The Joy of Winter

I've been trying my best to capture the abject beauty of the winter landscape of my neighbourhood. As I'm now walking to school (a half hour each way) I',m spending more time outside and enjoying the great scenery. And while the snow and sleet are trying their best to do my camera damage, I'm still managing to achieve, with satisfactory results, the imagery that I'm attempting to photograph.

On another note, this will be my last post until the Christmas break has begun, as school is being unnecessarily brutal. So for now, I hope you enjoy. Feel free to send me a message at any point, it's not too late for prints in time for Christmas.

Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Winter

There has been more snow in my City of London these past few days, than there has since the 70's. We've had two Snow Days off from school in sequence. I have spent (this is an approximate) 7/8 hours shovelling, 2 hours tobogganing, and the rest of the three days staring in awe out the windows. When I see something extraordinary, my first instinct is to try to document it, and share it. So, naturally, I've had my camera on as much as I could without breaking it. Snow photography presents an interesting challenge for me, because to get accurate pictures of the snow, it's best to be out in the snow; which is deadly for most cameras. So, I've done my best shooting through a window, hiding my Rebel in my coat, shooting from the hip, covering my camera with a hat, or whatever is necessary.

Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

The Big City

This past weekend my family and I went to Toronto to go see a craft show called One Of A Kind. Although crafts aren't exactly my thing, there were several photography booths, and we did see a whole bunch of Toronto afterwards. We went to the Eaton Centre, which is just fantastically set up for Christmas. They had a massive Christmas tree set up in the middle of the mall, and were sending down bubbles that looked like actual snow. We then went to Ikea and wandered a bit, before heading home, having spent a complete day in Toronto. It's great that fasmily stuff like this, and solid photography can co-exist like this. It's very heartening.
Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

No Big Deal- Just a Hawk

It's really not even all that exciting. I mean, I see wild hawks less than 10 feet away from me all the time. Oh, right, that was the Zoo.

I was astounded today to see an actual hawk on my route to and from school. At first it was up in a tree having an argument with about 5 crows, and then it was on someones lawn standing on a squirrel that it had claimed as it's own. I was able to get within 10 feet from it, and it was totally calm. I have no idea where it came from, or where it went (as it was gone when I came back 2 hours later, after class) but it was certainly a sight to behold. A beautiful animal, it's saddening to see it forced to enter cities to find food.

Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

Production Value

Morally I had issues with this. This is the kind of thing I hate. I love seeing a photographers work, and hearing that there was no digital manipulation. Love it. Because it, to me, shows so much more skill. Photographers nowadays are replacing instinct and vision and foresight, with editing, and afterthought. This whole "Shoot 100, keep 1" Ideology is the bulk of what I am fighting against. It discredits photography as a skill as well as an art.

But I'm not condemning photoshop. It's useful and in a situation like this, commercially invaluable. The edited photo is exactly what I was tasked to make, and without removing the wires, the photo would have been unacceptable. Unfortunate, but realistic for sure. By the way, the edited photo is not quite the final copy. There is a bit left to do, but it's close.

Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

A Fork

These are some pictures I made at the forks of the Thames during the fall. I used my new photoshop technologies to tweak some colours a tad. Hope you enjoy,

Arch

Words Into Action

A recent project that I had in Graphics was what inspired this. We were supposed to find a global issue, and photographically convey turning words into action, as it related to the issue we chose. I chose homelessness, and made up this little scenario with a little help from my family and created this. Not my best work, but I feel like it conveys the correct message.

Arch