich in Ontario history and back in the late 1800′s it was once a railway line. This railway line was built by lumber baron JR Booth and connected Depot Harbour on Georgian Bay to Ottawa. The tracks have since been lifted and the trail is now referred to as the Park 2 Park Trail, which connects Killbear Provincial Park with Algonquin Provincial Park. When in Algonquin Provincial Park if you happen to hike the Mizzy Lake Trail, you will be walking on the old railway bed when you reach the section of the trail at Wolf Howl Pond.

I have always enjoyed this trail for its numerous beaver ponds and small lakes void of hand-of-man elements. Below you will see two versions of two different scenes captured along this trail. I am interested in hearing from folks as to which version of these two images they prefer and why?

Small Lake at Daybreak – Version #1

Small Lake at Daybreak – Version #2

Autumn Wetland – Version #1

Autumn Wetland – Version #2

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Torrance Barrens / Dark Sky Reserve

Highland Pond in the Torrance Barrens

As the fall colour display is winding down rapidly, with a large percentage of leaf fall, I am catching up on processing some of this season’s images. The image above is a three image HDR processed with Oloneo PhotoEngine that was captured at Ontario’s Torrance Barrens / Dark Sky Reserve near the town of Gravenhurst. I was immediately drawn to the line of white pine needles along the rocky shoreline and the cloud formation in the sky at Highland Pond. I composed the scene with the pine needles forming a strong diagonal line coming out of the lower right corner to draw the viewer into the scene. The Torrance Barrens was the first site designated as a dark sky reserve and is quite popular with astronomers. I hope to try some night photography in the future. The terrain here is dominated by exposed bedrock covered with lichens and moss and mostly Red Oak, White Pine and White Ash trees. I particularly enjoy the area right around Highland Pond, which is accessed from the entrance on District Rd. 13 (Southwood Road). I often arrive here for sunrise and then wander the trails afterwards to see what I might discover. Below are two additional images from my recent visit to the barrens and three sunrise images from a previous visit a couple of years ago. The Torrance Barrens / Dark Sky Reserve will be featured in my upcoming eBook.

Boardwalk over Highland Pond

My Shadow at Highland Pond

Sunrise and Mist at Highland Pond

Highland Pond at daybreak

Sunrise at Highland Pond

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My Favorite Lens for Intimate Landscapes and Blurs

Algonquin Provincial Park

I love going out to shoot in overcast, drizzly weather conditions and my favorite lens to use on these days, if I am not shooting waterfalls with my wide angle zoom, is my Nikon 80-400mm VR lens. I love to use this lens to extract images from within the landscape and to shoot blurs. The Nikon 80-400mm VR lens has one major drawback to it though, and that is the poorly designed tripod collar. When I first began using this lens, many years ago, I immediately became aware of the vibration transmitted through the lens by the camera’s mirror. Vibraton that will compromise image quality. Fortunately there is a solution available. Kirk Enterprises offers a tripod replacement collar that firmly cradles the lens eliminating the vibration problem. You can view the replacement collar here. When I use the lens to shoot blurs I like to use it in the 200-400mm range and often I will handhold the lens for camera movement blurs. When I am relying on mother nature to create the blur via wind or flowing water, I lock the camera and lens firmly to my tripod by means of the replacement tripod collar.  Some of my recent  intimate landscapes and blurs can be seen below that were created with this lens during this year’s autumn outings. Head over here to see my favorite image from my Lake Superior Provincial Park trip in September. Don’t forget to hit the ‘like’ button .

Lichen Covered Dead Tree

Autumn Reflection in Horseshoe Lake

Torrance Barrens near Gravenhurst, Ontario

Handheld Autumn Birch Tree Blur

Torrance Barrens near Gravenhurst, Ontario

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Fall Colour Coming To An End

Rosseau River

In my last post I indicated that many of central Ontario’s fall colour was rather dismal this year. Yes, there were some pockets of lovely colour, but by and large it was not very impressive at all. One of my favorite destinations for fall colour is a section of the Rosseau River that is about 30 minutes from my family cottage. It usually produces fairly decent colours consistently and the rocks in and around the river make great compositional elements. While we were preparing to close the cottage for the coming winter I made one last quick trip to the Rosseau River. I prefer to shoot my waterfall and river scenes in overcast-type light, so I arrived early in the morning before the sun rose high enough in the sky to ruin the scene with strong, contrasty light. As I was preparing to leave, I noticed and liked the way the sun was illuminating the tops of the trees along the river. Rather than reach for one of my grad filters I decided to shoot a 5 exposure HDR and process the image files in Oloneo Photo Engine.

I made one final trip today to a small waterfall along the Nottawasaga River, near my home, for some additional fall photography, but with yesterday’s high winds there was a large percentage of leaf fall noticeable. Yikes!…looks like winters a-coming.

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