The Ivy Pull

A striking brick wall covered with winter ivy. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm f/22 1/30 ISO 100

Looking Up 2

She stood at the edge of the curb, her toe over the edge ready to go, her scarf flung over one shoulder in a businesslike manner.  She breathed deep ant the winter air flooded her lungs pushing cold into the deep corners.  The winter light was bright and hard and she brought a gloved hand to her brow as she looked down the street.  It was right near here, she was sure of it, down the block where the alley joined the street?  Maybe.

The winter ivy on this wall was very interesting and I took a few pictures of it but they were not very interesting.  I started to play with the perspective shift that looking to one side or the other gave to the image.  The wide (10mm) lens exaggerated the shift in perspective and gave the ivy a life all its own.  It almost seems to be racing away from the viewer towards the upper corner of the frame.  I bright sunlight allowed me choose a very small aperture and my position leaning against the wall helped prevent camera shake at this slow shutter speed.  The position of the wide angle lens gives the vertical wall an interesting angle that further heightens the dynamic pull of the image.

-Russell Berg

Sky Wall

Red brick wall reaches into a deep blue sky. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 12mm f/11 1/160 ISO 100Looking Up 1

Wandering around and shooting whatever you are inspired by can be a lot of fun and generate some interesting images but I have found that it is also worthwhile to go out with a goal and focus in mind. You tend to approach the work of photography with a different mindset and it can often produce much more than what you intended if you don't get to slavish about following your plan. One weekend when I was in Victoria I gave myself an assignment called "Looking Up" so I wandered around looking for interesting images above eye level; I will show you the most interesting results over the next few days

Victoria, BC is known for its turn of the century brick architecture and I came across this bare brick wall with a brilliant blue sky above it. I used a wide angle lens and put the base of my camera directly on the wall to flatten my perspective as much as possible. I was looking for two almost abstract bands of colour the, like a painting in a modern museum and I was very happy with the contrasting colours that resulted.

-Russell Berg

Into The Sun

A Great Blue Heron at Neck Point, Nanaimo flies off into the sun. Canon EOS 7D EF 70-300mm at 244mm f/11 1/200 ISO 100The great rush of air on the first downbeat of the wings pushes out past me as the heron lifts off.  It is a large gangly thing that it seems should not fly... until you see it in the air.  Then it is all grace and power full of life that not just lives in the air but belongs there.  Everything about it from the curve of its wing to the arc in its neck speaks of a supple elegance that belongs in the skies. 

This morning I went off to Neck Point with my notebook and my camera.  I could feel the day’s heat beginning to rise as I walked along the shore.    A lady who was walking by pointed out a heron standing  just off shore.  The sun was was already getting high and the light wasn’t great so I decided to expose for a silhouette instead of trying to get a standard exposure.  I needed a small aperture to put the bird into silhouette but I also wanted the sun sparkling on the water to go out of focus.  Fortunately the depth of field on a long telephoto lens is far more limited than on a wide angle so even at f/11 I got a sparkly out of focus glow from the water.  The tendency of a long lens to compress distances in the image also makes it look as though the water is rising up in the background. I was inspired to produce this image by an ebook which I am currently reading.  It is called "Finding Focus" and it is an excellent discussion of focus, depth of field, and the impact of focal length on your images.  Nicole Young writes it and she does excellent work; it is only $5.00 and there is huge value there. 

-Russell Berg 

Mama, No!

A mother seal rejects her pup’s attempts to feed. Canon EOS 7D EF 70-300mm at 300mm f/5.6 1/800 ISO 100

My daughter and I went kayaking out in Departure Bay this morning and we visited the Harbour Seals that live on an island out in the bay.  We drifted in nice and slow and didn’t get too close so that they wouldn’t all go in the water.  My 70-300 showed it’s worth as it pulled the seals in nice and close and I was still able crop the image down to get even closer and still have lots of resolution to have a crisp image.  This little pup was moving in to try and feed from it’s mother but she was having none of that and whacked him on the nose with her flipper.  It was a beautiful moment and it was a privilege to be able to see it.  I love the texture of the fur and rolls on the pup’s neck as he tries to dodge his mom’s flipper.

-Russell Berg

Cobbles

Dramatic cobblestone street in the older part of Portland. Canon EOS XSi EF 17-85mm at 17mm f/4.5 1/2000 ISO 800

I first noticed the fluttering piece of silk as I stepped out of my apartment and on to the sidewalk.  It was caught in the grate around a tree and was rippling a little in the light morning breeze.  I looked up the street and down the other side, there was a woman in the distance.  I glanced down again at what I now saw was a luxurious turquoise silk scarf with a fringe on the ends.  I bent down for the scarf to untangle it from the grate and ran towards the woman.  She had turned the corner ahead of me and as I rounded the corner I found myself on a completely empty street.  I stopped short, confused; in my run I had gotten quite close to her before she turned the corner but now she was just… gone.

I was walking around downtown Portland, which has beautiful old architecture and wonderful streets.  I was crossing the street above and I was struck by the beauty I saw.  The cobbles had the shine of the morning dew and the glistening rails pulled my eye off along the shallow curve deep into the frame.  I wanted to emphasize the cobbles so I laid down on the street and got the camera on the ground, the wide angle emphasized the size and shape of the stones.  The image cried out for a black and white treatment and with Nik Silver Efex I brought up the texture of the bricks and the silver sheen on the tracks.

-Russell Berg