Poetic Ponderosa's

The Ponderosa Pine tree is one of my favourite trees to photograph, often twisted , gnarly and bent out of shape, the bark on the older trees exhibit a lovely red color which looks very striking at sunset. Although I grew up on Vancouver Island, part of British Columbia's west coast where some enormous size trees grow including Douglas Fir and Red Cedar, I find the Ponderosa found in the dry central interior of BC has a special quality that makes them very photogenic, maybe because the trees could be a reflection of ourselves , we may be twisted, gnarly and bent out of shape, but that just gives us character just like the trees.

The image posted is of Ponderosa Pine trees living at Ellis Provincial Park near Vernon, B.C.

Rainy Day Photography

Here is another image of kelp washed up on the shore of Albert Head Lagoon on Vancouver Island that I made on a rainy day in 1990, I thought the rain gave the kelp a glazed look. Image was made with my 4 x 5 view camera and a 120mm lens.

Steel Like Kelp

I found this kelp all bunched left by the out going tide at Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park in 1990, when I shot the image the kelp was quite wet which gave it a metallic look, which looked like rolled up steel pipe or something of that nature.

Following My Heart

When pursuing creativity with my camera a lot of the time what I find that makes its way in front of my camera lens is found by following my heart, or my you could say my gut instincts as to what I think might make a great picture, I'm not always right about this but the results are that after a day of shooting I have made images that mean something to me, whether others like them or not. Over the years I have shaped and formed my personal work, the stuff I do on my time off because I'm making something that is creatively stimulating in regards to my own vision. I can go forever hoping to please all the critics out there but when it comes down to the very heart of the matter its myself behind the camera making pictures that will bring back the fondest memories.

The image posted is from Galiano Island taken in May of 1990, 4 x 5 view camera, 120 mm lens, The tree in the picture is an Arbutus tree which thrive on the BC's Westcoast .

The Old Farm Truck

This is one of my first tries at the Polaroid image transfer process that I made a truck in a farmer's field in Kelowna, BC in the early 90's. This was a straight transfer on to BFK Rives fine art paper, along the bottom edge of the picture some the emulsion did not transfer properly, but still added to the artistic effect. I also used a red filter when I shot the picture on my 8 x 10 view camera with a 300mm lens.

A Watered Down View

Here is another one of my Polaroid Image Transfers that I made in the early 90's this time the surface of the image was further enhanced using watercolor paints, the man in the photo is my Dad who was very accommodating to my request that he wear his rain jacket and peer through binoculars while at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Park. I used my 8 x 10 Tachihara view camera with a 300 mm lens and Polaroid type 809 film to record the image, the negative was transferred on to fine art paper which I think was BFK Rives.

Color Inventiveness

The Image posted is a Polaroid Image Transfer colored with pencils that I made in Kamloops, BC in 1993, I made a number of these images using my 8 x 10 view camera, I have always loved the creative process with photography and liked to experiment with different approaches to making pictures, when I heard about this process I thought "that sounds very cool, I have to try this " so I went out and bought the Polaroid holder and a hand cranked processor ( from Calumet ) along with a box of Polaroid type 809 film, Its a little costly today about $300 (cdn ) for 15 sheets. What I really liked about this process was that by using my 8 x 10 I had only one shot to make the exposure and there would be only one copy of the finished image, kinda like a painting or drawing, which is exactly the way I finished many of these images, I used color pencils or water color paints, you might say these have been "manually" photoshopped, Its a really fun process.

Composition: My Frame of Mind

I am a photographer that likes to compose my images full frame in the camera with as little cropping as possible . Often when I'm out photographing especially landscapes, I will already have a pretty good idea of what the composition will look like even before I have my camera set up and have tripped the shutter to capture the exposure, other times composition happens unexpectedly when what I thought was going to work as a great composition just doesn't work, take the example posted, I was photographing at Ellison provincial Park near Vernon BC and was struggling to find the right composition as nothing "felt" quite right, then the camera, being a 4 x 5 view camera on a tripod and on a ball head accidentally slipped over to one side due to the fact I had not tightened the ball head enough, I was looking at looked at the focusing screen when this happened and thought that's it, perfect !

One can Methodically examine the composition of a print and look at what worked and what didn't, but its actually when taking the photograph where everything comes into play and every situation is different. I know what when I'm looking through the view finder of my camera I have a feel for what it should look like, but I can't explain how I got to know what is right or doesn't feel right in terms of compositional balance, its having the right balance of the various elements with in the frame which is the key. I think that looking at the work of other photographers including painters has been a great help to me, I also like to carry with me in my pocket a small plastic card with a frame cut into it to "frame" things up when I am out and about even when I don't have my camera with me, the one I have is made by View Catcher. Often its the interpretation of the scene before me and not trying to put too many elements into the frame but keeping things simple, its often said with photography its not what you put in the frame lines of the camera's viewfinder but its what you leave out.

My Contemplative Mood

There is more discussion over at Musings on Photography about contemplation, for me its not about what camera I'm using, whether it be film or digital, a view camera or a smaller hand held camera, it wouldn't matter if all I had was a sketch pad and a pencil or nothing at all to record my environment, there are times when I take no camera and just take pictures in my mind, I can enjoy my scenic surroundings for what they are and be in a contemplative mood. Sometimes I like to close my eyes for a minute or two and open them and upon doing so the world is transformed into an incredible array of colors. Contemplation is hard to define its like trying to explain love, its a state of being you know what it is, when you experience it.

The above picture was taken at Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, Canada, September 1989, 4 x 5 view camera, 120mm lens.