Landscape Photography is Hard

What a challenge.  Getting up first thing in the morning to pack your gear and head out somewhere to get a shot of a sunrise.  All week I've been unlucky.  Even this morning - I was up early to go shoot a sunrise and what again was supposed to be 'expressive' was instead cloudy and moody.  Moody is good too, don't get me wrong.  I'm just bummed out that I've been trying all week to get a sunrise pic and figure out some ISO settings that have been plaguing me.

I made a video regardless after making the effort to go shoot something.  I bought some new video and photo editing software and my mission was two fold - sunrise and b roll footage.  I got a little from column B.  Tell me what you think below!

Photo walk near Lakehead University

When the cabin fever kicks in it's time to get out into nature. Fortunate for me I live in Thunder Bay where nature is in abundance and you don't have to go far to take in some tranquility.  I took these shots in around where I live - just minutes from my humble abode.

Dear Rouge, Thank you

A Return to Silver Islet

The autumn leaves last only a short while in the Thunder Bay area.  I was very concerned I was going to miss my window to shoot some fall colours.   Thankfuly this Thanskgiving Weekend I was fortunate to assist my good friend in closing up his camp for the winter.  Not a huge undertaking so there was plenty of time for a quick walk about and photo snapping.

Flourishing in 2018

I really got into photography over the past 8 months. I think my process is coming along nicely. It also helps to have a daily project at work to be responsible for that is almost solely displaying a great photo of Thunder Bay (Good Morning Thunder Bay!) each day.

I fancy myself now as a 'landscape photographer' and I started a new Instagram account called @thunderbaylandscapes  where I'm posting some of my photos.   The next step will be building a portfolio site and start making and selling prints.

I was fortunate enough to spend the night at a friend's camp out at Silver Islet and got a couple of really great photos.

 

 

Books and Movies

Thanks to some recommendations to join GoodReads, I've absorbed more books in the last year than I've managed to get through my entire adult life.  Mostly part to Audible, but there are few that I've flipped pages electronically and IRL.

What I've found most interesting is my desire to read/listen to books that were adapted into screenplays.  I am a bit of film nerd so I find myself slowly broadening my imagination with each book and movie.  I find I'm better able to invision characters, settings and most profoundly - emotion for the literature.

When I finish the book I frantically want to see the director's vision of the material.  Sometimes I agree with the adapatation, other times I feel they're way off.  I also find it interesting what the focus of the adpatation is.

For a standard move run time I understand one can't possibly fit the whole story into the production.  The nerdy film side me is pretty good at seeing the details in the shots that convey what might have been an entire chapter in the book.  I find this aspect of the comparisons most fascinating.

My memory of events in the books versus the movie are sometimes at odds, but I think I'm getting the most comprehensive experience by marrying the two in my mind.

Recently I've been reading and watching many outdoor survival themed plots.  In no particular order:

• Seven Years in Tibet
• The Long Walk
• Walk In the Woods
• Into the Wild
• Wild

Of all the movie adaptations, Wild I think was best.  The narrative of the others far out weighed the screenplay.  I found their stories really made me feel the struggle.  The movies seemed to miss the mark.  Maybe I prefer screenplay adaptations of this theme to be more documentary styled than blockbuster I suppose.

Wild stuck with me the most.  Perhaps it was Reese's perfromance over Brad Pitt, Ed Harris, Colin Farrel, Nick Nolte and Robert Redford.  Maybe the 'guys' were to big to act the struggle convincingly enough.   Reese however had the vulnerabilty in her journey.  At any moment you could believe she might fail.

I would put The Long Walk in second.  If Farrel and Harris weren't involved in this I think it would have been more in tune with the theme.

Next on my list is The Grey.

55-200mm Lens Purchase

It was my birthday recently and I bought myself my first new lens for my Nikon D3100.  With some advice from a co-worker I grabbed the Nikkor 55-200mm zoom lens.  This new lens along with a daily news article I manage as well as contribue photos to (Good Morning Thunder Bay) has really motivated me to get out and shoot.

The weather has been pretty frigid but I've managed to get out and get some very interesting pictures with my new glass.