Robert Williams Photography offers landscape and nature photography, with a focus on Canadian landscapes.
Fine art prints and stock nature and urban photographs are available at affordable prices.
August 28, 2010: I have added photographs from the Avalon Peninsula (and St. John's) to my article on Newfoundland.
August 24, 2010: A new front-page photograph from Newfoundland.
Over the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to visit some areas of Canada outside of the Ottawa area -- the Rockies, the Maritimes, and Georgian Bay in Ontario. These trips have resulted in some great photographic opportunities, and hopefully some good photographs. Despite that, the bulk of my photographs over that same period of time have been taken locally in the Ottawa area. Photographing your local backyard presents some unique challenges, but it can also produce great photographs.
One of the biggest advantages you have when you photograph your own home territory, is that you have the time to get to know the area thoroughly. When you visit an area for the first time, no matter how much research you have done beforehand, you can only scratch the surface of photographic possibilities. When you're at home, you can explore all the nooks and crannies that visiting photographers will never have the time to find.
You will also have the time to explore your favorite locations, both at different times of the day, and at different times of the year. Few photographers will see even the typical photographic sites at their peak, whether that is in the spring, summer, fall, or winter. In fact, few people visit sites in the winter at all. When you can visit a location time after time, you will get to know the subtle nuances of light and locations that can make for great photographs.
Tree overhanging the Jock River, December 2001
The Jock River is a small branch of the Rideau River, winding its way from the town of Richmond, through farmland, and into the Rideau south of Ottawa. Most of the time, it's more of a creek than a river. It's definitely NOT on the tourist track for visitors to Ottawa, but this small river still provides opportunities for interesting photographs.
The winter photograph above was taken from a location only a few minutes from my house. I was able to visit the site repeatedly, seeing it under different lighting and weather conditions. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get to this spot shortly after an early winter storm. Before sunrise, the winds were still quiet, and with the snow still on the branches, I was able to capture the mood that I felt at the time.
Wildflowers on the banks of the Jock River, June 2001
A portion of the Jock River shore is undergoing a "shoreline rehabilitation project", where these wildflowers grow. This combination of wildflowers is in full bloom at the same time for only about one week all year. I watched this area for several weeks before finding the right time to photograph, and then I had to wait for the right lighting conditions. None of this would be possible unless I had taken the time to know the area, and scout this kind of location well in advance.
Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton National Park, August 2001
Visiting a new area, as I did with the Rocky Mountains this past summer, creates an interesting kind of mental block, that I call the "WOW" factor. My reaction to the spectacular scenery of the Rockies was to try to capture the "WOW" that I felt at being in the mountains. Essentially, this created a documentary style of photography. I really like my mountain photographs, and I came back with some creative results, but it was a real fight to get beyond the need to capture the "WOW" experience of being in the mountains for the first time. Returning to the same location in the future would help, but it would take many trips to get completely familiar with it.
Flower Abstract, 2003
Photography close to home, however, does not have this problem -- instead, I have to work really hard to find the "WOW" in scenery that I experience every day. This forces me to be more creative with everyday landscapes. The flower above is a good example. This flower grew in my backyard, and I've taken photographs of the plant many times. It took many experiments with a flash and slow shutter speeds to find something new and interesting.
Being familiar with your local landscape gives you some advantages, but that same familiarity forces you to work hard to produce fresh photographs. Two methods that I use frequently, are to explore new creative techniques, and to give myself assignments that help me focus my efforts.
Tiger Lilies, 2003
I enjoy making abstract and impressionistic photographs as much as traditional landscape photographs. When I'm really stuck finding interesting compositions, I go back to some sidewise-thinking exercises that I first learned from Freeman Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing". These exercises involve breaking rules, and starting to think a different way. The exercise starts by taking your camera off the tripod (breaking rule #1). Using a very slow shutter speed, move your camera while making some exposures. The results are quite variable -- most will be thrown out, but some may be spectacular. Courtney Milne has some excellent examples of this technique in his latest book, Emily Carr Country.
The exercise can be extended many different ways, breaking any photographic rule that you can think of. The end result, is that you will be creating photographs that you would not have tried otherwise. This exercise stimulates your creative thought processes, and engages the "other side of your brain".
There are many different techniques that you can use to create a different look to your photographs: using selective focus and an open aperture, using different kinds of filters, multiple exposures (first with two or three exposures, then 15 to 20, and 50+ exposures on a single frame), camera motion, photographing reflections, using negative sandwiches, and more recently, Orton images (the combination of an 2-stop overexposed but in-focus frame, with a 1-stop overexposed, out-of-focus frame). There is a similar range of different digital techniques that can be used afterwards in your computer.
I strongly recommend Freeman Patterson and André Gallant's latest book, Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image for an in-depth discussion of different techniques. Richard Martin also has an incredible impressionistic style.
Fall leaves at Mer Bleue, October 2001
Another way that I use to get more creative photographs, is to give myself an assignment. Usually, I decide to photograph a specific location in depth, visiting the same area repeatedly over several seasons. The fall photographs that I did at Mer Bleue this year, are a good example. Normally, I head up to the Gatineau Hills in the fall, but this year, I decided to return to Mer Bleue. By returning several times over a couple of weeks, I was able to see the fall colours develop, and I was onsite when the colours were at their peak, and saturated by a heavy dew and fog.
I get as envious as the next guy when I look at the fantastic locations that are available elsewhere in the world. I wish I had the budget to visit exotic locations more often. Regardless, don't discount the area in which you live -- it's cheap to get there, and you have all the time in the world to explore it in depth.
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