Yellow Sunshine

Across Departure Bay from my house is a small island called Newcastle Island.  One summer day I paddled across the bay to wander around with my camera.  I had been focusing on trying to photograph birds but eventually I turned around and noticed a lily blooming in the sunlight.  I took some pictures but noticed that if I got a little lower I could put the cattails, which were also catching the sunlight into a very pleasant background blur.  Together, the crisp yellow flower and the out of focus form of the cattails in the background really strengthen the image.  I really wish that I had gotten rid of the foreground foliage, I feel it really weakens the image.

-Russell Berg

Canon EOS 7D EF-S 70-300 at 300mm f/5.6 1/500 ISO 160 −1 ev

The blur in the background is produced by these molting, (not sure if that’s the correct term), cattails.  In some ways I like this image better.  It doesn’t have the strong focal point of the image above but the sunlight in the disintegrating felt provides a strong counterpoint to the dark green firs in the background and the light green of the grasses below makes an interesting 3 colour band.

Bike and Bricks

I struggled with this photo for quite a while.  I loved the curve and shape of the bike, (1) the fact that the handlebars have tassels, (2) the fact that both tires are too flat to ride, (3) the battered old seat (4).  All of these things were great but the bike was a mottled rusty dark green against an orange brick wall and it just didn’t have the punch that I felt the image needed.  Recently I have gone back through some of my images with the intent of reevaluating my images with  a B&W treatment in mind.  I liked it much better this time around.  I really wish I had taken the time to move the potted tree outside of the frame.

-Russell Berg

Asleep At The Airport

She is uncertain. They are leaving the country together for the first time and he has never been off of the small island where he grew up.  Their flight is very early and they have had to be at the airport since 4:00am. That meant getting up shortly after 3.  His head flopped backwards and he fell asleep almost immediately.  Rosa has closed her eyes but the arm rest of the next seat is digging into her back and the uncertainty of how he will deal with all of the difficulties of living in Vietnam for a year is weighing on her.  She is wondering for the 37th time whether this is a good idea.  She isn’t sure how he will deal with not having hot water, or intermittent electricity, or the smells, or the crush of humanity in the city streets.  He is a good man but this is something completely new.

My wife and I were at recently at the airport very early in the morning and I saw this young couple sleeping over on the next bench.  I got out my camera because their posture told a very interesting story about their lives and about air travel.  I wasn’t, however, completely sure that that everyone would catch on that this was taken in an airport so I grabbed my wife’s suitcase, extended the handle and used it to help complete the story.  It also provides a nice frame for the girl’s face and provides some depth and visual interest to the foreground.

-Russell Berg

The Space in His Head

Lentzer walked slowly through the park.  He had been this way before, many times.  It was the place he went when his headed needed space to breathe, when the confusion that circled inside of him now would often begin to untangle itself.  Not today.  The tangled knots remained and his head remained a claustrophobic space; a small closed room on hot summer day.  His thoughts could not get space to breathe.  He kicked through the carpet of fallen leaves on the grass and moved on maybe he needed to sit by the stream.

The vibrant colours of the fallen autumn leaves presented a compelling study in colour.  The leaves had fallen out of a single maple tree and they were scattered around.  I knew that I wanted a photograph that had a field of view that was completely dominated by this red orange colour so I had to move myself around to get a perspective that had nothing in the background.  Sometimes we photographers get lazy when we say things like “there was nothing I could do about it, that power pole was in the frame.”  We decide what is in the frame, we decide where we are standing, what is in focus, what lens to use, and where we point the camera.  If we aren’t happy with what is in the frame then we need to move, crop, change lens, or change aperture.  The photograph that we take is all of ours and everything in it is there because we have chosen to let it remain there.

-Russell Berg

Up Into History

In Casco Viejo in Panama City there are many 17th century buildings that are open to the weather and tourists.  The brick walls are very, very thick and have some really interesting textures.  Finding an interesting way to produce and image of them was a bit of a challenge.  I wanted something that would give a sense of their age and permanence, something that would put the viewer in the building.  It was right around noon so the sky was a very washed out light blue so I was thinking B&W right from the beginning.  I walked into a very narrow square room and looked up; the small size of the room made it darker than the open courtyard and the light from the bright sky lightened the window sills providing some contrast with the rest of the room.  When I pulled the image into Nik Silver Efex Pro to do the B&W conversion I increased the texture and this also had the effect of giving the skies an almost surrealistic smooth gray.  I only wish that I had stepped back a little to allow a little of the sky to peak in through the upper window.

-Russell Berg