The picture above represents an improvised artwork that was done on Willows Beach in Oak Bay, a municipality in Victoria, British Columbia. The work, created during a summer afternoon in 2014, was made slightly out of the way from the main activity area of the beach and, by luck, was not damaged after its author left the beach.
However, during the evening, while taking a walk, I saw that a group of young people had installed a volleyball net on the beach, not far from where the artwork was located. The players often sent the ball very close to where the eyes where so I decided to take a picture to immortalize the work.
Shells and rocks of multiple colours had been assembled by a real artist to give the eyes an extremely realistic appearance, full of life. You may note that the artist took care of designing the eyes of different size, as it is necessery to add a three dimensional effect. Few white shells had even been added near the centre of the eyes to add the reflection appearance and bring the eyes to life. A real artist creation!
A lifeguard makes sure that the ships keep on floating…
As I was completing a walk around Stanley Park, in British Columbia, I saw this lifeguard comfortably sitting in his chair and protected from the sun by a large yellow beach umbrella.
In the near distance, numerous vessels were anchored while waiting for the appropriate tide in order to reach Vancouver Harbour. Everything in the scenery was quiet.
However, reality was quite different since, when I got closer, I saw a huge beach loaded with swimmers in front of the lifeguard. The latter had to keep his eyes wide open.
A funnier approach was nonetheless to present the most tranquil scenery possible by avoiding to show the beach and the swimmers. This gave the impression that the lifeguard had the responsibility of watching the ships in the distance.
Slightly moving the skyline higher in the shot in order to only see the vessels and the lifeguard did the trick. This is the fun part of street photography.
For other street photography pictures posted on my site, click on the following link:
In 2018, marijuana will probably become a legal substance in Canada. But for now, it is still considered an illegal drug by Canadian authorities.
In the picture above, a “plant” dealer, acting as a “florist”, does not hesitate to publicize his business in British Columbia. He chose to modify the reality until it finally meets his goal.
The “florist” above proceeds in the same way as Sean Spicer, the White House Speaker, who gives new meaning to words during his press conferences in order to make sense of some of Donald Trump’s electoral promises.
Street photography is often unplaned, as it is the case here. But I had with me the necessary equipment to capture the van before it got away.
For other street photography pictures posted on my site, click on the following link:
Canada Geese over the Strait of Georgia in British-Columbia, in 2016.
Night photography is not always planned and the photo above, taken late in the evening, was certainly not one I would have been able to take when I started as a photographer.
There was a superb sunset on the strait of Georgia, in British Columbia, and I had taken multiple pictures until late in the evening with my Canon 5DSRfull-frame camera. The photography session was almost over.
Once I decided that it was time to pack-up for the night, I heard a flock of Canada Geese. They were flying in formation over the mountains to the west and were heading north in the darkness. In order to photograph those fast moving birds in the remaining light, drastically different settings would have to be made on the camera, and this, very rapidly.
The camera was equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens mounted on a tripod and facing west. It was on manual focus, the stabilizer was inactive and the ISO setting was very low. A ND graduated filter was already mounted on an adapter which was installed on the lens.
That meant dismantling the camera from the tripod, activating the automatic focus as well as the stabilizer, increasing the ISO, removing the ND graduated filter, limiting the aperture to insure sufficient shutter speed, composing the photo and taking few rapid shots before the geese were too far away.
Few seconds later, those birds and the landscape were becoming another souvenir of a beautiful summer holiday spent in British Columbia.
For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada
Merchant navy vessel in the Juan de Fuca Strait near Victoria (2016)
Photographers know that the most interesting hours of the day are either early in the morning or late at night, but before nighttime. These periods are ideal for subtle colors and very atmospheric shots.
The Vancouver Island coast offers absolutely everything to attract many categories of photographers: the wildlife, the mist over water bodies in the morning or late at night and the mountains that are visible almost everywhere.
Travelling through British Columbia, I noticed the great number of merchant navy vessels passing through the Juan de Fuca Strait. But to try to photograph them during daytime would only have given average pictures. Waking up early to get the right picture is never easy, but it always gives interesting results.
