Robert Williams Photography Blog

• — Cape St. Mary's Ecological Preserve, Newfoundland

     (Sunday, 22 August 2010 14:27)

  
  

  On our family's trip to Newfoundland, a day visit to Cape St. Mary's Ecological Preserve was easily one of the highlights.  The preserve is located on the tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, on a peninsula between Placentia Bay and St. Mary's bay.  It is home to a massive bird colony, consisting of thousands of Gannets, Common Murres, Thick-billed Murres, Black-legged Kittiwake, Razorbill and other species.
  
  

  Northern Gannets

  
  To get there, we drove down highway 100 from Placentia south...

• — A Carpet of Daisies

     (Tuesday, 06 July 2010 21:42)

  
  

  Around where I live, there is a lot of new house construction going on now.  When the land is being prepared, there are large areas of bulldozed earth that are left alone for months and sometimes years.  The freshly upturned earth seems to be full of seeds waiting to grow, all at the same time.  The results are quite spectacular:
  
  

  A Carpet of Daisies

  
  
  

  A gust of wind

  
  

• — The fun is back for Infrared photography

     (Sunday, 23 May 2010 15:59)

  
  

  I started making infrared photographs quite a while ago, using Kodak H1E infrared film.  I shot black-and-white photographs while I was young, and I really liked the dramatic contrast and unusual look of IR photographs.
  
  The whole process from storing and loading the film, to taking the photograph, and developing it was difficult, frustrating, and very often disappointing.  Storing the film in the fridge wasn't new to me, but loading the film in the dark and having to use a virtually opaque 720nm filter was quite difficult.  Framing the photography involved...

• — What a difference a day (or two) makes!

     (Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:25)

  
  

  The weather around here can be a bit crazy in the spring.  On April 27th, we had snow, and  the few remaining tulips in my front garden had to put up with some cold weather.
  
  
  
  
  
  Switch to today, the temperature got up to 15C (59F), with bright sun.  The tulips look a lot happier now:
  
  
  
  
  
  . . . Rob Williams
  http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca
  
  

• — Orchidophilia -- the Ottawa Orchid Society's Orchid Show

     (Sunday, 25 April 2010 22:26)

  
  

  This morning I went out to a local sports arena where an orchid show was being held by the Ottawa Orchid Society. For two hours in the morning, they welcome tripods -- no doubt a way to avoid hassles caused by tripod-carrying photographers during the main hours of the show. I arrived shortly after the show opened, and had a short time with a few other photographers, but the event got much more crowded by mid-morning.
  
  
  
  
  I've been...

• — Daily Shoot #ds131

     (Friday, 02 April 2010 17:26)

  
  

  
  10D-01534BW, originally uploaded by robertwilliams017.

  I've just discovered The Daily Shoot (http://dailyshoot.com). Every day, a new photo assignment is posted, and people from all over submit photographs. Today's assignment was "Think of a subject that starts with either the letter "D" or "S". Find it, and make a photo! ".
  
  I found a conch shell, and made some macro photographs of it. This is the one I choose to submit.
  
  I'm going to try this for...

• — Daily shoot #ds132: Painting on the side of a building

     (Friday, 02 April 2010 17:25)

  
  

  
  Painting on the side of a building, originally uploaded by robertwilliams017.
  Today's assignment from The Daily Shoot is "Sidewalks are great for people watching. Make a photograph of a sidewalk scene today. " Since I was going out to buy some hiking boots, I brought my Canon S90 along to make some photographs along Richmond Road in Westboro, a neighbourhood of Ottawa.
  
  I was quite surprised to see a number of buildings that had large-scale paintings on their side....

• — Daily Shoot #ds133: Reeds against the sky

     (Friday, 02 April 2010 17:25)

  
  

  
  Reeds, originally uploaded by robertwilliams017.

  Today's Daily Shoot assignment is "Backlighting in a scene can create drama. Make a photo with interesting placement of backlit subjects. "
  
  I must admit that I had some trouble with this assignment. Today's weather in Ottawa was mostly overcast which doesn't make too many backlit opportunities. I went to a field close to my house where there were some reeds that I wanted to photograph. The stems of the reeds are almost...

• — Abstract clothes

     (Friday, 02 April 2010 17:25)

  
  

  
  Abstract clothes, originally uploaded by robertwilliams017.

  Daily Shoot #138: Make a fashion photo today: a person modeling clothing, the clothes in your closet, an accessory that defines you, etc.
  
  I'm no fashion photographer, nor a portrait photographer, so this assignment is a bit far-fetched for me. Since the assignment suggested clothes in your closet, I decided to try that out, and see what happened.
  
  The closet is lit by a single bare bulb, so the light was...

• — In Quest of Warm Hands

     (Saturday, 23 January 2010 11:14)

  
  

  Winter in Ottawa is either overcast and relatively warm (right now, it has been overcast for several days, and it's -4°C (25°F)), or it is sunny and cold (-18°C (0°F) or colder). Most winters, we have a period of time where an arctic high pressure comes down, and we get a week of extreme cold, ranging from -30°C (-22°F) at night, to a balmy -20°C (-4°F) during the day.
  
  
  
  
  Trees on Bates Island, Ottawa
  
  
  Photography under these conditions is extremely challenging,...

• — Canon S90 Raw format distortion

     (Friday, 01 January 2010 16:01)

  
  

  As I wrote in the last post, Raw format is a very important feature of the S90. One of the first things you will notice is that the S90's raw captures have a significant amount of barrel distortion. Here is the raw capture of a photograph of some bricks, taken at the shortest focal length, 28mm (actually 6mm):
  
  
  
  
  Brick wall, raw format before correction
  
  
  The amount of distortion declines as the focal length increases, until there is almost no distortion...

• — Photography with the Canon S90

     (Monday, 28 December 2009 23:54)

  
  

  I have been watching the evolution of the Canon G series for a couple of years now, and with the G10 last year, and G11 this year, it seemed like this camera has reached a state where it is a very useful camera, capable of producing excellent images. I wanted to own a camera that I could take with me almost all of the time, so it has to be small and light, and I wanted a camera where I have raw format, to give me more control over the processing...

• — Photographs from North Head, Grand Manan Island

     (Sunday, 20 December 2009 13:42)

  
  

  I have added a few new photographs taken during my trip to Grand Manan Island this summer. These photographs were all taken at Fisherman's Wharf, North Head, a working wharf located right beside the ferry terminal. I really enjoy the different designs for each boat; each has it's own personality. There are no mass-market fishing boats here, and it gives the port it's unique identity. Here are a couple of photographs not on my website:
  
  
  
  
  
  

• — Roadside Memorials

     (Sunday, 20 December 2009 13:39)

  
  

  When I was growing up, I don't recall ever seeing a roadside memorial around Ottawa.  The first time I remember seeing any roadside memorial was on a trip to India in 1986.  On the roads around Delhi, there were quite a few shrines beside the road, most of which were likely remembering people who had died on the road.  The traffic in and out of Delhi was unbelievably wild, and bad accidents were common.
  
  
  
  
  
  In the past few years, I have been...

• — More on November and December photography

     (Sunday, 06 December 2009 20:27)

  
  

  Since my last posting, I have been challenging myself to get outside and do some more photography in November, and now in December.  We have not yet had a significant snowfall, so the landscape is still dull, filled with greys and browns.  Not only that, but sunny days have been rare these days. 
  
  
  
  
  Roadside Memorial
  
  
  Despite that, there are some subjects that can be photographed with these light and landscape conditions.  I have found three themes that seem to offer some...