A Victoria building covered in vibrant graffiti art. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85 at 21mm f/14 1/50 ISO 400
he back of a building, hidden from view reveals an incredible trove of detailed graffiti. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85 at 44mm f/14 1/80 ISO 400
Tulum
The voices of history whisper still in the rocks of ancient Tulum. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85 at 20mm f/5 1/1250 ISO 100 −1ev
The people who built this wonderful place are no longer here. Only the tourists and tour guides wander these paths now. In the quiet moments as the day is ending and as the crowds have thinned you can still hear the voices whispering in the rocks. There is a presence in the ancient places that points forward through the mists of time and begs us to stop and look, to see the things that they have done. To hear the echoes of the stories told around fires one thousand years ago.
All of the places on the earth are the same age but there is something remarkable about visiting a place where the remnants of human activity have a kind of permanence. The ruins at Tulum, in Mexico are a beautiful example of that. We visited Tulum as the sun was starting to set and the sky was a dramatic blue but I knew that for many of my pictures there would be no better way to bring out the texture and structure of the rocks than with a black and white treatment. Changing your perspective can have such a significant change in your photographs. Simply sitting down on the ground, as I did for this photograph, can really change the way that we see it. The lower point of view makes the gives the building and imposing presence in the image. I simply cannot say enough about the ability of Nik Silver Efex Pro to help produce very interesting black and white images. The structure and contrast tools alone are worth the price of admission.
-Russell Berg
Port Window
A stark and lonely parking garage looking over the port in Portland. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85mm at 70mm f/5.6 1/500 ISO 100
I walked into this parking garage in Tacoma because the walls were coved with graffiti and I love photographing graffiti. I spent about 40 minutes photographing the art and talking with and filming the artist who was painting there. As I was about to leave I looked up towards the back wall and for the first time I noticed the very interesting way that the screen covered window was framing the loading cranes in the port of Portland. When you are focused on photographing a certain subject you may miss some other pretty remarkable images. It wasn't until I allowed my eyes to adjust to the brightness of the outdoor light that I saw the potential in the image. I exposed for the blue sky, throwing the walls and floor of the garage into darkness, creating a very interesting, urban frame for the image. I increased the contrast of the image to bring up the reflective portions of the floor. Without the black portions of the photograph this is a very boring image, with them we introduce some drama and a stronger sense of place.
-Russell Berg
Loneliness
One lonely window open to the night in Portland. Canon EOS EF 50mm at f/1.4 1/60 ISO 800
The cigarette hangs from the edge of her lip barely there until she inhales and it plants itself more firmly between her lips. She inhales deeply and looks down towards the placemat covered milk crate that stands in for an end table. The wobbly lamp that sits on top of the placemat has all of the strength that she feels in her bones. The ragged breath and the too early age that rests on her tired shoulders bespeak a much older woman. And here she is, alone.
I was sitting on the fire escape of my hotel enjoying the night air and the energy of the city as it rose up to meet me. I was sitting with my camera, casting about for the right image when I looked across the street and saw someone sitting in their window without any blinds. It immediately struck me as a very strongly graphic image. The frame, of course, included more than the four windows pictured above but I framed the picture with a square cropping in mind. There were closed windows all around the person but chose to put the them in the bottom right because she appears to be looking off to the left and I wanted her looking into the centre of the frame. The loneliness of the person sitting alone in the window is accentuated by the four closed windows. The picture didn’t look like much in colour but converting it to black and white gave it more power. I really like the way that the light spilling upwards from the street accentuates the texture of the brick wall.
-Russell Berg
The Walls Close In
A narrow alleyway in downtown Victoria. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm f/8 1/20 ISO 1250
Victoria, BC has a wonderful old downtown area with some very interesting and narrow alleys. I stumbled on to this as I was wandering through the city and was struck by the graphic nature of the tight brick walls, the plank ceiling and the bare bulb that hung in the middle. I used a wide angle lens to emphasize the enclosing feeling of the alley and the shift in perspective almost makes it feel as though the walls wrap around you. In the original frame the bare bulb light was visible but I cropped it out as the extreme contrast in brightness was distracting. I also really liked the way that the splashes of light on the walls imply the bulb on the ceiling without us having to see it. The exposure was also somewhat tricky, it the camera read the exposure off the bright area in the centre all of the walls would have been very close to black. I used spot metering and took a reading off of the area just this side of the light area and I got a decent exposure. I am still not entirely happy with how bright the opening is but of course at the end of every tunnel…
-Russell Berg