Monique Celebrates her Pregnancy (Bedford, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared, 16 frame stitch

When Monique, who moved away from Nova Scotia years ago, got in touch to let me know she was pregnant, planning to be in Nova Scotia, and wondering if I'd have time to do a pregnancy session, I immediately replied "YES", and proceeded to clear my schedule as much as possible, to facilitate her narrow window of opportunity.

Digital infrared original, 2 frame stitch

With only an hour or so to work with, Monique and I worked quickly between a number of different settings and poses; one advantage was her previous experience working with me (we'd first worked together nine years earlier), which made the transition from walking into the space, and making our first images almost non-existent. That, coupled with the fact that I knew the location well and already had some compositions and poses in mind, made the session both fluid and productive.

Digital infrared original

I chose the location for the session for two reasons; first it is one of the closest spaces I know if, so little time was spent on transportation, and second, it contains some great settings for infrared photography. Surrounded by woods, there is plenty of light foliage to work with if desired, while if the composition focuses on the river, the dark rocks and water give some great contrast to the luminosity of bare skin.

L_ Models aat the Coast (Prospect, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared, 2 frame shutter blend

For L_'s fourth session working with me, we headed back to the coast, to work with the rocks and ocean that have long been my love, aesthetically. The day's forecast was for nothing but sun, and we could only work together during the middle of the day (i.e. when the light is at it's worst), but knowing the location well, I expected I could work around the light, and get some images worth our mutual time and effort.

Digital infrared, 2 frame shutter blend

One of the great advantage of working in infrared is how it renders foliage and plants - including seaweed. The rockweed in this image, a dull green-brown in colour, is almost as luminous as L_'s skin, and when combined with a long shutter speed to blur the waves breaking against the shore, it creates a magical environment for L_ to post in. All told, we made a dozen or more variations on this image, experimenting with different poses.

Digital infrared original, 2 frame stitch

I really like the classic lines of this pose; coupled with the rock that almost envelopes L_, and the flow of the sky above, it all comes together into a really pleasing composition. The second last image of the session, made almost three hours after the first, provides some evidence of how little the sun changed during the session - the light was still harsh, direct, and from almost directly above.

L_ Poses on a Spiral Stairway (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original, two frame stitch

I'd explored the photographic potential of the stairs in the Dingle tower before, but this time, was fortunate to have a model (and spotter) with me. During the earlier visit, I'd determined that there really was only one point of view that I liked, so after a lot of adjustments and careful camera placement, L_ and I could begin working.

Digital original, two frame stitch

I'd had some hopes to work with infrared on the stairs with L_, but the light levels were so low that it was impractical (only small windows light the space, which foreced the exposures to be 2.5 second long at 800 iso...for conventional light - the infrared exposures would have been more than 10x that long - impractical on a variety of levels.

Digital original, two frame stitch

As it turned out, from start to finish, L_ spent just a little over 6 minutes working with the stairs; as soon as she found a pose I felt worked, she'd freeze, and I'd make the image, and then when that was done, take another step down, and continue to explore the space.

A Sunset Session (Long Beach, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared original

I am often asked why I am so attracted to working with infrared light, and this image is a great example of what I find so engaging. The drama in the sky is 100% rooted in infrared photography, as are the light tones of the seaweed on the rock below Liz. In colour, the image would work, but in infrared, it transcends the literal, and becomes an interpretation of the scene, as opposed to just a representation of it.

Digital infrared, two frame stitch

For a good ten minutes I worked with this basic composition, experimenting with different camera angles, and poses for Liz; what made the image different for me was I focused more on the shadows and negative space than the highlights, which is backwards from my usual approach.

Digital infrared original

One of the best parts of working close to sunset is how low and angular the light becomes; with this portrait of Liz, the low light looked wonderful on her skin, and created a beautiful graphic quality to the final portrait.

Natal Day Fireworks (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

I have been working closer and closer to getting the firework results I've seen elsewhere, created by shifting the lens focus during the exposure. This image I particularly like as it clearly shows the MacDonald Bridge, which the fireworks are fired from.

Digital original

The challenge of the technique is the lack of predicatability of the firework, combined with only an approximate sense of what the image will look like. In the end, out of hundreds of exposures, only a handful were worth keeping.

Digital original

With only two large firework displays a year, I do eventually expect to get this technique down to an exact science, but I suspect will be at least another year before I get that far.

A Waterfront Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

There is no denying that part of the joy of working with infrared is the magic of now always knowing how things will turn out; I was attracted to the reflections of the morning sun off the glass in this building, but when I made the image in infrared, it looked dramatically different that when seen in colour, and shifted the whole image in a more surreal direction.

Digital infrared original

I have always had a deep and abiding love for corners, and simplicity, and in this image, I found both.

Digital infrared original

I always keep one eye on the sky, when walking around with my infrared converted camera; more than any other element, it is the sky that makes or breaks an infrared image. In this case, I saw these wispy clouds approaching, and knew that as soon as they moved above the tree, the image would begin to work (as opposed to the same composition with a dark, featureless sky).

Digital infrared original

A Graveyard Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital infrared

One of my first exposures to infrared photography was in the 1980's, in a book of Edgar Allan Poe poetry, which was illustrated with infrared photographs of graveyards. During this one-on-one field trip, the student was enthusiastic about walking through an old buying ground, so who was I to argue.

Digital infrared

One thing that always pleases me is how open the shadows are in infrared, when working on bright, sunny days; that, combined with the magic of how foliage is rendered, explains much of what I find so enthralling about infrared photography.

Digital infrared

I really enjoy the haphazard angle of the older tombstones, in such an ordered, planned environment.

A Night Photography Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original , 2 frame stitch

I grew up sailing past this building, the empty husk of an old power plant; seeing it rejuvenated and renewed, as the head of Emera (formerly Nova Scotia Power) is a real pleasure. Most people photograph it in the morning, when the sun and morning sky reflect off the glass, but I quite like it at dusk, when it is back-lit against the fading evening sky.

Digital original

My last image of this field trip, focused on night photography, was of Pier 21, took full advantage of the strong reflection of the street lights on the side of the old rail car. The 90 second exposure rendered the couple of people who walked through the image invisible.

Digital original

A Waterfront Field Trip (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

While talking with a student about the importance of being open to "light" as a subject, I happened to see the reflections from the water's surface on this side of tall ship; initially I thought the image would just be of the hull and reflection, but when I saw the sail in the net above, I knew it would be the perfect way to complete the composition.

Digital original

Walking back from the waterfront to my car, I caught a glimpse of this beautiful wall; the blue light was perfectly positioned to overlay the meeting of the horizontal and vertcal beams, and the simplicity of the setting was just lovely to work with , compositionally.

A Waterfront Walk (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original, two frame stitch

This evening was spent walking along the Halifax waterfront, waiting for the sun to set (at which point a Night Photography field trip would commence. As I walked out Purdy's wharf, I was greeted by a lovely evening sky, stretching out across the harbour.

Digital original, four frame exposure blend

The evening sky was a perfect backdrop for an image of the Purdy's Wharf office complex; as the sun was setting behind it, a careful exposure blend was necessary to capture all the detail in the sky, and in the building itself.

Digital original, 4 frame stitch

The last images of the day were actually made after sunset, when the sky was turning a rich deep bue. My 17mm lens wasn't wide enough to capture the dramatic vista above me, so I had to stitch the final image together from four separate exposures (giving an angle of view closer to 12mm or so).