A Macro Workshop

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Digital original

Digital original

Micro Micro Micro

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The more I work with the Canon 65mm micro lens, the more respect I have for people who do micro photography...it is hard to get just the right point in focus, let alone get a good composition. These images of watch parts give some idea of how shallow the depth of field can be!

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A Field Trip to the Public Gardens

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Ingrid & Denise in a Pool

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This was my second session experimenting with underwater nudes (the first session had been in a much shallower pool), and this session provided even more experience to begin planning with. As the last pool proved to be too shallow, I set about finding a deeper in-ground pool I could borrow, and through a fellow photographer, located one an hour outside of Halifax. As it turned out, a long-term model Denise (who's first figure session with me twenty-one years ago,  in 1989) was also available and keen to pose in the pool, so with two models, I headed out to the pool

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Working in the deeper pool was fabulous, in regards to pose possibility, and creating the sense of figures floating, but it was a greater challenge for me, on the photography side, as I had to dive deeper before photographing, and only had a short window before I had to surface to breathe. Very quickly this became the limiting factor for the session (though the images the two models helped me make were really pleasing).

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In the end, more than anything, this session helped me realize exactly how challenging my initial idea is going to be to realize; I am now mulling over options, including building a water-tight camera housing, and operating the camera remotely from poolside (using an external monitor to compose, and remotely capturing the images. It is going to take some time to work out the process, but the few images I made over these two experimental sessions have caught my interest, for certain.

Micro Photos

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I had a couple of hours free today, so I pulled out the 65mm micro lens, and got up close and personal. I can't imagine using this lens without a focusing rail - even with it, getting the right part of the subject sharply in focus is a challenge.

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The above detail is from a 4" long folding ruler...the hinge at the corner!

Experiments in a Pool

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I've been musing over a complex digital manipulation series recently, which would require some underwater nudes (and a lot of molasses); not at all familiar with the problems of working underwater, I put out a question to some friends, asking if anyone had access to a pool I could do some experimenting with (stressing that nudity would be part of the process).

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As luck would have it, not a week layer I was at the house of a friend of a friend, working with Ingrid and Stephanie in a borrowed pool. The process was challenging, with communication, posing, and the depth of the pool all presenting challenges...but it was enough to answer some questions, and help me know where to head next...first and foremost on the needs list...a deeper pool!

Ingrid at Long Lake

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Ingrid's nick-name is "the elf", and her love of posing in nature proves it is an apt one. In this case, I used my tilt-shift lens to extend the depth of field as much as I could, keeping all but the closest plants on the forest floor in sharp focus, while keeping a good balance between the top of the frame, where Ingrid is, and the bottom, with the old tree trunk and foliage.

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The real joy of working with Ingrid is how well she poses; in this case, even before I'd set up the camera, she had worked herself into a pose that placed her perfectly into the scene; I'd selected the setting as the sun was reflecting off the water, and without any prompting from me, she placed herself right where the magic was happening.

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The photograph above was quite the surprise to make; Ingrid had moved out of the open water to under the tree as a joke, expecting like me that it would be a horrible option with dull light and poor contrast. As it turned out however, in infrared, the contrast between Ingrid and the open lake behind her was minimal, while the water around her went dark (reflecting the tree above)...the result was quite pleasing.

A Sambro Island Field Trip

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I've wanted to photograph on Sambro Island for much of my life, having grown up sailing past it numerous times a year.

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This field trip was a unique opportunity to visit the oldest standing lighthouse in North America, and certainly was worth the visit. The island was a wonderland of pristine views of the surrounding ocean, and lovely sun-bleached rocks like the above glacial erratic.

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Sadly, the island is showing the price of neglect; with no keeper, and only sporadic maintenance, the out buildings on the island are starting to really suffer - like this building below the light proper, which has lost much of its back end.

Four Models in Wolfville

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The first images of the session were of Ingrid, posing in a corner of the pool at the bottom of the falls - the light here was magical, with the light of the sunlit trees above Ingrid reflecting in the water around her feet.

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After working with Ingrid for a while, I switched to photographing Monique, whom I hadn't worked with for several years; we began working on the waterfall itself, but quickly moved off to the side, where a curved fallen tree had caught my eye. I asked Monique if she could try posing on it, and quite quickly, this image was born.

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It was only close to the end of the session that Miles and Natasha modeled (Miles was photographing for the first portion of the session); it was a great pleasure working working with them again (they moved away from Halifax years ago, and I only get to see them occasionally). Almost all the images of the couple were of them together, working with the natural interplay between them.

Stephanie & Miles at the Coast

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This session was something of an improv; Miles was in town for a visit, and had arranged to work with Stephanie on some mermaid photos (Stephanie's alter-ego is a mermaid), and I was asked if I wished to come along; once it was clear that both Stephanie and Miles were keen to do some figure photos as well, I was on board (and providing transportation).

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Working right at the mouth of Halifax harbour had numerous advantages, the most pleasurable of which was the liveliness of the ocean - many of the coastal spaces I photograph in are somewhat sheltered, but here there was nothing between the rocks and the open sea, so when Miles found a space that worked for a pose surrounded by seaweed, I took full advantage of the setting, and waited for the perfect wave!

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Once we finished with the first setting (and Miles was thoroughly soaked) we changed the location a little, and made some photos working with the waves sweeping around Miles; it was challenging for him to keep perfectly still, but in the dozen or so exposures I made, he was still enough in several.

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At the close of the session, I made some standing portraits of Stephanie; Miles held the diffuser to soften the light on her, and the square crop (more reminiscent of film, and perhaps an affectation in the digital age) seemed perfect for the final image.