The Words Flow

I discovered this person writing in an alley in Victoria. Fuji X10 28mm f/2.8 1/125 ISO 500

An author sits alone.  Sometimes the words flow, they trip over themselves before the ink can form them on the page. The stories tell themselves to the author and he simply writes them down.  Sometimes the blank page mocks, the empty whiteness is scornfull and contemptuous and all of the author's attempts are rebuffed. Sometimes he needs to take a break, sometimes he needs to experience something new, sometimes all he needs is the write space.

I was following my camera around Victoria last weekend and I was taken in by some of the narrow alleys in the older areas of downtown.  I took quite a few photos but I was walking quickly down the street to meet my wife and I happened to glance down this one to my left.  I saw this person sitting in a kind of an alcove in the brick wall with their legs out in the alley as they wrote in a notebook.  I immediately knew that I had a great image if he or she would stay their long enough.  I only had a 10-22mm on my 7D and I snapped off a few but she appeared so far away that I pulled out my X10 and moved in a little closer.  The little Fuji is a perfect street camera, it is small, light, and quiet and most importantly it has that fast f/2.0-2.8 lens.  In post I cropped out the top of the photo as the end of the alley was a filled with very bright, distracting sunlight.  I was very, very pleased with the result.

-Russell Berg

When Light Curves

Playing with light on a beautiful white vase. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 17-85 at 30mm f/8 1/250 ISO 100

The curve and line of the thing pulls my hand to it.  Every time I see it I want to touch it.  I is light and cool with a milky form that invites inspection and exploration.  Even all on it's own, just sitting there on the table it seems to absorb the light in the way that a white thing should not.  It is a beautifully made thing.

One afternoon during Christmas vacation I decided to pull out my lights and photography this vase.  My wife buys vases, alot of vases but this one in particular I really like.  The shape and texture of the thing where made to have light playing against it.  I set up on a tripod in front of the kitchen table and draped some black fabric over a chair that I had put on top of the table.  This was my very "high tech" studio.  I started by setting an exposure that would completely kill the ambient light, (my first frames where completely black), then I started layering in light.  For this image I used 2 flashes that where mounted off camera and triggered by Cactus V4 strobes, (very inexpensive and very reliable with fresh batteries).  The camera left flash was set at 1/32 power and mounted on a light stand and had a small, 6"x4", light box velcroed to it.  I wanted the light to be softer coming from the left but I didn't want the full wrap around that an umbrella would provide.  I really wanted the camera right side of the vase to be brightly lit and yet to maintain an area of shadow to emphasize the three- dimensionality and shape of the vase.  I put a homemade cardboard snoot ala David Hobby on my second flash and held it at extreme camera right with very low power, 1/64 or 1/128.  It turned out that I needed a pretty extreme angle to get the effect I was looking for.  The snooted flash is behind the vase pointing back at the camera at a slight angle so that the flash head is visible in the uncropped frame.  I knew I wanted a square composition so the flash was going to get cropped out anyway.  It was very cool to be able to paint the light the way I wanted it to look.

-Russell Berg

Below is another shot that I took without the snooted flash at camera right.  I like this one too especially the way that the left edge of the vase is well defined and the right edge falls away into shadow.

Steel Orca

The curves of a steel sculpture of an orca in Swy-a-Lana Park in Nanaimo. Canon EOS 7D EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/2.2 1/640 ISO 100

The animal leaps forward with a surge of power that ripples down its muscular boday and pushes through the waves.  It's nose broaches the surface and the water pours off of it as it reaches for the sky.  It is all grace and power, and in that stolen moment where we see it join our world we know what true potential is.  We stop for a moment and realize we need to breathe again.

In one of the main downtown parks in Nanaimo our city displays the work of local sculptures.  One day as I was walking through Swy-a-Lana I noticed an sculpture of an orca.  As I got closer I saw that the piece was put together out of the old steel car parts.  Right away I realized that the prime photographic opportunities were going to be in the details as the background was not attractive no matter which angle I took.  I got in close and stopped down my fast 50 to f/2.2.  The lines and curves of the steel take on a life all their own at this scale and I love the way the cogs of the gear are visible through the blurred out piece of steel in the foreground.

-Russell Berg

Below is the whole sculpture.

New Day

Sunrise over Departure Bay in Nanaimo. Canon EOS XSi EF-S 17-85mm f/4.5-5.6 at f/6.3 50mm 1/100 ISO 200We spend so much time on sunsets, that the beauty and hopefulness of a sunrise is often ignored.  A sunset quiets and calms as it sinks slowly into darkness.  A sunrise invigorates and animates as we feel the light return to darkened world.  The tremors of the early morning light warms the edge off the night time cool.  The moist air rising off the water is pushed back against me as I walk over the pebbled rocks and uneven sand and I feel the possibilities of a new day.

I drive past the beautiful Departure Bay every morning and the sunrises are often spectacular.  One Saturday morning I went down with my camera anticipating a beautiful sunrise.  I wasn't disappointed.  I had enough time to get set up and ready as I anticipated the sun coming up over Stephenson Point in the distance.  The atmospheric dust was just enough to give the air a beautiful warm glow and to through the mountains on the mainland into golden silhouette.  I made sure that I had underexposed the image enough for the foreground to be thrown into silhouette and waited for the magical momen when the sun peaked over the the trees.

-Russell Berg

The Sounds of Commerce

A slum behind the pasar (market) in Sentani, Papua, Indonesia. DiMAGE Z10 6mm at f/3.2 1/100 ISO 64The smell hits you first. You are wandering undering the unrelenting sun and as you approach the pasar, market, it is redolent with the odors of decaying meat, rotting garbage, and unwashed bodies. There is a strength to it that pushes back and leaves the uninitiated wondering if they can continue. The crush of bodies, the sounds of commerce, street style pushes in around you and you begin to wish you didn't need to shop here. Then you see a nod, and you stumble through a greeting in your halting Indonesian. They smile warmly help you correct your words and shake your hand. You wonder if there are any tomatoes this week and soon they are they pulling you through sprawling market to the one corner where they sit, decent sized tomatoes.

The market where we shopped for vegetables in Indonesia was a large collection of tin huts, lean-to rooves and tarp covered stalls. It was always full of life and sound and action. One day I wandered out the back and through the little alleys and homes that bordered it. I walked around a corner and glanced through the laundry hanging in front of me seeing a man in a motorcycle helmet coming home. I. Whipped up my camera and snapped just as he disappeared in a home.

-Russell Berg