Printing for the Miranda Show Begins (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

With the opening for Evolving Beauty: Miranda exhibition a little over two months away, I have begun printing the images for the show - this being the first one I finished.

A Frozen River (Papermill River, Nova Scotia)

One of the joys of winter light is it is always low, providing beautiful back lighting to this ice.

Digital original

I love the contrast between the frozen water, and the rapidly moving river beside it.

Digital original, two frame stitch

As the afternoon passed, the direct sunlight eventually left the river, putting it into softer, dimmer light; with a neutral density filter on the lens I was able to get a 30 second exposure.

Digital original

New Year's Day 2014 (Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia)

As I have done for years, I began this year with a lunch at Peggy's Cove, and then headed out to photograph the first light of the New Year.

Digital original

As I was walking around Peggy's Cove, this composition, with the water seeping out between the rocks, and freezin caught my eye.

Digital Original, 2 frame stitch

Without a doubt, my favorite aspect of winter to photograph is ice; both because of how it changes things within it (like the Frozen Light project), and because of how lovely its surface is.

Digital original

Nuart Review Feature (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

A selection of my fine art Nudes have been featured in the Winter 2013 issue of NuartReview. The selection includes a broad range of my work, the oldest image being a self portrait from 1991, and the newest an image made with Ingrid last year (twenty-one years of work!).If you click on my name on the cover, you’ll go right to the feature on my work (beginning on page 256).

http://www.nuartrevue.com/

Fort George Details (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

I have always loved these alcoves, drawn to the contrast between the soft shadows on the curve, and the hard edge of the wall. Using a tilf-shift lens, I have the camera even with the top of the alcove, and have dropped the lens, to exagerate the perspective of the floor.

Digital original

Even through they are almost 150 years old, the 7" RML guns at the Citadel are in amazing shape, and provide a beautiful subject to work with.

Digital original

This whole session was flavoured by the long lens I was using (a Sigma 120-400mm); I am not completely sold on lenses this long, as I find it harder to relate to the subject from the distances it forces upon the process. All the same, images like this, abstracting the side of the RML into repeating shapes, couldn't be realized with another lens.

Fall Foliage (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original, 2 frame focus blend

On the way back to my car from a Photo 101 field trip, I saw this leaf, either fallen or placed in the fence around the Public Gardens; the colours wewre just lovely, so I paused a photographed it. To ensure the background would be as soft as possible, I blended two images, one with the 150mm lens's maximum aperture (f/2.8) and one at f/8.

A Dartmouth Waterfront Field Trip (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

Though I have no real affection for modern architecture, there is something quite beautiful about a sky reflected in a glass building.

Digital infrared, three frame stitch

One reason I am seldom without my infrared converted DSLR body is skies; there is not comparison between an infrared image of a dramatic sky, and one made with a colour camera, and converted to black and white.

Digital original, two frame stitch

The most magical part of this field trip was just after twilight, when the ambient light started to mix well with the man-made light of the ferry terminal. I particularly like the coloured reflections on the tires.

Jenn and K_ Model by a Fall River (Dawson Brook, Nova Scotia)

Digital original, 6 frame stitch

K_ had accompanied Jenn on her previous session, to get a sense of what it was like to model Nude; at this session, she decided to take the plunge, so the first set of images were made of her reclining by the river.

Digital infrared original, 2 frame stitch

The reason for choosing to work at Dawson's Brook was the water, but given the time of year (late fall), actually posing in the water was not an option, so as many of the poses as possible worked along the edge of the water, mixing the static poses of the models with fluid, motion-blurred water.

Digital original, 2 frame stitch

The final image set of the day was made at the foot of the water fall, working with the small waterfalls that flowed out of the pool there. Using an ultra-wide angle of view (accomplished by stitching together 17 images made with a 40mm lens) I was able to balance Jenn's figure against the foot-high water fall directly in front of me, something that would have been impossible with a narrower angle of view.

Digital original, 17 frame stitch

A Fall Session with Jenn (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

One of the rewards of how I work is the long term relationships that can develop with models; I first worked with Jenn in New Brunswick in 2006, and photographed her four times between then and 2008. I hadn't heard from here for five years, when out of the blue, she got in touch, revealed she now lived near Halifax, and asked if I'd be interested in doing some more photos. There is no doubt what the answer was, and though it was early October, the weather smiled upon us, and on the next weekend, we went out and began our 5th session working together in  seven years.

Digital original

In some ways, this session was more of an exercise talk than a photo session; as neither of us was familiar with the setting, we spent easily half our time walking around and looking for spaces for Jenn to pose in. Ironically, for all that we spent 90 minutes working together, most of the successful images (two of the three shown here) were made less than five minutes from where we parked).

Digital infrared original

One of the most surprising images from this session was of Jenn posing on the base of a transmission tower. Initially I was dubious about the possibilities the space offered - it seemed a little unrelated to place a body against such a frail, angular form, but as Jenn explored the possibilities, so really striking compositions emerged, including this, my favorite.

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.