ICE FISHING HUT, LAKE NIPISSING

Yesterday I took a few pictures on the waterfront. I particular liked this image but it was difficult to process. First I made a straight colour image, which was fine but did not reflect the delicate tones of the actual landscape, so I decided to try a black and white image, which again looked fine but still lacked the mood I wanted. Finally I simply layered the two pictures and. so while the final image looks black and white, it does have some very subtle colours to soften the black and white tones.

BOXCARS, DOWNTOWN NORTH BAY

 

It was snowing yesterday. I like it when the skies are grey and the light is flat. It is the perfect weather condition to create some strong graphic black and white images. So when I looked at the parked boxcars near the downtown parking lot my first intent was to make a  picture just of a very elementary composition of a line of boxcars. However when working on the image today I decided that the added colour just added just that extra component, giving the final result a stronger visual impact.

BEAUTY SALON, NORTH BAY

I took a walk downtown. In the Winter, Main Street  looks rather desolate. however i found a wonderful book with images from the Banff Purchase. The book contains  great pictures by some of the best Canadian photographers like Nina Raginsky, Robert Bourdeau and Tom Gibson to name a few. On the way back to my car I took afew pictures along the way with a few I quite liked.

SANDPIT REVISITED

It has been too cold to venture outside to take new pictures. So this morning I was looking at some prints of a sandpit I photographed a few years ago. its actually interesting to revisit pictures from earlier shoots. You can re-interpret some of these pictures. I liked this image of a landscape with rocks and thinking how the photographer Bill Brandt would have printed this picture. I decided to print the image quite dark with strong lighting on the rocks emphasizing the surface textures.

SNOW, LAKE NIPISSING

We are getting enough snow now. I like Winter images because of the very graphic black and white rendition of the landscape. Everything is reduced to starkly defined elements.

TRYING AGAIN

So far the Winter has been very mild but the last few days, I guess, Winter is giving it another try. Today we had some snow so it was anice pleasant day to work on some photo projects.

BUTCHER SHOP WINDOW

Of course I could not resist taking a picture of this butcher shop window. I don't know if it
will attract customers because I don't think people will notice the rather gruesome humor of the display.

LOVE EACH OTHER

On the barn we photographed, someone painted a powerful  message which I think is very appropriate for our very troublesome time we are living in. So of course I had to post this image.

WINTER BARN, STURGEON FALLS, ON

Last Tuesday my friend Gerry and I made a photo excursion in the Sturgeon falls area. Our first stop was at this barn, which I had photographed on earlier trips. I like the textures of the weathered wood and rusting corrugated sheets covering part of the barn. Today I experimented with a variety of filters and textures. I like the end result, which reflects the cold winter day.

LAKE NIPISSING, 1 JANUARY, 2016

Well, at last Winter has arrived. We experienced a green Christmas but on Tuesday our first snowstorm left us with approximately 40 cm of snow. But first of course I wish everyone a very happy New Year. It has been a busy few weeks with preparing for the holidays, which we enjoyed with our family. I received some wonderful books, which I will refer to in some later postings. I also came across a marvelous photography podcast called The Art of Photography. It is a great site which has a rich content on not just tutorials on digital photography but more important on great tutorials on design and composition. Also the creator of this podcast Ted Forbes introduces you to all the great photographic masters not just from the past but also the trendsetting photographers from the 21st century. So I highly recommend this site to all of you interested in the art of photography. Enjoy.