Symbiotica — A collaborative exhibition of poetry and visual art.
Thursday from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the Daffodil Gallery
Philip Jagger and I will have a piece on display that we collaborated on over the last month or so. There are a bunch of other collaborations there as well — should be fascinating! Hope to see you there!
And, completely unrelated to Symbiotica, here’s a shot from Vancouver Island last fall.
300mm, f8, 1/250 of a second
300mm, f5.6, 1/200 of a second
OK, this is much of an art photo, but I just saw my first long-eared owl (Asio otus)! Here it is in all it’s camouflage-ness. There were actually a pair of them, but this is the only one I got a photo of. I could have stalked them and maybe got more photos, but especially in spring when birds are breeding I prefer to leave them alone to do their thing.
Taken with a Canon 5d, 300mm, f5.6 at 1/160 of a second.
Just a reminder — I have two prints in the VAAA Open Photo Competition. It is this Thursday, August 25, 6-8pm at the Kasaa Gallery in the basement of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium ( 11455 – 87 Avenue ). I would love it if you stop by. There will be drinks, snacks, and a very wide variety of photographic styles to enjoy. All the artists will be there, and the results of the competition will be announced.
The show will continue until October 2nd, if you can’t make it for the opening.
Come take a look!
When you see an elk, what do you do? You stop and take a photo of course. And if the elk stays there, you get closer. After all, wasn’t it Robert Capa who said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”?
But for some reason your brain starts to throw up little red flags. Wait a minute, you also want context — the animal acting in its habitat. And maybe you don’t want a photo of an elk eyeball, maybe you want the whole elk. And anyway, isn’t it bad for animals to get accustomed to people? And dangerous for the people?
And then, for some strange reason, you start to think of photographing weddings, of posing and of lighting. Direct evening light is pretty good — it’s warm and lends definition to shapes, but what if you backlight this? That would wash it out and give it a dream-like quality. But animals are not as cooperative as people who hire you to take their photos. You have to do the moving, and there’s no adding light. You know that flash would bother this elk and disrupt his feeding, possibly making him aggressive.
So you do the moving, far enough away that the animal is not disturbed. You wait for the animal to move into a position that works, you get the sun at just the right angle, and you get a photo. You don’t know if it’s a good photo or a great photo, but you’re pretty sure it’s not a bad photo. And that is satisfying.
First of all, I want to say how awesome folk fest was because of all of you — customers, fans, friends, family, and some amazing musicians who entertained me on my lunch breaks. This was by far my best sale ever.
Thanks to Leah for being there to cheerfully cover breaks for me and Anna, thanks to Liz and Nicole for being around and ready to lend a hand. Thanks to Aran for being a great new patron. Thanks to C. from Manitoba who was super excited about photography, and good luck with the underwater photography.
I enjoyed talking with so many of you, and it was interesting to see the sets of photos that people picked out. I might do a blog post yet showing some of these sets.
Since I can’t resist posting a photo, here’s a Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) taken during my Wildlife Biodiversity and Ecology course field trip in Whitemud Park.
Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) in a small aspen tree. Check out the claws on this guy.
This little grizzly cub wants to let you know that this is the last week to see my photos at Elm Cafe on 117th Street just north of Jasper. It is also the last week for my current show at Daffodil Gallery on 124th Street and 104 Ave. If you miss them, don’t despair — there are more shows in the works.
I’ve just started looking at the photos from my latest trip, but I had to share this. It’s worth clicking on to get the full size version.
