Inspiration from the Sky

I have always been inspired by the clouds that drift around in the sky ( I especially love dramatic cumulus clouds ) and because I like to shoot in black and white , I find that clouds can quite often add a nice tonal range in the high end of the gray scale. So when I want to be inspired I look up and see what nature has to offer, and if the clouds aren't what I was hoping for I try to broaden my vision and look at other picture possibilities that nature has to offer.

This is an image I made just outside of Merritt, B.C. at the Lundbom Commonage Reserve a few weeks back, I shot with my 4 x 5 and used a number 23a filer over my 120mm lens, I darken the sky down a fair bit in Photoshop, just as I would have done in my print darkroom from a few years ago.

Sundown at Porteau Cove

I made this image of tangled tree roots on the shore of Porteau Cove Provincial Park, 38 km north of Vancouver , B.C. in the rugged and steep sided Howe Sound a few weeks back while visiting friends. We arrived as the sun was just going down over the horizon of the distant mountain peaks, so I waited for the sun to completely disappear to create an "after glow" effect. I had to search a bit to find a place to position my tripod on drift wood logs as I wanted to get as much elevation as I could, I even raised the centre column of the tripod a bit, so the top points of the tree roots were not sticking up into the sky. The image was shot with a 4 x 5 view camera and a 120mm lens.

Purgatory Glacier

Here is a view of Purgatory Glacier that I made back in 1992, shot with a 300mm lens on my 4 x 5 view camera, I had spent a week hiking and camping in the Bella Coola area, many great memories and images from this trip.