I haven’t posted in awhile, but I come bearing an excuse from home: I was on vacation in September, a driving trip with my wife to Nova Scotia (via the Canadian route on the way up, and coming back down on the American side), and then my mother broke her kneecap, which at her advanced age of 88 years is a very serious matter indeed, and that has kept me out of town and on the go for awhile. So I’ve been a little busy. I do have a couple of new blog posts in the works, but in the meantime, I thought I’d just share some of my favorite photos from Nova Scotia. (You can see more of them in the Landscape gallery.) I hope you enjoy them, and I promise there will be more posts, about very interesting things, coming soon.
On the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia is a little fishing village called Peggy’s Cove, a popular spot for tourists and photographers because of its beautiful scenery (and great seafood). I visited the area several times, to get shots in different light, at different times of day.
Early in the morning, before the sun was up, the village was still quiet and peaceful in the fog.
Cove Before Dawn 50mm, 1/125″ @ f/8, ISO-220
As the fog began to lift, a few other photography enthusiasts started to appear. As I stood on a rock shooting these fishing boats in the harbor, a woman with a camera strolled nearby, also shooting, and as she approached me, she said, “It’s a pity about the fog, isn’t it?” And I thought, “A pity? What can she mean? The fog is great! It adds such a wonderful mood to the scene. The whole reason I got up an hour before dawn was to get down here and shoot before the fog lifted!” But I guess not everybody is looking for the same thing in a scene.
Fishing Boats At Daybreak 32mm, 1/160″ @ f/11, ISO-100
These old, gray, wooden shanties in the fog almost make for a natural black & white image, though they were shot, like all the others, in color.
Shanties In The Fog 58mm, 1/200″ @ f/11, ISO-220
As the sun came up and the fog began to lift, more color came into the world. I was quite taken with the scene of this decaying old longboat carcass lying on the rocks, and spent some time moving around, shooting in in different ways, from various perspectives.
I also went down to the village late in the day, to capture some scenes as the sun was setting.
The lighthouse at Peggy’s Point is a very famous and popular attraction for tourists, which can make it difficult to get shots without people. I found that frustrating, but eventually realized that if I timed my shots and took the right perspective, I could simply incorporate the people into the scene. A case of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
Patience, patience, patience. I stood on the rocks at the shoreline, watching and waiting, and waiting some more, for just the right wave to strike the rocks at the right place and time, to give me the shot I had visualized in my mind, with the water splashing up, back lit by the setting sun. It took awhile, but eventually my patience paid off, and I got the shot I had in mind. I think I might someday do an entire post about the need for patience when photographing nature.
Here, the tourists on the rocks actually help to give the scene a sense of scale, and add an element of interest. And the girl waving her pink sweatshirt in the wind unknowingly added a nice little drop of color into what was basically a silhouette photo. I’m glad they were there (whoever they were).
I hope you enjoy these samples from my vacation, and that you’ll be interested enough to see more in the gallery. And I hope to resume a more regular posting schedule in the next week or so. I have so many topics I’d like to discuss!