Ah, the emotive qualities of B+W

When I started taking photography seriously 30 or so years ago, I was developing and printing my own B+W films and prints in a bathroom darkroom. Since then we've had the introduction of digital, and photography has taken off, mostly in the colour realm. Digital cameras often have monochrome shooting options, but often these are low contrast images that require quite a bit of tweaking to get the results that you want.

Here is an example of a shot taken with a d-SLR, in monochrome, and then adjusted in PS to extract and define the image more the way I wanted. It takes about as long as printing your own print, but once you've got it down you don't have to replicate the process again for each subsequent print. That's helpful. There's also no messy chemicals to clean-up or dispose of.

Still digging through the archive

Here are 2 shots that I worked on in PS. I wanted to create a sense of the light areas standing out, and give the colours a chance to standout without being over saturated. The first is a shot taken at Lynn Canyon in Vancouver BC. The green of the water was absolutely amazing.

The second is at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands. This peak was enveloped in cloud and mist (it was raining on us too). The craggy rock leading up really embodied the spirit of the area. Tough, unyielding, but beautiful at the same time.

I've been away for quite a while

It's been a long time since I posted anything here, mostly due to having moved and trying to get settled. I've begun sifting through old photos (both digital and film based) and started playing around with them in Photoshop. Here are a couple of shots that were taken in Cuba a number of years ago, with some modifications.

One of the best shots I've ever captured

Normally I wouldn't put a picture here that wasn't jazzed up in some way or another, but this shot from the Toronto Air Show excited me so much when I saw it in on the computer screen (the camera LCD screen gave a bit of a clue, but you never know til you see it full size) that I had to upload it here.

It's the F22 Raptor fighter jet going into a tight turn. The vapour off the wings is in full bloom and the engines are pouring out the power. Seeing this plane in flight was a real treat - seeing it captured like this was a real bonus.

More photo fun

This was a Rhino that I photographed many years ago, and I wanted to give it a mystical quality. There are filters that you can buy that will create some of these effects in the camera. However, I like to start with an original, pure image, and then go from there. I did a sketch of the Rhino as well, but it's currently in a box 1800 kilometres away. I'll post it when I'm back home in Nova Scotia.

More vector fun

This is sketch and the final art for an icon that I developed for a blog. Again, sketching the dog while we were sitting around one afternoon and then fleshing it out using Illustrator. I softened him up a bit because the sketch looked to aggressive. I still like the sketch version, and will probably do something with it in the future.

Nemo found

Sifting through both paper and digital work can bring about some interesting revelations. You begin to see trends that you hadn't thought about before. I've noticed, over the years, that architecture can be fascinating but that I don't have a huge interest in capturing it in my artwork. Instead, I've found myself drawn to nature, characters, and, to some extent, automotive subjects.

I've included a simple piece here that was done a couple of years ago.