'tis the season...

This certainly is the season for outdoor photography. Birds, wildlife, landscapes, flowers, people coming out of hibernation. So get out there and enjoy it.

I need to take my own advice. I've been terribly one-dimensional lately but I have to admit that I'm fascinated by bird photography. I'll make an effort to include other genres in this blog so I'm not boring everyone and I'm also going to get out and shoot other stuff. Since I got the Tamron 150-600mm lens, I don't think my Nikon 70-200 has been on the camera more than a couple of times. Gawd, it's the sharpest lens I own! That and my 105mm macro. So I will make the effort. Stick around!

Photo Fads

If you hang out on Social Media at all, especially the Photoshop groups, you'll have noticed how there are fads in photography. For example, there was the "Twirl" — someone figured out how to do a kaleidoscope-like manipulation in Photoshop and suddenly dozens of people were doing it (to the point where some were calling for a ban in the Photoshop and Lightroom group!). "Frequency Separation" is suddenly THE technique for skin softening, everyone's trying it. Lately there's been "Big Eyes", now everyone's doing that (use the Liquify tool in Photoshop. Reminds me of people painting Elvis on black velvet 50 years ago!).

It's also what happened in the nature groups. Last year, a couple of people posted pictures of Snowy Owls, now everyone says, "me too!". Then it was foxes. And Pine Martens. And moose. Aurora Borealis. The Milky Way. Star trails. It's hard not to follow suit: nothing wrong with it, you see a technique, want to try it and show the results. But how do you avoid just being a sheep? I wonder what the next fad will be?

"WOW" image

I follow Vincent Versace on Facebook. He is a photographer and a teacher extraordinaire and a Nikon Ambassador (come on, Canon people, I admire great Canon photographers like, um, like... I'll get back to you on that!). Search for him on FB and look on his timeline for the picture of the raging waters coming over the road in Havana, Cuba from April 26th. [I won't post other people's pictures on my blog, certainly not without specific permission]. It has every "wow" element I strive for in my landscapes. Come on folks, you don't expect ME to do all the work! Research it.

Oh, all right. Here's the link: https://goo.gl/NVmvUG

I do want to quote what he said about the Nikon D5, four days into shooting with it:

'There is no image I cannot capture. The ability of this camera to shoot in lighting conditions so dark that you have to [imagine] that there is light to provide illumination. Spot on color, speed touch screen focus in live view. Whoa.....' 

The D5 can shoot up in the millions range of ISO, which is, I suspect, not what most people will do but by derivation allows it to shoot ridiculous quality at ISO's like 6400 or more. Imagine being able to do an exhibition quality hummingbird shot at 1/8000 sec @ f/8 on a cloudy day...

Last week, I said my first stop after picking up my lottery winnings would be the Swarovski store for that outstanding spotting scope, my second stop would be the Nikon store for a D5. Imagine that optic on that camera! Sadly, the probability that will happen has too many zeroes between the decimal point and the first significant digit.

...musings

As I read about the Nikon D5 and muse about better and better lenses and optics, I wonder when enough is enough. I remember when I bought the D800, I said that would be the end of the line for me. I thought the same when I got my Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR. I discovered that wasn't good enough for birding, so I added the Tamron 150-600. It does the job. National Geographic quality? No, but good enough. The other day, I found something that I could not do with it: I couldn't take a sharp picture of a Loggerhead Shrike on a bush 200 or 300 meters away. I wanted that 500mm f/4.

That's what happens when you push the edge of the envelope. I have to ask myself, "would having all that new stuff make me a better photographer?" No it won't. It would enable me to shoot in situations that I can't right now but it won't make me better at what I do. If I were a portrait photographer, would a D5, with its crazy 3 Million ISO and 12 fps give me better results? No, not really. What would? Understanding lighting better and how to relate to people.

Ask yourself the same questions but substitute the genre you prefer to shoot. What would make me a better [landscape, wildlife, street, macro, travel, astro, studio...] photographer? Sure. You have to have a certain minimum set of equipment. And no, your iPhone or point-and-shoot isn't going to do that for you, unless all you aspire to is to be a snapshot photographer. So it comes down to deciding what you want to be when you grow up.

My problem is, I want to be able to do it all. Two years ago, I shot landscapes. Now I'm kinda into birding (for which, I admit, you really do need one of those $5digit lenses). And astrophotography. To do either of those things and stand shoulder to shoulder with the experts, I would need some specialized equipment. At what point do I have to say, "Enough!"? How about stretching to learn more about how to shoot those genres with what I have?

