Extending Summer, Photographically

At this time of year, most of us are in denial that the long days, warm evenings and cricket sounds at night are soon going to fade into the cool of autumn.  While the change is inevitable, it’s nice to capture that summer feeling in our art and keep it in our walls year 'round. 

For me, the image shown here (Far and Away) brings on the warmth and color of the midsummer evening. This was shot with a long lens trained on a small island in Lake Erie. The trees almost seem to float above the water because the surface of the lake was calm around the island's shore.  A light ripple from the evening breeze creates a cyan reflection of the sky in the water in between, while the inshore water calms again and reflects the alpenglow-like color above the horizon. 

Swallows were constantly swooping over the lake surface, seeking mosquitoes for the evening meal. Waiting for them to get out of the frame required a bit of patience, but their presence was welcome nonetheless.  

To help visitors to my web site extend their summer by putting such scenes on their walls, I am offering a 20% discount until the end of September 2012.

Please go to http://bit.ly/SUswgc and simply use Discount Code PKGNDY at checkout. The discount can be used for any image on the web site.

Country Comforts

It's surprising how many times you glance around...and in that instant in time...you see a perfectly framed picture.



How many of those times did you actually have a camera with you? As it happens, this is one time when I did. I was visiting a friend who lives in a typical old Ontario farm house. As I was leaving, the sunlight dapple on the table highlighting the peppers, the old-fashioned wash bowl, the Muskoka (or Adirondack) chair and the wooden screen door caught my attention.

All that was missing was a snaggle-toothed yokel sitting on the porch, picking bluegrass on his banjo.

Bear Necessities When Shooting The Grotto

I love "magic hour". That's the time around sunrise and sunset that photographers prefer, except the getting up before-the-crack-of-stupid part.

It's not so much the early rising that bothered me on the morning that I set out well before sunrise into the Bruce Peninsula National Park. My plan was to drive to the parking lot in the Park, then walk the 15-20 minutes in near darkness through the woods to the Grotto to set up for the dawn's early light. The problem was that the night before, the proprietor of the motel unnerved me by telling me that they had trouble with roaming bears tearing through the garbage bins.

Imagine my state of mind - hurrying along in the mirk, carrying lots of equipment and constantly looking over my shoulder to see if Yogi was eyeing me for breakfast. At that time of day, even in a National Park, you are very much alone in those woods.



Arriving at the water's edge, however, I was not only relieved but enchanted. The air was perfectly still, the sky cloudless and the water crystalline. Barely a ripple on the surface, so the rocks under the surface were as clear as those on the shore.

To be at such a magical spot at magic hour is something photographers long for. And, to have such beautiful warm (and might I say cooperative) weather at the end of October in Ontario, Canada added to the serendipity.

Needless to say, I scrambled all over the Grotto with my two cameras to capture as much as possible before the sun "spoiled" the scene. Above is one of the results - an image that I think best captures the atmosphere at that special place and time.

bruce peninsula national park photos