LLTL Year End Contest – Chris Gin

Chris Gin

Chris Gin

 

I take a lot of seascapes as it’s my favorite type of shot and there are quite a few local beaches nearby, but this one stands out for me and is my favorite of 2009. I like the different elements that come together in this shot – the sunset colours, jagged rocks, and rushing waves all make for a nice seascape, but the starfish is what makes it special for me. I took quite a few shots from this spot trying to time it so that I got some motion blur in the water without having the starfish completely submerged. This one turned out just how I wanted it.

LLTL Year End Contest – Darren Barclay

Darren Barclay

Darren Barclay

 

For me, this is one of those shots that when you first see it on your camera, you think, “oh yeah!” This is one of my very favourite shots – probably more for personal reasons than anything. I made this image of the Kicking Horse River shortly after the long weekend in May on a very beautiful, calm, quiet evening in Yoho NP. It’s on the upstream side of the Natural Bridge. I added a gold n blue polarizer to give a bit of colour to the water and a long shutter speed gave the flowing water that silky look i was going for.

LLTL Year End Contest – Olivier Du Tré

Olivier Du Tré

©Olivier Du Tre

 

I shot this image during the Labour Day weekend this year. Of course it’s Moraine Lake at sunrise. I was all by myself, stunned by the show mother nature was putting on. It was one of those magical mornings with just enough clouds to catch the sunlight, no wind (but it was pretty cold) and just the most beautiful light EVER! The sky was so orange, the water so blue and together with the brown and greens, mother nature created almost something what looked like a painting. Yes it’s a heavily saturated HDR. Maybe it’s over the top. But this is how I will always remember this magical moment. After I had taken this image, the light changed to yellow and the show was over. This was also my first commercial success of this year (and first ever image I was able to sell). So this image will always have a special meaning for me.

The Point-n-Shoot advantage

Whenever I travel I almost always just take my point-n-shoot camera (currently a Canon G9). I take my little P+S everywhere and it allows me to make photos of things I would never attempt with my big dSLR (bathrooms, inside museums, inside stores etc). The camera also keeps me practiced in photography; the more I practice the more honed my skills become. Here are a few ’snaps’ I made from the weekend trip to Windsor, Ontario. I recommend every serious photographer always have a camera on hand, a P+S makes this easy and fun!

©Darwin Wiggett - Detroit Skyline

©Darwin Wiggett - My beer in the bar (abstract)

©Darwin Wiggett - The beer recycling depot

©Darwin Wiggett - the tap in the bathroom

©Darwin Wiggett - Sculpture by Ted Bieler

©Darwin Wiggett - the Windsor Art Gallery

©Darwin Wiggett - Trees in the Park

Rockies Photo Tour Results – October 2009

In mid October Alan Ernst and I led a private tour into the Canadian Rockies. Below are the results from the participants. Stay tuned for updates as the photographers submit their photos.

Betty Zhang

©Betty Zhang

Betty Zhang

Betty Zhang

Betty Zhang

Betty Zhang

Betty Zhang

 Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

©Marion Stella

 Natalya Pluzhnikov

Natalya Pluzhnikov

Natalya Pluzhnikov

©Natalya Pluzhnikov

©Natalya Pluzhnikov

©Natalya Pluzhnikov

©Natalya Pluzhnikov

Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

©Alan Ernst

LLTL Year End Photo Contest – Matt Graham

Matt Graham

Matt Graham

 

I bought my dSLR on New Years Day 2009 and what a year it has been. I have always wanted more control with my photography and jumping to a dSLR has been great. I took the advice of the many ‘light seekers’ and woke up at 4 am to drive to this special spot and catch the summer sunrise hitting the rock faces of Banded Peak, Outlaw Peak, Mount Cornwall and Mount Glasgow with the Elbow River flowing by. It was a magical moment for me to see the drab colored mountains turn pink in a sliver of time and for that reason it is my favorite shot of 2009.

LLTL Year End Contest – Lise Scollie

Lise Scollie

Lise Scollie

I bought my D80 camera because of a really good salesman, I had washed and dried my point and shoot. I took pretty bad pictures to begin with. But then I found this abandoned city, called Podova City. It began as a TB hospital, but then was turned into one of BC’s largest mental hospitals. For some reason this place just clicked with me. I’ve been back three times, each time finding better ways of shooting, this was taken the second time. Since then part of the building has been torn down (it is to be demolished to make way for a big subdivision) and one of the ironing presses gone. It’s almost like I’m capturing the last part of history for this place. I belong to the camera club in Kamloops, and the member there are just astonished that I’m allowed on there, there are sensors all over the place. But I go there for hours, and never get hassled, I don’t push it I go back every two months or so. But because of the name brand of these presses Prosperity, I’ve called this picture Prosperity Stopped.

LLTL Year End Contest – Martin Sojka

Martin Sojka

Martin Sojka

This is my favorite photo of 2009 so far. It was taken on the landscape photo workshop in August. The area was full of rolling hills that are used for agriculture so the fields were vibrant and varied. The sky was nice and blue almost all day with those puffy white clouds moving very fast in the strong wind and that resulted in an amazing light&shadow show on the fields. At one moment I spotted a triangle illuminated in the sea of shadows so I immediately turned the ball head on my tripod, prefocused manually, adjusted polarizer & 1-stop hard edge grad filter, set the exposure and fired. Post process included only the adjustment of the levels to achieve better contrast, tiny bit of saturation and square crop.

LLTL Year End Contest – Binh Ly

Binh Ly

Binh Ly

This image was taken this past fall at a local pond in Vermont. I am quite happy with this because I feel that the beauty of this image is in its simplicity (no flashy colors) and that it has a very calming and tranquil mood to it.

LLTL Year End Photo Contest – Laura Strain

Laura Strain

Photo by Laura Strain

This image is entitled “Golden Liquid, Eternal Fire”.  To me I love this images because it encompasses the best things I Iove about photography.  I love the colors, the macro and the simple beauty of this flower captured in full bloom and the power of life it presents, fleetingly short but when living full of vibrance, power, softness and elegance.  It is also the best macro image I have captured to date.