Boys On The Water

Konica DiMAGE Z10 42mm f/4.8 1/500 ISO 64 We were boating around Lake Sentani in Papua next to a village on stilts when two boys paddled out to meet us.Living on the water is a magical thing, no really living on the water your house on stilts, your floor with a hole in it through which you can jump into the lake is a magical thing. The boys had spent all day fishing and floating.  Their skins alternately radiating warmth from the equatorial sun or covered in liquid crystals as they pulled themselves up into their canoe.  They had been chasing large fish all day, hoping to find catch their own body weight in fish.  The appearance of a large motorized boat of white people broke in and they paddled off to see these strangers

My family and I moved to Indonesia for a year and lived in Sentani, in the province of Papua where I taught and my wife worked in a clinic.  It was a remarkable year and one of the great moments was going out to visit this village on Lake Sentani whose houses where all built on stilts standing up out of the water.  As we got close these two boys hopped in their canoe and paddled out to meet us.  As they approached I saw the littler boy in front crouching to see.  I got down lower in our boat and moved to the so that I could change the perspective and so that we could just see the top half of his face and still see the boy behind.  I wanted to get him just peaking over the top of his canoe.  I love the contrast between his look of mild apprehension and the older boy's excitement at seeing such strange people near their home.

-Russell Berg

Life Still Courses

Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85 f/4-5.6 at 85mm f/11 1/250 ISO 100 This older lady wandered into view on the Victoria Breakwater and I just had to have a picture of her amazing face.

There is a woman who walks down the pier.  She does so slowly and with a deliberation forced on her by the pain in her joints and the weakness in her knees.  This is not the tragic story of a dancer whose knees gave out on her or a singer who lost it all.  She was not a dancer or a singer, she did not once command the attention of great audiences.  She raised a family, she washed clothes, she made meals and now her body betrays her.  Her husband has been dead many years and even though her step is slow and her heart is many times heavy she still moves with purpose and will.  Life still courses in her veins.  She looks up to see the sails of the boat in the distance fill with wind and snap and surge and she smiles.

I was walking with my daughter on the Victoria Breakwater and on our way back we decided to walk on the quarried stone below instead of on the walkway proper.  It was a beautiful sunny day and there were several scuba divers heading out.  As we were walking I saw an older lady approaching us on the walkway above.  I knew that the concrete was going to be in the frame so I quickly decided to make it a design element, using it to bisect the frame diagonally.  I also had to move quickly because she was going to see me soon and I didn't want her expression to change if she saw me.  Her face had an amazing quality in it with so many wonderful stories in the lines, I wish I could have talked to her.

-Russell Berg

"We Are More"

Canon EOS XSi EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/13 1/250 ISO 800. Bruised in the pavement, I love the colours of this leaf.

It is a difficult thing to define a country. Such a big thing, an idea, a set of peoples, and perceptions. One starts and stops, begins again and finds oneself up against a barrier of language and expression. Lately I have been listening to spoken word artists like Sage Francis and Shane Coyczan and it is Coyczan's poem "We Are More" that I think comes closest to overcoming those barriers. It is joyously hopeful and very Canadian without being jingoistic.

I wanted a photo that said some of the same things. I wanted it to use Canadian imagery in a non-traditional way. One fall I drove around Nanaimo to photograph the change in colour and I found some beautiful maple leaves. I took some standard pictures then took one leaf home with me. I wanted an image that would go beyond the traditional pastoral landscapes and reflect the growing importance of urban landscapes in the Canadian psyche. I put the leaf on the pavement and drove over it a few times with my car, they are surprisingly tough, to bruise and mark it. This was getting closer but the pavement didn't provide the right contrast yet; it needed more punch so I brought out my hose and wet it down. This left me with exactly the right kind of colour and shine for both the leaf and the pavement and the textures just jumped. I was quite happy with the image, my only hesitation is that the end of the stem runs out of the frame.

-Russell Berg

The original leaf before I drove over it is below.

Comfort In The Silence

Canon EOS 7D EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/3.5 1/200 ISO 100 I found these wonderful rhododendron flowers on a garden tour in Nanaimo.The feeling that passes between a man and a woman who have lived a lifetime together is a wonderful thing.  There is a comfort in the silences that speaks to years of being able to anticipate the other's thoughts and feelings.  There is an understanding in the the half spoken sentences and unuttered remembrances that is far stronger than the passionate eloquence of young love.  There is a whole life etched in the silent lines that surround the crinkled eyes as they share a half told 32 year old joke.  My wife and I met this couple on a garden tour this past spring; they were vibrant and alive and in their 80's and they had the most wonderful garden.  These rhododendrons were in their garden.

The photo is pretty simple, I knew I was looking for a way to frame the flowers to one edge leaving the remainder of the frame to drift out of focus.  I knew that I had to leave enough depth of field to keep the whole flower in focus, but I did not want any detail in the background so I stopped down to f/3.5 and that produced the effect I was looking for.  I was really glad that I had my fast 50mm as it is the sharpest lens I own and that shows in the petals.

-Russell Berg

Ice and Sky

Fuji X10 7mm f9 at 1/1000 ISO 800 The subtlety of the colours on an ice-covered, winter lake is amazing.

During the holidays my family and I went back to the prairies to spend time with family.  Every time I go back I am struck by the skys.  I live now in the mountains and the forest and we are so often closed in from the sky.  There is something important and vital about being able to be alone with yourself in the middle of a giant sky that reaches down to the horizon on every side of you.  It gives you a sense of perspective that is lacking in the forest or in the shadow of a mountain. 

I am really enjoying my new camera.  The Fuji X10 has a leaf shutter so it is able to synch with the flash very reliably up to 1/1000 of a second and that means I can take pictures that are otherwise impossible.  In the photo above I was down on the ice pointing my camera directly into the sinking sun.  In normal circumstances that requires an exposure that would have thrown the ice and snow into deep shadow.  Either that or I allow the sun to blow out.  With the X10 I can keep my shutter speed high to keep detail in the sunset and use the flash to expose the snow and ice effectively.  I loved the geometric patterns in the ice and so I laid my flash down on the ice to my left and allowed the light to skitter across the ice and bounce off the snow bank on the left.  I really liked the way that it turned out.

-Russell Berg

Fuji X10 7mm f11 at 1/680 ISO 200 I love the way playing with perspective and a wide angle lens can make this relatively small formation seem much larger.