Smartphone Snaps – The Cookstown Pub

I have decided to start something new here at the blog and I will call it Smartphone Snaps. Recently I ditched my old cell phone, upgraded to a smartphone and am now having a blast (isn’t that what photography is all about anyway) playing around with the camera function of the Samsung S2X and the various apps available for download. I will try to commit to posting a Smartphone Snap on a weekly basis as time permits. What better way to kick off these snaps with a creative capture of The Cookstown Pub located in Cookstown, Ontario not too far from my home. I used the Cartoon Camera app for this image. Simply click the shutter on the phone and let the app do the rest.

As I embark on a learning curve of smartphone photography I will share with you tips and techniques as well as the various apps that I find most beneficial to my needs.

I can’t wait to try this out on Bullfrogs

Please click on the image to see the larger, sharper version.

 

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First Time For Everything

Female Wild Turkey on nest

I have spent the last several days up in Ontario’s Muskoka region opening up the family cottage. Aside from the regular chores of opening weekend, I made time for visits to my favorite frog pond in the forest to photograph chorusing Grays Treefrogs, take my daughter in the canoe to a nearby wetland to see what was new in there this spring, my daughter also decided that it was a perfect day for swimming, jumping off the dock, and practicing her doggy paddle in the frigid water, and of course take my dog for several long walks. It was during one of these walks on Friday afternoon that something caught my eye at the base of a massive, rocky outcrop near the entrance to our cottage lot. Something looked different, not quite right, and certainly out-of-place as I remembered it. And then as my eyes adjusted to what I was seeing before me, I made out a female Wild Turkey sitting among the leaf litter. She was not at all alarmed to see me and my dog walk past her at only a distance of about 15 feet. My dog was oblivious to her on the ground and I figured that the turkey was probably quite comfortable with how well concealed she was on the forest floor. I concluded that she was probably sitting on a clutch of eggs. What surprised me most was that every time I passed by her over the course of several days, during the dog walks, she was always in the exact same position on the nest. I have explored the woodlands in this region for over 30 years and not once have I ever seen a Wild Turkey in the vicinity of the cottage and today there is one nesting right on our lot. Nature never ceases to amaze me, but I do wish this turkey had selected a more photogenic location for nesting .

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Ontario Waterfalls

Beamer Falls on the Niagara Escarpment, Grimsby, Ontario

For several weeks I have been very busy with little time to get out the door for some fresh landscape images, but I have been processing some image files from last season’s crop of photos. With the recent rainfall we have had and the trees greening-up with a lush crop of leaves I must have been inspired to optimize some waterfall imagery. For folks living in the Hamilton, Ontario area now is the perfect time to visit the great number of waterfalls that can be found along the Niagara Escarpment. But don’t stop there as there is a vast number of waterfalls worth exploring throughout the province. Some of my all time favorites are Brook’s Falls, Webster’s Falls and in Lake Superior Provincial Park many nice scenes await photographers along the Sand River. What I like best about these waterfalls is that they usually produce excellent opportunities regardless of the river’s flow. When river levels are low these waterfalls will often produce excellent imagery. To find out more about these favorite locations and many more please check out my eBook A Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape. Although this eBook does focus on many inspiring locations throughout the province of Ontario, it is also full of numerous, helpful tips that you will find quite valuable to creating the best possible images in the field. Below you will see some of my recently processed images from last season.

