All Mixed Up

6 Image Multiple Exposure with a Pan Blur

During my last day at the family cottage, during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I was playing around with capturing multiple exposures with my Nikon D800 set to take six images before assembling each image into one multiple exposure. Above you will see a newly optimized image that I came across during a recent edit of the images photographed on that weekend. For the image above I incorporated two sideways pan blurs into the mix when capturing the series of 6 images and came up with the above result. I kinda like it…what do you think? 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Home Sweet Home

 

During my last trek to Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park I came across a lovely home – fixer-upper of sorts. This house is situated between the towns of Blind River and Iron Bridge, directly across from the scenic Blind River. I have passed this house often, but this time the over-cast, drizzly conditions were just right to stop and capture a few frames, and I also took some time to explore the interior with the Sigma 15mm f2.8 EX DG Fish-eye lens. I am thinking this would be a quaint place to pack it in and retire too…all it needs is a little tender lovin’ care…what do you think? 🙂

In all seriousness though, a colleague of mine who has passed through this area a great many times told me the house began construction roughly 20-30 years ago and was abandoned before it was ever completed.

Read Full Post »

The Terrible One

Golden Dart Frog (phyllobates terribilis)

Undoubtedly one of the most stunning dart frogs I have had the pleasure of photographing is the Golden Dart Frog.What makes this dart frog so special? It has earned the name The Terrible One because it is the most toxic frog of all. So toxic that simply touching the frog could kill you. The alkaloid toxins on their skin are said to be potent enough to kill three elephants. Pretty powerful stuff for a frog that is not more than an inch in length – gotta love it! Fortunately, this is a captive specimen and is perfectly safe to handle. Poison Dart Frogs get their toxins from the insects they eat in their native homelands. In captivity dart frogs are typically fed a diet of wingless fruit flies and the end result is that they will lose their toxicity.

Several months ago I photographed numerous captive bred frog specimens for the frog photography eBook I am writing. The eBook will an extensive how-to guide to finding, photographing, and optimizing frog images. Since I was wanting to include sections on photographing dart frogs and captive specimens I arranged a session with a breeder that I know. It was very important that I photograph specimens bred in captivity and not wild caught frogs. Why? Because amphibians are the fast declining animal species on the planet – sadly humanity is to blame for this decline. Global warming, habitat destruction, and pollution are just some of the causes. Another major downfall for frogs has been the importing of Bullfrogs (rana catesbeiana) as a food source (frog legs), which has led to bullfrogs escaping and inhabiting 14 countries around the world often with devastating results.

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

Read Full Post »

Moonlit Katherine Cove

Katherine Cove, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

During my September visit to Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park I spent a couple of nights at Katherine Cove for sunset imagery. On the particular evening that the above photograph was created there was not much interest in the sky and any lovely sunset colors were lacking as well. Once the sun had set I began creating a few long exposures and about a half hour later I noticed the details in the rock formations along the shore and instinctively knew that a wide angle lens would be perfect for this composition. Since there was little interest in the sky it was evident that I should exclude as much of that element as possible, and concentrate more on the rocky details. Using the new Nikon 18-35mm lens on my Nikon D800 I carefully framed the scene making sure not to clip the small puddle on the left side of the frame. And in the upper right corner you will noticed that I made certain that the rock out in the lake was positioned to help anchor down that area of the composition too. Since the sun was long gone by this point I needed to dial in an ISO of 800 and for adequate depth of field an aperture of f16 was selected, this gave me an exposure of 15 seconds. This lengthy exposure was the perfect solution to smoothing out every ripple on the lake to create the illusion of calmness, which in turn allowed the moonlight shimmering on the water to be recorded nicely in the final result. This image has become one of my favorites from the Lake Superior excursion. I’d love to hear your thoughts?

On the social media side of things I am now on Google+ please click here to add me  to your circle. You can also Like my Facebook page here or follow along on Twitter by clicking here.

Please remember to click on the above image to view the sharper, larger version.

