Blurring the forest
A dragged shutter and a flick of the wrist stretched out the trunks of the trees edging a meadow in Bragg Creek. When the mood strikes, I enjoy playing like this when I’m out shooting – luck and creativity rolling around together. Sometimes I like the result over the natural scene.
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Port Angeles – the ocean in motion
When I was on the west coast a couple of weeks ago, I spent one morning photographing along the Port Angeles shoreline. It had been a little while since I have been on the ocean and I was hypnotized by the ebb and flow of the waves along the beach. I always am.
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A snowstorm’s abstract
Greedily, Old Man Winter has snuck past Spring once more and released another day-long blizzard across southern Alberta. The snow fell in thick flakes, speckling the sky then blurring the forest as it neared the ground. I’m looking forward to greenery, especially given how lovely Seattle was when I was there last week, but this was a storm which cast a beautiful spell over the landscape west of Bragg Creek.
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Happy New Year!
I wish you and yours a great 2018. I hope the snakes are short and the ladders are long.
I created this image after the fireworks display in my small community (which was great!). The full moon made the whole winter landscape gleam. The lights from the skating rink to the right created interesting shadow layers in a covered trail across the sports field. An abstract start to the new year.
For me, I’m eager for a new year and all of the experiences that will hold. Looking back over 2017, I hope to crisply remember the many wonderful memories from the past year, and let those that were not soften.
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Aspen lines
Canon 5DIII camera and 300mm f/4 lens: 1/15th of a second at f/16 on ISO 200
I drove along the Grand Valley Road in search of raptors and was fortunate to come across a small group of fellow photographers who had spied a Northern hawk owl in a roadside stand of trees. I will share a couple of photographs of that fine bird soon but wanted to first show the abstract images I made earlier in the day. Before finding any wildlife, I was spending time looking for them among the trees and meadows along the road. Early on, I found this stand of Aspens and I loved the vertical pattern and the stark contrast between dark and light within and between the tree trunks.
Canon 5DIII camera and 300mm f/4 lens: 1/500th of a second at f/9 on ISO 1250
I loved the straight image and once I dialled that in the way I liked, I wanted to drag my shutter and play with the blurred images that I traced out.
Canon 5DIII camera and 300mm f/4 lens: 1/30th of a second at f/16 on ISO 200
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A second set of abstracts
I prepared a gallery of abstract and interesting images for a client recently and have added it to my portfolio page.
2013 © Christopher Martin
If you would like to see this new set, please click on the image or this link.
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A Red Rock Canyon Abstract
The Red Rock Canyon is one of Waterton’s popular sites to visit. My son had a great time parkouring along the slick rock, jumping across the shallow stream that the creek becomes in the middle of summer. I photographed him mostly but the water, its ripples and the lines in this slab of rock, drew my attention for a minute.
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A gallery of abstract images
I have been working on updating all of my portfolios to include work from 2013. It’s been weighing on my mind and more than a few clients have requested an update. I made some good progress over the past week and will be posting the new galleries as I complete them.
First up is my abstract portfolio. These are a collection of images where the subject caught my eye and I let my imagination have the reigns.
Please click the image above or this link to have a look.
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A late night light show
A few nights ago, the Northern Lights came out in force and extended brightly above my home in Redwood Meadows just west of Calgary. We rarely see the Aurora Borealis here, when the lights are out I usually head further west to escape the nearby city glow, but the extraterrestrial storm that night was exceptional. The Aurora rippled throughout the night, with blues and greens early on and then adding in purples and yellows as the morning approached.
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It was a wonderful evening spent in the backyard.
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Northern Lights in Redwood Meadows
Canon 5DIII camera with a Canon 24 f/1.4 lens: 1.3 seconds at f/1.8 on ISO 2500
The Northern Lights were very active last night. For three hours I was outside watching the show in the sky and it was the best I have seen so far this year. This image is from a particularly wild period where there were many streams of light rippling together beneath the stars.
If the image looks pixelated, please click the picture to open up a higher resolution version.
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Rippling on the water
From a small pond in Granville Island where a light rain was falling. The circular ripples created by the raindrops hitting the water distorted the reflections of trees above.
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A dancing abstract
I was looking through my image library for abstracts that I could use for a print series I’m working on and found the image above. I had photographed a reflection pool from the fourth story of a hotel in Mandalay, Myanmar. Leaning out of the window and using a longer lens, I was first drawn to the koi swimming in the shallow water. However, the trees on edge of the courtyard were casting energetic shadows across the gently rippled surface. I photographed the fish with the shadows for a little while and then dropped the fish altogether. The patterns of the distorted tree shapes in the water mesmerized me. I think of dance in the one above.
Christopher Martin Photography 