I can't carry all the equipment I have even now. My gear is divided into 3 bags. When I go out, I have to ask myself, "what should I take with me today?". And as I get older and more arthritic and more out of shape, everything gets heavier and heavier. Can you say "mirrorless"? Not yet...

So I've decided that the D800 is enough for me. Unless it breaks, of course, at which point I have to decide what to replace it with. Maybe that's when I'll go mirrorless. It's time to learn how to use what I already have, to take better pictures by using my eye and my mind, not new hardware. So I won't shoot motion-compensated photographs of obscure galaxies. I'm just going to get better at what I already do.

Algonquin Park

I decided to head up to the Park last Tuesday, well, just "because". People have been posting pictures of moose and I wanted to get my share! I got to wear the camo's I bought at Cabela's a couple of months ago (I wear them at Carden Plain as well; the pants are Goretex and tick-proof!)

The Pine Martens didn't show up at Mew Lake so I killed time shooting a couple of "selfie's". 

I had two moose encounters, one on the way into the park and the other on the way out later in the afternoon.

This young bull was enjoying the salty runoff water beside Highway 60.

This cow was accompanied by a calf. Her coat was rather scruffy, you can see some winter ticks still in position. Her coat looks like that partly because she scraped it off to rid herself of the ticks and partly because moose shed their winter coats and grow summer ones in the spring. She was a bit more shy; or had been driven away from the roadside by a seemingly endless gaggle of tourists. I was amazed by the people who took iPhone or iPad pictures from the roadside and expected them to come out. This shot was at 600mm and cropped to about half the frame.

There are birds in Algonquin Park too. Here's a yellow-rumped warbler and a great blue heron that I saw.

It's not all wildlife, though. Here's the Costello Creek pond on Opeongo Road. Only thing missing was a red canoe! Actually there was a yellow one there, but they were behind the rock and headed the other way.

You don't have to go so far, though...

I shot these pictures at my feeder a couple of days later. I saw at least half a dozen species! I had just installed the "Merlin" birding app on my phone and just for fun, started playing some of the songs of different species. I started with the Rose-breasted grosbeak and about 2 minutes later, this guy and his family showed up!

Rose-breasted grosbeak with attitude! 

American Goldfinch. A whole flock of these showed up and they seem to like the calls on my iPhone. Whenever I stepped outside to shoot them, they'd fly away. Playing the calls made them stick around long enough for a photo. There were so many of them that they emptied my feeder all by themselves in a couple of hours. Must have been a dozen or more!

Pretty sure it's a white-throated sparrow 

Chipping Sparrow. 

Carden Plain

I was there again on Friday morning. Kathy met me there and loves the place. Somehow she sees birds that I can't!

The Eastern Loggerhead Shrike was there again. A little closer this time but we couldn't get him to turn around for a portrait:

Here's a Meadowlark singing on a rock. I think the iPhone call helped bring him in closer. 

Normally they sit further away. This guy was about 200m away and this is cropped from a 600mm shot. I like it because it says something about the environment in which the bird lives. 

Same thing is true of this Savannah Sparrow. I could have cropped it vertically but I like the story the branches tell. I couldn't get him to turn around and look the other way, but that's OK: (1) rules are made to be broken and (2) I like the light on his face. 

As I continued along Rte. 6, just before crossing the Trent-Severn Canal, I saw this Osprey eating a fish on top of a hydro pole. I have a few shots with the fish, but none as compelling as this closeup! 

It's Trillium Time

A little later than usual but they are here. Not in full force yet, but they're out at the Minden Wildwater Preserve. 

The other day I learned something new about my flash. A while ago my Nikon SB-600 flash died and I replaced it with a Yongnuo YN568EX. Reading the manual (and interpreting the transliterated English!) I learned that it will sync with any shutter speed. Interesting: the Nikon flash only went to 1/320 second with the D800. 

What's the significance? When you use the flash, you are mixing two light sources: the strobe and the ambient light. There are a bunch of ways of controlling the effect of the strobe light (normally aperture, but when you're in iTTL mode it's really exposure compensation), but the way to control the ambient light is with shutter speed (or sometimes ISO). 

This is a normal image that uses both ambient and flash light 

And this shot was taken at 1/1600 second, effectively eliminating the ambient.
 

The other advantage of high shutter speed is to stop motion, for example, hummingbird wings. I'll be experimenting with this feature.

