Life and Loss

Happy and sad hold hands.

Beautiful Brereton

One More

I didn't think I had it in me to take even one more winter picture this season. I was wrong.

I shot this image at a speed of 1/320 and aperture of f/5.6. My focal length was 27 and ISO 100. Once on my computer I added a texture layer and increased the contrast to make it pop.

Closer

We're getting a little closer to 2013...

Beautiful Brereton

Turtle Island

First Snow

Last weekend, the south-east part of our province experienced the first snowstorm of the season. Power lines were down, visibility was poor, bringing much to a standstill for a day or more, especially for those without power.

Contrast can be powerful in an image. Here, the difference between the beautiful golden tamaracks and the white blanket of snow is much greater than if the snow was not present. The contrast is key.

The golden tufts of grasses along the creek edge draws our eye to the patch of tamaracks by way of sameness...sameness of colour. We tend to look for similarities and look at contrast. Both work well together in this image.

I shot this image at a speed of 1/400 and aperture of f/6.3.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

I noticed this little bird over the weekend in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. Initially I thought it was some kind of Woodpecker because of the way it was pecking the tree. After some research I learned it was a Red-Breasted Nuthatch.

It was a rainy morning so I took this shot from inside the cabin. The raindrops on the trees were beautiful little globes of light in the background.
I shot this with my 75-300 mm lens and deviated from my usual ISO 100 setting to 400. The light was relatively low and I did not have my tripod so bumping the ISO was necessary.
I used a speed of 1/250 and aperture of f/5.6. This aperture gave me the shallow depth of field I was after, creating some sweet bokeh and drawing attention to the subject by way of clarity.

Community

Though at times they are thought of as flying rodents, I maintain that these geese are beautiful in appearance and community. I love how they gather each autumn to journey together.

Sometimes we cannot get the crop of the photo we want in camera. There is no shame in going in with the scissors in processing! Both of these images were much better presented once their ratio was changed. Knowing this is available to me, I shoot with the crop in mind and finish the composition on my computer.

Both images were shot at the same settings. I used f/5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/200. ISO? You guessed it...100.

Driving Through Winter

Turtle Island

Though happy with the original capture (shot at 1/80 and f/10) I thought I'd bring this island picture into photoshop and see what I could do.  I added a few layers, multiplying the effects and flattening the final result. The textures and golden overlays really seemed to turn this into a springboard for the imagination.

Our minds step onto the island and wander through the trees, perhaps cautiously. What do you see?