The only problem with regards to ship photography is that the latter often navigate quite far from the photographer, thus becoming tiny uninteresting dots on a picture. However, the Canon 5DSR camera and its 50.6 megapixels full-frame sensor solve that problem: new experiments are then possible
.
The scenery above was shot from a beach in Victoria, very early in the morning. It was mandatory to ensure of the total immobility of the camera since some serious cropping would be needed later on in order to significantly enlarge the ship. The slightest vibration would have been amplified through enlargment and the picture would have been useless.
Here is the method that was used: the ISO was set on 250, the tripod planted on the beach (but not in the soft sand part where the tripod could have moved a little during the photo session). Moreover, the remote trigger was used, as well as the mirror lock-up function. In order to achieve an optimal focus, the latter was done manually using Liveview with a 16X enlargment.
A Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens was installed on the camera, with a 200mm focal setting. A ND graduated filter was installed to compensate for the rising sun’s brighter light behind the mountains. Being early on the beach also allowed for a minimal wind speed, limiting even more any tripod vibrations. I tried several shots and decided to keep the one with a bird in the scenery, so as to add a touch of life to the scenery.
For other ship photos posted on my website, click on the following link:
An Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplane is just airborne from Vancouver
The photo above portrays a Beaver floatplane belonging to Harbour Air. It is seen here a few minutes after its take-off from the Vancouver Harbour floatplane base in British Columbia. The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSRfull-frame camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens.
The aircraft, quite small in the photo, could have been enlarged using the Canon 5DSR’ s 50 megapixel full-frame sensor. The image would still have been of excellent quality but I would have lost the effect I was initially looking for.
As opposed to what seems obvious at first sight, the scenery was not captured sitting in another plane but from the ground, while I was standing near the Harbour Air seaplane base. The morning’s constant precipitation saturated the air with moisture and helped create a low level cloud base.
An image editing software was then used to crop the scene. I used a non standard photo format to show the kind of flight the pilot was dealing with, between two cloud layers and with a mountain range on his right. It seems to me that a photographer does not have to feel obliged to follow an arbitrary format if the latter has a negative impact on the intended result.
A crow in flight over the Georgia Strait in British-Columbia
This picture of a crow in flight over the Georgia Strait in British Columbia was taken with a Canon 5DSRfull-frame camera. The aperture was set around 4.0. This allowed for a faster shutter speed. A reasonable ISO setting also kept the digital noise to a minimum.
In order to increase my chances of getting a precise photo of the crow, and to ensure that the background was blurred to limit distractions, I decided to follow as much as possible the exact speed of the bird with the camera. This is always risky as one can lose unique photo opportunities. But when it works, the picture is always interesting.
A significant cropping was then necessary to increase the size of the crow in the photo but this had no negative impact on the image’s quality since the initial ISO setting was quite low and I had access to the Canon 5DSR’s 50 megapixel full-frame sensor. Such a huge number of megapixels makes it easier when comes the time to enlarge pictures.
A bit of patience was necessary in order to capture an interesting subject but the wait was worth it. The specimen above landed about fifty feet from me on a Parksville beach. It started to look for small pieces of wood and, when satisfied of its finding, took-off for its nest.
For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada
Harbour Air Twin Otter floatplane C-GQKN and Turbo Otter floatplane C-FODH in the sunset in the Port of Vancouver during summer 2016
The picture above has been taken with a Canon 5DSRfull-frame camera in the Port of Vancouver, in British Columbia, during summer 2016. Following a very busy day of take-offs and landings, everything is now peaceful. The Harbour AirTwin Otter floatplaneC-GQKN and Turbo Otter floatplaneC-FODH are now parked for the night.
Pictures taken at dusk or dawn benefit from a unique light. Nonetheless, taking pictures of aircrafts against the light, with the last sunrays still visible, requires a special attention with regards to blown out highlights.
When contrasts are too important, it is possible to correct the situation by taking several pictures with different exposures and merging them using an image editing software like Photomatix (HDR photography). This is done in a few minutes only. Nonetheless, with floatplane aircrafts that are still slightly moving even when tied for the night, there is an increased risk of a blurred picture. The best way to proceed is to use a ND grad filter and to place it exactly where the light is the strongest. Naturally, there will still be some blown out highlights.
