Sunset at Sinclair's Island

Nice August night... I was shooting engagement photos nearby and I decided to stick around for the sunset.

New film photography

Four new images from a total of three different film cameras.
The first image is a scene at the pond in the Provincial Park in Greenhill, shot with a vintage Franka Rolfix 6x9 folding camera on Tri-X.  The second photo is at Park Falls, shot with a Holga Wide pinhole camera (that's right, no lens). It's a 12 second exposure on Plus-X film. The last two frames are both shot with my favorite, a Rolleiflex 2.8D with a Zeiss Planar lens on Tmax 100 film. Frame three is another view at Park Falls with an onlooker on the bridge, and the last frame is a 13 second exposure of some waves coming in
at Melmerby Beach after sunset. 

Back to FILM!! ...yes actual film.

Yes...I actually took the time to shoot some film and hand develop it at home with the help of my son Cooper.  More of a test of a couple of cameras I recently acquired.
The first image is cropped from a 6x9 format negative on Tri-X 120, developed in T-Max
developer. The developer is fresh, the film expired in 2010 but has been frozen. The camera is an 80 year
old "Franka Rolfix" with a 105mm Schneider lens. The focus was set to the reeds in the foreground.
The second image is a slight crop from a 6x6 negative, also on Tri-X 120 developed in T-Max.
This time the camera is a lovely Rolleiflex 2.8D (1955) with a Zeiss Planar. Both negatives were scanned to digital on an Epson V500. I'll shoot more film from time to time... it was great fun to find myself in the dark trying to get the film wound onto a developing reel... I was rusty but got it done with only one small crease in one neg.

World Pinhole Photography Day

World Pinhole Photography Day is the last Sunday in April every year, so I thought I'd remove my lens and join in the fun. Each of the following images were shot on a DSLR, at approx. 1600 ISO and through a homemade pinhole. Exposure times varied but it was nice and sunny so most are shot at 1/20th sec. The scale of the image can be deceiving due to the absolute depth of field the pinhole creates. In the first two shots the flowers are about 5 inches tall and about 5 inches from the pinhole. Frame 4 on the other hand is a much larger field of view of our back yard, and believe it or not that is a deer in the lower left of the frame. I heard him walking through the brush so I stood still and waited about 10 minutes for him to emerge and walk into the frame. I never thought I'd take a pinhole photograph of a deer, so never say never.

The Bald Eagle... (a killing machine)

Two fox carcasses strewn on the ice and a large bald eagle surveying the scene from nearby at the edge of the pond. The foxes are being picked clean. I would have loved to have seen the process of how the foxes were brought down. The bird is beautiful, and impressive to see.

The Eagle Part 2

Pretty amazing to see this bird launch and take flight. Even though it was flying away from me, and not towards me, it was still very impressive. It lives up to the hype.

More Death on the Ice

A new fox carcass on the ice today. That makes 3 foxes in 4 or 5 days. I'm assuming the eagles are responsible for this but I haven't been lucky enough to see the actual kill happen. One eagle was at the pond when I arrived, but it didn't stay long. As soon as it was gone some crows cautiously moved in on the carcass. Only one crow was crazy enough to grab a bite from the carcass, but one bite was all it managed. Six small ducks even emerged from the branches on the far side of the pond.
The eagle didn't return.

Ice Ice Baby

We had two mornings this week that saw everything covered with a good coat of ice. It was very pretty around town, so I figured that up on Greenhill things would be even better.
I wish my photographic skills could have done the scene justice. With the morning sun shining down, this entire field of hay looked like glass. It basically sparkled. And walking into it, it sounded like glass too. The hay would literally shatter every time I took a step. I did a little walking and left it as pristine as I could... but I'm sure the sun erased it shortly after I was there.

Playing with smoke again...

Had fun playing with these smoke shots so I tried it again....

Playing with smoke... beautiful smoke.

Some images of smoke. Coloured and mirrored in Photoshop, but otherwise untouched. The shapes
and patterns were naturally occurring as a little turbulence was introduced by waving a pen about.