Exciting News!

We have exciting news to share with everyone.  Yesterday I received word from the Victoria Park Gallery in Kincardine that my work has been accepted into the gallery!  More details about the gallery can be found here.  The VPG is located on Queen Street in Kincardine here.  The VPG is a co-operative so anytime you drop by to browse and buy art, one of the artists will be there to answer any questions.  Very cool!  The gallery also has a monthly guest artist space so its worth it to drop by and check out each guest artist’s work.

Another great gallery to check out beside VPG is the Scougall Gallery.  John Scougall was a photographer from the 1880s to 1920s and his estate has some great work for sale at the gallery showing what life was like in Kincardine a long time ago.

For those of you curious where Kincardine, Ontario is, check out www.sunsets.com which is the tourism website.

Here are the current pieces that I have for sale at the gallery:

June Landscape Photography Upload

Let’s take a closer look at the June ‘cream of the crop’ shall we?  Shooting lately has been non-existent…check out my previous blog to know why.  One landscape shooter that I follow is Mr. Dan Jurak (heavy on the Mr. since I don’t know him) and he is a landscape photographer and former fashion photographer from the Edmonton area that doesn’t stress when there are gaps in the shooting schedule.  He notes (and I agree completely) that taking a break can refill the batteries and give some more perspective on your personal projects.  You can check out Dan’s photography blog here.

We missed the May photo upload so I thought rather than post on the 15th of the month, we better get to it!

1) The Erie Belle Boiler – Boiler Beach Road, Kincardine

The Erie Belle was a steamship called upon to help out a schooner that had blown ashore after it overshot the Kincardine Harbour.  During its time trying to pull out the schooner, it blew up and the last remnant is the boiler from the steam ship.  The ice has moved the boiler to the beach over the years.  More information about Erie Belle found here.  The Erie Belle is a great restaurant in Kincardine, especially for fish and chips.

April Photo Upload – www.finnerphotography.com

Well, its that time again for some more photos that have made the cut.  I’ve picked 3 photos that are my current favourites.  Shooting has been non-existent lately with some nasty viruses making their rounds and our house hasn’t been spared.  There has also been plenty of high wind which sometimes makes for cool shooting conditions but I’m looking at shooting more panoramas lately so still conditions would be ideal.

It was quite exciting when the courier showed up from B&H Photo Video earlier last week.  The order wasn’t too crazy especially with numerous camera bodies that have been released by both Canon and Nikon lately…..I ordered 2 new batteries for my Canon 50D since I’m constantly shooting in live view which is a heavy battery drain.  I had 2 older batteries; one was the original and the other was at least 2 years old and they were constantly drained after each shoot (or sometimes ending the shoot earlier that I’d have liked).  The other item that I ordered was a GorrillaPod tripod.  I’ve had my eye on the Gorillapod for a while since it will come in very handy as a lightweight travel tripod that will easily fit in a suitcase.  I see this working mostly with my Canon 300HS point and shoot but I bought the SLR model for any travel shots.

As a Canadian, why did I order from B&H out of the US?  The choice is obvious when camera retailers in Canada sell both the battery and the tripod at twice the price.  The dollar is at par between Canada and the US so why is there a significant price difference?  If the retailers are adding a reasonable markup, then they need to seriously ask the camera companies why there is such a price difference?  Price differences like this will drive customers away.  Anyway, enough about gear, lets talk about images.

1) Kincardine Pier

I like this photo since it shows the remnants of an old pier and the current pier at Station Beach.  This was shot with the 50D, 10-22mm wide angle and Manfrotto Tripod.  ISO 100, f4.5, 1/5s.

Goderich and Kincardine Beach Photos, April 2012

Good afternoon all,

Just a quick post today and a few highlights from the last week of shooting.  I’ve been reading some good e-books lately from some of my favourite shooters and I’ll share the details in the next post as well as my latest order from B&H Photo.  Happy Easter!

