Here is a behind the scenes video of me photographing the picturesque Bavarian town of Rottach-Egern using a 10 stop ND Lee filter and a circular polarizer for some silky smooth reflection shots. Since your "maths" skills might not be up to snuff, here is a quick Q&A on how to calculate time for long exposures with a polarizer and a ND.…
We got a wicked Nor’easter here on the East Coast of Canada and since I ran out of British period dramas to watch on Netflix, I thought I would try to capture some macros of big, juicy snowflakes. Since I am in Nova Scotia temporarily, I don’t have all my gear, which includes a set of Kenko extension tubes. The piece of gear that would really help for ultra close macros of snowflakes. When you are on the road, you have…
Behind the scenes doing some bracketed exposures for HDRs and macros during magic hour on a frozen Two Jack Lake in Banff, Alberta. I usually try to go to a location a few hours before sunset to grab some magic hour shots and scout for the best location to photograph the sunset. Even if I don’t get any magical shots during my scout, I will be way better off later. Instead of scrambling to find a good spot when the…
Every year I learn more about photography as an art form and a business. I’ve struggled over the past few years with finding a balance between pursuing the photography I love and posting things to social media that get the most likes. I’ve seen creative photography blossom with smart phones and affordable dSLRs and take an ugly down turn with selfie sticks and social media vanity. Some days I feel more inspired than ever, and others I feel like packing…
Shooting location: Vermillion Lake, Banff, Alberta. Gear used: Canon 5DMK3 + 24-70mm + Lee Filters 10 Stop ND filter.…
I was fortunate to visit Ballyfin in County Laois, Ireland last week. Condé Nast recently voted Ballyfin as 2016’s best hotel in the and honestly, it deserves that title. Here is a brief tour of the main level of the hotel. The surrounding property of 614 acres of green was absolutely spectacular and I’ll include more pictures in another post. …
Dreaming of photographing the Northern Lights? There is no better spot for taking the most spectacular Aurora Borealis shots than Iceland. Last October, I spent 21 days chasing the Aurora in the land of ice. When I arrived in Iceland, I had no idea how to track down an Aurora. I thought they happened every night. I assumed you just popped your head out of your hotel window and kaboom, Lady Aurora comes by with a free show. Not so much. You…
I’ve chased many waterfalls in my days, but this epic FOSS in the heart of the WestFjords in Iceland was truly magical. I stood up there until I was soaking wet just staring up at the powerful water flow. It felt pretty amazing……
We are all filled with wanderlust to travel, adventure the world, and capture stunning photographs. Inspired by the plethora of photos shared on social media, it’s enough to flare up the FOMO on a daily basis. All these epic landscape and travel photos share one key feature – no humans in sight or if you are on Instagram, that one solitary blonde yoga girl with a nice bum posing on a cliff edge. How did she get there? What is she thinking? Does yoga…
The Makanyane Safari Lodge is located across from the Madikwe Game Reserve in the North-East of South Africa, a few clicks from Botswana. After flying over 13 hours from Cambodia, I was in a daze for much of the three hour jeep journey across the gorgeous South African terrain from Johannesburg. Nothing could prepare me for what happened next. “Welcome to the bush,” says the good-looking South African game driver revving up the engine of the Toyota land cruiser as…
If Ansel Adams were alive today, would he have a Snapchat account? The answer is probably yes. Imagine for a second that our young iGeneration Ansel becomes so enamoured with adding large chicken emojis to photographs of his daily breakfast McMuffins that he completely loses his curiosity for the natural world. Perhaps his follower count is too high and he feels extreme pressure to perpetually share moment-by-moment dog-faced selfies, photos of his morning cappuccino and inane vanity-driven drivel that he never finds the time to climb those misty mountain tops?…