Tag: Photography

New Works in Photography

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my website with new work, but I’ve been on a roll this past week. Mostly what has inspired this creative burst was the long-awaited purchase of my first DSLR camera. Years ago I owned a used 1965 model SLR Canon FT film camera. I studied black and white photography and darkroom developing in Vancouver, but when digital came along, the equivalent to what I had was a bit out of reach. And because I considered myself primarily a painter and printmaker for such a long time, I held off making the investment.

My first digital was a Nikon Coolpix 880 (3.1 megapixel), with which I took the still impressive ONR train photo series. Then there was the excellent Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ28 (which I gave to my son last month because every soon-to-be dad needs a real camera), and finally, there’s the small but mighty Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (complete with underwater photography housing kit) that I’ll be taking to Detroit for some cool-in-the-pool fun shots at my uncle’s place this summer. Actually, my website banner is a still image from some experimental video I did while swimming in a lake up north. And now, finally, I have a Canon Rebel T3i 600D. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!

While I’ve already taken a LOT of photos with my new camera, ironically the photos above were taken a few years ago with the Lumix. So why am I posting these now when I have a new DSLR??? Several reasons: 1) because they were lost in the bowels of my computer, 2) I didn’t have proper editing and work-flow software until now, 3) there are some truly wonderful travel pics that I had always intended to do something with, and 4) file folder housekeeping is seriously overdue so that I can get organized and make room for new stuff. Taking pictures is really really fun, but what happens to them afterward… well, you might call it the black hole of photography, where everything disappears into nowhere-land.

So these are just a few of the over 25,000 never-been-seen-by-anyone photos on my computer that I recently dug up. At the same time, I’ve seriously embraced Instagram during all this sorting and culling, excitedly sharing some gems to my Instagram Account, discovering great work by others in the process, and becoming enamoured with the square photo format. Interestingly, 3×3 inch photos were the norm back when I was a kid in the 60s (my mom had one of those old Kodaks with the large glass viewfinder on top). Most photographs need some cropping anyway, but the square lends itself well to composition and artistic considerations.

So… since moving to Windsor in April, my goal has been to get the paints and [square] canvases out, LOL, but I can’t seem to get away from the PHOTOGRAPHY… which in truth was one of my first loves, instilled in me by my late father, Ray. Interestingly, when I look at these photos I see colours and designs that would translate quite well on the painted surface. Life is good.

Image Info:  All photos are from a trip to Havana in 2009, where we stayed at the Hotel Kholy, a former 3-star Russian establishment nestled in a residential area of the city. The derelict hotel is located on the beach (right at the water’s edge) in the nearby town of Guanabo, where we were visiting friends who rent a Casa Particular every year to escape the harsh Canadian winter months.

EXPOSURE 2014 ~ International Photography Competition

I was recently invited to enter the EXPOSURE 2014 Award, a competition celebrating the power of the image. Please click here to view my submission and to show your support by voting for me. It would really mean a lot! Thank you!

The Grand Prize:

  • $10,000 Cash Grant
  • A month long solo exhibition in New York City
  • A celebration of [my] work at the International Center of Photography
  • Funding to print and ship [my] work for the show
  • Travel to New York City and Luxury Accommodations at the W New York – Times Square
  • Online Feature Published by See.Me promoted to hundreds of thousands of viewers
  • Printed Feature in Promotion Materials Circulated throughout New York City

The competition is hosted by See Me, a website for creatives which features all kinds of truly exceptional artwork. Visit my profile, https://MiLaRiviere.see.me/, and enjoy the featured artists on their homepage.

 

 

 

Orchids, etc.

It was a shock returning from Moosonee where all that mud, ice, freezing rain, and violent river breakup action was happening. By the time I got back to North Bay, it was a sweaty 27C, and everything was GREEN. I just couldn’t get over how extreme the difference was.

Then I headed even further south to my son’s place in Cambridge, and well… it was like entering the Garden of Eden. In addition to the green, flowers were blooming absolutely everywhere! There were the usual tulips, daffodils, and other assorted marvels, but the most breathtaking were the magnolia trees and cherry blossoms on almost every street. Coco and I went for a lot of walks, and I took a lot of photos with my iPhone. What a high!

By the end of the week I was in Detroit for a family reunion on my father’s side, and that’s where the orchids really came into focus. My cousin Dana has orchids all over the house–big ones, tiny ones, pink ones, yellow ones, white ones. I couldn’t resist getting my camera out! I have an orchid at home that I’ve photographed before, but these new photos definitely nudged things to a new level.

Now of all things, and by sheer coincidence, when I got back to my son’s place on Mother’s Day, there was a lovely gift sitting in my bedroom by the window–a huge purple orchid plant. I couldn’t believe it! Sometimes certain themes have a way of throwing themselves at you… like the little store I found around the corner where a lovely Chinese woman sold beautiful orchids that she propagated herself. I’ve never been one to swoon over flowers, but everything just seems to have led to this:

Visit my Facebook page to view the Abstract Orchid and Orchids (and other flowers) albums.

(The square photos were created using the Hipstamatic photography app on the iPhone, and the rectangular photos are captured screenshots of magnified sections of the flowers.)