A skyline view of Vancouver from the harbour. Canon EOS XSi EF 17-85mm at 17mm f/22 1/90 ISO 200
Hannah
The wonderfully expressive eyes of a young actor. Canon EOS 7D EF 50mm f/1.4 at f/2.8 1/80 ISO 800
She sits on a bench in front of a window and out of the darkness a spot light hits her. This is the beginning, the very opening moments, the audiences seems to draw in its breath with her… and she sings. The notes are soft and delicate but with an undercurrent of strength that allows them to drift out over the people and pull them in. They lean towards her to be just a little closer, to hear just a little more. The music pulses and rises and her voice hits them with a power that pushes them back in their seats and they smile and nod and wait to hear her again.
One of the actors that I had taught in high school came to me recently looking for a headshot. She has such beautiful and expressive eyes so I wanted a photo that emphasized that. I was using two flashes mounted in shoot-through umbrellas and I placed them so that one was directly below the other right in front of her. My camera was poking out between the two umbrellas. Effectively the two umbrellas became one giant light source. I put her quite close and over-exposed a bit to get a high key look. I liked the way that the catch-lights in the eyes have a fairly natural look.
-Russell Berg
Turtle
A sea turtle floats above me in the Caribbean Sea. Canon G11 at f/4 1/320 ISO 80
I hit the water and the warm inviting depths of the Caribbean sea envelope me. I take a moment to orient myself and dive down into the water. There isn’t much coral here, the water is deep and the bottom is sandy so I quickly pick up the movement. Coming up from the bottom is a sea turtle. It moves with incredible grace. The gentle slow sweep of its fins is mesmerizing and its pace and direction is so different from the darting fish that I have been seeing. Wonderful.
I went on a cruise a few years back and this was my first attempt at underwater photography. I got a underwater housing for my Canon G11 and it worked really well but there are some things to watch out for. I was only snorkeling so being able to sit in one place and line up a shot was difficult so I kept the zoomed out wide to try and make sure I would capture what I was aiming at. I also tried to get nice and close as the more water that there is between you and your subject the bluer the picture gets and the harder it is get a proper white balance. It's also nice to use the flash but if there is particulate in the water every single piece will reflect the flash back.
-Russell Berg

Time
Rocks and sand on the beach near Tofino. Canon EOS XSi 50mm f/1.2 at f/2.8 1/350 ISO 200
A year and a half ago I drove across the island to Long Beach to spend some time taking photos. The day was grey and cloudy and as I drove up their was a light rain falling. I took a few pictures of some interesting bits of drift wood but I was looking for a particular colony of goose neck barnacles that I had seen in the past. I found a large rock that faced out on to the beach and though it wasn’t the place I was looking for there were some interesting images to be made. I ended up spending almost 2 hours in an area of about 2 square metres. I kept looking, and seeing more images and trying new lighting techniques. I hadn’t ever spent such a concentrated time in one small place before and it produced some interesting images and I learned quite a lot about taking pictures. I found that having a dedicated time to spend just trying stuff out is really valuable.
-Russell Berg
Open Rest
Dramatic prairie sky's darken as a storm breaks over a field of wheat. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm f/9 1/60 ISO 100
My wheels hum down the open highway as the wide prairie spaces open up in front of me. This place has been called empty but for me it is not empty, it is open. There is a beauty in the openness that invites you to examine yourself rather than overwhelm you with the ‘other’ that surrounds you. There is space to breath and think. The prairies are like the rest between the notes, the pause in the well crafted sentence, the negative space that defines the image. They are the place where we can understand the rest of our lives because for the moment we can consider the rest of our lives with spaces for the thoughts to breath.
One more from my trip to the prairies. I went out for a bike ride in the early morning and as I got closer to home the wind started to whip up and the sky started to darken in the south. I love a dramatic prairie sky over a sunlit wheat field and I went back out with my car to find the right angle under the right sky. I got this image but I knew that I had to do some work on it. The sensor on my 7D does not have the dynamic range to cover the variation in light and darkness in the image. I exposed for the highlights and then went to work on the image in Aperture. I really liked the ‘U’ shaped ring of dramatic clouds so I emphasized this by brushing in more contrast to the edges of the ‘U’ where they bordered the softer clouds. I then darkened the softer clouds in the middle of the frame near the horizon line. Next was the wheat. I painted in light with the dodge tool in Aperture and then added saturation to the yellow-greens of the wheat. I was quite happy with the drama that resulted.
-Russell Berg