Landscapes

Cracked

This was taken on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as the ice was cracking during the spring thaw. I used to avoid shooting during the ugly, slushy time during the spring melting period. But now I'll be heading out every year looking for cracks in the ice and ridges like this. My goal was to show the sunlight shining through the ice, but if I got too low the crack going off into the distance wasn't really visible. I felt decently safe as ice fishermen had been driving on the lake just the day before. But I was still a bit nervous with the periodic creaking and cracking noises.

Sunset at Callanish

Luckily the rain and grey skies cleared for this excellent sunset at the standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, in the Western Hebrides of Scotland. They are older than the pyramids and roughly contemporary with Stonehenge.

Magical Oak

This is one of the giant Live Oaks (it's not called that because it's alive, it's actually the name of the type of oak) at Oak Alley Plantation. These trees are massive and the branches can grow down to the ground, as you can see in the background here. Using the infrared camera gave the image a nice effect.

Light-show

A beautiful display of northern lights above an old abandoned house near Beausejour, Canada. I almost didn't go out shooting this night as I had to work the next day, but I'm glad I did. The aurora rarely respect a person's work schedule. (The light coming from the doorway was done by using the self-timer and triggering a handheld flash from inside.) A horizontal version of this image was shortlisted in Canadian Geographic's annual photo competition.

Autumn in New York

A small waterfall along the side of a trail in Letchworth Park in New York State. The main falls here are huge and occur in three main sets. This small waterfall was found near the upper falls of the park. I didn't get good fall foliage for this trip since the fall was so late in the area this year, but there were a good number of colourful leaves that had fallen and made for good foreground interest with an ultra wide angle lens.

Miyazaki Shrine

This is an infrared shot of Miyazaki Shrine in Miyazaki, Japan. I highly recommend going in the evening when these lanterns come on, and amazing, none are burnt out. I'm not sure if it was low season, but I had this place all to myself. Even though it was dark, I tried some infrared shots and liked them better than the colour ones. I was shooting with a 680nm infrared filter/camera, so some colour still comes through and I liked the light retained from the lanterns.

Horizon

A nice sunset on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Sky at Island Lake

This was shot just after sunset at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada. I couldn't resist getting a shot of those two near symmetric clouds which still had some purple colouring from the sunset. (The moon was coming up behind me during this shot and there's an abstract image of the light reflecting off the lake in the Abstracts section.)

Forest Ruin 2

The Carbide Willson Mill ruins in Gatineau Park, Quebec, just north of Ottawa. This is a special place as it's a remote ruin in the forest with a little arched bridge over a thundering waterfall.

Vermont Sunset

I had to stand on a pretty precarious ledge to get this one. I had trouble finding the little road up to this trail, so I was a bit late. When starting the trail some other hikers told me that I still had time to get to the top for the sunset. It was mostly uphill and I was almost sprinting. I passed a guy coming down and he told me I was almost there, but once I got to the end I realized that he told me that when I still had about 90% of the trail left! I nearly sprinted onto the ledge, got my camera on the tripod, and took a few shots before the sun was gone.

Ancient Giant

This is one of the giant camphor trees on the grounds of the Kumamoto Castle park. They are hidden behind a baseball diamond and are said to be at least 1000 years old. As usual, in my opinion, trees look great when photographed in infrared.

Shirahige

This is the torii in Lake Biwa at Shirahige shrine in Japan near Takushima. This was taken after sunset when I was trying some long exposures. Even though it was slowly getting darker, I was still using a neutral density filter to get an exposure time of sixty seconds.

Hogg's Back Falls 1

This is part of the set of cascades known as Hogg's Back Falls in Ottawa, Canada. They are very accessible, being within the city limits and a short walk from the parking lot. There are lots of photographic opportunities here and sometimes the local ducks will pose for photos. This one was actually moving around quite a bit while looking for food, and it took me a lot of shots to time it so that she was standing still during the long exposure that made the water silky smooth.

Meoto Iwa Sunrise

This is a two minute exposure taken at Meoto Iwa (the "wedded rocks") on the Ise peninsula in Mie Prefecture, Japan. There were a lot of photographers staking a spot to catch a photo of the sun rising between the rocks with the rope. I prefer to do my own thing and took some pre-sunrise shots from this spot (but I still ran over to get a shot of the rising sun, even though I wonder what it would have looked like from this angle).

Blueberry Pond

Autumn in Vermont. This was just after sunset at Blueberry Pond.

McGillivray Cascade

This is a shot of McGillivray Falls in the Whiteshell Provincial Park of Manitoba, near the border with Ontario, Canada. It's a small waterfall but it's fun to wander around the area trying to capture more intimate close-up shots. This shot of the water bouncing back and forth on its way down is one of my favourite shots from my trips here.

Bents

A shot from the small ghost town of Bents, Saskatchewan. Kind of a tricky place to find and not as many buildings left as I had expected. I had gotten stuck on a muddy road the day before, on my way to Bents, and had to watch a phenomenal sunset go to waste. This was the day after and the weather thankfully turned out ok.

Green Skies

An exceptional display of northern lights that some friends and I luckily saw during our drive back from taking photos on Lake Winnipeg. We pulled over and started shooting like crazy. This was a "Photo of the Day" winner and featured in Landscape Photography Magazine. Chosen as Photo of the Day by Landscape Photography Magazine.

The Twisted Forest

I was calling this place the Twisted Forest until I spoke to some locals and saw some signs; they call it the Crooked Bush. This little group of trees grows in all sorts of crazy directions while the surrounding trees are all perfectly straight. There are several theories about why the trees grow like this, from genetics all the way to a UFO visit in the past. In my opinion, if you're travelling through Saskatchewan this is not to be missed. It is a short drive northwest of Harris. It's a short boardwalk through the area but I was there for hours taking photographs. (A lot of time was spent switching lenses since I only have one wide angle lens but I kept changing between my regular camera and my infrared camera.)

Boulder Bay

All I can remember from this night of shooting is how cold and windy it was. It was a test of my will to stay out there, even with a toque and gloves; my fingers hurt when I tried bending them back in the car.