Snovember — Jon's Photoblog

The weather has turned again, and with it, my increasing appreciation for black and white images. The fall foliage was short lived, and landscapes have become studies in dried yellow grasses punctuated by dark evergreens. But it has also helped me see light in a newer way.

I’ll admit not all of my black and white selections were intentional, but most of them were, and I’m happy that it’s one of the first things I find myself looking for, asking myself “would this look good in B&W?” In a terrain lacking in colour, maybe that’s simply the mother of invention…

But let’s start with some colour. I recently finished the first half of my online course, so all the technical stuff is out of the way. Now I get to pick from several modules focussing on my choice of architecture, landscapes, long exposures, B&W, etc. A difficult choice to pick one over the others, as I’m often doing them all in a day. I thought maybe architecture might be a good start, so I headed downtown one frosty morning before dawn. The assignment calls for a modern building:

…and a historical building:

I think the first is a decent composition. I kind of like the church too but I didn’t frame it properly: the little cross on the far right is distracting and takes away from the composition. Also, this building is probably better shot in the evening to light this side of the building. A lightly overcast late afternoon with soft direct light might be perfect, so I’m waiting for the moment.

Later in my morning wanderings, just before sunrise I caught this scene. It’s a bit gloomy, but that’s what the approaching winter feels like:

I also tried a few shots with reflections:

For this next one I just like the shades of the building and how the barren trees spread “roots” into the puddle:

Finally on the architecture front:

I’ll admit that last one was accidental. It was taken in the blue hour one evening from a vantage point down river that I discovered that evening, and the original is colourful…pretty even with the dark blue sky and red-orange lights…but not compelling. I really like the B&W version, however, and it has prodded me (again) to first “look at the light” when assessing a shot. This is not a habit yet, but I’m working on it.

Between the fall colours and the snow is what could easily be a dead space in photogenic landscapes. But some colour still exists. A day in Bird’s Hill park revealed unexpected vibrancy:

Towards evening, the skies were slate grey (as above) towards the west, but for some reason I haven’t figured out, looking north the clouds had a very blue cast, which looks almost artificial. I think the clouds were thinner than they appear, and the blue sky behind was providing the colour shift:

I was probably one of maybe 10 people in the whole park, so this deer probably wondered why I hadn’t gone home yet:

This happens so often now: I’m quietly absorbed in a landscape shot, and I turn around, and there’s some wildlife staring at me. And every time I move slowly (but efficiently) and try to swap lenses and switch over to “wildlife mode”, and most of the time the opportunity is gone before I finish. So I really have to get another camera body, and have it permanently attached to my long lens.

Anyway, a final pre-snow shot from the Whiteshell area:

Then the snow arrived, but only in a thin blanket. At first it was only trapped in small places:

Then it came down in heavy flurries:

I think the snow is here to stay.

The ice on the lake most certainly is. I found these next formations at Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg fascinating. Lake Winnipeg is quite large and when the wind is from the west (to the right on the next picture) the waves are quite high, and you can even body surf…in the summer, of course… :) I think what happens is, when there is a strong west wind the small variations in sand contours create frozen islands which slowly form into channels. These channels then freeze off at the end and become rounded geyser points, channeling the water into a freezing spray that continues to build up these little “volcanoes”.

Unfortunately I never witnessed this, and it’s probably too late this year, but I’ll have to pay attention next year to see if I can capture it in action.

The high water action does leave ice in interesting formations:

Earlier in the month I did manage to get to a different part of the lake on a stormy, windy day. This next shot is not great, but it sets up the following:

Normally the edge of the lake is quite far out here, but the wind can push it up several metres. Even though the temperature was below freezing, the lake was active, but there was ice everywhere else, so imagine my surprise when a sparrow came running along the beach, chasing the freezing water out and pecking the sand, then running back inland as the waves came in. I still have not figured out what kind of bird it is. It looks sparrow-like, but bigger than most sparrows, and ran instead of hopping:

I’ll end this with a series of black and white images. I’ll start with the silly: I saw this balloon being tossed about by the wind. If you’ve ever seen the film American Beauty, and the scene with the dancing plastic bag, it was kind of like that. I chased this damn balloon for quite a ways before it ended up next to a park bench. I’m not 100% happy with the composition of the bench, but there wasn’t a lot of time, and the balloon soon left to continue its mysterious mission. After I got home, on a whim I pulled out all the colour except the purple and magenta: