Jan 172014
 

I found this picture, taken from the base of Niagara Falls on the Canada side, that I hadn’t processed before. I think I tried in the past but couldn’t get it to come together. It did take a lot of time masking in different photos and adjusting contrasts to get it looking like this. Swirling mist doesn’t make for the best shooting conditions.

Niagara Falls from below the waterfall with blue sky in the background, mist to the left, curtain of water and cliff to the right

Jan 112014
 

Niagara is a bit of an odd place. It’s an unashamed, huge, neon tourist trap stuck on the landscape next to a natural wonder. It’s definitely a different experience than that of visiting Victoria Falls. At Victoria, I watched a taxi driver aggressively chase away an angry looking baboon that had crashed down on the hood of his car and blocked my path. At the same time though, there is some sort of charm to Niagara’s dated gaudiness.

Neon-signs and the ferris wheel at night in Niagara Falls

Oct 152012
 

Travel Planning: Namibia

I’ve started putting some thought into my next adventure and Namibia will definitely play a part. A desert full of dead trees that can’t decay due to the total lack of moisture, sand-dune boarding, a hot air balloon ride across the shifting sands, the morning mist rolling onto the shore where the desert meets the Atlantic and desert wildlife including elephants, lions, and ostriches.

Yup, I’ll have some of that, please.

How can we afford this, you may ask? I’m still working on that. One thing’s for sure, I can’t pay for one of the packaged multi-day tours that cost a fortune. Instead, we’ll be hopping on buses to find our way around the country. I think our two bases will be the capital Windhoek (a hub for buses into and out of Namibia as well as around the country) and Swakopmund (the Namibian holiday town and activity center on the coast).

Whatever happens, it’ll be an adventure.

Today’s Photo: The last of the boathouse

This is the last of my shots of the peaceful marina on Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The sunset lingered for a long time and after rushing around trying to find a nice view that didn’t involve scaling a fence I decided on this one. Unfortunately, there was still a fence in the way. I tried every single gate to see if one was unlocked but didn’t have any luck. Eventually, I hoisted my camera, tripod and all, above my head and wedged it into the chain links of the fence. I let it stop shaking about and used my cable release to fire off 3 bracketed images.

 

White boathouse and lighthouse showing reflections on calm water in marina on Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake

 

Aug 312012
 

I saw this scene and really liked the way that the tree separated the bench and the sun drenched Old Fort Niagara across the water, in the US.  It makes the bench feel nicely isolated but gives you an idea of the expansive view. The lines, framing the scene the way they do, were what drew me into the scene. I’ve tried to process this numerous times, employing my usual HDR process and was never happy with the results. Whatever I did it always felt too busy.

Tonight, I had a bit of an epiphany. I’ve often thought to myself that I should be careful about only photographing scenes that strike me as good for HDR and make sure that I recognize when I’d be better off not using those techniques. This photo, was a prime example. The lines are very nice and the branches in the trees make for wonderful patterns. there’s enough going on that by bringing in the detail of the bench and tree the whole image gets far too busy.

I’m glad I’ve realized this and will try to stay sensitive to when I should just look to capture a silhouette. I am very fond of this technique. My first successes in photography involved snapping silhouettes, in Bolivia and Peru, with a little Olympus point-and-shoot ten years ago.

Bench and tree in silhouette with the sun drenched Old Fort Niagara across the water in the USA from Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada

 

Jul 302012
 

Today’s photo is a bit more abstract than my usual shots. I’d just finished getting soaked under a waterfall when I spotted the water rushing over this log that seemed to be almost glowing beneath the frothing foam. There wasn’t much in the background so I decided to zoom right in and get a closeup. I processed this differently to most. I had tried running my three photos through Photomatix but wasn’t happy with the results. In the end I decided that the scene didn’t actually have that high a light range so processed as is. I still used Topaz Adjust to boost up the details though.

Water rushing over log that seemed to be almost glowing beneath the frothing foam in Ontario, Canada.

Jul 182012
 

Discovering my photo of these lights on My Modern Met has inspired me to process the other photo I took of them, with the casino in the background. It’s funny, if the mist hadn’t been so thick that I couldn’t see the falls, I probably never would have taken these two shots. I’m glad I did.

Multicolor spotlights in front of the casino at night in Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

Jul 022012
 

A beautiful, sunset in a quaint Canadian town, provided the perfect backdrop for this calm scene on the shores of Lake Ontario. This was taken just as winter was turning to Spring. It was an early Spring, hence the boats are on the dock rather than in the water chomping at the bit. The serene surface of the lake provided a perfect mirror to help show off the sky.

Only a chain-linked fence threatened to ruin the shot. In a panic, as the light looked ready to fade, I figure out how to use the fence in concert with my tripod to get the shot. You can read more about how I did that here.

Beautiful sunset on the shores of Lake Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake with a boat house and sail boats are on the dock with the lake reflecting the sky.

Jun 302012
 

I really liked this old farm. Funnily, I actually stopped for the farm across the street but wound up spending much more time here. I’ve mentioned before that I was pretty worried about someone coming out to catch me trespassing. I had convinced myself that this place probably wasn’t really used anymore anyway. Looking at this photo, the number of tire tracks show that was a completely wrong assumption. Anyways, I got away with it and came off with a pretty cool shot.

Old wooden barn and silo in the countryside in Ontario