Odds ‘n Ends

Not unlike other parts of Canada and in the USA, we’re aggressively fighting Covid-19. Alberta has imposed more severe restrictions, in place since December 8 and expected to remain in place until at least January 21. There are things we can do safely and are permitted to do so. Outdoor photography is among those things and I’m keeping busy. I’m engaged in a series of exercises with a few friends, intended to expand our skills and stimulate creativity. We’re given a new theme roughly every week and we each circulate 5-6 photographs, to be critiqued. I’m also engaged in a similar activity with the Canmore Camera Club, with monthly themes.

Today, I’m going to share a few photos from those exercises that I haven’t used in a blog post. Rather than do separate posts for each theme, I selected a few favourites from the different exercises.

One recent exercise was High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, combining multiple exposures of the same scene to better capture the full range of light in that scene from the darkest to the brightest. This photograph of the Castle Junction Bridge was created from six images, combined in camera to produce the final picture. Today’s cameras can do this as well as methods using photo editing software, in less time, with less effort.

Another of our exercises was Nightscapes, a genre more associated with urban skylines at night. The concept is equally applicable to smaller communities like Canmore. All you need is lighted buildings. We took our pictures on the Main Street just before Christmas, taking advantage of the seasonal, decorative lighting. My favourite from those I took is the Canmore Hotel, one of our oldest buildings, dating back to 1890.

Another HDR image, this one taken at sunrise from a nearby location on the bank of the Bow River. I used a different technique for this picture, selecting three exposures from seven that I took and blending them manually in Photoshop.

Another recent theme was Macro Photography. Also known as close-up photography, it’s the photography of small objects. A macro lens is a lens that offers a magnification of either 1:1, (1x) or sometimes only 1:2 reproduction. The ratio 1:1 means no magnification; the subject is small enough to fit within the bounds of the camera’s sensor. This photograph of tulips is a close-up, photographed with a macro lens. I’ve used the ability to focus in-close to get better detail than I would with other lenses.

This is my last HDR, I promise. It’s another scene taken from the bank of the Bow River, this time facing west, up the Bow River. I produced this image using 6 exposures, combined in Adobe Lightroom photo software. I then converted the colour photograph to this black and white version in Adobe Photoshop.

This is another nightscape, taken in downtown Canmore. Taking this photograph presented a unique challenge. It’s a long exposure (13 seconds) so it can be difficult to avoid pedestrians and vehicles passing through your shot in that interval. Vehicles typically move fast enough as not to be in the frame long enough to be recorded, in daylight. At night, their lights only are bright enough to be exposed in the short time they’re in the frame and they leave a white (headlight) or red (tail light) streak across the image. Pedestrians moving more slowly will be picked up but because they don’t remain long in one place, they can look like a phantom traversing the scene. Interesting effects, but not what I was looking for. I spent some time waiting and ultimately, my patience was rewarded.

My last shot for today is another close-up, also taken with a macro lens. It’s a light bulb, part of Rolande’s string of lights decorating the railing around our back deck. You’re seeing the filament primarily, with the shape of the bulb faintly illuminated on the right by the reflection of the blue sky. The orange to the left of the filament is its reflection on the inside surface of the bulb. The picture was taken in the daytime. It is dark because the shutter speed was very fast (1/1,000 second), too fast to pick up anything but the brightness of the filament and the reflections on the bulb.

This is what’s keeping me busy and entertained.