Read Full Post »

Superior Distortion

Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

The Lake Superior shoreline is often characterized by rugged, rocky outcrops. One of my preferred locations within Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park can be found near the mouth of the Coldwater River, along the Coastal Hiking Trail. At this spot there is a large ‘whale-back’ rock right next to the rugged coast that has been smoothed perfectly through the ages by the action of waves washing over it in the height of severe storm activity. On my most recent trip to Lake Superior in September I was determined to create an image to illustrate this massive rock. On this trip I added a Sigma 15mm f2.8 EX DG Fish-eye Lens to my tool-kit. This lens was on loan from Gentec International, the Canadian distributor for Sigma lenses in Canada. Fisheye lenses will open up a whole new world of creativity to the photographer who has yet to give them a try. Noted for their extreme distortion qualities, fish-eye lenses when used effectively will produce pleasing results. The resulting effect I like best is that which is achieved by pointing the lens downward to create a rounded horizon. I often find this effect to be most pleasing when looking out over a large body of water. Perhaps this is because 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water and the distorted effect mimics that of the globe. To create the above composition I chose to handhold the camera, utilize the virtual horizon feature to maintain a level perspective, and carefully composed the scene so that the massive rock would not merge with the trees on the distant shore.

Please remember to click on the image to see the larger, sharper version 🙂

 

Read Full Post »

Let it Snow

Today the first significant snowfall of the season hit here in south-central Ontario. We currently have about 5 inches of snow on the ground and it is still snowing as I write this post. To mark this day I am posting an image, that for one reason or another, I did not post last winter. This scene is within walking distance of my home and was created on a foggy morning. Today was a busy day and I was unable to get out for any fresh winter imagery. Hopefully I will have time in the next day or two to do so, assuming the snow lasts that long, temperatures are expected to rise again in the coming days. I am looking forward to photographing several new locations this winter, as well as the usual favorite spots too. And the best part about winter photography – no mosquitoes. I can deal with the extreme cold temperatures a lot easier than I can with mosquitoes 🙂

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

Read Full Post »

Let’s Not Forget Koko

My Dog Koko – a 7 year old Black Lab Mix

After photographing my neighbors new puppy I decided it was time to take a few new photos of my dog Koko. The name Koko is a Native American name for night. She is a 7 year old Black Lab mix (possibly part greyhound), very rambunctious, fast as a bullet, and always ready for a game of fetch in the yard. I do wish I had of taken off her collar for the images but as you can see her dog tags have some nasty chew marks in them and that is because she likes to pass the time chewing on them and what would the photos be without her signature trademark 🙂 She regularly mulches any tree branches that fall to the ground in the yard as well. Unfortunately she does suffer from an hereditary eye disease called Pannus, which she receives cortisone eye drops daily to prevent the disease from causing blindness…she was first diagnosed with the disease when she was two and so far so good, but the eye drops may result in premature cataracts. Either way she is a lovable dog with boundless energy.

Do remember to click on the image to see the larger, sharper version 🙂

Read Full Post »

How Cute is This?

Cane Corso Mastif Puppy at 8 Weeks

This morning I spent about an hour photographing my neighbors 8 week old Cane Corso Mastif. What a cutie! She is a very busy little girl, which made capturing a pleasing image of her quite a challenge. I am looking forward to creating more photographs of her as she grows older, but I don’t think  any of them will be quite this cute.

 

Read Full Post »

Sand River and the Pinguisibi Trail

Daybreak on the Sand River, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

There is always a lull in the seasons between autumn and winter where I like to get caught up on optimizing images that I have captured throughout the year, but have not yet found the time to process the files. Today I was planning on doing some chores that are waiting outside in the yard, but with the first light dusting of snow falling last night I decided to stay inside and work on some of these images today. So, I began sifting through the photos that I created on my Lake Superior trip in September.

When I began reviewing the images I came upon those that I created on what was a bitter cold morning on the Pinguisibi Trail. This linear trail follows the Sand River.In all my previous trips to this area the Sand River was running very low, but not this time. Heavy rains the week before my arrival ensured that there was significant water in the river. In fact, there was too much water as one of the waterfalls up river was flowing with such intensity that it was impossible to photograph due to the spray coming off the river. As a result, I concentrated my efforts downstream away from the intense flow. Here are a few of the images of the Sand River from that day.

Please do remember to click on the images to see the larger, sharper versions.

Sand River, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

 

Sand River, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

 

Sand River in Black & White. Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »