Nights and White Satin
It's been a busy few weeks since my last post. The sky lately has been a flat grey, making getting any dynamic lighting somewhat frustrating. At the same time, I've been exploring new places and really enjoying what I've found.
I keep returning to places to find new views. Down by the Assiniboine River I caught this last colourful sunset. Unlike in the last blog post, this one has almost no post-processing, and no saturation adjustments:
As the red faded, I found myself busy trying to capture the deep blue of the sky with the streetlights. This one was a mistake, but it's better than what I was going for :)
This is what happens when you turn your telephoto vertical, and don't tighten the tripod plate...
After making sure the tripod plate was tighter...and waiting a bit for darker skies, I managed to get this:
While I enjoy these local efforts, I was eager to explore new places. East of Winnipeg are the ruins of an old hydro-electric dam near Pinawa, and Old Pinawa Dam is now a Provincial Park. I haven't been there since a post-wedding outing with friends and family almost 30 years ago, so I was curious what I would remember. A slight dusting of snow preceded me:
Snow shadows...
I quickly found I had the place to myself, apparently nobody else wanted to enjoy the first breath of winter. The ruins are lonely and impressive, a playground of symmetry and shape:
I spent quite a bit of time playing around with shutter speeds and its effects on the water, whether in the still pools below the dam, or the swirls caused by the rapids. For example, the first shot here is at 4 seconds, the next at 1 second (I used a 6-stop ND filter to get the shutter slow enough):
Personally I prefer the second, I think it gives a better sense of motion. However, I'm not crazy about the composition, I think the bottom jet of water is distracting from the reverse curl at the top. I vowed to return and retry...more on that later.
I spent the rest of the day hiking (part of the TransCanada Trail runs through the park) and finding a few gems:
Ice slugs...
This was as close as it would let me get before flying away.
Laying on the cold cold ground...
Now, by "gems" I mean scenes that struck me and compelled me to try and take a picture. I can't really say I'm happy with these shots, but I was glad to be out. I'd arrived at 10am, by mid-afternoon the snow was starting to melt. I hiked back to the dam for more photos and found the place crawling with other photographers. Apparently it's quite the popular place!
Yesterday I paid another visit, getting up even earlier. This time it was clear winter had arrived, and a storm was forecast for later in the day. I managed to drag myself out of bed early and was at the park by 8:45, just after sunrise...not that there was any sun or anything but a flat featureless grey sky. So no light to play with but I explored quite a bit more of the park.
A bit of a side-ramble about gear: first, on the photography front, I'm really pleased with the weather-durability of the K-70, and the lenses I have. None of them have caused me any issues in drizzle or sleet. I was a bit worried about battery life, but I spent the day at -5C and didn't go through a single battery, even though my iPhone died after about an hour.
Second, all my winter gear is getting old, and just in time! There has been a revolution in the wool processing business to take away the itchiness, and I've been buying all-wool thermal underwear. The comfort range is far superior to the polypropylene stuff I've been using for the last decade. There are a whole range of benefits to wool, but I'm told I do go on about it, so we'll leave it at that. I'll just wrap up with noting that I bought a pair of liner gloves with a rubberize surface so the camera can still be operated without bare hands. It was fine at -5C, I'm curious how low it will let me go. Below -10C will be a different experience altogether I'm sure.
Anyway, back to Old Pinawa Dam, round 2. The first thing I noticed were the ice formations by the river:
After hiking about and trying some classic "trees in an open landscape" compositions:
...I spotted a little gem: snowflake caught on a spider's web. I took a few shots, but sadly, they're not very clear...I definitely need a macro lens!
You can just make out the thread...
And among the small beauties were these rose hips:
Before the snow really started to fly, I got a last vista shot:
Then I had to pay a visit to the whirling pool I had photographed above, to try and get a tighter shot. Unfortunately, by this point the snow was really coming down, and I couldn't set up the tripod in the right place without risking everything sliding into the stream, so I had to settle for these. But it was worth it for learning about timing and shutter speed: the first shot is at 1/4 second, the next at 1/250th second.
I've generally noticed that 1/4 second turns light snow to "mist". With heavier snow, 1/4 to 1/30th gives you streaks, and 1/60th and faster tends to stop a lot of the snow motion. Of course, some of it depends on your lens focal length, but by the end of the day I found those numbers to be useful guidelines.
I will definitely have to return to try again at this stream, ideally next time on a sunny day. Around here, sunny days in winter mean c-c-cold! I'm looking forward to seeing how the new clothing handles it. Until then, stay warm!
