Caledon
This past weekend I managed to make it to Forks of the Credit Provincial park in Caledon just as many of the trees were reaching the height of their colour. I haven't photographed landscapes for many months, as my work usually keeps me photographing people and events. Landscape, though, was my first love in photography, and I was excited to return to one of my old passions.
Equipment used included a Nikon D750, Nikon 24-70 2.8, Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR I, and a slim B+W circular polarizer.
Friend, photographer, artist, historian and fellow University of Edinburgh alum, Jess Lessard, gave me and several other friends a small challenge, to post a photo a day for five days and write a little something about it. (My photo of Johnny Bower was my first submission, since it was a fun story). This photo comes from a draft horse pulling competition in Caledon, Ontario in June 2013. Essentially it's a competition to see whose gigantic horses are the strongest. Bred for ploughing fields and pulling heavy cards, these horses needed little encouragement from their trainers to do what they were designed to do. Above is my official "submission", shot with a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. Below is a detail shot that I quite like, shot with my Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8.
A line of doors in Elora, Ontario. Pentax Spotmatic F and Kodak Portra 400 @ 400.
My blog may have been quiet, but Summer 2014 has been busy - both with my photography and in my personal life. In September, my wife and I had our first child, a healthy boy. Life has changed tremendously, but despite the sleepless nights and dirty diapers, it's only for the better.
Also, a part-time job I took photographing and reporting for a couple local newspapers has occupied a fair bit of my time. While it keeps me making photographs and meeting people, the photos I take only go to the papers, and not my website.
In the meantime, I've been shooting (and developing and scanning) film. It's a slower process, but one I thoroughly enjoy. Digital photography encourages a photographer to focus on the last shot - checking the LCD to ensure everything's perfect, and if it's not, to re-shoot. Film encourages a photographer to be accurate the first time, and focus on composing the next shot.
On April 10th I had the pleasure of covering the Volunteer awards ceremony and AGM for Volunteer Mississauga Brampton Caledon at Greenbriar Recreation Centre. VMBC promotes volunteerism and runs an excellent volunteer-opportunity search engine (think Monster.com for volunteering) at http://peel.cioc.ca/volunteer/. Once a year during National Volunteer Week, they honour volunteers who stand out for work in our community.
I've covered several events for VMBC including awards ceremonies, open-houses and the opening of their office in Caledon, ON. Besides the good work they do for the community, I have always been eager to support them for my own personal reasons. When I first came to Canada, I was able to find two volunteering opportunities through their database – one as a volunteer teacher, and another doing grants research for VMBC. Now that I'm more established, I still donate my time and energy to them in the form of my photography.
Last Sunday, I went out to capture some more images of the snowy owl from my previous blog post. I spent about five hours freezing in the snow, and getting more than a bit sunburnt, but it was all worth it. Bright sun and freshly fallen snow contributed to a beautiful setting for some spectacular photos.
