Inspirations – Spiritual Wood by Philippe Sainte-Laudy

© Philippe Sainte-Laudy

Nikon D300 Nikkor 18/200mm at 
38 mm  
2 sec. 
f/16 ISO400

Hi, I’m Philippe Sainte-Laudy. I live near Strasbourg in France. My goal in the world of photography is to strive for originality, and create my images into an art form. I like photographing nature and in particular landscapes. Photographer by passion for years, today I have my own business.

I also like optimizing and working my images with software such as Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom.

I hope that photography can bring people closer to nature and encourage them to preserve it for future generations.

This photo was taken this autumn in France near Strasbourg. The season was beautiful this year! The woods were bathed in a light yellow to brown. Almost magical! I also used a tripod to get a good depth of field and bring out maximum detail. I used several layers set in Photoshop to optimize the atmosphere of this forest and give an artistic touch.

I recently published two free ebooks. The first talks about landscape photography and the second includes my best photographs of autumn this year. A kind of Best of …

Thank you to Darwin for allowing me to talk about myself without moderation.

Creative Expression Masterclass results – Richard Douglas

Below are the five favorite Creative Expression Masterclass photos from Richard Douglas.

HDR 1  Aperture Priority   –   F/13   –   ISO 200   –   105 mm

HDR 2 Aperture Priority   –   F/18   –   ISO 200   –   28 mm

HDR 3 Aperture Priority   –   F/18   –   ISO 200   –   65 mm

Tone 2 Aperture Priority   –   F/13   –   Shutter Speed (1/80 sec)   –   ISO 200   –   28 mm

Tone 3 Aperture Priority   –   F/18   –   Shutter Speed (10 secs)   –   ISO 200   –   300 mm

Inspirations – Kouji Tomihisa

© Kouji Tomihisa

I normally take photos on my way to the office. As a result I take a lot of photos at sunrise, sunset, night and in train stations. One thing that differentiates my photos from other photographers is the height of my view. I often use the ‘live view’ finder of my camera, thus the view is as low as a 5-year old child. I intentionally take my photos that way so that you can feel you have gone back to those days. ~ Kouji Tomihisa

Fire and Ice Photo Tour Results – Jagjit (Monty) Dhillon

Below are Jagjit Dhillon’s six favorite photos from the Fire and Ice Photo Tour.

©Jagjit Dhillon

©Jagjit Dhillon

©Jagjit Dhillon

©Jagjit Dhillon

©Jagjit Dhillon

©Jagjit Dhillon

Weekly Photo – December 12, 2011

©Darwin Wiggett - click to view larger

This little fellow (a Hawk Owl) watched us from his wee perch in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park near Cochrane the other day. This little fellow and a Great Horned Owl are hanging around the park and seem very approachable. The good thing about Hawk Owls is they are active during the day.  I am not really a wildlife photographer but I did have my Sigma 70-200mm lens that day and snapped this ‘environmental portrait’ at 200mm. If you want to learn more about the photography in the park be sure to sign up for our Twoonie Talk: Winter Photography in Glenbow Ranch Provinical Park which will be held in Cochrane on Jan. 21st, 2012

Inspirations – Thomas Sivilay

© Thomas Sivilay

1/320s, f/4.0, ISO 160 – with a CANON 50D and SIGMA 10-20mm

This shot was taken at the World Exposition in Shanghai in 2010. It’s one of the many structures at the Exposition, but it’s maybe the first one you will see if you take the subway. So it was my first shot for this long day, and I was at the bottom of the structure. I used an ultra-wide angle, but I’ve re-sized it to have this Fibonacci number composition. There is also a contrast between lines/triangle and curves. ~ Thomas Sivilay

Fire and Ice Results – Dan Wheeler

Below are Dan Wheeler’s favorite six photos from the Fire and Ice Photo Tour.

©Dan Wheeler

©Dan Wheeler

©Dan Wheeler

©Dan Wheeler

©Dan Wheeler

©Dan Wheeler

Fabulous Film Fridays – December 9, 2011

Here are three Holga shots from Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park near Cochrane, Alberta. IF you want to learn more about the park and all of its winter possibilities for photographers be sure to sign up for our Twoonie Talk (2 dollars to get in) on Jan 21, 2012 in Cochrane – for more information please see here.

©Darwin Wiggett - Kodak Portra 160

©Darwin Wiggett - Kodak Portra 160

©Darwin Wiggett - Kodak Portra 160

Inspirations – Andy Brown

© Andy Brown

I shot with a Canon 5Dmk2 and Canon EF 17-40mm L.  Exposure was 0.2 seconds at f/14 and ISO 160.  The camera was handheld throughout and I panned vertically to achieve the ICM – it’s the first time I’d tried this technique and a concept I hope to revisit soon.  Processing was done in ACR and CS4.

Intentional camera movement goes against the grain of so much I have learnt through my imagery – there are no hard and fast restraints on focus, clarity and detail.  Instead, it’s an intriguing way to try and reveal the spirit of your subject – and of course trees work well given their familiarity and strong vertical lines that react so well to panning!  My intent was to work a contrast between the all pervasive mist and the vivid hues of the woodland vegetation, with the trees providing a pseudo-abstract link between the two planes.  It’s funny how with the creation of some images I spend hours deciding on composition, deliberating over subtle lighting nuances and suchlike prior to releasing the shutter.  This photograph was borne of completely the opposite.  I was on my way to an entirely different destination when I drove through this woodland, laden in early morning mist.  I stopped, took just a handful of shots and was back in my car within twenty minutes and on my way… ~ Andy Brown

I oopoomoo, do you?

Today is the official release date of oopoomoo! This is a new website that Samantha and I put together that is the one-stop shop for everything Sam and Dar. But it will be more than just a photography site, or a place to get eBooks or workshops. The concept behind oopoomoo relates more to our attitude towards life. Life is short:  why not just do the things you love and live a balanced healthy lifestyle? Why not give back a little instead of always taking? Why not live a little softer on the planet? Why not have fun and smile a lot? Well, oopoomoo is our attempt to live that kind of life. We are photographers and photography instructors and we love our work. But we also love nature, hiking, eating, drinking, art, music and, in short, life. We want oopoomoo to reflect our passion about these things, and we want to share our passion for living well with the world. We would love to have you come along!

Ultimately we will be ending all our other websites so we can concentrate on oopoomoo and all the fun and meaningful projects we hope to engage in. So we will stop posting on our personal blogs (both this blog and Sam’s blog will finish at the end of the this year). Ultimately we will also end our personal websites and have everything we do happen at oopoomoo.

Finally, over at oopoomoo we decided affiliates and sponsorships wasn’t our thing.  We’ll let others continue on with these kinds of partnerships because they are good at them! We find our time is pretty much taken up trying to live our new philosophy on life.

Drop by oopoomoo and let us know what you think and stay tuned for all sorts of interesting posts on photography and life!

Darwin and Sam