telling stories

Today, my friend Eugene put up a post on his blog about photography. I'll let you read it on your own but it made me think about photography & how I see it.

The photograph he posted is one he said was inspired by me (he said this after I saw it on his Instagram post). I found it sweet but I didn't realize how I inspired the image. Since reading his post, I realize that image was a reflection & I had no idea when I saw the image initially - I just couldn't figure out how the image was taken. Prior to this Instagram post, I had shown Eugene my 60+ images from Holland & many of my reflection shots so it makes sense to me now. I am happy to inspire anyone with pretty much anything & I'm glad he found my images inspiring to see the world differently, even if only for a photo or two.

What I find about photography is that yes, now everyone thinks they are a photographer. This all came about (obviously) since the digital camera is so inexpensive & taking photos doesn't cost the same as film photography once did. I think this is fantastic in it's own right. Granted, not everyone is a GOOD photographer. Anyone can take a photograph but is it telling a story or do you care if it does? I know there are often times that I take an image then look at it later & wonder what I was thinking. I am not a professional photographer by any means but I do think I take better than average photos. There have been times when I've shown my friend Dave (a photographer) my images & he flips through them like they are a stack of playing cards with nothing of interest on them. Maybe I am reading him wrong but I did see the difference in how he looked at my images from Holland when I showed him. He paused... more than once. Cool. (: I'll take that as a compliment.

I take most of my images with my Canon 7D and with various lenses. It is certainly purposeful when I venture out with said camera to take photos. I do not have it with me at all times nor do I keep it in the car "just in case". I also do not take with me my Canon S95 for no reason aside from not thinking about it & I do not carry a handbag to keep it with me every day. I do take the occasional photo with my phone's camera but my old iPhone 3GS takes terrible images so why bother? I was out with Peter last Saturday at his golf club & I tried to take an images of his friend & it just didn't turn out like I wanted - not even close. I realize if I dug deep into my pockets & bought a new phone, I would in turn have a better phone camera. But ultimately? How many cameras does one person need? Maybe only one. Maybe only the camera phone & nothing more if you just want to capture everything in focus all the time & be able to post the second after you take the shot. What I like about an SLR is it's flexibility. Mind you with that being said, there are some pretty cool 'point & shoot' cameras out there that allow this flexibility without the cost of the SLR, lenses, flashes, etc, etc... And there's certainly the weight factor! There is none to speak of when you only have your phone.

All I think is if you take an image with any sort of camera & you are thrilled with how it turns out and who knows, even sell it, who cares what you used to capture it? It's still art in it's own right. Sometimes using your camera phone to take images can be the most challenging but the most rewarding in the end due to it's limitations. I say this as an artist & a person who loves capturing life on 'digital film' (if you'll give me this liberty).

Eugene's post made me think about art & photography as an art. Is it lost? Not if you don't let it. Tell your story how ever that may be for you since that's what art is. Story telling. At least to me.

Preikestolen

I changed my profile picture since the one I had before was just too dark. It was literally one of me looking in the mirror while I took it & was why I use it initially but since it was so dark, I changed it to the one I use everywhere else.

The following day Ryan & I hiked Preikestolen. It was a miserable morning (raining & heavy cloud cover) but I was bound & determined to hike that hike. It was the only day to do it since we were leaving for Bergen the next morning for an overnight then off to Riga. I always say: focus on sunshine & it will be. Well, I didn't focus early enough. Ryan was a trooper & took me anyway (after he worked the morning which was likely better for weather). I did check the forecast at Preikestolen before we left & it said it was to clear at 18:00 and I swear, if we had actually waited, it would have! How odd.

I love the heavy cloud cover in these shots. We were the only ones up there when we reached the cliff - quite a few others coming down when we were hiking up. It was raining but not heavily at this point & my feet were soaked! It was nice to be the only ones up there (me & my photographer!). I have to mention that I F'ed up. I gave my 7D to Ryan to take images of me up there & the dammed thing was on MANUAL focus. Dammit! Totally my fault. So the images are a bit blurry & I'm kinda annoyed but oh well! Any photos without me in them are taken by yours truly.

Looking over the edge (my S95, that is).

See? Blurry. Grrrr....

How it was once we reached the bottom. Clear!!

over the North Sea

As I mentioned, my next stop on my trip was Stavanger, Norway. Let me say this right away, Norway is expensive! Stupid expensive. Thankfully I was staying with a friend of mine while I was there. My sister arrived the same day just a bit later (she was coming from Paris via Oslo).

While we waited for Tracey to show up, Ryan & I dropped off his car then walked around "downtown" Stavanger - not downtown like you'd think in a larger centre. It was so quaint though. We walked around for a bit then went for ONE drink. Apparently, drinking on any level then getting behind the wheel is 100% unacceptable behaviour in Norway (or at least Stavanger). Let me add this, I do not condone drinking & driving on any level but having one drink & not jumping behind the wheel right away, should be ok. Perhaps we are too lax in Canada or it's just what I'm used to.

I digress...

                                   

There once was a sticker on the post with the rope above which I managed to Photoshop™ out quite well! The piece on the right was in the restaurant we went to the first night for dinner. Never do the math to convert currencies in Norway or you just won't eat!

The first full day (which was the only day we could do this) my sister & I went on a fjord tour. Funny, before we went, Ryan said that nothing compares to the Canadian Rockies & that it was all water & rocks. How true. My sister has an image of me on the return journey to Stavanger & I look pretty bored. I want her to put in a thought bubble that reads "water & rocks". (:

Needless to say,  I was pretty ruthless with my images & tossed likely more than I kept. All I was saying to myself while looking at the images was: boring, so I deleted them. No story, not keeping; well, I kept a few and here they are: (a few more on Flickr™)

At least I'm in this one.

water & rocks! 

