Jumbo Gardens

I went for a very quick walk yesterday morning around the Jumbo Gardens area. I took my usual X-T1 and 23mm combo. I have done a couple portrait sessions here in the past, one taking place in the winter but I never really took the time to walk around the area aside from the trails. Since I was just capturing my usual random things, I explored the snow field with all the soccer nets. I took a mix of wide angle all the way to my standard up close and personal photos. I absolutely love focusing on the details and I think this carries through to my wedding photography. With that being said, I constantly challenge myself to take in the whole frame too.

Once I was done in the field I headed over the the playground on the other side of the tree line. There was a also the ring which was still set up, although the ice has long since gone away only to be replaced with a fresh sheet of snow. Whenever I see a playground, I know I will always be able to come away with at least a few good shots. I finished up at the rink and a small older playground by the parking lot. Aside from freezing my hands, it was a good brief photo walk. As much as I like the snow, I am ready for spring to finally arrive, that way I don't have to bundle up each time I want to take photos. Thanks for viewing!

Thunder Bay Marina

When I woke up a few days ago and noticed that it was really foggy I wanted to go take photos right away but it just wasn't possible. Instead, I ended up getting out about an hour later and I decided to head down to the Thunder Bay Marina. The sun was just a bit up in the sky and the ground had a fresh coat of frost and there was actually quite a bit of ice on most of the trails. On the way to the Marina I saw a few people on the side of the road due to black ice. So I began my walk around the Marina watching my step along the way.

Some days when I'm taking photos I feel more inspired and see things I might not normally see. Perhaps this is just in my head, and I'm not sure if other photographer's feel this way, but I don't think I am imagining it. Perhaps it was the brisk morning weather but it was a very fun photo walk. I spent about an hour around the Marina, taking my time, looking for different perspectives and just generally picking out things and moments that caught my eye.

All in all, this was one of my favourite sessions in a while. In my mind, I came away with a wide variety of photos. I always tend to focus on close up details but this time around I got a lot of great landscape shots as well. My camera of choice this morning was the Fuji X-T1 and the 35mm. 

Fisherman's Park

Last week I found yet another great location that I had never been before. I may be the only one out of the loop, but just off Cumberland, on the way to the grain elevators, there is this small little park on the water called Fisherman's Park. I went on a very rainy day but seeing as how my camera and lens is waterproof, the rain didn't stop me! 

As soon as I got there, I headed underneath the overpass and got a few shots of the water. I will definitely have to go back and try another time-lapse as I think it would turn out great with the scenery there.

After that, I walked the short trail and took in the view of Lake Superior and the grain elevators. Before I was about to leave I noticed a loading dock for boats. I automatically assumed it was closed off but it was completely open to the public. I was still a bit hesitant as I thought at any moment some old man would come out of the bush and start yelling at me. That didn't happen so I explored a bit. There were three very old boats there. Only one was closed off. When I have more time I will be going back on a nice day to get some nice shots.

Once I left there I didn't want to go home just then so I went up to the boulevard dam bridge. It was getting more rainy can cold but I preserved and walked down the trail a little bit. Luckily I did as I managed to get a great shot of a whole bunch of birds flying into the sky from Boulevard Lake. I also managed to get some good photos of the bridge. I have mentioned this many times before but I love rainy overcast days. The lighting is so even and there are no harsh shadows. 

And that was it. I went home to warm up and anxiously go through the photos. 

Hillcrest Park

I'm getting a little behind on my personal blog but here is a few photos I took last week when it snowed again. Since then we have had some really great warm weather. These were all shot around 10:00 in the morning so as you can see it was very gloomy and somewhat dark. I thought the black and white treatment for most of the images was fitting. 

Thunder Bay really is a beautiful city and the thing I love about Hillcrest Park is that depending on the type of day it is and even the hour, the view can change drastically. I didn't photograph it today, but driving by, the sun was huge in the morning and it looked like something out of a movie with all the ships out on Lake Superior.

All images were show with the Fuji X-T1 and 16mm. As usual I used the RAW images and did my usual post processing in Lightroom. 

Mission Marsh in November

This will just be a short post but I wanted to share some photos I took on a cold November morning out at Mission Marsh. I noticed while driving how the lake looked so I immediately grabbed my camera and headed out to a good open area with a good view of the Sleeping Giant and Lake Superior. For these photos I used my Fuji X-T1 and my wide angle 16mm lens. 

