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.

30 Minute Photo Walk

Earlier in the week I was able to able to walk around on my short lunch break during work. Knowing I was going to have a break, I made sure to bring my Fuji XT-1 and 35mm 1.4. It's a super small, yet powerful combo. So, I wolfed down my lunch so I had more time to actually spend outside taking photos. I decided to just stay in the area and walk the back alley and streets like I usually do. For some reason, I always find more interesting things in the back lanes.

So with my camera in hand I set out to see what I could find. Most of the time when I am just wandering around aimlessly, I look for colours or contrast first. Then I sort out the composition. As anyone who reads these blogs (assuming there are a few of you out there) ... I absolutely love focusing on the details and isolating certain objects. It's not all about just shallow depth of field though, as just like my wedding photography, I'm always on the lookout for moments too. A lot of the times, at least with my style of 'street photography', I am simply taking photos of still objects but once in a while I stumble across moments. Case in point, I noticed a very tired and lazy dog on the steps on one of the houses I was passing by. As I stopped, raised my camera, he looked up for a split second, and then rested his had back down. 

There you have it. With a little motivation and a camera in hand, even your phone, anyone can take photos as long as you are willing to get out and walk around a bit. If you have trouble finding inspiration, pick a theme. Choose a colour to photograph, use a certain focal length or simply just try to capture 1 really good image. Happy shooting!

It was downtown kind of morning

Instead of going to the gym as usual and hitting the treadmill, I decided to grab my trusty camera and brave the cold winter morning in downtown Port Arthur. Luckily, the weather warmed up slightly so it wasn't as bad as it has been all week. So I parked the car, bundled up and headed out into the unknown. Well, in this case, it ended up being Cumberland Street at first.

My first stop was the old Cineplex Theatre, which is just an old abandoned building for the most part. I am still amazed that they haven't torn down the signage. My camera of choice was the Fuji X-T1 and the 16-55mm lens. It's a great combo, and even though it's a bit of a bigger lens, I still don't really notice the weight. I usually shoot with my prime lens but I must admit, it's nice to have a bit of zoom. It allowed me to get some perspectives I wouldn't normally have been able to get.

The next stop along the way was the Shoreline Motel. For some reason, I'm always drawn to this building, for photos that is. It's not really my cup of tea as an establishment, but to each their own. I think I'm just a sucker for slightly run down and old buildings. 

Seeing as how I was right across the street from the Marina, I crossed the street and walked around the west end. There were some interesting cloud formations hovering around the Sleeping Giant so I waited a bit for the sun to be right and snapped a couple photos. I really need to start bring my tripod with me more often but I think I got a good enough shot hand held.

I was starting to get a bit colder, especially once the sun went away so I took the overpass back downtown and finished up by exploring some other streets and back alleys, before heading back to my car. The last shot of my walk was my favourite. I noticed that a whole bunch of pigeons were perched on the building so I gently approached, and because I had my zoom, I was able to stand a bit back and get a good shot. 

Thanks for viewing!

Canada Day at Chippewa Park + Downtown Port Arthur

Canada Day has come and gone but I finally got a chance to go through all the photos from that day. We started off by going to Old Fort William which I could honestly spend a whole day photographing. We ended up only going for a couple hours but it was plenty of time to walk around take lots of great photos. Not only were there a lot of people walking around, there are endless buildings to go into, each having there own unique personality. I would say my favourite moment there was in the stables. There were goats, roosters, sheep and a few other types of animals. I came away with some fun shots, one of the best ones being a sheep getting sheared. 

Before we knew it, it was time to go. After dropping off the kids we decided to head downtown. It was still early in the afternoon but there was actually a huge car show going on which we knew nothing about until our friend Cora let us know. We just caught the last few minutes of it but I was still able to come away some good shots. 

After working up quite the thirst and appetite we headed on over to Gargoyles, a local restaurant. The meal was great and I actually captured a few more good photos there, particularly the Gargoyle wearing a red tie. Once we were done we headed home to rest up a bit before going back downtown for the fireworks. My goal this year for the fireworks was to try and do a time-lapse. This was my first one and I have yet to process it but we will see how it turns out. I ended up getting a little gorilla pod which actually worked quite well with the Fuji X-T1 and 16mm combo. Perhaps I will do another post with that time-lapse if it actually turns out. 

One thing I did try since I had my little tripod out was a long exposure of the people leaving the fireworks. I don't usually do long exposure photography but I think it actually turned out kind of cool. For all these photos the Fuji X-T1 performed admirably. The lenses I used were the 16mm and 35mm. As usual, I think for almost all of them I just used the jpg's with the Chrome preset and processed them a bit with Lightroom. Thanks for viewing!

It's a Port Arthur Thing

Friday finally arrived and I was all done work so I figured I would take advantage of the longer days and sunlight and go take some photos. I was to meet my Fiance Anne, and her friend Raven at The Madhouse, so I bundled up, grabbed my D610 and 85mm 1.8, and headed out into the cold.

Whenever I walk around with the camera I always try and take routes that I wouldn't normally follow. This usually involves a lot of back alleys and side roads. I'll even cut through parking lots or in behind businesses. Without really knowing what I'm looking for I just keep my eyes open and basically look for anything catches my eye. There are always the usual 'landmarks' or buildings which I just love photographing. But, as with the first image above, I waited patiently for about 30 seconds for the seagull to take off and caught that exact moment. 

Other times, I will just snap a quick photo and be on my way. I have gotten a lot of great shots that way too. Things that catch my eye are bold colours, contrast or even patterns. When seeing something I want to photograph I almost always ask myself if there is a better angle to explore or perhaps the option to shoot through something and incorporate some framing. 

If a different photographer walked the exact same route I did, I can guarantee you that he wouldn't come away any of the same photos. That's not saying that I am better, it's just that everyone sees things differently. That is what I love about photography. 

Downtown Port Arthur with the Fuji X100s

It was another chilly day out yesterday but I figured I would walk around still and get some fresh air. This time around I brought my Fuji X100s. It's a such a fantastic little camera. It's a different experience shooting with the Fuji then it is with my slightly larger D610 full frame camera. The main difference I find between the two, is the use of EVF. In direct sunlight I did find myself using the OVF but most of the time I just held the camera up and looked at the screen. If the exposure was good, I took the photos. If it wasn't perfect, I simply changed the exposure compensation dial. I just find it a bit faster in certain ways. 

As with Simpson Street in Fort William, Cumberland street and Downtown in Port Arthur has it's share of some run down buildings. But there is also a lot of great character as well. Each part of town has it's good and bad. 

My settings for the X100s were simple. Auto ISO, Neutral Density filter applied, the Pro Negative Standard jpg setting and I was off to the races. Even with the jpg's in Lightroom, I really didn't have any problems with the Dynamic Range, especially seeing as how the afternoon was bright sunlight. I was able to pull back the highlights in almost any photo that needed it. I'm always impressed how well the X100s performs in this regard. As usual, I used a combination of VSCO filters combined with my own tweaking.