With Due Respect to Group of Seven

Many photographers will suggest the adventure behind the shot is the ... well, the adventure and the final image is the prize.

Nothing could be closer to the truth than a recent excursion with my friend and fellow photographer Ethan Meleg experienced when we embarked on a cruise to the thousands of islands that dot the eastern shoreline of Georgian Bay on Ontario's Lake Huron.

Ethan has a boat, I spent a good part of my life in the Navy, so we seemed a natural crew to complement the good ship Viewfinder. It would seem, however, that 15 years of cruising salt water from below the equator to north of the arctic circle on a 365-foot ship with seasoned crew of 250 professional sailors is a different matter than steaming freshwater inlets with a skipper who has difficulty knowing that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west!

The first indication of the adventures this trip would bring was the fact that we were steaming into the sun at four o'clock in the PM, yet the compass was showing East! Ye gaddes, what is this about? Mmm, well, Ethan took my advice and loosened two bolts that was holding the compass in place, re-configured the placement of the compass by rotating it 180 degrees and alas... we were on the right course!

To watch Ethan navigate with a marine chart is akin to watching Gumby and Pokey go to a Saturday night dance with bellies full of gin and 60's rock and roll as the tunes. He gives a whole new definition to “Ships Centre” and north being the top of the chart only applies when...well, you are steering north.

I won't even mention the fact that the plug came out and we were taking on water faster than a leaky basket or the fact that a brand new electronic plotter couldn't be employed because the charts weren't loaded. Or....

The fact of the matter is Ethan's recounting of events will probably be much different than mine. I highly suspect, given Ethan's prowess (or lack thereof) of navigation skills, his recollection will probably be 180 degrees opposite to mine.

The one topic we will surely agree upon is the prize: In this case a fabulous fun filled three days of incredible photo opportunities exploring the eastern Georgian Bay that was made even better by sharing laughs and libation around a campfire on the inspirational home of the Group of Seven.

Thanks, Ethan, for introducing me to this incredible sampling of iconic Canadian Shield. Several additions to my “Sticks and Stones” portfolio are indeed the prize; the adventure -that will surely be embellished over time- will be the memory.

Havana Architecture Reflects Her People

While I am certainly not a student of architecture, I do believe the buildings of a city will often reflect its people. Cuba is no different.

While there are snippets of classical German baroque, Art Deco and what I can only describe as Russian gulag, by far the most prevalent is Cuban and Spanish Colonial. What I found most interesting was how tourism is having a positive influence in restoring Havana to its former structural glory.

For about five kilometres along the seawall is a stretch of one time glorious homes for the well heeled, hotels for the high rollers, and generally buildings that one would expect alongside an ocean front. A declining economy, due in large part to the collapse of  the former Soviet Union, this prime piece of real estate fell into a terrible state of disrepair. It does seem interesting that many families still live in these structures; one can only question how safe they are.

Meanwhile, near the east end of the seawall and in the vicinity of the opulent Hotel Nacional de Cuba, the resurrection is already in various stages of completion and provides a glimpse of what awaits the facade along Avenue Carlos Cespedes and the remainder of the seawall district.

    

These Cuban colonial buildings are being painted in warm pastels and accented with bright bold primary colours. Primary colour schemes abound and compliment not only the building facade but reflect the people: warm and inviting.

One can only wonder, however, if the old city that lies in the shadows of the tourist destinations can survive long enough to receive their face lift. The socialist hopes so, the romantic probably hopes not.

Havana Walk-about

I had to rummage around for a map of the Caribbean; I simply did not know how many islands I had visited. What I did know was this was to be my first visit to Cuba, and I was looking forward to it.

This was a family holiday, and I’m sure I am not the only photographer who has discovered they cannot diligently shoot whilst on holidays; it simply isn’t fair to family or yourself. However, I did swing a camera over my shoulder one afternoon when we loaded onto a bus for a tour of Havana. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and learning about what was being profiled, particularly the rum factory!

When we would walk from one attraction to another in Old Havana (UNESCO World Heritage Site) I would shoot from the hip. It was very much a run-n-gun; only once did one of our sons have to come back and get me. The black and white photo is the result of my lagging behind; I simply had to have a shot of this great character study.

