Mother & Child

A mother seal gently nudges her pup in the waters of Departure Bay. Canon EOS 7D EF 70-300 at 300mm f/13 1/200 ISO 100

I went out into Departure Bay to get some good images of seals. From my kayak I saw them sunning themselves on the shore. We stayed back quite a ways but many of them were quite curious animals and a seal pup popped up quite close to my kayak. I noticed this and as I pulled up my camera to get a photo the mother popped up right beside and gave the pup a little nudge. It was a great moment that dramatically improved the image I got. The long telephoto, 300mm on a crop sensor camera really brings the image in, gave me a lot of detail and I cropped it in a little tighter when I got home. Photos of wild animals are always interesting but finding a way to tell a story with the image or reveal a behaviour makes them more dynamic and compelling.

-Russell Berg

Games With String

A little girl plays with string. Canon EOS XSi EF 50mm at f/3.5 1/80 ISO 200 −1ev

She leans back in the desk, a little mind filled with big ideas.  Her hands move quickly and without thought, cycling through the patterns and  movements of the cradle.  All the while her mind circles around and around.  She is lost in places I can never see, worlds I will never visit and the string is just a tool to keep her hands busy while her mind travels.

I spent some time with my brothers and their families last summer and a few of my nieces were using string to play ‘cats in the cradle’.  We all went to a museum together on a very hot day and this little girl sat down in a desk and leaned back.  I was immediately struck by the way that she was absently playing with the string while her eyes were a million miles away.  I watched for a moment and waited for her to turn her eye towards me.  When she did I snapped the picture.  There are moments for a person where we really get to see who they are.  Sometimes they are hidden in a momentary glance, they are fleeting; they are there and then gone but the camera sees them in a way that nothing else does.   

-Russell Berg

Faster This Time!

I thought that a shoe was an interesting place to put your cookie while waiting for the zip line. Canon EOS 7D EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/3.2 1/640 ISO 100The little girl runs to the the zip line again.  She grips the handles with a fierce determination and wild smile.  I reach up to steady her and she smiles down at me.  "Faster this time!" and she giggles.  My hand in the small of her back I push her and she flies down the length of the contraption, her strawberry blonde hair a fiery trail in the mid-morning sun.  It is all freedom, and laughter, flying and exhiliration but this time she has... a cookie

I swear to you I did not pose this picture.  I was out in a park with family friends and I was pushing their daughters on the zip line.  Somehow taking off their shoes made them fly faster.  They were enjoying it with the abandon that only children can and at one point they got a cookie from their mom as they ran back to the platform.  What to do? they weren't going to stop going on the zip line to eat.  They could eat on the platform while they waited for their turn and of course the shoe was a perfect place to store their cookies.  I felt like this photo captured the joy and innocence and abandon of a child at play.

-Russell Berg

When Cultures Collide

A curious Papuan child wants to take a peak at the strange white people. Konica DiMAGE Z10, 44mm, f/3.2, 1/40

When you are in a place where no one knows you, where there isn’t anyone who understands your language within a 1,000 km, and there are none of the support mechanisms that we westerners take for granted it can get a little disorienting.  My family and I lived in Indonesia for a year in the province of Papua and at Christmas we went out to visit friends who live in the very remote village.  In this village there are no cars, no TV,s no radios, no electricity at all, their experience of the world outside their valley only happens through the planes which occasionally come and go on the primitive dirt airstrip.  Because of the way that the flights worked, these were tiny little jungle planes; Cessna 206’s, we had to stop and wait in a village all on our own for about an hour.  We were the only westerners within a 1,000 km and the whole village came out to see us.  As we waited, we wandered around the village of Biome and about a 100-150 people followed us around to watch us, to see what we would do, to listen to our strange language.  There was never any feeling of danger but we walked past the hut pictured above and I saw another child climbing out of his hut to come and see us.  I quickly pulled up my camera to grab the image and as I did the father pulled his child back inside.  I guess, perhaps, we were a little too strange for him.  The camera was on full auto so I can’t claim artistic intent when I snapped the picture but I love the way that the slow shutter speed allowed the child’s head to blur as he looked back at his father and yet the father’s hand, the other child’s face and the walls of the hut are crisp.  It was an amazing experience and this is one of my favourite photos of the it.

-Russell Berg

Almost Home

A mother and daughter in the walkway to the ferry at Horseshoe Bay, BC EOS Rebel XSi, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f/1.4, 1/60, ISO 320

My wife and I were travelling back to the island on the ferry and as we were heading to the boat we came upon a mother and daughter as they approached the boat too.  I saw them heading down the long walkway and I love the way that the lights and the hallway curled away.  I was reaching for my camera as the little girl started to run, I quickly pulled it up pushed the lens wide open and got off one quick shot.  The sense of isolation is quite strong and I feel that the photo captures the loneliness of those late night ferry rides when you want to get back to those you love but have to wait 2 more hours.

-Russell Berg