The roadside wildflowers are rich and beautiful at the moment. I can’t resist trying to capture compositions as we zip by.
[A drive-by photograph, layered and tweaked]
From the photographic series ‘Colour Field’
© Karen McRae, 2014
art
Night Light 2
Long exposures of fast-moving water at night. These photographs were made during a paddling/camping trip and although there were lots of stars in the inky sky there was no glowing moon, so in order to light the first and last images I ‘painted’ the slipping-by water with my headlamp and set the camera to make 30 second exposures. In the middle image you can see my paddling friends are lighting the rapids (and the fluttery bugs) with their own headlamps.
(Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera set to raw mode when I made these photographs – poorly planned on my part – so the image quality is not that great…)
© Karen McRae, 2014
Swallow the Sky
[A composite (layered) image ~ swallows & grasses]
© Karen McRae, 2014
The Sky in Bloom
Ah, yes, more Purple Martins. And I’m not done with them quite yet.
[A composite image]
© Karen McRae, 2014
Things Don’t Always Make Sense
A discernible fish tale. And a balding house reflected in its own ‘moat’ – who could resist such a structure? The rest is (Photoshop) history…
© Karen McRae, 2014
Spring Shield
This is a place I’ve been wanting to photograph for a while but I’m usually here with a bike and my mountain biking ‘ability’ is not really compatible with safely transporting a camera and riding over rocky terrain. On the weekend I decided to walk the trails instead but the sky was a heavy grey and the light seemed uninspiring for making images.
This Canadian Shield landscape is always beguiling to be in, though, with its lichen-covered granite undulating gracefully between ponds and wooded areas. The images that I liked the best (and have posted here) turned out to be double and triple exposures.
The landscape is still mostly a profusion of lovely browns but if you put your ear to the ground you can hear that the earth’s heartbeat has quickened.
[A series of in-camera multiple exposures]
© Karen McRae, 2014
The Creek’s Edge
Here we are at the edges again. The creek overflowing onto the rich earth, buds swelling on the tips of branches, patchy tufts of green grass, the sun falling away. This sepia-toned world won’t last too long now.
I had trouble finding a way to mark this particular transition but I kept working at it. A single image wasn’t working so I made some in-camera double exposures. One frame with movement and one without. Sort of like layering a quick sketch and a detailed drawing. Somehow this came closer to capturing the allure of the in-between.
Today is Earth Day, and many of the same issues that fueled the first Earth day in 1970 are just as immediate as they were 44 years ago. We are still on the edges of possibility.
© Karen McRae, 2014
Coming to Life
A rather awkward little animation but it was fun to make. The subject is a seed head from my garden photographed at slightly different angles to allow for movement and then layered and animated in Photoshop.
Unfortunately it cannot be turned off but below is a still image of the same subject for visual relief. GIFs can get annoying very quickly! It’s not something I would usually post (although I’ve made a few other unskilled animations over the years), but for some reason I keep picturing this little dragon breathing…
What’s growing in your garden?
© Karen McRae, 2014
Things Lined Up Haphazardly
on a grey day…
The tree images are in-camera double exposures. One exposure is a still shot and the other is made with camera movement (I think it’s worth clicking on the top image to see it larger). Today is sunny, though, and just warm enough for a bit of melting but there’s not too much spring here yet.
In spite of winter’s extensive embrace the birds seem rather cheerful. There is lots of singing and fluttering outside my window. I hope they don’t mind another 10-15 cm of snow that is apparently on its way… These are restless starlings ‘vibrating’ on a power line and even though they are out focus I sort of like the smudgy charcoal look of them. Well, happy (sort of) spring. : )
© Karen McRae, 2014
draw and shoot 