Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I am sending 2 Halloween Photos this morning, both of which I have sent in past years. The witch on the pumpkin is a combination of two photos. The pumpkin, which was quite large, was in one of our Kindergarten classes. I asked the teacher to sit on the floor and I photographed her. Then I erased the background and floor, resized and placed her on the pumpkin. When the kindergartens saw the image, most thought their teacher was magic, but one little kid said that I did something in the camera.

For the second image, I photographed a pumpkin without a flash, then added the text afterwards.

Port-Royal 2

As promised, this morning I am sending a couple more photos of Port-Royal Habitation in Nova Scotia. The first shows 6 jars (I am not sure what they are used for) and the second shows a bowl and spoon, both made from wood. Imagine having to make your own eating utensils from wood.

These photos were taken inside and hand-held without a flash. I shot the entire complex and used flash inside for about 1/3 of the photos. If there was window light, I tried to take advantage of it.

I am presently working on a web site of this historic site and will advise you when it is complete.

Port-Royal Habitation

In August, I visited Port Royal Habitation, Nova Scotia and photographed the National Historic Site. You can find out more about the site by visiting http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/portroyal/index_e.asp .

I photographed the entire site and have about 500 photos. Most were taken inside and show many of the artifacts that have been found in the area. Over the next few days I will share a few of the images.

The two photos today show the outside of the settlement as it would have appeared back in the early 17th century.

Apples

Earlier this fall I photographed apples growing on a tree near my home. The photos were taken around 11:30 AM as the weather was clearing up after a rainy morning. I liked the colours as well as the water drops on the red part of the apples. The third photo was cropped from the second.

These photos were taken with a 100-300 mm zoom lens at maximum zoom. Since I was shooting into the tree and the sun wasn't really very bright, I set the ISO to 400 and the camera on Program Mode (P). The camera chose f8 at 1/250 sec. The fast shutter speed helped me avoid out of focus shots because of camera shake which is common (for me) when shooting at maximum zoom.

I have been sending a Photo of the Day for nearly 4 years and try to keep the photos current. This time of the year when I am working during the day and it gets dark so early, I have to go back through my files to choose photos. I know many of you look forward to the daily photos and enjoy the beauty that I see all around me. As well, several people have told me that they now see beauty in things they had previously taken for granted. Today's photos are examples of "Seeing" beauty in an ordinary scene.

Animals

Several people emailed yesterday wondering what a loonie was. My apologies to the people outside Canada. A "loonie" is a Canadian $1.00 coin. (You can see a list of Canadian money here - http://www.vancouver.hm/money.html ). It has the nickname because there is an image of a loon on the back of the coin.

This morning I am sending two photographs of animals taken at Salmonier Nature Park when I visited there in August.

The lynx is a fairly large wild cat that lives in the forests of Newfoundland. I have only seen one in the wild once in my life, but I didn't have a camera at that time. These are beautiful animals but very difficult to photograph in the wild.

The woodland caribou are found on the island of Newfoundland and there used to be a herd of 6 000 animals just two hours drive from my home. I was told recently that the herd has been decimated by a parasite known as the brainworm and there are only around 300 animals there now. I have photos with thousands of caribou in one photo. Unless the herd rejuvenates soon, those photos have just become more valuable.

Have a great day!

Garter Snake

There are no snakes in Newfoundland and Labrador unless they are pets. When I saw a garter snake (unsure of species) lying on the rocks of a trail in Nova Scotia, I stopped to photograph it. I was able to get fairly close to this snake and have included two photos. I took put a looney to give viewers an idea of how small the snake is.

Tulips and Abstracts

In the spring I photographed tulips growing in my yard. I used this morning's first photo to create an abstract orange and gold landscape and added the original tulip back into the altered background. The space at the right seemed a little empty so I added the crow and made the tulip more transparent I made other versions where I added an eagle and a seagull, and one with all three birds. If you would like to see the others, let me know.

At MQP this year, I have a group of Grade 3 students who are creating a photo database. Many people on this list have sent images to this gallery with the understanding that our students may have access to the images for school projects. The new gallery will be an excellent resource that would be excellent for students all across the province.

If you have sent photos to the International Photography Gallery I would like your permission for students anywhere to use the photos in school projects. Please email me at blane@lanephotography.com letting me know if it is OK for me to advertise the project to other schools.

Thanks in advance and have a great day!

Nova Scotia

In August, I had chosen the two photos I am sending today, but didn't get a chance to send them at the time.

They were both taken in a park near Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. What you are looking at is a long stretch of sand with grasses and a few trees growing in it. Following the wooden walkway will take you to a beautiful, and crowded, sandy beach.

In the first photo I was trying to capture the flat land and the clouds, especially the round one near top left. I took the second photo to capture the walkway. As I walked along this "trail" I observed that very few people very few people venture off the walkway so there is very little disturbance to the environment even though lots of people walk through here daily during the summer months.

Visit my photo galleries on line.
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Cabin

It is hard to believe that the cabin shown in the first photo was nearly covered completely by snow last April. One day in I saw a gentleman there and asked him if there was much damage caused by so much snow. He told me there wasn't even a drop of water inside when he made his first trip of the Spring.

The Photo of the Day for the past two days are examples of how photographs can be used to document the past. By taking photographs of the same subject over time the viewer can make comparisons of the two photos. In this case the photos were taken 6 months apart.