Webster’s Falls, Niagara Escarpment, Hamilton, Ontario

Beamer’s Falls details, Grimsby, Ontario

Brook’s Falls, Magnetawan River, Emsdale, Ontario

Sand River, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

Sand River details, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

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Fractastic Day At The Zoo

Lionfish – Glow 100 preset

A few weeks ago I made a trip to the Toronto Zoo for a fun day of photographing animals from all around the world. While meandering my way around the zoo, I thought that many of these animals would make wonderful subjects for the photoshop plugin Fractalius by Redfield Plugins, so after arriving back at home I immediatelybegan playing around with some of the presets and adjusted the sliders to taste until I came up with this assortment of fractalius renderings. When I use the Fracatlius plugin I always apply it’s effect on a duplicate layer. This is done for two reasons. First it allows my to mask back in the eye(s) so that the filter has no effect on the eye(s) and secondly, I may want to reduce the overall effect of the filter and the easiest way to do so is to reduce the opacity of the layer to which the Fractalius effect is on. Most often I go straight for the ‘Glow 100′ or the ‘Rounded’ presets as these are my favorites to use. I have indicated below each image which preset I selected, however, the effect was achieved by adjusting the sliders to taste. Please note, this fun and addictive plugin is only available for folks using Windows and is available for purchase here.

Hope you enjoy this collection of artistic renderings from my Fractalius addiction and naturally I could not resist the temptation to include a frog image from the zoo too

Please take a moment to let me know which is your favorite and why.

Waxy Monkey Treefrog – Rounded preset

Gorilla – Rounded preset

Gaboon Viper – Rounded preset

Meller’s Chameleon – Glow 100 preset

African Penguin – Glow 100 preset

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A Bit Of This & A Bit Of That

Innisfil Creek, winter details

Above is a recently optimized photo from a couple of weeks ago. The Innisfil Creek is a small stream that flows through farmland and woodlots near my home in south central Ontario. I love to shoot winter details such as these. Often interesting patterns can be found in the ice formations along small streams and rivers at this time of year. I find over-cast conditions usually produce the best results, although some sunlit scenes can work well also, as you can see in the image below. What is different about these images is the way I have chosen to process the image files. After making the basic adjustments that I normally do in Adobe Camera Raw, I bring the image file into Adobe Photoshop CS5 and go straight for my favorite, recently upgraded, plugin from Nik Software – Color Efex Pro 4. My two favorite filters that are found within Color Efex Pro 4 are ‘Tonal Contrast’ and ‘Detail Extractor’. Both images in this post were tweaked with just a light handed use of each filter. If you haven’t tried this amazing plugin I urge you to download the trial version and give it a go. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the results and will want to make it a regular part of your workflow for optimizing your image files. Download the trial version here and use the code ‘BAA’ to save yourself 15% if you decide to purchase a copy.

Holland River in winter

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Wimberley P-5 Universal Camera Body Plate

Wimberley P-5 Universal Camera Body Plate

Most serious nature photographers know the benefits of having a quick release system for attaching their cameras and lenses to their tripods swiftly, to react to the fleeting moments that may occur. The Arca-Swiss style of plates and clamps is often the system chosen. If you are not using the Arca-Swiss style, I highly recommend you consider making the switch. In my e-book ‘A Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape’, the first-ever comprehensive guide to photographing Ontario, I briefly discuss the Arca-Swiss style quick release system as being standard gear for most serious nature photographers. Aside from being a guide to the Ontario landscape the e-book is full of tips to help you capture the best possible landscape images, wherever you live. For many years, I have faithfully used an ‘L’ bracket on my camera. ‘L’ brackets allow photographers to fasten their camera bodies onto their tripod heads in both vertical and horizontal orientations to minimize the need to recompose when photographing a scene in either of the two orientations. They are quite useful and beneficial, however, that also comes with a price. They are more expensive and much heavier than a camera body plate.

For the last two months or so I have been using a Wimberley P-5 Universal Camera Body Plate on my camera instead of the ‘L’ bracket and I can honestly say that I love it. It is light weight, at only 40.8 grams, while my ‘L’ bracket is a heavy weight at 139 grams. The P-5 plate is also one third the cost of what I paid for my ‘L’ bracket. The Wimberley P-5 plate comes with dual safety stops and is designed in such a way that it will prevent the camera body and plate from twisting. In the above photo you will see that there is thin layer of dense rubber to grip the base of the camera body, and the plate itself has been machined so that frictional force is applied on the outer portions of the plate when the plate is fastened to the camera body. This simple design prevents any twisting. Custom pates from other manufacturers do not use the textured rubber, but rather a beveled edge that prevents any twisting, however, this beveled edge is machined to fit each specific model of camera for which you have purchased the plate for. What will you do with these custom plates when you upgrade your camera bodies. With the Wimberley P-5, you simply remove it from your old camera body and fasten it to your new camera body and you are ready to go at no further expense. Click here and then on the video link for more information about safety stops and to find out more about the Wimberley P-5 Universal Camera Body Plate and click here for Wimberley’s PDF product instructions on the P-5 Universal Camera Body Plate.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Last post until next year Here’s wishing you and your families a safe and prosperous new year, and all the very best for 2012.Thanks to all for your continued support and for your comments. They are most appreciated.

