Weekly Highlights – November 20th to 26th

I’ve been getting out quite a bit taking personal photos the past month or so. Since I get way behind on posting them to my personal blog, I figured I would just start doing weekly highlights, so it at least forces me to share some of my favourites. This past week I got out to Boulevard Lake, Centennial Park in the snow, Downtown Port Arthur and Vanderwees Home and Garden. If I have time, perhaps I’ll post a few weekly highlights from earlier this month too. For now, enjoy these highlights. :)

Morning Walk in Fort William - Canon EOS R

Knowing that winter can hit at any moment, I have been trying to get out on photo walks a few times during the week after I drop my wife off at work. It helps wake me up and also gets my creative juices flowing, and prepares me to sit in front of a computer. Well, almost. I decided to venture down to Fort William and make my way through some of the side streets. I had no route planned or even a final destination.

I did know that I wanted to check out some of old McKellar Hospital and perhaps the old FWCI building too. I managed to make it to both. These are areas I have photographed many times before so I do challenge myself to come up with different compositions. It’s not always easy, but sometimes all you need to do is turn around or even get lower to the ground.

I even made my way down some back alleys, which I absolutely love doing. I know it sounds strange, but some of my best photos have resulted from treks down alleyways. I’m not talking seedy dangerous ones, just neighbourhood ones.

There were some keepers from the walk. Some were better than others, but I figured I would share some of them here, for anyone interested in seeing a little peice of Thunder Bay from a different perspective.

Kam River Park - Last Days of Summer

I’ve been trying to get out more and more first thing in the morning when the sun is low. The one thing about Fall that is great for photography is that the days are shorter, which means you don’t have to get up as early to get potentially good light. When living in a place like Thunder Bay, it’s easy to get bored of taking photos because it is a smaller city and there are only so many things to photograph. That has never stopped me from going to the same location many, many times over.

The time of day, the camera you use, the way you walk a scene; all can change the way you shoot a place you have been to before. Honestly, this was probably my 20th time taking photos at Kam River Park. I just had my Canon EOS R and 50mm 1.2. One camera and one lens. When doing personal photography, that’s all I ever bring, 90 percent of the time. I do try to switch up lenses every now and again. But, 50mm has always been my favourite focal length.

It was an over cast day down at Kam Park which is my favourite type of weather. As always, I didn’t really have a goal in mind. I just walked around and captured things that looked interesting to me. I worked different angles and looked for interesting light, even though it was cloudy. There were a ton of seagulls out that day and I tried to get some photos of them in flight. I think I ended up getting a couple keepers.

I’m sure I’ll be back again before winter hits us, and even then, it’s a totally different look and feel in winter as well. Happy shooting!

Simpson Street in the Early Hours

I ended up going to bed super really early last night, which meant I got up fairly early this morning. So it was a good excuse to get out and take some photos before cars were parked on the street and the sun was too high. Even though I always hope for clouds, I’ve been pushing myself to work with sun and shadows. That was the case this morning as the sun was low, but shining for the most part. Once again, I brought my Canon EOS R and the 50mm 1.2. It’s a great combination.

I like photographing in the streets before businesses open because it means there aren’t a lot of cars parked. That way, if I see interesting store fronts or buildings, I can much more easily create sim simple scenes. As with most of my personal walks, I don’t really have a plan in place. I just follow what my eyes see. A lot of times if I see something interesting down an alleyway or a street, I go that way and end up on a totally different route. I’m not against working my way back through the same area as well, because I’ll see the scene completely different going in the opposite direction. Plus, the sun and light is constantly changing.

Another thing I often utilize in my street photography are reflections. Whether I’m shooting into a window or using puddles to create interesting scenes, there are always opportunities to try something different. The time just flies by when I go on these walks. I narrowed it down to these favourites but after about 1.5 hours of shooting, I ended up with approximately 250 photos. I’m trying to get out as much as I can while the cold winter comes.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Admittedly I have been doing a lot of video lately, both paid and practice, so my personal photography has taken a bit of back seat. I find it a little hard to do both at the same time, unless of course it’s a paid gig. The thing with video is that it’s a completely different way of thinking, at least for me. Well, I finally got outside and walked around, with no goal other than to photograph whatever caught my eye.

My camera of choice was my beloved Canon EOS R. Man, what a fantastic camera. I do not understand the initial hate that camera got. Especially for my professional work, the ability to quickly switch from photos to videos has been priceless. For this walk, I paired it with my favourite Canon lens, the 50mm 1.2. I am sucker for almost always shooting wide open so you can guess what aperture I’m using 90 percent of the time. That, and it renders beautifully. I can only imagine what the RF mount version looks like. But I digress.

Up until this past spring I worked around my Mazda dealership and used to always go for walks around the area on my lunch break. Seeing as how I have been fully home-based for the past 4 months, it had been a while since I did my route. So, after dropping off my car for a check up, I went off exploring. The first stop was the garden area right beside the police station. I had driven past it various times over the last few weeks and noticed how tall all the plants were so it was the perfect opportunity to go there and see how it looks.

It would have been nice to have a macro lens but I still managed to get some nice flower photos and other interesting shots as well. The grass was wet so my feet were kind of water logged after a while but it was worth it. From there I started to make my way through Lakehead University. Instead of the paved path I took the side dirt trail that runs along the river. I brought my ND filter with me just in case and I’m super happy I did as I got a couple long exposure photos of the stream.

Since I didn’t want to carry my coffee with me when I left the house, I made my way to the Starbucks in the University and treated myself to a flat white. Super tasty. I soon got the phone call that the car was ready, so I made my way back and that was that. It felt really good to be out walking again. I truly do find it therapeutic.

Night Photography in Port Arthur - Canon EOS R

I have been wanting to get out at night to take some street photos for quite some time. Finally, I got the chance to do so, and it was with my wife Anne, which made it 10x better. With rain forecast for later in the evening we headed to downtown Port Arthur and started our walk. The camera and lens I brought with me was my awesome Canon EOS R paired with the 35mm F2. I contemplated bringing the 50mm 1.2 but opted for the stabilized 35mm. I think it ended up being a good choice.

It was great having Anne come along with me, obviously because I love the company. But also, because I had a model! I didn’t know how many keepers I would come away with but it ended up being a fairly successful 45 minute adventure. By far, my favourite photo of the the walk was in the parkade. On one level, there were no cars and extremely dramatic lighting. I got Anne to look up and exposed for the light and I knew it was going to be epic even before reviewing the image.

We eventually left the parkade and continued walking around the downtown area. The EOS R performed great and I’m glad I brought the 35mm lens. I use the 50 the most and it was good switching it up a bit.

Once we were done our walk we headed to the local grocery store to get a few things. I, of course, documented that as well. Surprisingly, I came away with some good shots there too. Then again, I have shot a lot of photos of Anne in grocery stores over the years so ….

I’m already looking forward to our next walk at night. I think we might venture down to Fort William.