Bike and Bricks

I struggled with this photo for quite a while.  I loved the curve and shape of the bike, (1) the fact that the handlebars have tassels, (2) the fact that both tires are too flat to ride, (3) the battered old seat (4).  All of these things were great but the bike was a mottled rusty dark green against an orange brick wall and it just didn’t have the punch that I felt the image needed.  Recently I have gone back through some of my images with the intent of reevaluating my images with  a B&W treatment in mind.  I liked it much better this time around.  I really wish I had taken the time to move the potted tree outside of the frame.

-Russell Berg

Sunrise Calm

Sunrise in the mist over Sooke Harbour. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 22mm f/7.1 1/500 ISO 200

There is a calm in the morning that speaks more from the still water and the mist on the horizon.  It speaks more than the quiet air and the soft light.  The beginning of the day is the beginning of all things and it is a time of stillness and potential.  The day spreads out before you with all that it may contain but in that moment, in that one moment it does not overwhelm or confound, or confuse, it is just there, waiting for us.

I slept on an old fishing boat this weekend and when I awoke this is what I saw.  It was a beautiful morning that calmed me.  I grabbed my wide angle zoom and looked for an interesting foreground.  I got down low so that the chain would grab your eye in the bottom left hand corner and pull you into the middle distance.  I loved the way that the sun backlit the edges and lines of the boat.  I underexposed the boat to emphasize the back lighting.  I also really liked the fact that their is an eagle sitting on the piling in the middle of the frame.  I did pull out my telephoto and get the eagle next.

-Russell Berg

Links... To The Past

Old machinery rusting away in a field has always held a strong attraction for me. EOS Rebel XSi, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f/1.4, 1/750 ISO 200

On the first morning of our Stein Family Gathering at a ’30’s haying festival in rural Alberta I woke early and started wandering around the fields.  There was a lot of machinery from the era that was in use but there was also a long row of rusting hulks that had long ago finished their part in delivering food to our tables.  I really liked the grainy texture of the metal in the links of the chain and depth of field that an aperture of 1.4 gave me made that area of texture stand out in the frame.  I also liked the way that the angles of the machinery in the top right and bottom right converge in lines that draw your eye towards the chain and then the axle moving to the left pulls your eye out of the frame.  I processed the original RAW colour image in NIK Silver Efex Pro.  It helped to emphasize the grain structure in chain links and to deepen the shadows in the bottom right and the bottom right and top right.  Silver Efex Pro produces B&W images like nothing I have ever seen.

-Russell Berg