My first impression of Cuba was one of intrigue. How is possible that a group of people could be so very obviously lacking in what we in the west would consider necessary amenities and effects, and yet be so incredibly happy and apparently contented. It was refreshing and invigorating to observe. For example, directly across the street from the Capitola Building was a family drawing water from some sort of a courtyard reservoir and hoisting the bucket of water up to the third level –presumably to their apartment – of the housing complex.

Away from the entrepreneurship occurring in the tourist district and its facade of freshly painted buildings is the derelict and dilapidated housing that is, well, let’s just suggest it shows it age. Yet, the music is everywhere, kids are dancing to boom boxes and neighbours are laughing and generally enjoying each other’s company. It is in this ramshackle neighbourhood that I find a gentleman and his pup watching the comings-and-goings of the day. A simple point to my camera and he approves with a nod. Unlike his “peso for a photo” compatriots in the tourist district, he asks for nothing but offers a genuine and sincere smile with my poorly pronounced gracious. About a half-dozen steps away I turn around and go back, reach in my pocket and find five peso’s for him and his canine friend. Now I smile and offer a very sincere muchos gracious.

Hopefully as time allows I will show a few more shots from my walk-about in Havana, the ninth Caribbean Island that I have visited ... and the one with the best rum!

Is plagarism a form of flattery?

It has been said that “Plagiarism is the Highest Form of Flattery.” I suppose in the sense that someone has respected my work sufficiently to duplicate it, then, perhaps, flattery is warranted. If, however, that person has financially gained from my artistic vision, then I’m not so sure flattery is the best choice of word.

Let’s see if I can put this in context.

I moved to our new home in the mid-1990’s. Not long after that, while I was driving by a small community art gallery, I noticed a sign had been made using an image of mine that had received wide commercial distribution across Atlantic Canada. I immediately got my knickers in a twist and waltzed into the gallery to confront management about this blatant rip off.

The staff member was a lady, and I’m guessing, who was probably in her early 70’s. She was busy with a customer so I just browsed. Most of the paintings were small canvases of very amateurish quality and quite literal in their presentation. Another painting jumped out at me and I immediately identified a reproduction of a Sherman Hines photo that was originally captured in Grand Manan, New Brunswick.

The elderly ladies voice broke my bewilderment: “Can I help you sir.” Without thinking I commented “I believe I recognize this work as a scene from Grand Manan.” The lady was so pleased that I identified the location because she was the artist. She then went into great detail how she painted the scene from a picture she removed from a calendar, and how it was also a favourite of her painting club, too.

The painter’s club, it seems, was a local group of retired folks who gathered to paint as a form of socialization. A local business has donated the space so they could improve the streetscape in our small village by having a store front for them to show and sell their efforts. To top matters off, most of the proceeds were donated back to the community through the various charitable service groups.

We had a great chat for a few minutes, and I learned a lot about a community I have really come to enjoy and have called home since.

“No, ma’am, I don’t think I will buy the piece but thank you for the chat and opportunity to learn more about your club.” It was, truly, a really humbling experience and I left without saying a word. It is now about 15 years later and I still see that sign on at least a weekly basis. I am flattered in this case.

Move ahead to just yesterday. I am sitting in the main lobby of a resort in the Caribbean waiting for the bus to take our family to the airport and return flight home. There on the wall is what I believe to be a copy of a photograph I have placed with a stock agency.

Should I be humbled, flattered, or angry? Is there a difference in the two forms of uses?

           copy painting in resort lobby  

                                                                   

                original photograph

Canada's National Parks: A Celebration

I find it interesting, and somewhat of a struggle at the same time, to decide what to write in this blog that might be of interest to readers. I really don’t think of myself doing anything special or unique. Then a friend asked me why he couldn’t get a copy of the latest project I was involved with: Canada’s National Parks – A Celebration.

To be honest, it sold out in just a couple of weeks and the printers were having a difficult time getting a second run in before Christmas. In hindsight we now know that didn’t happen, but if one is in the right city and near the right Chapters/Indigo you might be lucky to get a copy. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait.

