What’s New
Chris Does Safari !
In early June I fulfilled a life-long dream and went on a wild game safari to Kenya, Africa. The trip was with Trek Adventures operated by African Horizons in Nairobi. We visited Samburu National Park, Ol Pejeta Nature Conservatory, Lake Nakuru National Park and, of course, the Masai Mara. We stayed in lodges and tented camps and did game drives every morning and evening. I had the chance to visist a Masai village and get to know the local people. We saw an encyclopedia of African animals including the big 5–buffalo, elephant, lion, rhinocerous and even the elusive leopard. I had to pinch myself to realize that this was no zoo or game park–these were wild animals living in raw nature. We saw a cheetah kill and had a 600 lb female lion lay right beside our jeep to get some shade from the hot day. I could have touched her from an open window–but my guide strongly suggested against it.
I took some 3000 photos and you can see some of my best in the Africa gallery in the Portf0lio section. Hope you enjoy them!
Arizona Photo Shoot
In mid-October I spent 10 days in Arizona on a photo shoot. Based in Phoenix, I travelled to Tucson to photograph the saguaro desert, the mountainous village of Sedona, the old mining town of Jerome and then did a 3 day trip to north-western Arizona stopping at Winslow (famous for the Eagles song “Taking it easy”), Chinle and the Canyon de Chele, up to Monument Valley on the border with Utah and then to Page to explore the breathtaking Antelope Canyon. I also did a couple of day trips to the western themed Pioneer Living Village just north of Phoenix. Overall the shooting was very difficult with harsh light and lots of ground haze either from smog in the south or dust storms in the north. I had to do a lot of Photoshop work on the images and experimented with a bunch of new filters and actions I got. For the Pioneer village shots I used an action–western–that I found on the web. It gives a really neat old bleached look to the images. Here’s a few examples, but you can see the whole gallery on the portfolio page.
I hope you enjoy them–let me know what you think.
Vintage War Planes
Last weekend I went to the Aviation Museum to shoot vintage war planes as they were flying over the airfield. The Ottawa Citizen newspaper published one of the images in the September 31 issue Page A5.
You can see all the shots from that show in the Portfolio section in the Latest Gallery.
July East Coast Photo Shoot
In late June and early July I went to New Brunswick on a photo shoot. The first week was spent in the Miramichi area, guided by Jeff Patch the ex-Regional Director of Natural Resources for the area, who took me deep into the highlands through logging roads where we saw moose, eagles, coyotes and other animals and visited salmon fishers on the Miramichi river. The whole week was rainy and overcast and made for very difficult shooting, but I did manage to capture some “keeper” images. The second week was spent in the Fredericton and Saint John area where I visited Kings Landing–a reconstructed heritage village with lots of re-enactors. I managed to get a couple of days of sun and shot some very fine images.
Go to the Latest gallery in the Portfolio section to view them all. Hope you enjoy them.
May 1, 2009 — First Exhibition
My first exhibition opened on May 1st at Timothy’s in Ottawa. For more about the exhibition see Exhibition in the Services section of this website. Here’s me, the owner Angie and my son-in-law Jonathan who helped me put up the photos.
April 25, 2009 — Kayak competition
Went to the International Freestyle Kayak competition at Bates Island on the Ottawa River. This was day 1 heats. Here is a photo of the kayaker in the rapids. You can see more of my shots in the Latest gallery in the Portfolio section of this website.
April 18, 2009 — Easter weekend
While on an Easter weekend getaway in Prince Edward County, we met up with Gucci. I don’t know what breed he is, but he certainly is the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen.
Posted on April 8, 2009 in What's new
Visitor Comments (click to enter)
Welcome visitors to my new photo web site. In this section you can leave me your reactions and comments to the photos in the portfolio–or anything else you’d like to tell me.
Click the Visitor Comments title above to enter the blog.
Posted on April 3, 2009 in Vistor comment