Happy Canada Day !

Canada is 140 years old on July 1st and here is my visual ode to the beautiful country of Canada that I call home, here is an image of what I think is an icon of the Canadian wilderness, Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. I made the photograph in 1991, shortly after having bought my 8 x 10 view camera.

Perfect Poetic Serenity

I had set up my 8 x 10 view camera with a 300m lens at the edge of White Swan Lake in the aptly named park in South Eastern British Columbia on a fine late summer evening in September of 1991, and then a moose came wandering by and walked right into my picture, I had just recently bought the big camera and was still learning how to use it, this happened on one of my photographic road trip adventures when I was enjoying a moment of solitude at that time of the day near sunset when magic happens, the light glows with unbelievable brilliancy and clarity and there is quietness in the air, save for the birds and crickets chirping, and then this moose wanders into the scene as if I was not even there. I know you might be asking , where is the moose ?, but its there ! with the incredible clarity of the 8 x 10 inch negative image, the moose can be clearly seen in the high resolution copy, I apologize for the image posted as it's hard to make out in this low resolution blog image.

The Black and White Transformation

There are a ton of articles posted on various websites on how to convert color files into black and white after the picture has been taken. But what about deciding upon the black and white image before the picture is taken ? I believe the success of a really good black and white image starts before the camera shutter button is even pressed, some call this pre-visualization. Picking out good black and white images in a world filled with color, sometimes spectacular color is not always easy and like any thing as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

I began my photography career by shooting black and white film for newspapers, it was the sink or swim approach to making good images in black and white photographs, but on my time off I loved nothing more than to load up my Nikons F2's with Kodachrome color slide film and go out and see what I could find in the natural world around me. Over the years my work transformed the opposite way, I now shoot everything in color ( digital of course ) and now on my time off I love to load up my 4 x 5 Tachihara view camera with Kodak Tri-X black and white sheet film and go out and see what I can find in the natural world around me.

When I first started shooting landscapes in black and white on a more serious level I found the visualization was not so easy, I read the Ansel Adams series of books on the Zone System, which I still feel has relevance in today's digital world, and one photographic tool which I found extremely useful ( although a little expensive ) is the Pentax Digital one degree spot meter, I memorized the scale of tonal values from zero to ten, then attached the corresponding numbers with a piece of tape onto the outside of the barrel of the light meter, by reading different tonal values in my scene before me while out in the field I was better able to better understand where those values fell on the black to white tonal scale, after a few months and eventually years of using the light meter and the zone scale or system I am able to have a very good idea of what images will work as a good black and white before I even have to set the camera up.

I conclusion there is no easy way to making decent black and white images, just think black and white and go out and shoot, shoot and shoot and above all have fun.

The image posted is from some early work that I thought was long lost, which I joyfully rediscovered recently. This was from my first trip as a photographer to Canada's Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island in 1981. The technical details I believe are Nikon F2 Camera and Nikkor 24mm lens, Kodachrome slide film, I scanned the slide and enhanced the image in Photoshop to illustrate the color to black and white principal.

The Misty Westcoast

The westcoast of British Columbia is one of my favourite places to make pictures, even on days when it is looking rainy and wet . On this particular day in early January of this year I was out photographing along the northern extension of the Juan de Fuca marine trail at Botanical beach near Port Renfrew, the weather was a mixture of rain, clouds and even a little sun, a perfect day for dramatic picture making. In the spring, summer and early fall Botanical beach has many natural treasures to reveal at low tide with dozens of pools of water teeming with ocean life, always an adventure to explore. The image posted was made with my 4 x 5 Tachihara view camera and a 120 mm lens.

Urban Landscape

I love making pictures in the natural enviroment but here is an image of downtown Vancouver, Bute and Alberni streets that I made on a recent trip to Vancouver, the exposure was 20 seconds at F14 with a 20mm lens with a Nikon D1H Digital camera.

Love Story

I have been on holidays this past week and have been visiting Vancouver for a few days, while walking around with friends in the Gastown area this past Sunday I came across this wedding couple , I thought it made for a nice picture with the sign to the left that says, "He needed me". The image was made with a Nikon D1H digital camera and a 105mm lens.

Think Cool

I made this image in January of this year from my back yard on a bright sunny day after a fresh snow fall, lately around my part of the country in southern British Columbia its been hot and dry. The photo was taken with my 5 x 7 view camera and a 270mm lens.