Water Colour

 I have decided to post something abstract for today. I wonder whether you can tell what this is...

The clue is in the title.

It is not a watercolour painting, it is the colours of water, created by throwing a rock into the river and photographing the moment of impact, or the moment just after impact. I love to do this because it always throws up some interesting images and with a selective crop and little colour adjustment I think I have created a really cool abstract image. 

Each time you look at the image different things stand out, for example I can see at least three different types of animal, I can see a black faced sheep, a little yellow gecko, and a little duck chick (or maybe a little rubber duck). As the water is thrown upwards and outwards it catches the light and it looks like brush strokes.

Next time you are by the river why not try top capture something like this, you might be surprised by the results.

Pile On!

 Whenever I stop near a river, as I did recently during a walk near Beddgelert in North Wales, I will try to build stacks of river stones and photograph them, before putting them back in the river or on the river bank where I found them.

I try also to take the photo from an angle that lines up with the background although I try to keep the background out of focus, with just enough detail to make the image work. For example in the second image the angle of the stacked stones lines up with the light rock in the background. Sometimes the images work best in colour, especially if I have managed to find stones that match the colours in the background but for todays images I thing black and white look best.

It doesn't always work and it can take several attempts to achieve the image I want. This sometimes means getting wet too as I  find the right position.

While this is a fun activity for me and | like the stacks I don't like to leave them when I am done. For me it is about capturing a moment and then leaving things as I found them and for other people to enjoy the natural landscape. 

Milky Waters

Here are two more images of Aira Beck using long exposure and an ND filter to create the milky effect of the fast flowing water. 

Rushing By

This is Aira Beck, the river that feeds the falls. It was flowing really fast and it was quite tricky getting down onto the rocks to get the shots because of the ice. I think it was worth it though.

Smooth Flow

This rush of water is just below the Trowbridge Falls in Centennial Park just outside of Thunder Bay.

I shot these pictures on a cold Sunday afternoon. The previous day we had all hiked up the Giant and while everyone else stayed at home relaxing I went out to explore the park on my own. I had gone mainly to look for fungi and I wasn't disappointed but before I got into the forest I had to cross the river and so I took a few minutes to enjoy the rushing water. It was cold and slippery on the rocks but there is always something satisfying being near water so it was worth the effort and the risk of getting wet.

I have made a slight adjustment to the exposure in each of these images and applied a high contrast to bring out the energy of the rapids. I like the first black and white image best, I think that in landscape mode you get a better sense of movement and depth compared to the portrait orientation of the second shot which cuts the motion short.

From The Ashes

  

This morning we were in Dresden for just a couple of hours. We had a walk around the old part of the city and there were some pretty nice old buildings.

There are also some really cool new buildings too like the Conference centre on the banks of the Elbe. It is a fantastic structure with lots of glass walls, straight lines, slopes, angles and curves as you can see from the first two images.

In one there's also a statue of Dostoyevsky, I'm not sure what his connection with the city is so I will need to do a bit of research.

It felt odd as we walked around and thought about how during the cold war period this had been behind the "Iron Curtain" and we wondered how different life might have been for the local population. We saw some old cars from that era, a Trabant and a couple of Wartburgs, one with an exterior mounted sun visor and white wall tyres. It wasn't much of a car but the owner obviously took great pride in it because it was immaculate.

The final picture is of some daisies growing along the riverside and I thought they would add a splash of colour to my post for today.