Archive for July, 2012
Larrabee State Park near
Bellingham, Washington State
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Sometimes I look through my Drafts folder and find a post I finished but never posted. Better late than never right?
In March I was lucky to have Alan Majchrowicz give me a tour of Larrabee State Park in Washington State. Thanks again Alan! We were lucky and had some good light at the end of the day. The rocky shores just south of Bellingham are not like the ones I’ve spent more time on around Vancouver – these are mostly sandstone. Much nicer to walk on the sandstone – its like built in grip for your shoes! The water has also eroded the rock surfaces into all sorts of interest shapes and patterns which makes choosing a composition a bit difficult – there are so many great possibilities! Sunsets like this are not something I have done a lot with in the past, and I even brought out the 6 stop ND filter for some of it. Waiting for a 116 second exposure is not something I am used to – but I quite like the results. I will have to do much more with that filter in the future!
Tags: beaches, bellingham, bellingham bay, clayton beach, larrabee state park, long exposure, lummi island, neutral density filter, sandstone, sunset, tafoni, usa, washington state
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Lights of Canada Place
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I’ve always enjoyed the shape of the Canada Place building in downtown Vancouver. I remember it being one of the few distinctly shaped buildings in the 80′s (in addition to Harbour Center, Science World and BC Place). While Vancouver’s skyline has many new additions – Canada Place is still one of my favourites. Recently they replaced the covering on the 5 sails and projected images on them during the Olympics. Photographing them from Stanley Park I recently made this image of one of the various projected images currently on the sails. These change every few minutes or so – and sometimes this can cause some unwanted effects in a 30 second exposure! I was careful to make this image within just one variation in the lights. I like the various colour versions but this one is probably my favourite – the lights are relatively subtle.
This is just one image from many I’ve recently added to my Vancouver Coast & Mountains Gallery.
Tags: blue hour, british columbia, canada place, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, downtown, night photography, skyline, stanley park, vancouver
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License Plates
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This is certainly not my usual photographic subject – but getting outside of your comfort zone is often a good thing. This wall of license plates was in Vancouver’s Chinatown on the wall outside of a store. Funny that in Vancouver there would only be one Canadian plate here, most of the rest are from American States. Perhaps it appeals to the tourists from the US more that way, not sure. Maybe the Canadian plates are comparatively boring? I posted this photo earlier on Google Plus and one suggestion was that people collecting something like this would find more interest in plates from far away. The plates found locally and in surrounding jurisdictions are comparatively boring because they are often seen. Thats as good an explanation as any!
Tags: british columbia, canada, chinatown, license plates, street photography, vancouver
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The Lions Gate Bridge
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I think that I photograph the Lions Gate Bridge from one angle or another every time I go to Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I just can’t resist. Yesterday I again tried photographing the bridge from this overpass on Stanley Park Drive. I’ve been here before, and pulled off a lucky (for me at the time) film shot of this about 10 years ago. Since making the move to digital I’ve never been quite happy with my results, or there simply hasn’t been enough traffic to make a nice long exposure trail from the headlights and tail lights. I think the key was not trying this at 1 am on a weekday this time around!
If there is sufficient traffic you can do a few things to try to get a good light trail across the bridge. I usually count how long it takes the the cars to get out of sight from my end of the bridge, and see if I can have an exposure long enough to try to get the whole light trail. Completely forgot to do this last night but it worked out anyway. From the variations I made yesterday, this one was my favourite for a few reasons. First, you can see the faint outline of Grouse Mountain in the background – another benefit of not shooting this at 1am. Next, the light trails are mostly complete from one end of the bridge to the other, and there are even two lane changes that took place at exactly the right time to create a crossover. What is truly something I will be unlikely to replicate again is that dotted light trail you see coming up the left side of the bridge on the sidewalk. A cyclist was coming in our direction with a flashing headlight on his bike. I didn’t notice this at the time but upon reviewing my exposure noticed it in the LCD. I do think it adds a bit of uniqueness to most images I’ve made from this location.
Tags: bridges, british columbia, first narrows bridge, lions gate bridge, long exposure, national historic site, night, night photography, stanley park, suspension bridge, vancouver
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Lady’s Mantle (
Alchemilla) Raindrops
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I haven’t shot any macro since last Fall so during a break in the rain I made this photo a few days ago. “Lady’s Mantle” (Alchemilla) leaves have lots of little hairs on them which always seem to collect such great water droplets. Made with my trusty Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens.
Tags: alchemilla, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro, ladys mantle, macro, water, waterdrops
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About Michael Russell Photography
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