Thanks also to those who have purchased my first e-book A Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape. I hope you will find to be a worthy resource for taking your landscape imagery up a notch and as you travel throughout the province of Ontario.

Cheers!

 

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Season’s Greetings

 

Wishing you and your families all the best at this time of year and for the year ahead!

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Niagara Escarpment Waterfalls

Ball’s Falls on Twenty Mile Creek

A couple of weeks ago I had some spare time and the weather conditions were favorable for photographing waterfalls, so I headed off to a few additional falls that I had hoped to shoot this year before the river’s flow diminished too much. Many of the Niagara Escarpment, a world biosphere, waterfalls dry-up in summer, so you must shoot them in spring and early summer or during periods of extended rainfall. In the image of Ball’s Falls above the cascade is substantially reduced due to a couple of weeks of dry weather. On this particular day it did begin to rain, rather heavy at times and I was forced to seek shelter beneath the gorge wall where I photographed this composition with my 12-24mm lens and polarizing filter attached. A more intimate view of the falls was composed below using the 80-400mm VR lens (with VR off).

Ball’s Falls details

Below you will see Grindstone Falls found in the town of Waterdown, Ontario. This waterfall also goes by the names Great Falls, Waterdown Falls and Smokey Hollow Falls. A couple of months ago when I was at this location is was not possible to shoot the falls from below the cascade due to substantial and very dangerous river flow. After a couple of weeks of dryer weather I returned to make this image. Above the falls too much white sky was visible and the viewing platform would be an unpleasant distractions so I composed the scene to eliminate these. A rotten stench would drift by periodically and I soon became aware of a dead white-tailed deer among the rocks on the far bank of the river. I presume the deer had become caught in the river over had gone over the falls and drowned – a testament to how dangerous the river was upon my first visit.

Grindstone Falls

Beamer’s Falls in the town of Grimsby along Forty Mile Creek (photo below) was another waterfall that was too dangerous to attempt photographing in early spring so again I returned after a dry spell to photograph this picturesque cascade. This waterfall was reduced to a mere trickle, however, enough water was flowing over the crest to create this pleasing image. In hindsight, I wish I had shot this one as a panoramic…..something to keep in mind for my next visit.

Beamer’s Falls

I am off to Parry Sound for a few days. I am hoping to photograph the Common Loons that have returned to Horseshoe Lake and successfully hatched two adorable chicks!

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Hogg’s Falls

Due to the recent cold weather we have been having here, along with a few snow flurries too, the activity at the frog ponds has ceased. Once the weather warms up in a few days I am hoping to get back out into the ponds. In the meantime, I have been busy working on various projects which led me to my photos of Hogg’s Falls. This is in my opinion one of the most beautiful and photogenic waterfalls in Ontario. It is situated on the Niagara Escarpment in Grey County. Regardless of the season this waterfall has never let me down. However, during the winter months the mist coming off the falls can be quite troublesome as it freezes to your gear including coating filters in ice. It lies in the Beaver Valley along the broad and shallow Boyne River. The best vantage point to shoot this waterfall requires a careful climb down into the gorge which I always carry a length of rope to make both the descent and ascent a little easier, particularly in winter when the gorge walls become quite icy. I also enjoy using this waterfall to practice my modeling skills

Self-portrait flyfishing

Self-portrait flyfishing

Hogg’s Falls in spring

Hogg’s Falls details

Autumn at Hogg’s Falls – one from the good ol’ days of film

Hogg’s Falls in winter

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