Dawn comes slowly to the deep blue waters of the Pacific. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 22mm f/7.1 1/160 ISO 200

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.

-Emily Dickinson

I woke up early to a beautiful misty, golden dawn and I immediately started taking pictures of the very striking sunrise. It was beautiful but I soon turned the other direction and I was struck by the combination of deep but muted colours in the west. The sunrise was all garish gold and sparkly but in many ways the image I got when I turned in the other direction was just as strong. I under exposed a little to add depth and saturation to the colour and I got a beautiful deep dark blue in the foreground. Finding ways to pull your eye into the image is not all about using lines, sometimes colour transition can also have a powerful effect. The passage from almost black in the foreground to the yellow light on the shore to the light purples of mountains in the background pulls the eye forward into the image and gives the image more dynamic strength.

My daughter, sitting in the sunset at Neck Point. Canon EOS 7D EFS 17-85 f4-5.6 at f4 1/8000 70mmThe sun hits the water like mercury on broken glass and spills around her. The breeze lifts her hair and sets it down and it catches that quicksilver light as well. The great open spaces threaten to loose her in their vastness but there she sits, calm, thoughtful, and alone. A strong young woman able to see the world around her. The mountains stretch out and fade into the mists and the distances call to her. These are the places and times when great journies begin. Whether they be journies of the mind or of the the road we do not know yet but soon one step follows another.

My daughter and I went out to catch a summer sunset at Neck Point in Nanaimo. We both love this spot and I almost always get a decent photo when I am out there. She walked off while I was photographing some rocks and few minutes later I looked up to see where she was. I was immediately struck by how small she looked but how dominant a presence she seemed. I wanted to emphasize the large spaces so slid her over to the left of the frame. I had noticed that on the right side of course we had the sunset on the water but the hill background also provided some visual weight, a counter to the presence of my daughter and the rock she is sitting on, pulling your eye into the image.

-Russell Berg