GarthWunsch.com

Archive for the ‘Nature Photography’ Category

One year ago I began my quest to obtain my Master of Photographic Arts designation through the Professional Photographers of Canada. Today I received notice that my first step is now completed with the approval of my submission for accreditation in the category of Fine Art – Photo Decor. Obtaining this accreditation qualifies me for the designation of Licentiate – Professional Photographer of Ontario (LPPO). To qualify for any accreditation, one must submit ten images in their area of expertise and all ten must be accepted by the jury… you need 100% to pass this exam!

Wow, the start of another decade! Or is it just another year, just another number? For me it is the beginning of the rest of my life, a life I hope to make count and to be fully accountable for. I’ve been drawing a pension cheque since 1998, but that doesn’t mean I  have retired, nor do I intend to retire. That is a concept foreign to history.

As near as I can figure, 2010 marks FIFTY years since I picked up my first camera as a fifteen year old Boy Scout on a quest for more proficiency badges. Who Knew? Photography has been my constant companion for this half century, and I see no reason why it cannot be my companion for many more decades to come. My dad turns 92 in May and mom just celebrated her 85th birthday and last fall was anniversary number 67 for them… so, as I like to tell folks, ” I have really good genes, so long as a bus doesn’t run over them.” There is always something new to learn, something beautiful to see, something new to create that will bring joy to my world.

As we move into 2010, I am also posting my second “Print of the Month” titled Water Garden. It is an image I made on a canoe outing in Killarney Provincial Park with my friend David Kechnie in 2008. David is an avid and accomplished gardener. His comment about the landscape we were in summed it all up… “you just couldn’t design a water garden that lovely.” Simplicity personified! I love this country I am privileged to call home. So much water, so much rock, so much character and beauty. You can link to my Print of the Month here, and to my Fine Art Gallery here. I have made the Friends of Killarney Park a recipient of a portion of each sale of this image.

Water Garden - Killarney, Ontario

For me, this image is so pure, so clean. I wanted to title it Coquilles, the French word for “shells”, but I thought it a bit too obscure. It so reminded me of coquilles St. Jacques, not the food dish, but the shell markers placed on the ground and elsewhere for the the pilgrims making their way along the Camino de Santiago. It is a holy pilgrimage, a time of purification, and that is how this image strikes me, the blue so pure, so clean, the rocks so sculpted and so refined, seemingly floating on the water… Whole… and Holy.

Happy New Year everyone!

David Johannsson (owner of the FrameMaker) and I hung the show this AM. Looks Good. Anxious for tomorrow to get under way.

This is the map that indicates my location in the Cedar Pointe Plaza across from Southridge mall. If you intend to travel to the more distant parts of the city to see some of the other great work, make sure you get the corrected map from the SCARF website at http://www.scarf.ca/ and click on Tour. Although the printed directions are correct, the map was a little misleading and the corrections are posted on the site.

Come on out, rain or shine, and see some really great art… of all sorts.

This is a re-post. Got too frustrating trying to repair the photo gallery after we changed hosting sites.

Recently visited Meldrum Bay for a few days of shooting the spring poppies. There is a fairly large bed of them that frame some of the historic buildings really nicely. Also made it out to the Mississagi Lighthouse (about 30 kms. from Meldrum Bay) and that is where the road and Manitoullin Island end. I camped in The Point campground which is right on Meldrum Bay and right across the road from the Meldrum Bay Inn. The veranda is a really nice place to while away the summer hours sipping iced tea, swapping stories with the guests and locals… and especially with Shirin and her daughter Elena… they are the “front” staff of the establishment (husband Bob tends to the maintenance and other serious kitchen duties (along with other staff). One of the nicest things about spending time there was hearing Shirin’s ready laughter. It echoes out across the village and is absolutely lovely to hear. Thanks!

Meldrum Bay Inn and poppies

Dock shed and poppies

Wildflowers on barnboard

Headlands - Mississagi Straits

New breakwater for Meldrum Bay Harbour

64 years old… back to school! Just returning from five days at Niagara School of Imaging (NSI) http://www.niagaraschool.com/ . What a blast! Traveling through the fruit belt of Ontario brought back so many memories from my youth when I spent part of a summer picking fruit in the Vineland and Jordan Station area about fifty years ago. NSI was awesome. I enrolled in Marilyn Sholin’s class http://www.marilynsholin.com/

Teacher acting goofy

for digital painting. Marilyn is one of only three dozen Corel Paining Masters in the world and she deserves to be there. All NSI classes are small (7 in our case) so you get all the attention you need. Now I have to unscramble my brain and start using what I learned. The hardest part is getting my head around the idea that paintings are a representation of reality (unless you’re my magnificent artist friend Cheryl Battistelli  http://cherylbattistelli.com/ who seems to know every whisker on a cat’s face… I’m sure she counts them Anyway, made some really nice friends and am looking forward to this new expression of my artistic talents.

The iPhone is gluing itself to me… already.

For some time I have been searching the web for a database for sunrise, sunset times (that part was easy), but what I REALLY needed was to know WHERE the sun would be rising or setting on any given day of the year, and know the information for any location on earth, and from any location, even though I was sitting in my office planning my next shoot to hopefully add to my Fine Art Gallery. I couldn’t find what I needed… until the iPhone came into my life, and there it was, Vincent Kekoa’s Sunrise Sunset Pro… and all for $1.99. So now I can lay out the map, enter the GPS coordinates into the app, and know that if I am standing at point X on Georgian Bay looking out at the Killarney Lighthouse, I can know where the sun will be rising relative to the subject on any given day of the year. Thanks Vincent.

This app rocks, pretty, useful… and easy to use. I give it 5 stars.

Find it at http://www.appstorehq.com/sunrisesunsetpro-iphone-41877/app

Find iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

until the next time, Garth

I Finally took the plunge and purchased an iPhone! Not so much that I really needed a cell phone, (never had one before) but I suspect that, like my other really good tools, (iMac, Nikon D700 etc.) in a year from now you won’t be able to pry it from my hands. That being said, the cell phone has already been useful for conveying my excuses (reasons) as to why I’m coming home late… again. I got caught in a huge thunderstorm the other day, lucky me. Great clouds… and a rainbow to boot. The rainbow was forming over one of Vale INCO’s operations buildings, the old Iron Ore Recover Plant, and seeing the local labor strife is adding to the already difficult economic times of Sudbury (like everywhere else), I thought the rainbow was a nice symbol of promise for better days ahead… hey, worked for Noah!

These images were made with my Canon G9… It’s small and good. I try not to leave home without it. Great for such occasions when I’m not toting the full camera bag of Nikons.

a la prochaine, Garth

PS just want give my webmaster a big thank you for the redesign work he is just completing. Note to photographers… I know I’m a good photographer and I know a fair bit of Photoshop, so I thought I could also be a web designer… couldn’t do it… wasted a lot of money and time getting frustrated with Dreamweaver etc. Hired James… sticking to photography… same goes for accounting! James specializes in Wordpress layouts for photographers.You can find him at http://big-red-couch-web-design.com/

Just had the biggest blow of the winter… but beauty followed in the sunlight as the Common Redpolls (couple of hundred) visited our feeders.

Common Redpoll male

In November 2007 I attended a workshop at Rock Island Lodge near Wawa led by Rob Stimpson ( http://www.robstimpson.com/workshop09-6.htm ) Had a great shoot there… really BIG water, plus gorgeous sunsets etc. etc. Brian Barker just sent me a shot he made while there. Me… hard at work…

Big Water