1) Kincardine Beach – Stream Mouth

As usual, I took my camera gear down to a cool area on the beach that had quite a rocky patch (stone cobbles) that I thought would make for good foreground…none turned out the way I liked (didn’t like the composition, relatively boring sky etc) but I had this composition in mind when I first scouted the area.  The long leading lines work well with the vertical composition.  This is shot in HDR with HDR Efex Pro.  Shot with Canon 10-22 lens, ISO 100, f11, Manfrotto Tripod

2) Goderich Harbour – Tree Reflections

Most times I would give a beginner the advice that sunrise/sunset will give the best light for a photo.  Some days you get a bit lucky with really overcast/hazy skies.  This photo was taken in the middle of the day but the sky was so hazy that it worked well.  Single exposure, B&W processing in Silver Efex Pro 2. Shot with Canon 70-200 f4 IS L lens, f4, 1/2000s, ISO 100.

Sometimes things just work out…

…and sometimes they don’t.  If you’re contemplating more landscape photography in your life, you better get used to early mornings or late evenings where the light just won’t cooperate or your compositions aren’t working out…or both.  I went out last night to capture the elusive Kincardine Lighthouse which I just haven’t had much luck with getting an A+ shot during the winter.  Unfortunately this night was more of the same.  I’ve been driving past the empty harbour for the last month thinking there has to be a way to shoot the harbour and get the lighthouse too in a cool composition.  The first try was from the western boat dock but I just wasn’t feeling the composition so I moved to the south east corner and shot this panorama…more of the same….a small lighthouse in the corner with very little ‘magic hour’ light at sunset wasn’t what I had in mind.

The tough part about this lighthouse is its tucked back with the houses and a brand new bridge which doesn’t add much character to the shot.  I moved to the western edge of the harbour by the picket fence and shot another panorama but by this time the wind was howling off the lake and I just couldn’t get my tripod steady in the sand. The next tripod I’ll buy will definitely have the ability to hang my backpack of the bottom of the ballhead for more stability.  I’ll be back to try this one again when its calmer.  The beauty of small apertures (i.e. f29) is the star burst of the lights which makes for a cool effect and this setup seems to hold the most promise.

The next try was to go and shoot the reflections off the sand.  The sunset wasn’t very warm, few clouds were in the sky and boy was it windy…but there’s always something to learn, especially when photo shoots don’t go well.  High wind and sand are a very difficult combination for sharp images since both will make long exposures unsteady.

As I was setting up shooting the sand reflections, a buddy dropped by to say hello!  I look down the shore to watch for interesting compositions and along comes a beaver.  

March Photos Uploaded

Since its the middle of the month, its time for a new upload of landscape images for sale.  This month’s crop are an exciting mix of some of my favourites mixed with some recent photos from earlier blog posts.  I haven’t spend a lot of time in the field lately; sometimes life takes over a bit but nonetheless, the weather in Bruce County lately has been fantastic so we should be able to see more sun and less overcast at sunset.  There’s a rumour right now that National Geographic may be doing a feature on the sunsets we get on the shores of Lake Huron (nudge nudge wink wink…check out my website National Geographic!  I’m available for hire!).

Anyway, I hope you can take some time and check out the latest round of images.  Full size images are available to view at http://www.finnerphotography.com or click on Current Photos For Sale on the banner.

1) Kincardine Sunset at the Pier

This photo was taken with a tripod and my Canon 10-22mm wide-angle lens.  I had been shooting earlier at a different location with HDR in mind so this photo was shot with a -2 Exposure Compensation.  I thought this image was fine without the HDR processing and continually I’m finding sunset photos work best under exposed.  ISO 100, f4.5, 1/8s.

Kincardine Pier

90 kph winds?  It would have been easy to just sit at home, turn on the fireplace and surf Twitter for the afternoon but I had to head down to Station Beach and check out the pier.  The Kincardine area was forecast for snow and heavy winds (90 kilometres per hour or 55 mph) so I took a drive to see what I could find.  I’ve seen some cool photographs of light houses engulfed in waves during heavy storms but in this area, I’ll have to settle for a light beacon!

This photo was shot hand held @f6.3, 1/50 of a second.  I had been shooting with the tripod set up and my battery started to flash empty.  I figured I’d get up and stretch my legs and shoot a few ‘handheld’.  I still had the camera mounted to the tripodso it gave some good handles to pin the camera tight to my eye/body.  Watch for the next formal upload of photos for sale, I’ll be processing the rest of the batch in Aperture and see what keepers are buried in the RAW photos from the shoot.

JF