I also stopped on the way back to see if there were any deer lurking around and there were about 7 of them. I didn't have my zoom lens so I made due with what I had. I included one of the photos here. Then I finished off with a couple photos of the city from the bridge leading back to Fort William Road. 

The Back Roads of Westfort

Even though it was a bit of a chilly day, I decided to go for another quick walk after lunch. Whereas in the morning I was in Port Arthur, the afternoon brought me to the depths of Westfort. It had been a while since I took photos on the overpass so I decided to head there. After spending a short amount of time getting some photos in and around the overpass I walked all the way across and explored some of the road on the other side of the tracks. 

As far as I can remember I had never been back there so it was quite interesting. I immediately tried to get down to the river to get a photo of the big ship but it was sadly all closed off. Even an area where you could normally go down the water was also locked down. My plan for next time is to bring my long zoom lens and find an angle somehow. Hopefully the ship is still there. 

Regardless, I headed to the James Street Swing Bridge. Even though it's closed off to traffic, you can still walk across. I was able to get some decent angles from the bridge but I did have to shoot through the fence. Actually, one of my favourite photos of the day was of the old mill in the background, which was shot through the fence. It almost looks like smoke is on the outer edges of the fence but it's part of the fence which is blurred. I just like how it ended up looking, almost vintage, by accident.

Once I was done on the bridge I made my way back to Gore Street which would eventually take me to my car. Before I got there though, I managed to get a few more cool looking photos. Along the way, I was warned by a friendly neighbour that there had been a black bear roaming around the day before. So, I think I will take a break from Westfort for a bit. 

In case you are wondering, I took all these photos with the Fuji X-T1 and the 35mm 1.4. I shot in both JPG and RAW. Lately I have been using the RAW images mainly because they are more forgiving with the the highlights, especially with the bright winter skies. 

Friendship Gardens

Once again I managed to walk around the other day after a very filling lunch. I figured I would burn off some calories and have some fun doing so. So, I grabbed my X-T1 and 35mm 1.4, and headed off to the Friendship Gardens. To be honest, after all these years, I really haven't explored this area too much. Sure, I have done some portraits and portions of weddings here but it would usually be in just one section. Well, this time around, I made sure to walk all around and I was actually quite surprised at the amount of statues and monuments located at the park.

Before I headed to the Friendship Gardens, I did manage to snap a few photos at Cronos Cafe which has really good greek food. If you haven't been there yet, you should really go check it out. Anyway, just a few random shots there, of course one of my wife Anne and a couple other ones.

Then it was off to the Friendship Gardens. I started around the back part of the stadium and just made my way all the way around. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of great statues and monuments at the park which I did capture a few photos of, but the majority of the photos below are simply my randomness. I tried to find colour and unique textures and shadows. 

And that's it, not much else to say. Thanks for viewing. 

View from Hillcrest at Sunset

It has a been a very long time since I have been able to get up to Hillcrest Park and get some sunset photos. Well, I finally got a chance to spend some time doing that very thing. I arrived at Hillcrest Park about 30 minutes before sunset. I absolutely love this time of day as everything gets a nice orange glow, and there are still some soft shadows among the buildings in this case. 

Admittedly, there aren't too many views from Hillcrest, with only a few being completely unobstructed. I managed to get a bit creative with some of the photos using the foreground to lead into the composition. I also converted some to black and white, well, because I love black and white. 

As usual I used the Nikon D610 paired with the 85mm 1.8. I find that lens gives that nice compression and offers a fairly wide enough angle for what I needed. I will eventually go back and see how it looks using my old 20mm 2.8. 

I am by no means an expert landscape photographer but the way I take photos like this is by focusing about 1/3 of the way into the scene and using an aperture of about F8 - F10. These are all handheld too, as I didn't feel like lugging around my tripod. As for processing, I used some VSCO filters with my own flair, then brought them all in my RAW sharpener program. Then, for the colour images I used Nik Vivesa to add just a bit warmth and Nik SilverEffex Pro 2 to enhance the black and white images.

As you can see they are all still kind a bit of muted and not too saturated. This is just personal preference. My next project is to actually get out and do a time lapse with the setting (or maybe rising) sun. Until then.