Tag Archives: winnipeg landscape photographers

The Seasons of Victoria Beach (Winnipeg Photographers)

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Over the past 4 years I have had the privilege of getting to know Victoria Beach. John, my fiance, is fortunate enough that his grandfather bought a cabin there in 1944 for $600. This cabin was torn down a couple of years ago and replaced with a new, modern and very beautiful cabin.  It is really more of a beach house than a cabin. We both love it there and call it our sanctuary. Most people only come to their cabins in the summer but we go all year round and we love it even more in the winter. Here are some images that I’ve taken in the 4 seasons at Victoria Beach.

SUMMER

Summer is a very busy time at VB.  There are people playing tennis, visiting in the village green, biking, walking, swimming and waiting in line at the bakery. The sunsets are amazing and the beaches are busy. The pelicans and the eagles are back and the days are long and hot. I love summer.

 

FALL

Fall is the most beautiful time at VB. The days and nights are cooler and there are fewer people around, especially after Thanksgiving. I love walking with my camera in the fall.

WINTER

It might strike you as strange but winter has become my favorite season at VB. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, the people are gone. The population goes from about 16,000 in the summer to 450 in the winter.  It’s not that I don’t like people, but I love the solitude in winter. I love walking the dogs on the roads without worrying about anyone complaining about them being off leash. I love that even on the coldest days, the wind is blocked by the trees and I can take the dogs for walks.  I love the pictures that I can take of the cold and the snow. Take a look:

 

 

SPRING

One of the really neat things about spring at VB is hearing the ice moving as it melts. The dogs can still run free and people have not returned yet. Spring leads to some really interesting pictures as well, with the contrast of the blue water and sky and the white snow and ice.

 

As you can see, it is an idyllic place in all the seasons.

We would love to see you at our sanctuary. Come for a drive and visit us. It’s only an hour from the North Perimeter and well worth the trip.

New Landscape/Travel Website! (Winnipeg Photographers)

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I’ve been very busy lately working on websites. First my own; http://www.chrismcwilliamsphotography.com and then my landscape site http://www.21photo.ca and the camera club one (that one isn’t ready to go yet.)

Today, I am launching my new landscape/travel site: www.21photo.ca.

Have a look. I think it looks pretty awesome.

I’m toying with the idea of switching my main site to ww.21photo.ca. What do you think? It is a shorter and more catchy name. I wonder though how much work it would be and how efficient it would be to send people who go http://www.chrismcwilliamsphotography.com to a new website. I know I can have a forwarding page.

Your comments on my new site and also about the idea of changing my whole site to 21photo would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Here’s a screen shot of the new site.

screen shot 21photo

 

Spring Crocuses (Winnipeg Landscape Photographers)

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The crocuses are out; a sure sign of spring. I went out shooting with some friends  this evening and found a ton of them. You can view a few of them below.

I also wanted to let you know that I would be away from April 14th to 22nd and will not be doing any sessions at that time. I’m going to Calgary to look after my favorite little guy. I have a number of people who have not picked up their orders. I don’t want you to be disappointed so try to get here this week, or contact me to make other arrangements. I do answer emails while away but don’t usually check phone messages.

And finally this neat picture that I found on Facebook. I wish that I knew who the maker was, so that I could credit them. I love it and would like to try something like this next Easter. Any takers?  For small children only!

North Western Ontario (Winnipeg Landscape Photography)

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I’ve been doing a lot of landscape photography in the last week. First I spent a night in Kenora, got up at 5:20 a.m;  drove to Rushing River, followed by numerous stops on a  7 hour drive home.  I think Taylor enjoyed the trip even more than I did! I’m sure he found scents that he had never smelled before.

Yesterday I went to a fellow camera club member’s hobby farm and then went on to Steep Rock. I had never been to Steep Rock before but because of the high water on the lake, the cliffs are not nearly as high. I got some interesting shoots none the less.Watch for those images in a post later today.

Have a ton of editing to do but here are a few of the images from the North Western Ontario trip.Which is your favorite? Let me know and why.

This is one of the treasures that I found. I went down some of the gravel roads off the highway and found this amazing spot. I don’t remember which lake it was, but I love it!

This is Taylor at the above spot! He was a very dirty boy by the time we got home and had an immediate bath.

Rushing River. I love the movement in this picture!

The grain elevator in Defresne.

 

This is a view from my friend Heather’s shore line on the Winnipeg River.

Another shot of Rushing River.

Another stop on the way home.

I loved the combinations of flowers and rocks along the highway.

Another one of Rushing River.

This is  Kenora at about 5:30 a.m.

Red River Exhibition Photo Competition (Winnipeg Photographers)

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I knew that the judging for the Red River Exhibition competition was last Thursday, but I never knew how I did until I opened a letter from the Red River Ex about an hour ago. It was so exciting to find out that I had won with a number of entries. One really never knows how one will do in a competition because so much depends on how the judges feel about your entries. The judging gods were kind to me this year. Here is how I did:

First place in projected went to this image.

Second place in projected was this image:

This image won second place in monochrome.

These 2 received honourable mentions; one colour and the other in monochrome.

Although I usually enter competition at the Manitoba Camera Club, there is no monetary reward for those competitions. For this there is a monetary prize, which is an added plus! If you would like to see all the images that are in this competition, visit the new big building at the Red River Exhibition while the Ex is on. All images will be displayed there. Following the exhibition, they will be displayed at   http://www.pixels2.com/-/pixels2/default.asp   as well.

