Creative Livings

Recently in a post on The Online Photographer (incidentally one of the finest photography related blogs on the net) entitled Creative Livings http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2007/09/along-with-teac.html, Mike Johnson wrote about the role of an Art School education. A particular quote stuck with me and continues to resonate:

"For individuals who have an artistic temperament, not practicing art in some way or other can be unhealthy. .......... Creative work, whatever it might be, is an appetite, a need. Trivializing it somewhat, I sometimes call it an itch. (If I don't write something every day, it drives me nuts.) People who have talent and aptitude for art are unlikely to be happy if they're not incorporating art and artistic creativity into their lives somehow."

This is infinitely true for me, though oddly enough something I've only discovered in adulthood. Not sure why. I try to explain it to those close to me, but my words seem hollow and self-serving, as if trying to justify why I need time to work on my own projects...

..so I won't carry on. Mike said it better than I could.

Élysia Renée

So it is reasonable for one to think from the bulk of the posts here that I am primarily a landscape photographer. In fact that is not the case. I rarely in fact engage in landscape work - spending most of my time with children (my own?) and on portraiture. Odd then that I have so few posts of people here.

Although I have many more NB photos coming, I will start adding a few more portraits of differing types.

The two photos today are of my lovely daughter Élysia Renée. The first is a photo I recently rediscovered and reworked - taken within an hour or two of her birth. The second was taken within the last two months, so she is two years old. I like them both and think the earlier a particularly nice portrait of 'mother and child', while the second is a really nice capture of her gentle, friendly spirit. She is such a joy. Parenting, while constantly challenging, is possibly the most rewarding thing I've ever engaged in.

Coastal Rocks, Bay of Fundy

Continuing on the Bay of Fundy theme, this photo was part of a pano that I've been unable to stitch together in its entirety. It seems the combination of a little more than 200 degrees + vast expanses of water with little detail to note, have made this particular pano difficult. I will still be able to prepare a pano - just not as big as I thought when I was taking it. Chalk it up to failure of technique.

In spite of that, I've got some nice shots. This was taken just before the sun actually came up, looking away from the sun, down the coast. The image was taken from below the lighthouse.

Fundy Trail Sunrise

Just ten odd kilometres down the road from St. Martin's/Quaco is a new provincial tourist development called the Fundy Trail. See: http://www.fundytrailparkway.com/. It's a very lovely scenic highway still under development with lookouts over amazing scenery and nice paths down to rocky beaches. We spent some time there, and in fact hope to return next year to hike the Fundy Footpath, a 5 day wilderness hike.

I accidentally met Brian Clark, the General Manager of the Trail while visiting, and one thing led to another and the fine gentleman offered to get up veery early and let me in before the gates opened, to do a sunrise shoot! What service! An unexpected level of committment from a fine public servant!

As it turns out, Brian even took me to several nice shooting spots. I took several hundred photos as the sun came up, and I hope soon to put together one of the panoramas that I took. But for now, here is a shot - also HDR - of the sunrise on the Fundy Trail. This shot was taken shortly before the sun actually came over the horizon. What an amazing morning that was - so peaceful and beautiful. I really can't wait to return!

Anvil Rock, Quaco, Sunset

By contrast to the last photo, this was taken at sunset, with the blazing sun flooding the rock with yellow light. This was taken from the beach.

Anvil Rock, Quaco, NB

Right in front of our cottage on the Bay of Fundy was a beautiful rock called Anvil Rock. It is quite similar to the Hopewell Rocks and other 'plant pot' rocks in the Bay, which are shaped over milleniums by the movement of water in and out of the Bay.

This image is taken from the front porch of our cottage after sunset when the light was very soft.

Sunrise from Lighthouse

Another shot taken the same morning, looking away from the lighthouse, towards the sunrise. The cloud blanket made for a very interesting framing - almost a lid on the picture.