Perhaps this is something significant. After all, in the five books I have been directly involved with this is the second best seller and by far the most successful. Perhaps then –maybe- the background story might be of interest.

I can’t recall when I first had the idea, but it was near the beginning of my career as a photographer. As a wild guess I can probably say about 15 years ago I had this idea of doing a book on Canada’s National Parks. When we start in our careers as visual artists, many of us have an ego that we carry around in a bucket – I was no different. What a great notion: Produce a great book of my great photographs of the greatest landscape in the country. Well two of the three was possible but I quickly realized that there was no way I could capture images from every national park in Canada in my lifetime, and even if I could they wouldn’t be the greatest available. I gave it a gallant effort though as I have photographed in every national park in eastern Canada, with the exception of the newly gazetted Torngat Mountains National Park, as well as all of the mountain parks in Alberta and British Columbia. I will get to the rest.

Advance to 2008, or so. I do a lot of contract work with Parks Canada and I heard a rumbling some of these folks were looking for a special project for the 125th anniversary of the first park in the system – Banff. I blew the dust of my book and made a pitch; today we have a national bestseller.

Somewhere between the idea and the delivery, thank goodness, my ego was deflated. I recognized that this should be a book celebrating a milestone, and in order to have a celebration one needs a party, and to have a party one needs people. In this case I wanted to invite my photography friends to join me in this party - some of these friends I have known since we started in business together more than 20 years ago. Others are friends I know of and have yet to meet, but I look forward to that day so we can continue this party. Here is the list of these great talents that I was delighted to share pages with.

There was also a team silently working in the background, those unsung hero’s that we never hear about and rarely know what they contribute. If we see an incredible book we accept it for what it is but rarely recognize why. By comparison, if we see a really bad book we often know why, be it bad writing or bad design. With Canada’s National Parks: A Celebration I was unbelievably fortunate to have the finely tuned skills of three Parks Canada employees working with me.

While I slogged away looking at around 150,000 photos in order to find the “right” (I think it was 197) photos, designer Guy LeBlanc laid down the pages with incredible skill and detail. Proof reader, copy editor and writer Suzanne Bagnell spun together the words as only a wordsmith can  and project manager Gerry Boulet kept us all on track and smiling with his dry and off-cuff humour. More detailed specifics and environmental considerations of this project can be found here.

If you are looking for a great armchair trek through some of the most spectacular scenery in the country I think you can do no better than Canada's National Parks: A Celebration.  Yes, (with tongue in cheek) I do still have a bit of an ego and a bias.

On Assignment x 3

Amid the tooting horns, hugs and salutations greeting 2011 I thought of two things: This blog and Mark Twain. The two do go hand-in-hand, you see.

I have my good friend Ethan Meleg to blame for getting me started in the blogosphere. He allowed that social networking was good for the soul and kept those interested in lock step with what I was doing. I countered with a familiar phrase “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Ethan wins, and here I am shamelessly admitting I just don’t get it. You see, I interpret Facebook to be the biggest deterrent to productivity imaginable. I wonder how many lost working hours in North America are the result of skiving employees partaking of the Facebook addiction? I digress.

What I have learned over the past year is that a blog takes work, and in order to be reasonably successful, an unquantifiable term I muse, it roughly translates to making updates at least once per week. For someone who suffers a self diagnosis of adult ADD, a weekly commitment writing something about nothing is a tall order. Who, after all, cares what I am up to?

Aagh, yes, Happy New Year.

I resolve ...., said one friend. I resolve..., proclaimed another. I attributed their lack of logical reasoning to an over indulgence of moose milk, that concoction of various alcoholic beverages mixed with a couple of gallons of ice cream added for texture. It is, by any definition, best known as “instant stupid.”

So, no, for those of you wondering, I did not make a resolution to post weekly updates on this blog. You see, I believe Mark Twain said it best when he wrote of New Years resolutions: “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

With that having been said, let’s go back and take a visit to the job in Cape Breton that I introduced, well, a month, or so, ago.

The day started at Alexander Graham Bell Museum in the resort town of Baddeck. It was here that Bell developed many of his most famous inventions, and I encourage you to visit the web site or the museum itself.

