Grunging the Old Wreck

As I departed Tiny Marsh the other day, due to the heavy rains, I came upon this old truck that was rusting away beside a storage shed with colorful turquoise aluminum siding and an old collection of tires perfectly lined up in front of the truck. Since the rain had slowed to a steady drizzle at this point in my travels home I stopped to create a couple of images of the scene from the side of the road. I knew when I arrived home I would use Topaz Adjust 5 to grunge the old wreck. For this type of rendering I will select one of the ‘Detail’ presets and using heavy-handed slider settings create the grunge-look achieved in the photo above. I find the grunge-look for old wrecks to be most addictive but finding old wrecks like this can be like looking for a needle-in-a-haystack.

Read Full Post »

Tiny Marsh in B&W

Tiny Marsh Provincial Wildlife Area

Last weekend I made the trek to Tiny Marsh so that I could see how things were shaping up for this season. Tiny Marsh is located near Elmvale, Ontario. This is just one of many great landscape photography locations featured in my eBook ‘The Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape.’  The day I chose to visit Tiny Marsh was rather dreary as storm skies threatened above a landscape that has yet to show any signs of greening-up due to cold spring weather.  While being presented with these elements my thoughts immediately turned to Black & White photography and scene above represents the only scene photographed on this day. After carefully composing this image, placing the horizon line in the center for the mirror image-like effect, and creating a few frames, the rain began to fall heavily. By the time I had made my way back to the car I was thoroughly soaked. but I think the resulting image was well worth the effort. I did make note of the vast number of Leopard Frogs that were already chorusing during my visit. I will be planning a trip back to Tiny Marsh at night to explore the wetlands for night-time frog photography soon and am considering to offer this as a private one-on-one workshop. More details will follow soon.

The above image was converted to B&W using Nik/Google’s Silver Efex Pro 2 software. Please do remember to click on the photo to see the larger, sharper version. Hope you like it

Sigma Scholarship Contest Update:

The deadline for the Sigma Scholarship Contest is fast approaching. The contest closes on April 30, 2013. If you are a full-time photography student enrolled in an accredited Canadian College or University and photograph with Sigma lenses you are eligible to enter. To find out more on how to enter and to learn about the killer prizes available click on the Sigma Scholarship Contest logo in the sidebar of the blog or click here. Gentec International is the distributor of Sigma lenses in Canada. Best of luck to all who enter the contest.

Read Full Post »

The Drapers Shoreline

Drapers Shoreline, Port Antonio, Jamaica

The Drapers shoreline near Port Antonio, Jamaica is characterized by tranquil coves and rugged peninsulas. Above the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea gently lap a rocky section of the coast, adorned with lush, tropical foliage. Below, waves crash into a rugged section of a small peninsula, carved by centuries of waves battering against the rocks. Creating images of waves hitting rugged shorelines can be a little addictive. You never quite know what you will capture and before you know it you have created a hundred or so wave photos. Here are two of my favorite wave blurs created on my 10 day stay in the Port Antonio, Jamaica area in February of this year.

Crashing Wave Blur, Port Antonio, Jamaica

Radial Wave Blur, Port Antonio, Jamaica

In the final image below an exposure of several seconds was used to capture a series of gentle waves washing over the rocks along this section of shoreline. Often I found myself drawn to these ocean side vistas with their lush tropical foliage cascading over the rocky embankments.

Drapers Shoreline, Port Antonio, Jamaica

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

Time is also running out on the Sigma Scholarship Contest. To find out more about this awesome contest for photography student please click on the Sigma Scholarship Contest logo in the sidebar of the blog. Best of luck to all who enter!

Read Full Post »

Some Kinda Fun

Ava on swing at Boston Bay, Jamaica

A few happy snaps of my daughter Ava on the swing at Boston Bay, Jamaica. Who would have thought that two lengths of rope and a log could provide so much fun! Ava had a ton of fun on this swing as she could swing out over the waves as they came into shore.

Read Full Post »

Frenchman’s Cove, Jamaica

Frenchman’s Cove, Port Antonio, Jamaica

One of the prettiest beaches visited during our 10 day stay in Port Antonio, Jamaica was the very lovely Frenchman’s Cove. So lovely in fact it has been declared as one of the finest beaches in the world by the luxury travel magazine Conde Nast Traveller. This small sandy cove is guarded by a rugged shoreline that extends out from the cove and a small river empties into the cove as well. My daughter had a great time playing and snorkeling in the gentle current of the stream which was teeming with several species of fishes that are tolerant of the brackish water at the river’s mouth.

