Chris McPhee
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Chris McPhee Photography
Snaps and Shots
Algonquin – Fall 2010
Just got back from a couple of days in Algonquin Park here in Ontario. I missed the peak of the fall colours by about a week - I wasn't alone, the early peak seems to have taken many people by surprise. Normally the colours would peak just about now, the week before Thanksgiving, but it was early this year. Still some spectacular sights in the park, and the sunrise on Thursday was incredible. I camped overnight at the Lake of Two Rivers, right by the shoreline so I just had to fall out of my sleeping bag and onto the ...
End of another class
Just completed the Humber College Lighting course - a very good course, well taught and (hopefully) lots learned. I know some people prefer to learn through experience only or through books, but I've always been a believer in learning from the people who know, and then going out and practicing. I've taken 2 courses at Humber now, and will probably be going back in the fall for their Nature Photography course. This is one of the shots I entered for my final portfolio.
Painting with light
This was a technique I played around with a couple of years ago. This is the kind of pwl where you paint the object, not where you make intricate, or not so intricate, patterns with light and capture the trails. The idea I had was to try to create the kind of still life you see in the old 17th/18th century paintings; my first attempts were OK, but then when I went back to this yesterday, I made a couple of improvements. The light - a mini maglite, strong adjustable beam, and the flashlight is small enough to hold and ...
Lighting class
I'm taking a lighting class at one of the local community colleges. There's always a lot of discussion on various boards about whether it's better to just self-teach through experience or attend some classes, whether the classes actually equip you for being a better photographer. I'm firmly of the view that there are people out there with much more experience and knowledge than I, and if they're willing to pass it on in a professional way, then I'm willing to go & learn. This shot is from an exercise on texture lighting, bringing out the texture of an object through ...
More rodeo
One of my Milverton rodeo shots took second place in our Well Exposed 2009 Shot of the Year competition recently. Funnily enough, it was a late entry that month, because I actually preferred some of the other shots from that event. But I think in the end it was the rider's expression that really made the shot.
The curse of not being prepared
So yesterday I went to the Grand River Powwow at the Six Nations in Ontario. After reading advice from someone who'd been there the year before, I took my longest lens, the 70-300mm VR. That would have been great had the event taken place outside as scheduled. Unfortunately, this past weekend saw the worst storms I've seen outsside of being caught in a monsoon in India, and even though the weather had improved by the time the Powwow was due to start, the ground was saturated. So the event moved to a nearby sports arena. Inside. So now I'm left with ...
Rodeo opportunities
I went to my first rodeo last weekend, probably more for the photo opp than the action, but what a great day out. That has to be hardest job in the world. We saw one poor guy - on his first ever competitive bull ride - get well and truly stomped by one huge animal. But some excellent riding and some terrific shots - please look over at my personal gallery page or flickr for some shots. [caption id="attachment_270" align="aligncenter" width="272" caption="Cowboy "][/caption]
Well Exposed Latest theme
I'm a member of a small group of amateur photographers at wellexposed.com which runs monthly and bi-monthly competitions. The bi-monthly comps are theme-based, the monthly ones are open to any shots. This Morning Geese picture just won our latest theme comp.
Guildwood Park
Always on the lookout for interesting places to shoot, someone mentioned Guildwood Park in Scarborough (Ontario, that is). This is where old Toronto statuary goes to die, taken there and displayed when the building it's attached to is torn down. Standing on the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs, there's a mass of photo-opps in quite a small space. Try it. Some more shots here.
Portraits in B&W
So this week at Humber we were looking at a brief exercise in portraiture. Nothing complicated, just a simple single light setup and a few minutes each to try out some shots. The more interesting stuff will come in the full Portrait Photography course itself, this was just a taster. I prefer to pp to black and white whenever I can, so I took a few shots which I thought had the right mood, contrast etc for a b&w conversion, and they're shown here.