This is a complex image. Four exposures were focus-stacked to produce the sharp Trillium, and then I swapped out the background with the texture from a nearby rock. Finally, Topaz Impression was used to create the painterly effect. 

And finally, here's the shot I liked best from today. 

The flash made the petals translucent so you can see the leaf through them.  

By the way, all of these trillium pictures were taken from ground level. It's worth the effort to get down and dirty.

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Happy 2016 to all my friends!

My 2016 wish for all of you:

HEALTH

Because if you don't have that, nothing else matters.

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When I read what I wrote, I realize that I must really be an old man. Those ubiquitous wishes for prosperity and happiness in the new year ring hollow when one has had brushes with problems of health. As I get older, I realize that you can get past the engine in your car blowing up, your basement getting flooded, your business failing or losing your job and none of that matters if you don't have your health.

I'm a cancer survivor. I had surgery for metastatic cancer in 2004 and again in 2007 and several radiation treatments and medications since. It's been 12 years and I'm still here. One day it's going to jump up and bite me but I'm still here. My father had the same cancers I do and he made it to 89. That's a long way in the future. Maybe I'll make it that far, maybe not.

But that puts a perspective on one's life: sure, I want to be fulfilled and content and not lack any of the necessities but mostly I want to not have to worry about my health for a while longer. Because if I have that, I won't sweat the small stuff.

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Speaking of the years going by...

I've been writing this blog since 2006. TEN YEARS! This is my post #345, so about 3 posts per month for 120 months! I don't have a huge audience, a couple of hundred regular readers, more when I have something significant to say. As I look back, I've been pretty consistent and it's pretty clear that my photography, my art, has matured and grown over that time.

It occurs to me that in all that time, I have never made ANY statement about politics. I'm about to break that.

When asked what my politics are, I say that I am APOLITICAL. That means I don't care, one way or another, I have better things to think about. Another way of looking at it is that they are all cut from the same cloth, one is just as bad as the next. But at the risk of alienating some of my readers, I feel compelled to step out and say something now. And the reason is a fellow named Donald J. Trump.

Nothing scares me more than the possibility that this bigoted, racist fascist might get elected President of the United States. At the beginning, you could laugh about him: he wasn't seriously running, he's a joke... but then so was Rob Ford. The scary part is that so many people are taking him seriously – even people whom I otherwise respect – and not only the threat that he might get elected, just the fact that he is running, is probably the most serious threat to world peace since Germany in the 1930's.

The man colours all Muslims with the same paintbrush, all billion-and-a-half of them in the world. He equates them all with violent fanaticism, analogous to Hitler's beliefs about the Jews. The words that come out of his mouth are born in hatred and fear and worst of all, disdain for what anyone else thinks: it's as if no one else's opinion matters. He will cause – he IS causing – a backlash and as some have mentioned, he's probably ISIS's best recruiting tool right now.  

I have always been right-wing. OK, right of centre. I am a firearms owner, I'm very pro-police, the only reason I don't hunt anymore is due to physical limitations. I rode motorcycles, I still drive too fast, but seriously, my American friends and relatives? Seriously? Hopefully you're just having fun laughing at him too, but enough! 

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Minden Wildwater Preserve

Everyone knows my favourite place around here is the whitewater. I dropped by there on Christmas day and again after the ice storm on Monday.

It's a very spiritual place. I often go there and take in the serenity and majestic beauty of the rushing waters. Today, Christmas day, I saw this guy at the river's edge. He was lost in prayer, didn't even know I was there. I watched him kneeling motionless for several minutes and took these pictures to capture the feeling. 

There's a Zen word for this. It's "Shikantaza". Look it up.

Then I discovered what he was really doing... as he reached over and took the Neutral Density filter out of his Lee filter holder (in case you don't know what that is, it fits over your camera lens and lets you do long exposures among other things)! Fooled me. Good story? But without the explanation, I find this a very emotion-filled image.

Of course the white water never freezes. But it creates remnants of ice on the rocks and twigs and trees. I call them "Ice Caps" (sorry, Timmies. Different spelling!)

That 105mm Nikkor lens is pretty sharp! 

Same lens. This was handheld at 1/5 second, sitting really, really still! My long range rifle skills came back to me, control breathing, relax muscles... 

This was one of a series of long exposures (tripod this time). All shot in the same place and all different!  

On the way home, I got this image behind my house

A little post-processing went into this one: it's a 5-shot HDR blended in Nik HDR Efex Pro, then treated with Topaz Impression, then I used Topaz Star Effects to bring out the reflections of the ice coating the trees and grass. Click it for a better look.