Canon 5D MkII, 17-40 EF-L lens, Singh Ray Hi-Lux filter

I have had the good pleasure of knowing the staff and working at this location for many years. One shot I have always wanted to do was show the juxtaposition between current and past, and it seemed to me that a logical starting point would be to dress a young model in period wardrobe. So here we have a young Alexander Graham Bell standing in front of the HD4 Hydrofoil exhibit.

That afternoon the production team crossed over to the other side of the Bras d’Or Lake to the village of Ben Eoin and The Lakes golf club. This is the newest, just one season old, public golf course on Cape Breton Island, and is certainly destined to be a favourite among duffers looking for a challenge.

Canon 5D MkII, 24-105mm EF-L lens, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizing filter

We had just four hours to get some shots and this is a tall order when one is unfamiliar with the layout of the course. Let’s just say we had to swing from the hip and create and make. The sixth hole is, arguably, the signature hole of this course and offers fabulous views from the tee box that is at an elevation some 150-feet above the fairway.

Canon 5D MkII, 100-400mm EF-L lens, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizing filter

As we were rushing to the back nine to capture some shots on a green that would still have some light in the fast fading sun, a shaft of light struck the tee box on the tenth hole. Our entourage of carts came to a screeching halt, a course pro was appropriately placed and we fired a couple of frames before the light faded. Unfortunately there was simply no time to have my assistant run to the tee box with a reflector to add some fill light. We only had about two minutes to capture this shot before the light disappeared.

And now, Happy New Year!

ON ASSIGNMENT x 2

After a really busy and tough couple of weeks at my volunteer job, it is time to re-visit that dream job in Cape Breton.

The morning call was early, an hour before sunrise so we could get under sail on the beautiful Bras d’Or Lake. My first career was sailing with the Canadian Navy and I welcome any opportunity to get back on water. Our Skipper, Greg, has an absolutely beautiful catboat; my vessel ... well, let’s just say it was inflatable.

I very reluctantly left the pleasure of polished oak and full sail and slithered into the 8-foot tender (zodiac dinghy) with instruction for Greg to make passing runs by keeping me on his starboard, thus the sun was always backlighting the scene. If anyone onshore was watching they must have thought the skipper was DUI. Run after run, the last having better light than the previous. From an old salt, I can also say it was a pleasure, pure delight in fact, watching a skilled hand and the helm.

Canon 5D MkII, 24-105 USM lens, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizing filter

To top off the sailing experience we made a run through the locks of historic St. Peter’s Canal. For anyone who visits this part of the world, passage from the Atlantic and into the Bras d’Or via St. Peter’s Canal is assured to be a highlight.

After a quick lunch we settled in for a full afternoon of shooting at Highland Village. When I scouted this location a week earlier I anticipated this was going to be one fun location. Amid the squeals of hogs, the bah's of sheep and a host of other farmyard critters was another language that was foreign to me. What a treat to listen to the staff go about their daily business speaking Gaelic as the language of choice. You really should check out their website and plan a visit if in Cape Breton – you won’t be disappointed.

I was looking forward to working in the Blackhouse. Let’s just say it gets its name honestly as any light inside this reproduction stone home is by way of two very small and dusty windows. My scouting revealed a hearth in the middle of the floor, so perhaps a roaring fire would generate some ambient light. Wrong – the fuel that was being burned was peat and about all it generated that I could tell was smoke, lots of smoke.

Canon 5D MkII, 17-40 EF-L lens, Singh Ray Hi-Lux filter

One of the shots I wanted to do was to have a young visitor lead a huge Clydesdale draft horse along a pathway. Perhaps this was a bit of nostalgia for me as I fondly remembered working with my grandfather and his team as a young lad. The horse was a young four year-old that was just being harness broken, but she was really easy to work with. My young teamster walked that poor mare up and down this path numerous times as the light gradually changed from nice to really nice. Yes, a carrot seemed to increase the tolerance of the mare as well.

Canon 5D MkII, 17-40 EF-L lens, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizing filter

This was a fabulous day and thanks are due Greg for making his beautiful vessel available, and all the cast and crew at Highland Village for their tolerance and “opening any and all doors.”