Winning Images (Winnipeg Fine Art Photography)

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Last night was the Annual Banquet for the Manitoba Camera Club. We had a lovely meal catered by Ludwig’s Catering from Bird’s Hill. As part of the banquet we always announce the winners and trophies are given out. I was the lucky recipient of 2 trophies. The first one was for this print in the monochrome category. There is a bit of a story that goes with this print. It was taken on a hill side in Calgary during a recent visit. My son, Andrew runs on the trails in this area and had come across this spot with 2 abandoned cars. The 4 of us, Andrew, his wife and son and myself, went on a hike to get to the spot and it was truly amazing to see 2 abandoned, rusted out old cars in the water,  in the middle of nowhere. I would love to know the story of how the cars got there in the first place. One can only imagine. No roads and they ended up in the water. I hope the occupants were alright after this apparent off roading.

This is quite an impressive trophy and weighs a ton! The names on it go back to 1939 and are interesting to read.

The second trophy that I received is one called The President’s Trophy and is given to a club member every year who makes a significant contribution to the club. I am honored to have gotten the trophy and will continue to work on making the Manitoba Camera Club a welcoming and valuable place for people interested in photography to come to.

The following images also placed in the competition.

More Winners (Winnipeg Photographers)

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The following images were winners in the Manitoba Camera Club’s November photography contest. The theme this month was “Abandoned.”

The first 2 image have an interesting story attached to them. I was recently in Calgary. My son is a runner and one of his spots for running  is a trail near his house. The trail is on the side on a mountain. I had been working on my images for the abandoned theme and he was quite frankly not impressed with what I had. He said he had the perfect spot for me to shoot. We decided to take family pictures while there and we all hiked on a sometimes steep mountain trail to get to the spot where these two cars were “abandoned.” What is so interesting about the two cars in the pond is that there is no road anywhere near them. There is only a hiking trail, which is not very wide. We wondered how the cars got there. We were sure the cars had been there for 50 years and there really was no east way to get them out either. It was a great opportunity to get some pictures.

This first one got a Second Place and the next one got a Third.

The post production in this one is Lightroom Action combined with some adjustments in Photoshop.

The barn was one we saw on the side of the road on the way to Eli, Minnesota. Another great spot for photos. It won an Honorable Mention.

And the Winners Were: 10.10 (Winnipeg Landscape Photographers)

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The topic this month at Manitoba Camera Club was The Five Elements. I entered a lot of the images from my trip to Ely, Minnesota. Here are the ones that placed in the competition:

This image of Gooseberry Falls won a 3rd place in the Monochrome category.

These leaves were in a retention falls in the Ely area. This image won 1st place in the colour category and also won Image of the Month.

I put a layer of water on top of these leaves. This won a 1st Honorable Mention in the Projected category.

A Misty Morning (Winnipeg Landscape Photographers)

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All week while we were in Ely, we waited for the mist.  The second last morning  there was a small cloud of mist coming off the lake and Wendy, one of the other girls and I rushed down to get a picture of the mist. It was not an impressive mist, coming and going very quickly and looked more like a puff of smoke than thick mist. There was a fisherman going out in a boat and we were anxiously waiting for him to get his boat started so we could take his picture in the precarious mist. It wasn’t to be. The boat wouldn’t start and then when it finally did, the mist was gone. We left feeling thoroughly defeated.

Then, on the last morning of our stay,  the mist was very thick and white and lovely. A couple of our group went out in a canoe and we got the pictures we wanted. It felt like a fitting ending to a lovely trip. I left the mist picture for last on this blog entry. It is where it fits best.

The bear and the wolf are my favorites of the animal pictures.

The night before we left we had a campfire and roasted smores. This is one of the pictures from that night. Thank you for posing for me Ellen.

The image of the leaves in a pond is my favorite of the whole trip. I still need to do something about the bubble in the lower right corner. I’m going to try to clone some more bubbles into the image and see how that looks.

I’m going to be uploading these images and others from the trip to my landscape site. Let me know if  you are interested in purchasing any of the Ely images that you’ve seen on my blog.

Ely, Minnesota

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One thing that I know for sure is that Ely, Minnesota is an awesome place. I am sitting here right now at a lake with birch and pine trees all around me. The birch trees are a brilliant yellow and orange colour. (There is also a golden retriever right here who is patiently waiting for me to throw a tennis ball for him. ) I am here with people from the Manitoba Camera Club. We have found the most amazing spots to take pictures. We have taken pictures of wolves, fall trees, reflections, sunsets, an old mine, etc, etc. There is no one best part of this trip, but being here with fellow photographers is one of the biggest thrills; to be with people who also want to get the shot, who know what they are looking for, who know about composition and lighting and who are fun to be with is one of the best parts for me. I am loving this trip.  Here are a few of my favorite images:

The chair is for Shauna. I have another one for her as well. And the best one, the one I love the best, is one that I took today and isn’t ready to be uploaded. We have 2 more days of shooting. I wonder what we will find next? I’m sure we’ll find a ton of other stuff as well.

If you are waiting for your session to be in a gallery, I am sorry that I haven’t gotten to them. There is very limited internet here. There is none at our cabin and since we’ve been shooting from dawn to dusk,  it has been hard to have time to upload. I will have your shoots ready by Tues.