Small River at Frenchman’s Cove, Port Antonio, Jamaica

After photographing a few beach and river scenes I made my way up to an elevated patio area of the restaurant at the beach to gain a higher perspective for photographing the rugged coast that guards the cove. Since I was handholding each of these landscape scenes I also wanted to use the railing of the elevated patio to help stabilize myself for the resulting images. Once I had composed each photograph, and before clicking the shutter, I would hold my breath for a second or two. By doing so will provide you with another means of gaining further stability for handheld photography.

Frenchman’s Cove, Port Antonio, Jamaica

Frenchman’s Cove, Port Antonio, Jamaica

Above the rugged coast of the Caribbean Sea at Frenchman’s Cove sits what appears to be an abandoned villa, or one damaged by past hurricanes. I could help but think of Robinson Caruso when I saw this old villa a-top the rugged shoreline. Looks like Home-Sweet-Home to me

Frenchman’s Cove Villa, Port Antonio, Jamaica

Please remember to click on each photo to see the larger, sharper version and let us know which one is your favorite image.

Read Full Post »

Reich Falls

Reich Falls on the Driver’s River, Jamaica

As I work my way through the edits from my recently completed 10 day trip to the Port Antonio area of Jamaica, I wanted to share this image of Reich Falls – pronounced Reach Falls. This waterfall is found off the beaten path within the John Crow Mountain Range, in the Portland Parish, on the Driver’s River and is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful waterfalls in all of Jamaica. I will feature some additional photos from this waterfall and scenes from down-river shortly. This can be a very popular destination for tour buses operated from the tourist resorts, however, by connecting with the local folks we were able to visit the falls at such a time that was absent of crowds of people.

After I completed the photographs I had hope to take, it was time for a relaxing swim, at the base of the falls, in this cool, clear mountain stream – simply amazing! By the time we had hiked back out to the car we were greeted with a torrential downpour that lasted for most of the rest of the day.

Read Full Post »

Silver Toned Water and Stone

Autumn on the Oxtongue River near Dwight, Ontario

One last post before heading off to Port Antonio, Jamaica for a week and a half of sun, fun, and of course photography too I am planning on visiting a couple of lovely waterfalls, a hike in the Blue Mountains, and of course assorted bird life and reptiles as well.

Lately I have been using Nik Software’s Silver Effects II software to convert some of my river / waterfall images captured over the last year or so into B&W photos. Often I am finding that I like the B&W versions just a little bit more than the color one. I guess I will have to try my hand at some tropical B&W images upon my return.

Please remember to click on the images to see the larger, sharper versions and leave a quick note letting me know which is your favorite and why.

Take care folks.

See ya soon!

High Falls on the Muskoka River, Bracebridge, Ontario

Details at Magpie Falls, Wawa, Ontario

Autumn along the Magnetawan River, Emsdale, Ontario

Read Full Post »

Top 12 for 2012

Male Bullfrog in wetland on Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

Looking back over the past year I realized I probably photographed a little bit more wildlife than landscapes, which is some what different for me. Mostly I was photographing frogs and toads for various chapters in the frog book that I am currently writing. As a result it is easy to see why my top 12 images from 2012 contains a few frog photos

Here is a selection of a few of my favorite images created in 2012.

Tiny Marsh Provincial Wildlife Area, Ontario

Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake, Killbear Provincial Park, Ontario

Rosseau River at Lower Rosseau Falls, Ontario

Over-under juvenile Bullfrog

Willet on Liebeck Lake, Ontario

Horseshoe Lake wetland at sunset, Ontario

Common Loon with chick on Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

Zimmerman’s Poison Frog

Beaver Pond, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario

View from the dock at sunset, Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

White-breasted Nuthatch

The White-breasted Nuthatch image above represents the last photograph captured for 2012. It was visiting my suet feeder set-up frequently yesterday while I was out in the blind for another round of winter songbird photography.

Wishing everybody all the best in 2013.

Happy New Year!!!

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

See ya soon!

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

Open Up and Say Ahh!

 

One from back in the summer during a visit to the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo. I see Common Snapping Turtles frequently during my travels and equally so when snorkeling in Horseshoe Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario but they never put on a show like this. This fella was not too impressed with me standing beside his large aquarium, and put on this threatening display to scare me off as he swam towards me. I was using my Nikon D800 with a 105 macro lens and a rubber lens hood attached to avoid scratching the aquarium’s glass. I then positioned the lens up to and parallel to the glass and was able to fire off two frames before the turtle closed its mouth.

While the turtle’s one eye is slightly out-of-focus I still think the gaping mouth makes this image work. What do you think? Do remember to click on the image to see the much larger version.

Read Full Post »