River, Witless Bay Line

Quite a few of you got hungry after seeing the dessert photos yesterday. I'll send more food photos from time to time.

Last week, I drove across the Witless Bay Line to photograph a river that I've been photographing over the last year. This morning I am sending you two photos of the same area taken approximately 6 months apart. I think it is an interesting comparison. I do photograph this river nearly every time I pass it, especially over the past year. It looks different every time I stop there.

Cakes

Something a little different this morning and likely to make you hungry. I try not to miss opportunities to photograph food. I have built quite a collection of food photos and am thinking about allowing students at school to use them for food projects. I will send other food photos from time-to-time.

I shot these photos without a flash in the Resource centre at a local school.

Birch Trees in Fall

This morning I am sending 3 other photographs of the same tree I sent photos of yesterday. I moved closer to the tree and looked up as a gust of wind blew the branches and leaves away from me.

The second and third photos show views in which I left the trunk of a tree in the image. One is a closer view with more of the trunk in the scene. If you look closely, you will notice that the tree trunks in the background seem closer in one photo over the other.

Birch Trees

Birch trees are very beautiful this time of the year. The bright yellow leaves are very striking. This tree is in my back yard and I have been photographing it for nearly 25 years.

Some people may wonder why I would continue to photograph it every year and I have no easy answer other than the fact that I get pleasure from the process of taking the pictures.

I have other birch trees on line at http://www.lanephotography.com/plants.htm.

Sunrise

This time of the year, the sun rises around 7:00 am, so I see the sunrise every clear day. A couple of mornings ago, I was treated to a beautiful reddish-orange sky with a mixture of fog and clouds. The colours were very rich and I had to take a couple of photos before I went to school.

If you are interested in seeing 20 additional "sky" photos, feel free to go to my SKY GALLERY - http://www.lanephotography.com/sky/sky.htm

Clouds

Throughout the months of August and September, we have seen many interesting Clouds. I have mentioned previously on this list that I love photographing clouds and have many images in my collection. You can tell from the photos the type of day it was: thick gray clouds, blue sky, and sunny. There were interesting shapes in the clouds that day as well.

Ryan Premises, Bonavista

The Ryan Premises in Bonavista are quite photogenic. When I took these photos in late August, it was a very dull day. The coloured photos were almost black and white so I converted one to black and white and another to sepia. It makes them look much older. The sepia one looks very old ... I removed modern houses from the background in this photo.

Lawn Ornaments

Today's photos will illustrate the theme to my Photo of the Day - Everything's a Picture!

I was walking around a few streets in a town near my home and saw some unusual lawn ornaments. The first photo shows an old woodstove that has been painted and decorated. I noticed the kettles around the stove (there was another on top of the stove).

Then I saw another decoration - a pot with flowers in it. When I zoomed in on the pot, I saw another picture and I was in it. If you look closely you will see that because of the curvature of the pot, the image is duplicated and upside down. It is pretty obvious if you look at the clouds and poles. If you follow the fence in the lower left of the photo you will see a figure near the centre. That figure is a reflection of me taking a photo of the pot.
Interesting.

Aircraft

This morning, I have chosen to send photos of two aircraft that flew directly overhead my house a few days ago. I was shooting at maximum zoom (300mm on my Canon 10D, equivalent to a 480mm) without a tripod. The planes were very high up; most likely at cruising altitudes of 5 or 6 miles.
I took a photo as they flew far towards the west. I liked the simple design and the fact that it showed how close together the aircraft were.
Have a great day!

Fall Leaves

On Wednesday evening I photographed leaves around my house. I have lived here for 24 years and have photographed the trees throughout the year for all of them. We tend to think that it is the same every year, but no two photos are identical. There's always different lighting, shadows and shapes.

The first two photos are mountain ash (dogberry) leaves that are backlit by the sun. These were taken late in the evening before the sun set. The third photo shows poplar leaves that are just starting to show signs of yellow. In a week or two, the leaves will be a bright yellow.

I have a FALL Gallery on my web site if you would like to view them. http://www.lanephotography.com/fall/fall_01.htm

Crystals

I have been photographing rocks and minerals for many years. Today's photos were taken at the Johnson Geocentre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, when I visited it in Late August. I believe the crystals are gypsum and halite. The original images were quite different because they were taken indoors under artificial light and behind glass.

I used Microsoft Digital Image Pro to adjust the lighting and contrast as well as make the backgrounds black. I usually use Corel PhotoPaint to manipulate images, but was trying this program to see how it compared. Digital Image Pro has most of the same tools as PhotoPaint, but I found it a little less flexible and more cumbersome. This is probably because I know PhotoPaint so well.

Mysterious Figure

Many people in Newfoundland and Labrador build mounds of rocks on top of hills. I think the main reason they do this is to make markers so they can find their way easier. The mound of rocks in today's Photo of the Day is quite high - about the height of an adult man. I am certain that it can be seen from quite a distance on the barrens near the Witless Bay Line.

The photos are dark because I was shooting into the bright clouds. I focused and metered off the "figure" and fooled the camera into thinking it was very bright. This caused the figure and land to be dark in the photos.

I tried three different angles - the figure standing alone on the hill, the figure, slightly out of focus and the branch of a tree in focus, and finally a closer view of the tree branch and the figure. I find all three shots to be mysterious because of the lighting and subject.