La Pocatière Sunset

Here is the first one of many to come from this summer's hiking and camping trip up to the "Parc de la last Gaspesie" in Quebec. Ironically even are starting by the end with a sunset we saw close to La Pocatière on the way back.

9/11 Memorial in New York City

One of the "attractions" that we saw in NYC was the, in progress, 9/11 memorial. The first picture shows one of the two perpetual pools, in the former locations of the two towers. All around the edges of these pools are the names of those who lost their lives on that day. They are separated in location around the pools by where they were during the tragedy (Tower 1, Tower 2, NYFD, Pentagon, etc.)

The second image is of a tree. The tree looks as if it is a violent criminal as it is extremely well restrained. These restraints are so that nothing can remove this tree since it has been through a lot! It was planted in 1970 and was the sole surviving tree found after 9/11. It was nursed back to health in a nursery and after some tough times dealing with hurricanes at the nursery, eventually made its way back to where it is now.

Cottage Landscapes from a Kayak

It is one thing taking landscape pictures at the cottage. It is an entirely different thing leaning over your kayak with your expensive equipment to try and get the angle right for an image. All in all I think the couple of images below turned out well.

These three images were a beautiful lookout that I found when I was wandering up and down the coast near San Diego.

 4 Points of a Compass

House with a View

Overlooking the Ocean

Californian Streams

Another four images from the location I hiked to around San Diego in March.

Down the Stream


Flowing Water


Over the Rocks
Ebb and Flow

Californian Destination

Here is the next instalment of the Californian series. This was the 'destination' I was aiming for on the hike. Tomorrow's instalment will be of the same destination so stick around!

 On top of the World

Rock Formations

Reflecting Pool

California Hiking Trail

So ... it seems like I say this a lot; It has been way too long since I have last posted. These images, and those over the next couple of days, date back to March when I was in California. This was one of the hiking trails that I took in on the last day there.

Californian Path

Lone Cactus

Sitting on the Fence

Boston Parks Scenery

Here are a few more of the great scenic points that I found in the short time that I had wandering around the city. The first two images are of Boston Public Gardens, one looking back towards the downtown core and the other a prominent statue in the park. The third is of an interesting "building contrast" that is not far away from the Boston Library of the two previous posts. The front (this is the side) of the church was MUCH more interesting but unfortunately it there was construction. Nonetheless I liked the contrast of this church and the tall office buildings in the back.

Boston Public Gardens


Statue in Boston Public Gardens


Building Contrast in Boston

Bostonian Views

Here are the last two wide angle views of Boston as seen from the 50th floor of the Prudential Centre in downtown Boston. One of the things I really like about the second image is the green lines that are the road leading towards the water. The green colour (I believe) stems from all the trees along those streets and the streetlights.
The next few days I'll give you a bit of a rest from the night-time HDR scene and hopefully some more down to earth (get it ... hahaha) scenes from Boston. Once those are done I'll have a few more night time images for your.

Downtown Boston at Night

Charles River Basin from the Prudential Center

Boston Cityscap HDR's - A lesson in persepective

I know that I have talked about this before on this blog, but I think this is another great example of perspective. There are many different ways of taking pictures of the same subject(s). Even when the subject is a wide, grand, land-(city)-scape that is just screaming for your to go as wide as possible, try a few different shots. Here I have 3 images, taken from the 50th floor of the Prudential Center in Boston, which demonstrate what I am trying to say. The first image was my default picture. Go wide and get as much of the view in that direction that you can. Show the expansive view of the cityscape in front of you. The next thing you can do is look for some othre prominent features in the image that may stand out. For me this was the large building that stands out from the rest. The next two images played on that. The second image also plays on a saying I've heard several times before "The best time to take a vertical image, is right after you took a horizontal one". Don't neglect the vertical image. Finally, in the third image I tried to capture the grandeur of the large central building, but also the line of tall buildings that curves to the left in the distance.

Moral of the story? Try several shots in the same location and you never know what you will come up with.


Wide Angle Boston View


Vertical Boston HDR


Close Up Boston View

Gatineau Park Views

Two more views in Gatineau Park.

Champlain Lookout


View Through the Trees

Long Time Coming

So ... you are in for some luck over the next week or more. I have a whole slew of images that have been a long time coming. We are talking about images that have been taken, and some even edited throughout August, but never posted. So here we go ... These first three are from the Highland Village in Iona, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. These three show again what one can get from different perspectives, post processing techniques, and photo techniques of the same subject. Like I said ... keep posted for more Cape Breton Goodness over the next week or so. When that is through, I have some more from Colorado Springs to pass on. After even that I have some waterfall images from up at the Chalet!!

Highland Village Farmhouse


Starburst Sun over the Highland Village


HDR Panorama of the Highland Village Hillside

My own Top 5 HDR Images

Few words make photographer spark up a heated debate quicker than High Dynamic Range. Some love it, some hate it, some hide from the discussion as if their reputation depended on it. If I've already lost you and you are wondering what HDR is (and are interested in finding out) pop over to Trey Ratcliff's site http://www.stuckincustoms.com//hdr-photography/ for a description of what this type of photography entails (make sure you come back here though!). He also has a great tutorial and many amazing images to peruse if you are interested in jumping into HDR yourself. Like it or not, it is a widely popular form of photography or post processing today. Although it is often a technique I use when tackling landscapes or wanting to throwing an interesting spin on a subject, I definitely agree that some HDR images can easily be taken way too far. Those that dislike HDR may even find that to be the case for the images below, but believe me they can get a lot more "dynamic" than that. All controversy aside, here are my picks for my Top 5 HDR images of my own. Feel free to click on any of the images to get to the Flickr page where you can see it larger (click on "all sizes" at the top of the image) or check out some of my other work.

Pride - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Hwy 2 Barn - Ontario

Chapel Point Battery - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Smoke on the Water - Quebec

Tree of Life - Ontario

Milky Way, Andromeda, and a Sunrise

Having stayed up all night taking pictures of fire, stars, the lake, etc. at an overnight 'observing/camping' night at one of our professors' cottage, I was rewarded with this shot. This seems to be one of the favourites among this batch. In this shot you can see the glow from the approaching sunrise, a little bit of the milky way, and on the middle right side of the image, Andromeda. Afterwards the water got ridiculously clear and produced the next shot. All in all, despite the lack of sleep, a good batch of images (I think). To see the rest of the images from this evening/morning click here. To see the rest of my photography click here.

LARGE

LARGE

Landscape/HDR

Here some examples of my Landscape/HDR images, all of which can be viewed at different sizes here.

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