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Algonquin Park

I'm blessed. Not only because Algonquin Park is an hour away but because I can still just go up there when the mood strikes me. It did on Sunday, so I hopped in the car and went. I didn't know what to expect to see: not much landscape for me this time of year, but I thought maybe I could find some foxes to shoot and I was really jealous of the pictures I've been seeing of the Pine Martens. A couple of people told me where I might find them. As you will see below, I did.

The other interesting part is the people you meet. John Marshall was someone I hadn't met before, with his friend Charlene?? (bad with names!). Steve Dunsford, whom I've met before: he owns the Mad Musher in Whitney and does some phenomenal photography in the Park. I'm struggling to remember the bearded guy's name, whom we met while shooting the Pine Martens... and his friend Laura (John just told me: Jesse Villemaire). 

Some of the animals are too unafraid of humans. That makes it possible for people like me to get pictures but it makes me uneasy about whether their reliance on people to feed them will prove their downfall. The story I heard yesterday about the foxes on Arowhon Pines road is that they (or their ancestors, I guess) were sick with mange a few years ago and someone left medicated food for them to nurse them back to health. They got used to people feeding them, which I hear many people do (but have never witnessed).

I saw some photos later of the fox kit I photographed and a sibling playing with one of the photographers. Great shots. I don't think that road is plowed in winter. We got snow today so I wonder if anyone will get up there until Spring. Hope the foxes survive. Here are some pictures:

 

And now... a Pine Marten. I'd never actually seen one until that day! Exceedingly cute, and very very fast! S/he scampered through the trees, occasionally posing for a photo.

Not so "cute" when s/he was showing her teeth, upset at the blue jays who were stealing his/her food! 

I was just going to post one or two pictures but I got carried away. They're so damned cute! Prints are available, so are cellphone cases, tote bags, pillows, even shower curtains if you want! Email me and I'll link you to where to get them.

I just realized I updated my watermark a day or two early! Oops.

Anyway, see you all in 2016. Come join me up in Wawa in October. Details will be on the web page at www.photography.to/gales.htm (if I ever get it finished!).

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Pan Am Games at the Whitewater

SHOOTING THE TO2015 PAN AM GAMES
KAYAK/CANOE SLALOM EVENT
AT THE MINDEN WILDWATER PRESERVE

One of the first attractions I discovered after moving to the Highlands 8 years ago was the Minden WildWater Preserve. A project spearheaded by Claudia van Wijk, and Heinz and Dieter Poenn over a decade ago has transformed this part of the Gull River into something virtually unique in the world, a natural waterway made suitable for Olympic-class whitewater canoeing and kayaking. All of the other venues in the world are constructed of cement and plastic and don’t have a trace of the natural beauty of the Gull River.

Dieter, Heinz and Claudia: the people responsible for making the MWP happen. Whitewater Ontario actually owns the property on the East side of the river.

 I always love to spend time there, sometimes watching the kayakers on the water, other times alone by the riverside, just drinking in its majesty, the waters crashing by just a few feet away even in winter. I’ve even brought my 93-year old mother there and stood back as she sat lost in its emotional tranquility. I’ve attended, and photographed almost every event on the waters since then. 

So when I heard that the Pan Am Games were to be held there, I knew I had to find a way to be part of it. One of my first thoughts was to wonder what they were going to do to accommodate the slew of people who would participate in, organize, manage and view the event. The parking lot on the west side of the river could only hold about 8 cars!

Note: all of the action images here and in the gallery follow journalistic rules: cropping, exposure adjustment and dodge/burn were the only tools I used.

I knew that getting permission to shoot the event would not be easy so I set out to take the steps to get the necessary accreditation as a press photographer. It was quite a journey.

You can look at the way this event was carried out in a couple of ways. I decided to be a “glass-half-full” kind of guy so I let myself understand why some things were the way they were. Inconvenience, road closures, stringent security… these were things that were necessary in these times. But not once did I meet anyone – management, staff, police, security, volunteers, coaches, athletes – who did not have a smile on his or her face or a good reason for their decisions. Bravo, TO 2015 Pan Am team!

Tania Fernandez, second from the left was in charge of the entire site. She's Portuguese but hails from England and was brought in to manage the event due to her international experience. 

The Whitewater Rescue Team comprised mostly highly trained firefighters.  

