Vineyards in Winter - Niagara

Another shot today from my winter shoot in wine country, near Niagara on the Lake, Ontario. Beautiful country, though winter brings a certain austere beauty which is much different than summer.

Winter Vineyards

In December I was on a business trip to the Niagara on the Lake region, and at the end of my week took a drive down the vineyard scenic drive down to Niagara Falls. Although it was December and cold, with a fair bit of snow on the ground, I found the regular lines of the vineyards to be visually quite compelling. This shot was taken of a field of vines that had long since been harvested and were just waiting winter out.

Simple Portrait

This photo was taken with a two light setup, off camera SBs. It was a wee bit difficult to control the light since the 22s could not be powered down. But all things considered I like it.

Aylmer 2007

Another view of a snowbound field in the fog.

Hot Mamas!

a video created from photos from the 30th birthday party of 'quatre filles'

This video was created using Animoto (http://animoto.com/)...the coolest little widget thingy on the internet (almost). It automatically produces professional looking, hip vids using your photos. The photos used here were all taken at the 30th bday bash of the four women pictured, in the late summer of 2007 in Montreal. I later produced a photo book using these same images.

And did I mention Sarah and Trevor got engaged that evening, making it an even bigger celebration? Congrats guys!

So anyway, it's all in fun. Check out animoto...and start having fun. The full length vids like this cost $3, but shorts are free.

Did I say 'crank the volume!'?

Fenced In

With this image I have chosen a high-contrast daggeurreotype treatment. As I worked on it this seemed to fit, just reducing the image to black and white lines. When you increase the contrast like this, the fog just melts away - which can be good and bad. You lose the atmospherics of the fog, but you gain the high contrast image. And because of the fog the original image has very little information in it other than the tree, which makes for a clean end result.

Trees in Fog

...continuing the theme, this time with a cold-toned photo for a different perspective. I tend to favour warm toned images but it is fog after all...this is quite appropriate as a reflection of the mood...