Canola Zephers

The canola is in bloom across the prairies and although the fields are wet and and muddy there are some great images to be found.  Here I was working with my shutter speeds to capture the wind blowing through the plants.

This is a composite of two shots and shutter speeds shot using my Canon XTI on a tripod.

The wind motion was shot at a shutter speed of 1/16, aperture of f22 ( both for depth of field and to reduce the shutter speed).  ISO 100, 18mm, ISO 100, and using a  graduated ND filter to darken the sky. 

This image was layered over the same scene shot with a shutter speed of 1/100 , f5.6, 18mm, ISO100 focused on the plants right in front of me.  I made this my base layer.  I then added the wind motion exposure on top and masked  off the area to the far left and a little on the right edge to allow the detail of the canola stems and flowers to be a fixed base against the blur created by the wind and slow shutter speed.

Shooting In The Rain

With all of the rain we have had lately, ( sorry but I think I brought it back from Winnipeg), I dug into by camera bag of tricks and pulled out my rain sleeves.  This was shot out at Cooking Lake, Canon XSI. ISO 800, Canon EF 75-300 lens tripod mounted.  The sleeve slips over the camera and lense and has a small opening where I clip the eye piece over the viewfinder.  There is an opening at the bottom so I can get my hand inside to handle the camera controls.  Everything stayed dry.

You may be able to see the rain drops on the lake.  I loved how the flat overcast and the rain allowed a clean canvas behind these two birds.

2 of my photos place in Waterton Wildflower Photo Contest

I recently found out that 2 of my images from Waterton  placed in the 2009/2010 photo contest from the Waterton Wildflower Festival.

False Hellebore - 2nd Place B&W

 I took this False Hellebore photograph after taking the "Flowers In Black And White" workshop with professional photographer Paul GIlbert.  This was one of three workshops I took during the 2009 Wildflower Festival.

Previously. when I thought about flowers, I traditionally thought colour.  Once we started to work in B&W, I had to put more empasis on lines,  shape, texture, pattern and contrast to create my images.  


The False Hellebore leaves have such great lines and curves for the eye and I created many images that only focused on them.  I liked this image because I was able to find three separate elements in terms of lines,patterns and sizes.


This was photographed using a Canon XTI and a 75-300 lens zoomed into the bank to isolate these elements form the rest of the growth.

Spotted Saxifrage- HM Close-up

 The Spotted Saxifrage is actually a very small flower - probably less 3/4 of a centimeter across.  

I seem to recall this particular one being a challenge to photogragh.  I had two close up filters screwed on to the end of my Canon 18-55 lens.  I had the feet my very basic tripod wedged under one foot and propped diagonally over my camera bag to allow me to 'boom' into the flowers while I reached across several other plants to get in close (within 2 inches).  As you can see, the closeup filters also create a fairly shallow depth of field .   

I have since added a set of extension tubes for my lenses and  Manfrotto xprob tripod that allows the legs to articulate independent of each other and the column can be boomed horizontally to provide a stable plaform for these kinds of shots.  Much nicer than the 'mad photographer yoga pose' that I used when I tried to make do with the simple joined leg tripod I had.




Here is the link to all of the winning images:
http://watertonwildflowers.com/gallery.php?g=5