Here’s an example: when I showed up on the first day of practice, some areas were still designated as construction sites, so I couldn’t go in. The site manager herself (Tania, above) took me on a tour and let me in areas that would eventually be restricted (athletes only) later in the week. Another: partway through the training week, a security supervisor told me I was not allowed to cross the ribbon barrier onto the rocks near the river. I pointed out that I was press accredited and that those were designated photographer areas. He checked, found out I was right, but expressed concern for my safety. Right action. Eventually they made me wear a life vest. They were right to do that (wouldn’t let me keep it, though! It was actually big enough and said “Rescue” on the back!).

Me, on the rocks at the start line, with the life vest they insisted I wear!
The grey vest underneath was the one I had to trek all the way down to the CNE to pick up.

Sure, there were some glitches. For instance, why did they set up the media centre on the East side of the river (we could only shoot on the West), basically a 2km walk (uphill both ways, just like when I trudged to school when I was little), and no water or food for us where we were working? We adapted. No bib number cross-references during the training days, so I had to guess who was whom. And I still don’t know who the 8 or 12 “Forerunners” were who made sure the course was working (If you were one of them or related, email me. I have pictures of pretty well all of them!). And who could have predicted the crashing thunderstorm that rolled through on Sunday afternoon?

Spectators had a good view of the action, almost as good as we had. Tom and Diane Dawson from Wintergreen kept everyone fed and happy, running at high efficiency with great food at reasonable prices, unlike their big city counterparts! There were almost more staff and volunteers than spectators, but each had a role! 

Tom Dawson (red shirt) tending the BBQ that produced all that delicious food. 

Since the lunch break was short, everyone had to be fed in one massive surge! Tom was efficient, the lineup moved quickly. Meantime, Diane was feeding the athletes and officials across the river! Wintergreen rocks! 

Kudo’s to the paramedics whom I saw caring for a spectator who had succumbed to the heat. And to the whitewater rescue guys and gals – mostly highly trained firefighters who wore those suffocating life vests and wetsuits all day long. Thankfully, they had nothing to do (as far as I know), which is as it should be. Even the Police were super friendly (well there was one guy, not in uniform but with the tell-tale curly cord leading to his ear, but I’m pretty sure I know what his job was…). The Canadian Press guys (you could identify them by their special blue vests and the 100 lbs of camera gear they were carrying around) kind of looked down on us local types, but hey!

A lot of the staff and volunteers were locals. I met some great people, made some new friends, convinced one or two to come out to the camera club and keep in touch. There was Liz (“Leeez!”) a gate judge I spent the better part of the day with, from Mexico, and Jen and Ruth and Duncan in his yellow tie…

Duncan was primary judge on the middle gates (from about 7-13) on the course

Liz was on the rocky spit where I spent most of the day. She was responsible for a series of gates, as backup to Duncan. I was the one who insisted she wear a life vest, she stood precariously on the rocks, right on the edge!

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Congratulations to our Canadian athletes: Jazmyne Denhollander (GOLD medal, women’s K1 kayak), Cameron Smedley (SILVER medal, men’s C1 canoe), Ben Hayward (BRONZE medal, men’s K1 kayak) and Haley Daniels (BRONZE medal, women’s C1 canoe). Also to the other Canadian athletes who did exceedingly well in the Olympic Trials held simultaneously. See you in Rio in 2016!

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Jazmyne Denhollander, Gold Medal winner, K1 Women
 

Cameron Smedley, Silver Medal, C1 Men 

Haley Daniels, Bronze Medal, C1 Women 

Ben Hayward, Bronze Medal, K1 Men 

So kudo’s (or “Props” as the kids say today) to the organizers and everyone associated with this terrific event. Y’all did good!

Here are a few more images that I liked from the event. Enjoy!

American C2 Olympic hopefuls Tyler Smith and Ted Dennis run the Olympic Qualifier. 

Canadian K1 Women's hopeful Jessica Groeneveld "in the zone", visualizing her run in the Olympic Qualifier 

You know me! I like to shoot abstracts. This is NOT Photoshop (except the frame and signature!) it was all done in camera. 

There are 156 images currently uploaded for your viewing pleasure on my SmugMug Gallery. On SmugMug, click any picture to blow it up fullscreen. Hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen for the description. Use the arrow keys to go to the next image.

PS: here’s the thing: apparently I’m not allowed to sell any of my pictures for commercial purposes. So if you want any of my pictures, either as digital downloads or prints, we’ll have to find a way to do that for free. I’ll figure out something. Send me an email at photography@faczen.com and tell me what you’re looking for. 

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