Long Exposure of the Metis Cement Boat Passing By - Peter Verboom

I was at the cottage this week trying to capture pictures of the lightning which I was too late for. I kept the camera on the tripod and switched to Bulb mode to capture a passing cement carrying ship called the Metis. This shot was the result of 179 seconds of exposure. The ripples in the light trails are from the waves on the lake this night. The light in the center of the frame must have been when they flipped on an interior light onboard the tugboat for a second or two.

This ship can be seen at the Cherry St docks in Toronto. It's easy to spot because it's basically a barge with a tugboat behind it. Here's a daylight photo of it leaving the next day.

I snapped a few other shots this week which you can view on my Flickr.

Dog Days of Summer - Bill at Bmcvisuals

Well, the long weekend was a write off as far as the weather was concerned!  Well, that is except for Saturday.  It proved to be hot and just what the doctor ordered.  Like my very first post, you can see just how much my Boston loves the sun.  She did a few mad dashes into the lake, chased her shadow on the sand, then sat and soaked in the warmth from the sun.  Until the black flies got her at least, nibble nibble.

This is late by the way, but I see that my cohort was late also, 13 minutes after midnight.  That's okay, it's our first.

Have a good one.  Bill

Sunset Over Houses on the River in Cambridge - Peter Verboom

Here I am going back to my fall-back sunset shooting. I was out in Cambridge visiting an art show opening this past Friday with Mandy. We left the show just before sunset and I saw some interesting cloud formations. This shot is a 2 shot HDR tonemapped image with one exposure for the clouds and the other for the houses. I only needed two shots because I was able to recover a bit more data from the RAW format images.

Please check out my other favourite shots from this week on my Flickr.

Enough With The Water Already - Bill at Bmcvisuls

Man this weather is horrible!  However, as most photographers know, overcast skies reduce having to battle with harsh highlights and deep deep shadows. 

Many years ago I spent quite a bit of time focused on street signs, advertisement posters, banners, etc.  I mean, really seeing them, and what surrounded them.  I became fascinated by the content or message being told, while others simply walked past.  Well I've gotten back into that groove, and thought I would share this image of an Evian ad that I found very funny.  I find it very humorous, this gruff looking man, perhaps a biker, feeling free spirited enough and comfortable that he'd wear a tshirt with the image of a baby's body on it.

I don't know, maybe it's just me!

Be sure to check out our affiliate sites for other work we're involved in and maybe even make suggestions to what we should shoot one week.

Thanks.

Spring has Sprung! - Peter Verboom

I want to thank Bill for his kind words and encouragement. This is all new to me so I'm having a great time experimenting with different styles and shooting techniques. I'm really just trying to keep up with his great images!

After a slow start to spring, the weather has finally started warming up. I was spending too much time indoors during the sunny afternoons so Mandy decided to go to a park for some fresh air. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and after trying a few shots in and around the trees I wasn't capturing anything worthy of posting. I decided to put my Canon 60D's fold out LCD screen to use and dropped the camera to ground level to snap some shots from a new perspective. I cropped this photo to show the beauty of the cherry blossoms blooming.  Spring is approaching and we are heading out to meet it. This park was outside the Aviary, Hamilton, Ontario.

I uploaded five other shots from this week to my Flickr stream.

Afternoon Nap- Bill at Bmcvisuals

I'm back baby!!  I had a great run at the start, then fell by the way side for a few weeks.  I missed all of you regular viewers.  Thankfully there were some wonderful images by my good friend Peter to keep the site going.  He's putting together a nice little portfolio of images that cover many areas.  I'm grateful that he's on here with me. 

So, to this weeks image.  Since I'm back in the big smoke working (thank you, it was a very long 5 months looking for work since being laid off), lunchtime provides me with many opportunities to get out and shoot.  While walking near Church and Queen, I spotted this man taking an afternoon nap and decided to snap a photo.  Funny thing was, it wasn't just the man sleeping that caught my eye, but the triangle shape created by him, the bike, and the empty flower urn.  One major component of photography taught in college was to try to provide an entry to your image, a midpoint, and lastly, an exit.  By capturing all 3 things in this shot, I think I did just that!

Thanks for sticking around.  Bill

Hairy Woodpecker in a Birch Tree - Peter Verboom

I took these two photos yesterday. The first shot is a Hairy Woodpecker hanging out in a birch tree. The colour pattern of the bird makes it very camouflage in this tree.

This second shot is a Hairy Woodpecker approaching a birch tree in flight. I really like the bar code like pattern of its wings.

I've posted two other photos to my Flickr stream.

On Rainy Days - Peter Verboom

As Mandy watched the trees blow down from the torrential winds last week, I snapped this shot. I exposed for the light on her face allowing the rest of her to fade to black. This style was inspired by one of Bill's previous photos.

You can view the rest of my shots from this week on my Flickr page. The link will start at the first photo, navigate to the right for the others.