Vancouver shrouded in fog

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Eppic

Recently I snowshoed up to Mt. Hollyburn in Cypress Provincial Park for an evening moonlit snowshoe.  In the winter when the conditions are right, fog forms in the nearby ocean and rolls into Vancouver and area as the evening cools.  Perhaps an annoyance to motorists and those who live within it’s domain, but to gaze upon this spectacle from above is a truly wonderous sight.

I took my tripod along for such an occasion hoping to get a good fog shot or two as it rolled back into metro Vancouver.  This particular photo is a 13 second exposure and brightened a bit for greater detail.  The downtown core skyscrapers are visible as are the higher parts of the city.

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Permanent Waves

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Eppic

This blog title is borrowed from one of my favorite Rush albums.  Recently I spent the better part of a week along the Oregon Coast; mostly around the Newport area.  There’s something about the relentless pounding surf that makes one feel rather small and insignificant, yet at the same time is mesmerizing and captivating.

Conveying the raw power of these waves can be a bit of a challenge, but here is a small sampling of some of the action that I found more interesting.  All were captured hand-held with the intention of freezing the action with a high shutter speed.  I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff by other photogs where a slower shutter speed was deliberately used to get a freeze/blur effect which can also look really cool.

My tripod for some reason kept getting left behind whenever I was out, so I didnt bother trying for such an effect.  My last image though is more of one of peace and tranquility and is currently my desktop wallpaper.

 

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The Remnant

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Eppic

Logging is common throughout my home province of British Columbia, Canada.  With the onslaught of the mountain pine beetle killing off much of the forest in the southern interior, logging has gone into overdrive in an effort to salvage the infected lumber before it becomes unmarketable.

This particular photo is of one of the logged areas where a small stand of healthy trees remain to help repopulate the forest once again.  This image was taken just off the highway between Merritt and Kelowna and is a place that I pass by several times a week.  I was watching for a good opportunity to capture this image and had to wait several months for the winter snow to melt away first.  Fortunately a good opportunity came just after the snow had finished melting and there was enough cloud in the sky to make it a bit more interesting.  Taken with a Sony A700/ Sony/Zeiss 16-80mm lens

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It’s all about the Christmas Lights

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Eppic

I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Christmas season.  Hate in the sense of all the hustle and bustle of people hurrying impatiently around getting those loving gifts and the constant drone of Christmas music everywhere you go, but yet there is one thing about Christmas that I’ve always loved, and that is the Christmas Lights!

I remember back in the 70′s as a young lad always being enamoured with Christmas lights. They always seemed to come out at just the right time of year when the days were getting so short (sunset around 4pm this time of year) and the nights were so long and dreary.  Christmas lights to me always brightened up the mood and gave me a reason to smile.

Back then of course the Christmas lights and decorations were much simpler.  Nowadays we have LED light technology and a massive array of illuminated decorations for the creative artist.  The images here are of some of the houses in my neighbourhood.  Most of these images were taken handheld using a Sigma 15mm F2.8 lens.  I love this lens for wide-angle night photography as I can stop it down to F4, ISO 800,  set my focus to infinity while still having enough Depth of Field to get most everything sharp. Using the camera body anti-shake feature I can easily shoot at 1/10 second and get a sharp image.

Most of the houses in my neighbourhood have short driveways, so a super wide-angle lens is really handy as I can get everything from the sidewalk instead of having to back out onto the road to get it all in.

Now this house was quite interesting in that the lights were set to music.

As I walked over to do some photography, I noticed a guy out on the street with a step ladder trying to get up higher to take a picture.  Turns out it was the owner and he had set up the light display.  He had some little point and shoot that he had borrowed off a friend and wanted some photos of his display.

I offered to take some shots for him using my DSLR and tripod if he would give me an SD card that I could shoot some photos onto for him to keep.  Always nice meeting and chatting with people whom you wouldn’t otherwise really get to know.

Here’s a few more creative light displays from the houses around my area:

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Photography by Accident

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Eppic

Having been delayed by two accidents today I choose to write about photographing accidents.  I drive truck for a living so I likely see more of them than most people do.  I always have a camera with me and over the past few years I’ve had the chance to get a few interesting accident scene shots along the way.

If it’s going to delay me, at least I can take a picture so it lasts longer right?  Of course I have to keep safety in mind as I’m usually driving (slowly) when taking these shots so a bit of advance planning becomes necessary.  First I keep my camera preset in live view and the ISO cranked up a bit if there is potentially low light.  Usually say ISO800 and F6.3 does the trick.  The idea is to basically make it as point and shoot as possible.  It’s also a good idea to preset the camera to manual focus at infinity so it doesn’t try to focus on some bug on the windshield instead.

Anyway here’s a top 10 of what I’ve taken so far in no particular order:

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Vancouver from Seymour

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Eppic

The Mt. Seymour area is a great place for an evening winter hike/ snowshoe as it’s close to the Vancouver area, has easy access and has some great views of the city of Vancouver.  The photos posted here are from two different trips…the first is from late November of last year with the destination being the first peak or the “first pump”.  Great views of Vancouver from there. This set of images was taken with my Sony/ Zeiss 16-80mm

The second set of images, the night images, are taken last night from Dog Mtn which is a 2.5km mostly level hike from the Mt. Seymour ski area parking lot.  These night images were of people interacting with the view before them and were taken with the Minolta 135mm F2.6 at around an aperture of 4 and ISO 1600.  I find with the twinkling light effect of the city lights the shutter speed had to be no longer than 1/2 second or they would just get too blurry.

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Bald is Beautiful

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Eppic

Bald eagles that is.  The eagles have returned to the Vedder/ Chilliwack river system once again to feed upon spawned salmon.  I was out today on an unfortunately dark overcast day which, while giving the even light necessary for good eagle photography (their black and white feathers are otherwise very difficult to properly expose for) also resulted in my having to use a higher ISO than I would have liked (ISO1600) and even that didnt quite give me the shutter speed I would have preferred.

Some photo highlights from today:

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Site under Construction

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Eppic

I’m playing around with different themes and I believe I’ll settle on this one.  It’s going to take a bit of time to get all those photo links above up and running so please bear with me.

Currently only the “Facebook” “Portfolio” and “Email Me” links take you anywhere.

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The Forest and the Fog

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Eppic

I thought I would begin my first blog post with the image that comes from one of my favorite places to visit. This image is of a stand of mature western hemlock taken from a trail in South-Western British Columbia, Canada with my old Sony A350. The background mist I felt gave more depth to the image as well as a sense of the wet climate that such trees grow in.

This stand is also in potential jeapordy of being logged in the near future as much of the forest surrounding the Chilliwack area is unprotected.  This image was made just 10 minutes up the Elk Mountain trail and is east of Chilliwack, BC Canada.

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