The end of the journey was at Preikestolen before we turned around & headed back to Stavanger. It was interesting to be under the 25m x 25m cliff when I was hiking up there the next day!

                       

look closer

Before I move onto Norway and as I was editing & resizing my images from Norway, I found the crop tool on Photoshop™. Due to that, I have cropped my drip photo & this is what I got.

Pretty fun, huh?

before I moved on

My last morning in Amsterdam (before I left for the airport to go to Stavanger, Norway) I did a couple sketches. It's the same bridge in two different mediums. This canal was right outside of my hotel. I sat on the edge of the sidewalk & decided to sketch since I did have my sketchbook with me after all & I hadn't used it by this point.





I find the ink brush pen really fun to use. I did the bottom sketch pretty quick then went for a walkabout.

Here I am as I was wandering. I have other images of me which are likely better but I'm looking away from the camera (as I often do on self portraits). I'm out of practice with these type of shots; I need to start hiking again!

I wasn't done

This will be the last about Holland. I was thinking that after only 4 days (well, 5 actually) of being in Holland & with all the images I took, I'd have maybe a dozen or so images that I really like & I could pick from there. Well, clearly I was off a bit. Here are the last few that I really like.

These first few were taken in Hoorn the last day of the course (after the course was officially done).

This is the old jail converted into a hotel.

 

Broken glass & an old poster torn to bits.

I simply love the one above & it is one of my favourite shots from the whole trip. I had taken one image then moved slightly to my right & got this one. So glad I moved over!! 

This one is also pretty fun! I saw it when Jochem & I went for a drink. I did my best to stay out of the shot (I'm between his eyes - you can see my arm in the left lens). I do like that our drinks are in the left lens. (:

This is my second favourite shot. Look into the drip. What do you see?? 

I had to split the post

As I mentioned in my last post, I just put up images of the photography course I took up to the day we went to Amsterdam. I had to stop somewhere. There were just too many images that I liked! I had a day on my own in Amsterdam after the course & I have a few images from then too (only one that I love!).

The one above simply cracks me up. It says so much yet asks so many questions too. Why?

Do you think I could have brought this home with me??

I saw this possible shot from a outside the shop (we were at the market). I inspired Maria to take a similar image too. (I didn't see it though.)

This is so cool. It is a reflection of the building across yet one pane has a completely different building reflecting in it. The window appears to be open & likely why. Looks like it's Photoshoped™ in though! 

Another Nancy Stals original idea which inspired someone else to do something similar. Think outside the box! 

I love this shot. It is now my wallpaper on my iPad!

This cracked me up when Jochem brought us to see this. It's outside the Old Church near the Red Light district in Amsterdam. It was interesting to see the different reactions of the people in the group when we got there. Some people basically ignored it like it wasn't there and others (like me) took a photo of it. Why is it locked?? (see bottom right)

now using first names

As most of you know, I was away for a couple weeks. I've only been back for a bit over a week now. I have started going through my images but my goodness, I have many! I uploaded my final favourites on Flickr just today. I thought I was done the other day but realized I was missing a few. I was at just over 50 images but I think now I'm up to around 60+. Considering how many photos I actually took, that's pretty good!

Ok, to fill in the blanks: I took a photography course with Bryan Peterson in Hoorn Holland. I've put the location of this blog post as being in Hoorn when it was there as well as surrounding areas including Amsterdam. My friend Jochem (who lives near Hoorn) who I met on the course, has made comments on Flickr as to where we were taking some of the images. I couldn't remember & I certainly couldn't spell the names if I could remember where we were!

As you will read on my previous post, we had a competition from a 2 hour window where we were to set up our own shots. We had to buy a bouquet of tulips & take images which had a Dutch flavour to them. Not the easiest thing when it was POURING down rain. I think we all did well (there were 3 in my group). The photos were voted on during the last day of Photoshop™ work we did & as noted in my comments, I won! Very cool. I won half price on another workshop if I chose to take another within the next year. I think I'll pick Provence next time! A bit warmer & I'll go to Paris while I'm there (I simply love Paris).

Since I have over 60 images, I'll post my favourite 10 here (that will be tough!!) of the days before we went to Amsterdam. The images will connect you to Flickr if you want to see more shots - go to the Holland set (likely easier).

Our first day was a 16 hour day! We met at 6 o'clock to drive here to take photos of the sunrise.

This was during our first day. Lots of tulips in the foreground that just look like lines of colour!

 

Here is the sunset shot on the first day. At this point I was starving! (and we all know how bad that is for Nancy) so in some ways, I think this could have been better. Four of us in the same car, went to this Turkish fast-ish food place for dinner on our way back to the hotel. SO delicious!!

On the second day we went to the tulip green house called: Keukenhof. So many unique tulips & other flowers there that I'll just put up a few. The one above is just so unique in colour. Where have you seen a tulip in gold & pink like this?? Gorgeous. I was practicing with my ring flash & extension tubes. It's very cool how close you can get into the flower with extension tubes! Jochem wants to buy a ring flash & extension tubes thanks to me! Sorry! (: 

This looks like an alien! Very weird flower.

This is one of my favourites! I love the colour & the angle of the shot.

This looks like plastic or taffy. Such an interesting tulip!

Classic Bryan Peterson shot. I think everyone who's taken this workshop has this image.

I love this one too. The one different tulip in the group. I saw a post card which had a similar idea with white tulips & one black one in the mix. No idea if there are actually black tulips or if it was a deep purple.