Ice Fishing for Walleye/Pickerel and Pike at Lac des Mille Lacs with my Nikon D5600

With this pandemic pressing down I relished the thought of a weekend in the woods far away from the press coverage. Limited to no mobile access, sun and fresh air I took it all in and got a short reprieve from this new world we now live in. We caught some walleye/pickerel, some pike and maybe a slight sun burn out on the ice covered Lac Des Mille Lacs. Eager to try and shoot something strictly using my DSLR, ND filter and a VR lens, I came up with this. Most of my footage from past vlogs was shot with a gopro. It's easy and super useful, but to get control over the Depth Of Field and make it that much more cinematic, DSLR is the way to do it. If you can afford a nice mirrorless I'm sure that's even better. I don't know because I haven't the opportunity nor the budget for a mirrorless ! :)

Nikon Snap Bridge for 'Extreme Selfies'

My Nikon D5600 has snapbridge which is blue tooth and wifi connetivty to my phone for downloading images and controlling the camera remotley.  Pretty cool.  Here's some initial tests I did with it.  The sun was setting and my windows face west - so I was able to get some really nice golden hour glow to blow out the background.

Hiked to the top of The Sleeping Giant and it was Amazing! Landscape Photography Day Hike

I promised my cousin that next time she came to visit that we would hike the Sleeping Giant. As we got closer to the day I started looking into the trail maps as I haven't done this hike in a very very long time. I was shocked to see it was going to be 22 Kms!

We weren't biking in either. I was a wee bit apprehensive when the top of the trail was designated 'extreme'. What was I getting us into? We planned out which day to go based on the forecasts, packed some supplies and my camera gear and set off. This was an amazing experience and I would recommend this particular day hike to anyone who is in reasonable health. Most of the hike is pleasant and mostly even terrain.

The new trail the park has built to divert away from the boulder path is superb. The top part of the trail is a bit taxing as it's where you actually start trekking to the top. But don't worry - If I can do it - so can you! And it's so worth it!









Gear Used: Nikon D3100 Action Cam (gopro type camera) Samsung S8+ Cyberlink Power Director Video Editing Software Cyberlink Photo Director Picture Editing Software Special Thank You to Ontario Provincial Parks. We are lucky in Ontario to have stewards that maintain these special pieces of land. https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/sle...

Sawyer's Bay

It's 8AM and I'm standing on the dock of the bay as the last minute assembled crew of Straight Jacket arrives with gear, food and coffee.  The sun is already high in the sky, the breeze is light and an overall sense of  happiness is in the air.

It's a couple of hours motoring from the marina to our destination of Sawyer's Bay.  It's the little secluded inlet behind the head of the sleeping giant.  There's already a few boats moored off and we link up with them to expand the raft.   It's a race day and this is the starting area.  As more boats arrive and join up - the conversations grow to a dull roar.  Sailors are walking across all the decks to meet up with others.  We have our own little waterworld here.

Eventually the time comes for the skippers meeting outlining the course set for the race.  We dismantle the barge one by one and start the race before the race.   Everything by now is rigged up and we're ready to embark on a 7 hour sailboat race that parallels the 'Giant' then best course back to the city across the bay.

It was a beauty of a day for sailing.  I packed my Nikon and snapped some pics throughout the journey.

Summer Nights By The Sea

Blue hour may now be my favorite time of colour.  Blue hour takes place after the sun has set or before the sun rises.  I was sailing last night and our club had a little party afterwards. The skies were brilliant and I couldn't help myself.  I ran to get my Nikon and started snapping away.  I had no tripod so I resorted to railings, docks and garbage cans to set the camera on to get these nice placid lake shots.
 

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Winter Sunrises Are Running Out

Time changes and spring are on the horizon. The snow is starting to melt and it's actually comfortable up on the mountains of Thunder Bay first thing in the morning. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Adam Sabaz on Instagram @thunderbaylandscapes/@at0mpub
Blair Wright on Instagram @bmwphotoca
Music Selection - Meadow (Cyberlink Background Music) Software - Cyberlink PowerDirector and Photodirector
Gear - Nikon! Of course!
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Keep It Simple

 

I've been struggling with my photography as of late. I watched way to many Youtube photography channels on the matter and have been swimming in the technical aspects of the art and it became daunting.  I was shooting everything in 'raw' and spending way too much time editing my pictures in post like everyone i was studying on the internet.  I couldn't see the forest from the trees.  I wasn't happy with my photos as I was doing too much to them in post and feeling fraudulent.  

After a great discussion with a fellow photographer about this he gave me some sage advise. Go back to JPG.  It'll make your life easier.  What I got out of our discussion was this - Raw gives you way more information to work with yes - but that can be debilitating.  The images once in your post picture production software of choice will always look 'flat' as there is a ton of extra digital information that you have to work with.  My take on this now is that I shouldn't have to rely on all this extra information to fix my photos if I take them well enough to begin with.

I flipped back to JPG and haven't looked back.  When I take the memory card out of the camera and put it into Cyberlink PhotoDirector the picture looks more or less like I saw in the view finder.  A bit richer - not so 'flat'.  I am literally now touching up my photos in a minute or two as opposed to ten or twenty in RAW.  The results are far more pleasing - at least to me and really - that's who I am doing this for.  Me.

I was loosing the joy and getting stuck on the technical.  I was going down the trap of wanting to buy better gear to make my photos better.  I am what I am - an amateur hobbyist photographer.  Being honest with myself has been liberating and I am back to taking snaps because I'm inspired instead of trying to proove I can do it.

These two photos are the first of my flip back to JPG.  I am very pleased.

Follow me on Instagram: @thunderbaylandscapes

Winter Sunrise Photography in the Country

Blair and I drive around the country side of Thunder Bay shooting sunrises, rivers, cottages and lots and lots of snow covered trees!  Hiking - a wonderful way to spend a bright and crisp Sunday morning.

Tones of Grey - No Sunrise Again

Went shooting with photographer wizard @bmwphotoca to capture a sunrise and do some location scouting. The weather forecast again was off by a mile and we were met with cloudy blue and grey skies.

My Youtube channel:  Adam Sabaz
My Instgram to see all my photos: @thunderbaylandscapes and @at0mpub
Blair's Instagram feed: @bmwphotoca
Boreal Cultural Collective:  https://borealcc.blogspot.com/ 

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.

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.