This being said, you still have a good margin of manoeuver, since there is no problem in showing a limited amount of over-exposed highlights in the brighter part of the sunrays, as there is not much details to lose there anyway. While purists would argue otherwise and spend hours in front of their computer trying to correct everything, you are making the best of another day of photographic exploration.
If the picture was taken using RAW files (or RAW with JPEG), it is possible to improve the scene even more by correcting some aspects like the contrasts, the brightness, the colours, the saturation and ambient light, etc. This also requires very limited time in front of the computer once you understand the basic principles of an image editing software.
Harbour Air Twin Otter floatplane C-GQKN on final for Vancouver Harbour, in British-Columbia, during Summer 2016. Photo taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.
It looked like it would be an average day for a photography session at the Vancouver Harbour. The sky was quite ordinary, which means totally cloudless. But around noon, a new and more humid air mass made its way in British Columbia and rapidly the blue sky was replaced by clouds and precipitations. At the same time, the high intensity light that was prevailing around noon suddenly took more acceptable levels for photography.
Pilots of different bush floatplanes like the Twin Otter (DHC-6), Turbo Otter (DHC-3T) and Beaver (DHC-2) had to deal with the sudden weather deterioration in order to complete the daily planned flights. But one man’s loss is another man’s gain. For aviation photography, low clouds and light intensity meant that the pictures would be more interesting.
The photo above was taken with a Canon 5DSRfull-frameDSLR camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens. In order to capture the moving propellers, I had to set a low shutter speed. The scene was then cropped to avoid visual distractions. The 50.6 megapixels full-frame sensor of the Canon 5DSR facilitates cropping when it is required.
In the foreground, there is a Harbour AirTwin Otter floatplane (C-GQKN) approaching to land in the Vancouver Harbour. In the background, far away and in the superior right corner of the photo, the pilot of a Turbo Otter floatplane also deals with worsening weather while ensuring that he maintains a visual contact with high ground obstacles surrounding the harbour.
Westcoast Air Twin Otter floatplane C-FGQH arriving in Vancouver Harbour, in British-Columbia, during Summer 2016. The photo was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera.
The picture above was taken in British Columbia, during summer 2016, with a Canon 5DSRfull-frame camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens.
A Westcoast Air (C-FGQH) Twin Otter floatplane (DHC-6) was about to land in the Vancouver Harbour. It is obvious that adjusting the shutter speed to 1/1200 would have given enough speed to obtain a clear image. But this would have taken away any movement sensation by freezing the propellers and background.
The shutter speed had to be slow enough to allow the rotation of propellers. It is clear that an aircraft’s propeller rotates more slowly on final for landing than during take-off. So the camera had to be adjusted for a shutter speed varying between 1/40 and 1/125.
A slower shutter speed increases the risk of getting a blurred photo, especially when the photograph must move with the camera to obtain the desired effect of movement. The fact that a telephoto lens is used also increases the possibility of a blurred picture. It is thus imperative to activate the stabilizer and horizontal panning function of the telephoto lens.
To obtain a background without any precise details, the camera is panning and follows exactly the aircraft’s movement. This requires a progressive acceleration of the panning, according to the aircraft’s position from the photographer.
When the Twin Otter gets closer, things get a bit more complicated as everything speeds up. It is necessary to already have positioned the feet in the appropriate direction in order to avoid a major switch in the body’s posture. The slightest useless or brisk movement would immediately be visible on the photo.
With a bit of practice, a photographer will achieve success by respecting the following elements: a shutter speed between 1/40 and 1/125, an appropriate position of the feet, no brisk movement while pivoting and a progressive acceleration of the body’s rotation aligned with the aircraft’s speed. A slower shutter speed will enhance the aircraft movement. But expect more blurred pictures when working with speeds between 1/40 and 1/60.
A last detail: as soon as the aircraft’s floats touch the water, the deceleration starts. The photographer’s pivoting speed must immediately slow down otherwise the photo will be blurred.
