A River In The Wood

A river of wood flows through the frame. Canon EOS XSi EF 50mm at f/4 1/3000 ISO 200

There is a river that runs through the wood.  The water is quiet and the eddy’s move slowly but the water speaks deep truths in the warm silence of a sunny evening.  The water is locked in the grain of the wood and the stillness that is there runs deep beneath the surface.  I run my hands over the wood and I can feel the age that rests there.

I found this rather large and impressive stump on a remote beach on the Juan de Fuca trail and I spent much of the evening photographing it.  The texture of the wood, the silvery colour, the way that the grain had been exposed in flowing cracks that seemed to live and breath were all very compelling to me.  This was a remarkable piece of wood and it was very special to be able to photograph it.  There were several places where the structure and grain of the wood seemed to flow like water and I wanted to photograph it with that kind of feeling to it.  I wanted an isolating depth of field but one that was open enough to allow the viewer to get a good look at the grain so I settled on f/4.

-Russell Berg

A Negotiated Peace

A wonderful battered old Gary Oak on the shores of Vancouver Island. Canon EOS XSi EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/1.4 1/4000 ISO 200

The wind blows here.  It winds and twists over the rocks and finds its way through the trees to the place where you are sitting.  The wind does find you but not until after the trees have negotiated a kind of peace for you.  They have protected you and they are true.  You look out from your protected space at the centre of the grove and the sweep of the ocean, the grand rise of the mountains on the mainland, and these trees they all seem to conspire to give you peace.  They all seem to slow your mind and calm your spirit and you take a deep breath. 

There is a wonderful grove of twisted, gnarled old Gary Oak trees at Piper's Lagoon in Nanaimo that is really beautiful.  The trees have grown up on the shore line and have twisted and turned themselves in an apparent attempt to get out of the wind.  They stand on top of a hill that overlooks the Georgia Strait.  I wanted to capture the texture of the bark of these trees so I opened up my lens as far as it would go to get that shallow depth of field and isolate the tree against the background.  I got the shot I wanted but I still wanted to emphasize the texture of the bark some more so I added a bleach bypass filter in Nik Colour Efex Pro. 

-Russell Berg