Last night, Sabrina Henry and I went to a unique location in Richmond BC, called Finn Slough. If you are into old and aged subjects, this is a very neat place to shoot. It is rich in history and there seems to be some interesting characters living there too.

Anyways, today I want to talk about the above image. It was a “happy mistake”, I think. The over-exposure was intentional. I had done what I don’t usually do just to see “what if?”. I had spot metered the fore-front building. I knew that if I metered with the matrix, it would cast a lot of shadow on the buildings. So, I “lived on the edge” and spot metered the building not expecting to get an over-exposed ugly image. When I first viewed the capture on the LCD viewer, I was not impressed. Actually, I almost deleted it on the spot but I didn’t.

When I got home and reviewed the images in Lightroom 3 the above image turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We had not shot a lot of images that evening because of the disappearing light and because we became involved in conversation with a local resident. Now, I know this area had been photographed before but I wanted to get my own perspective.  I like most of us photographers, didn’t want to shoot the same shot somebody else has already done. However, my other shots were exactly that, in my opinion. The same as others. Perhaps, this is why the above image stands out to me. It’s not HDR or B&W. In this case, I think the over-exposed capture works.

Now, I am going to step back a bit and talk about some of the questions that Sabrina has posed to me before we set out to shoot. I felt like I was being interviewed by the FBI with a bright spot light in a dark room. She asked tough questions that were really intended to help me understand myself and my art. Tough questions that help us grow as artists. I thank her for doing so. One of the things that came up was, “Why was I drawn toward a graphic type of image?”. I believe it’s because I think photographs are interesting when they don’t look %100 like a photograph. Or, perhaps, as Sabrina had suggested, maybe it’s because of my fine art background. Maybe.

OK. Now back to the above image. What I felt good about, is that when I first saw it in LR is that it looked like a water colour painting, a graphic,  even when straight out of the camera. I did very little treatment in LR. Added a touch of colour saturation and such but what really makes it look like a water colour, in my opinion,  is the reflections. It really was a pleasant surprise for me. It’ s not a masterpiece, a human element would have been nice to add but I like  it, regardless. I would like to think that I captured an image of Finn Slough that, perhaps, nobody else has. I am really glad that I took a playful chance of a spot meter instead of my usual matrix meter.

Sadly, I shot very little on our Whistler trip. It takes a lot of planning to do landscape shots. Planning I did not do. I had no idea what I wanted to shoot. I was hoping I would just stumble upon some shots. It didn’t happen. Also, with the very long days, the sweet light hours are very late and very early. I tried to get up early but my body had nothing to do with it. I slept in past sunrise everyday.

Being in Whistler in shoulder season had its limitations.  That means it wasn’t ski season nor was it hiking season. There was mountain biking to do but with Trish’s fractured clavicle it was out of the question.  The alpine area was still covered in snow and un-accessible to hike because the peak chair was closed. I have seen some photos of the alpine in peak summer with amazing views and flowers. August would be a perfect time to visit the alpine.

Since the Whistler alpine was not available, we thought we would try a hike to view a glacier at Joffre Lake. It’s a 400m walk to the lake which is beautiful. There is a glacier to view from the lake but I wanted to hike the 5k to get up close and personal with the glacier. However, the trail took a beating from old man winter and made the hike too scrambley for Trish. We didnt want her to slip and hurt her tender shoulder. So, we turned back.

The shots that I did take from the lake were lame. The mid day sun made for a beautiful view but the hard lighting was not working with the camera. The highlights would be blown out of the shadows too dark. Perhaps, I should have set up the tripod and taken 5 shots for an HDR but I didn’t. What I learned from Darwin Wigget blog post is that maybe a Neutral Density filter would have come in handy for what I was trying to achieve.

So, the only decent shot I am relatively happy with is the one above of  Trish on the Peak 2 Peak gondola.  The SB-800 flash was mounted to the camera with a 1/4 CTO gel velcro-ed to the flash. It’s not a fine art shot that I was hoping to capture on this little trip but I like the exposure done with the flash.

What I did learn from this trip is that a real good fine art landscape shot takes a lot of planning. It’s difficult, at least for me, to get an image that I am proud of on a whim. It takes detailed planning. With my next time off of work, I will have to ensure some better planning and research on capturing images.

On the full moon, I went to White Rock to do some night photos. I really like shooting at night because public places aren’t so busy. Honestly, I feel self-conscious when shooting in public. Shooting at night, I don’t have to concern myself with people watching me or asking me questions. It’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just me not feeling comfortable around strangers who may be watching me. I was in a solitary mood and night shooting suited me that night. I really enjoyed the time to myself.

I had figured shooting at night was an unusual pursuit. Ironically, it turns out that there was another night photographer shooting that night as well. It must have been a rare site having two night photographers in the same place! I saw him from a distance so we did not talk but I know his name. Some other fellows had mistaken him for me. So, if Gino is out there reading this, drop me a line as I would love to see your photo’s.

Shooting wise, I did have some challenges with the prolonged exposure as I don’t have a remote for firing the camera in “bulb” mode. The digital cameras these days don’t have a traditional trigger release. I need to look into a wireless solution. Anyway, most of my exposures were 30 seconds or less. To help compensate for shorter exposures, I had brought my SB-800 speedlight and fired it manually several times per exposure at 1/4 to 1/1 power. On a few “bulb” shots I actually held my finger on the button to keep the shutter open for up to 2 minutes. It certainly is not the recommended method for bulb shots since no matter how still you think your hand is, there will still be a small amount of camera shake. Unfortunetly, those shots I took did not turn out very well. There was too much lense flare.

Also, this time I remembered to set the Long Exposure Noise Reduction to “ON”! I am so proud of myself. I usually forget some sort of setting but I suppose that the more I shoot, the more I remember to adjust settings.

Also, I got a Circular Polarizer Filter. It cuts down on glare in water and pulls out more blues in the sky. I have a sample shot of a creek at Bear Creek Park to demonstrate the abilities of the filter. The sky was bright but over cast. Therefore, I did not attempt any sky shots. Notice how clear the water is WITH the filter compared to a bare lense.  It’s a good investment for $65.

In other news, my wife and I are going to “cycle tour” Vancouver Islands and a few others including Cortez, Denman, Hornby, and Savary. We will work our way up to North Island from Naniamo and be island hoping along the way. We will return via the Sunshine Coast. I should be able to find many photographic opportunities during this two week journey. I will have many shots to share when we get back plus maybe lose a few pounds

Also, I have moved this site to “plantephotography.com”. Currently, deltaboy.com is still up but it will forward to plantephotography.com soon.