ICE BREAKUP, LAKE NIPISSING

At last Spring has started, although today we still had some snow but at least the ice is starting to break up. This morning I made a little excursion along the shore and made a few interesting images. The light was very nice and was able to get a few dramatic pictures. The black and white images were visually more dramatic than the colour versions. Of course, lately I have been quite interested in black and white photographs. This picture reminds me of Bill Brand's dramatic landscape photographs.

CEDAR, ROCK AND LICHEN

This was an image I really enjoyed working on. What intrigued me was the old cedar, which had grown all around the rock. Time had added the rich texture of the old dead tree and the lichen all over the rock surface. The subject would have greatly interested Edward and Bret Weston, two photographers I greatly admired. Way of working with a picture is quite fluid. I simply try different techniques using Adobe Lightroom then transfer the image to Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW then into On1 Photo Raw then back into Photoshop for some final tweaking of the image till I am satisfied with the result. Do I know exactly all the steps I have gone through to get the image I am satisfied with? Well no only the general workflow. So no exact process.

HWY 599 NEAR OSNABURGH HOUSE

Another negative from my trip in North Western Ontario. We were staying in a camp on Pashkokogan Lake near the First nation's reserve Osnaburgh House, which is on HWY 599 just South of Pickle Lake. At the time, that part of the highway had not been paved so it was quite dusty. What struck me was the abandoned stuffed toy animal, sitting forlorn on the side of the road. The whole scene was covered in dust and the negative was quite flat. I had taken some closeups of just the animal but never printed this negative. Looking at it again I preferred this overall view better than the closeups. As I said, it was a difficult negative to work with but after working on the image in Photoshop, I am quite happy with the result.

BEACH, LAKE ST. JOSEPH

This picture is from some photographs I made many years ago when I was invited by a German geologist to accompany him on an exploration trip in north Western Ontario. This particular image was made when we were checking various sites on lake St. Joseph.It had some very interesting landscapes. I think Moremiles and David would have appreciated that trip. I took only black and white film on this trip and it is interesting to work again with these old negatives. Ansel Adams always said that the negative is the score and the print the interpretation of that score. I totally agree with that analogy. So now working on the computer my interpretation is quite different from my earlier prints.Again, working on the computer is very similar to working in the darkroom.

CONISTON, ONTARIO-1989

A last image of the Coniston area. This image is for John and David because both of them enjoyed the rock landscapes I posted. This is an overview of the landscape as I saw it in 1989. Much has changed for the better in the Sudbury area, as I already mentioned before. It would be interesting to go back to the places I photographed to see the changes and maybe it is still possible to find some of the original bleak landscape. But we will find out this Summer at one of our photo excursions.

ABANDONED FARMHOUSE

Another old negative, but this time a colour negative of an old abandoned farmhouse I photographed quite a few years ago. The colour image lacked the dramatic atmosphere of a black and white picture. I never printed it before but when I found the negative and after scanning and processing the photograph, I wondered why I forgot about it. I gave it a slight warm tone reminiscent of the old warmtone papers so popular in the twenties and thirties.

COLOUR AND TEXTURES, CONISTON, ONTARIO

This picture definitely can only be in colour. I tried a black and white version but it certainly lacked the impact the textures and colours added to the visual richness of the image. I have not been back to the Sudbury area for a long time, but thsi Summer I definitely plan to return for another promising photo excursion.

LANDSCAPE, CONISTON, ONTARIO

Sorting through my old negatives I dfound a series of pictures I took in 1989 during a phototrip to Coniston near Sudbury, Ontario. The landscape was quite sparse, lacking trees which had disappeared from the landscape because of the mining activities in the Sudbury area. Since that time big changes have taken place with reforestation of the Sudbury landscape. But at the time it was a great place for photographers. The rock formation were impressive and actually quite colourful. The original negatives were made on colur negative film, however I am still quite interested in the graphic aspects of black and white photography and the strong forms and textures made the landscape eminently interesting for a photographer interested in classic black and white images.

WEATHERED TREE TRUNK, PEI BEACH

Searching through my old negatives is like opening a treasure trunk full of memories and also finding some long forgotten great images. This picture I took during our various holidays in Prince Edward Island. This old tree trunk on a beach was beautifully sculptured by wind, sand, water and sun, which had transformed it into the skeleton of some great unknown prehistoric creature.

PEGGY'S COVE, NOVA SCOTIA

Last Summer we visited Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. The small fishing village is one of the iconic sites in Canada. I think what makes this place so unique is the magnificent landscape. This was our second visit to Peggy's Cove, when I made quite a few images of the very beautiful rock landscape around the village. So while I am still working in black and white, I decided to post an earlier picture I took on our earlier visit. It is a scanned black and white negative. The film I used was Ilford HP5 which was one of my preferred film types. I like the grain pattern of this film and actually, when I am processing my digital images I nearly always add grain, simply because I like the visual  effect.

NOSTALGIA, DEMARCO'S, NORTH BAY

This North bay landmark has been closed for a few years but many people have very fond memories of this neigbourhood confectionery. I have posted other pictures of this store but they were colour images. This time I am posting a black and white version of a negative I made in the early nineties. Maybe, using the word nostalgia in the title,  refers not only to the actual picture of the store but also to me enjoying working in black and white again. No I am not making the print the traditional way. The computer allows me to get the same result without the use of environmentally harmful chemicals.

WINTER TRUCK

John had photographed this old truck before, so he made a little detour to see what it looked like covered in snow. Like many other photographers I enjoy photographing old cars and trucks, especially when they have not been restored sitting abandoned in some field or forest. The attraction is of course the rich textures and the discoloration. But it goes further I think.It is has to do with  remembrance and also a reminder of our own aging process.This time I  surrounded the print with a wide white border, which adds to the visual impact of the image.The split toning accentuates the cold Winter atmosphere of the landscape.

WINTER, SUNSET COVE

More snow, the Winter continues in the Spring. But it was a beautiful sunny day so John and I went out on a little photo excursion.We stopped at Sunset Cove on the South shore of Lake Nipissing. The light was quite harsh, which created strong shadows. For this landscape it worked well, forming an abstract pattern similar to paper cut out art. Adobe just issued an upgrade for Adobe Camera RAW and I am quite impressed. I think if you are working in Black and White then this is the most elegant photoshop plugin to achieve the best result.

SPRING SNOWSTORM

On Wednesday we were hit by a powerful snowstorm. I hope this is the last one of the Winter season. I did not go outside but took a few pictures in our garden. To capture the blowing snow I used a fast shutter speed. The result was an image which looked like an etching. Still working in black and white I decided to use a very subtle split tone in the image. The photo imaging programs  allow for a much greater control of this process than when split toning  in the traditional darkroom.

MAKING MAPLE SYRUP

What a surprise this morning, Winter has returned with a vengeance with lots of snow. But this is a good time to think and work with black and white images using the computer. Last week I reread a book on the transition from the traditional darkroom to digital. The book "darkroom to Digital" by the British photographer Eddie Ephraums is quite good. The book describes Eddy Epphraums his switch to digital black and white photography. He explores the differences but also the similarities. I agree with him that if you are comfortable working in the traditional darkroom, you will discover that working digitally is very similar. Of course, since the publication of the book, digital technology has made great strides but the basic techniques are still applicable. The writer expresses my similar view, when he says " Our transition to digital can simply involve a switch from one type of darkroom to another, or it can focus on issues of sel-expression. Either way ... black and white lives on.