Grand Bend #2, modern beach photograph

Remember last fall I went out to photograph the Grand Bend shoreline only to discover that the snow fence had already been installed for the winter? Well last week I thought it would finally be safe to recapture that scene – this time fence-less.

The weather forecast looked great!

I got up nice and early (read 3:30 am), drove 71 km from home (which took about an hour and fifteen minutes), saw some beautiful fog along the way, and arrived just in time for sunrise.

Things didn’t work out quite as planned; it turned out that a portion of the fence remained because they are trying to naturalize the area with new native plants (which look great by the way). I was still able to capture the image above of a lifeguard station and I’m quite pleased with it. There’s something about it that seems a little bit industrial and timeless, I envision a nice big 24 x 30 inch print of it hanging on a small, bare wall in a corporate office.

Grand Bend #2 stats

• Grand Bend location scout, fall 2009
• Grand Bend initial photography day, fall 2009
• got up at 3:30 am on second shoot day
• drove 143 km round trip on shoot day
• 2.5 hours driving to and from Grand Bend + 1 hour spent actually capturing the photograph + 3 hours spent in production: processing raw file and retouching sand grains off the lens the inevitably land there while photographing on the beach (otherwise this photograph is presented “as shot” with no major digital enhancements) = total time not including the location scout and the initial shoot in the fall: 6.5 hours
• 25 frames captured

You can now purchase my Grand Bend #2  beach photograph as an open edition print from our art shop.

I’m now on the hunt for a lake that has a nice long wooden dock, where have you seen one in Ontario?

Port Bruce #1, 8×10 inch modern fine art photograph

The weather was so clear here last week that Darren and I thought it might be nice to go on a picnic: a car picnic. So last Monday evening Darren and I packed up some baked beans, rice, and homemade cookies and drove out to Port Bruce for a twilight filled with pictures and a picnic.

I scouted out the area last week during my four ports, a point, and a saint trip and decided that it would be a great spot to capture more peaceful photographs of water. The evening was beautiful! Watching the sunset is such a soothing way to spend time with my husband.

EDIT: Interested in seeing some behind the scenes photographs from this session? See the moonrise over Port Bruce and two photographs of me in action over on our Facebook Fan Page. There’s also a behind the scenes video there too.

What is your favourite weeknight date?

{Port Bruce #1 will be available in our shop in the next few days, I’ll keep you posted!}

The weather here last week was a glorious early taste of spring! Temperatures reached 12C (54F) – the seasonal temps for this time of year are typically closer to 8C (47F). There were even a few days of beautiful sunshiny skies to go with it! So I took the opportunity to scout out some new photography locations along the shore of Lake Erie.

Last Wednesday I could have been found driving county roads 24 + 42 from Port Stanley to St. Williams, Ontario with stops in Port Bruce, Port Burwell, Long Point, and Port Rowan.

I was really excited to go to Long Point to scout locations for future minimalist imagery; from what I have seen online there are a few spots that will suit my needs. Unfortunately I didn’t do enough research before I set out for the day. It turns out that Long Point is a Provincial Park and doesn’t open until May 14th.

Still it was a fantastic day for a drive along the lakeside and many notes have been made about future photography timeframes.

Stats for the day:

• 300 km traveled
• 7 hours
• 0 “usable” images captured, although many locations were found

So what’s next? Well, I’ll be returning to Port Bruce one evening (hopefully this week) for a picnic dinner with Darren and some quiet seascape photographs.

Do you like to hear about what goes on behind the scenes of our photographs? Or is the hard work assumed and you’d rather just see more new images?

Last Tuesday’s early morning photo shoot in Grand Bend, Ontario started off so perfect! I was up before my 4:20 am alarm and out the door a few minutes before my scheduled departure time of 5 am. Darren had even mixed me up some homemade just-add-water cocoa – yum!  The forecast was clear and warm:

And my route was nice and straightforward, making for a beautiful, early morning drive:

I pulled into town 45 minutes before sunrise, which gave me lots of time to take some test shots.  I got my equipment from the car and walked to my location but:

there was a fence

What was I to do? I got out my camera, took a few shots (resulting in the opening image of this post), and made a note to myself to go back out there and shoot again in the spring.

Grand Bend Photography Stats:

• 1 evening location scout
• 1 very early morning
• 144 km + distance travelled during the location scout
• 4 hours
• 38 frames captured

All in all it was still a gorgeous day and I count myself lucky that this is how I get to spend my time.  Happy Monday everyone!

Kettle Point #1, work in progress

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Today’s early morning shoot out at Kettle Point went quite well! Up at 4:20 am, out the door by 5 am, and at the location at 6:30 am. The weather was beautiful! Warm and calm!  Got a few more shots than I did on my last trip.  I had to contend with a street lamp that was near the concretions (those nice rocks out in the water), it didn’t turn off until after sunrise and was casting light out onto the water.  Shown in this posting is my hero shot from today, again, an image that I surprisingly prefer in colour as opposed to black and white.

All in all I was back home by 9:30 am.  I plan to return again on another morning, I think as the water level goes up and down more or less rocks are exposed so I’ll have to keep my eye on things over there.

Here’s what it took to capture this image:

• 1 late night
• 1 very early morning
• 446 km
• 11 hours
• 46 frames captured

So what do you think?

Ipperwash #1, 2009

Hi Everyone!

Here’s a quick update about what we’ve been up to:

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 – Day 1

I’ve got this idea in my head that I want to photograph along the shores of Lake Huron. I’ve done a bit of research online and I’ve decided to start with Kettle Point, Ipperwash, and Grand Bend so tonight at 4:15 pm we set out on our first location scout.

It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to drive the 100 km (62 miles) to get there and we arrived at the public beach the nick of time just after the sunset. I had checked The Weather Network before we left; it was to set at 5:16 pm. We captured the opening image of this posting on the public beach at exactly 6:00 pm.

We were able to get nine frames in before it was too dark to take any more. I’d never been up that way so we used the rest of the evening to scout out future locations and figure out the best times for photography. We drove along the shore to the actual Kettle Point, which I think has a lot of potential for early morning photography. Stopped by Ipperwash Beach but it was too dark to tell what was there so I’ll have to visit the area again when I’m up there one morning next week.

We followed highway 21 up another fifteen minutes or so to Grand Bend where I found a few spots there that I’d like to photograph, but again they were morning locations. We had a late supper (8 pm) at the SchoolHouse Restaurant and we were home by 10:15 pm.

Our stats so far:

• 219 km
• 6 hours
• 9 frames captured

The plan: Schedule at least two early morning, pre-sunrise shoots (did I mention that sunrise is 7:10 am, and it takes over an hour for me to get there), one for Kettle Point and one for Grand Bend.

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Getting ready for tomorrows shoot at Kettle Point.  Here’s what The Weather Network is saying:

Sunrise is at 7:11 am so I’ll want to be there around 6:30 am, which means I should be leaving home around 5 am, yikes!  At least it will be fairly warm out.  Stay tuned for more information about how things go tomorrow.  Don’t forget, you can always follow my work in progress on Facebook!

Ta-ta!