A subtle beauty that shines loud and clear — Exclusive online interview

Welcome to 2013! It promises to be a very good year.

The first installment for my blog this year is from the magazine. Stephanie Hounsell, our staff writer, conducted an exclusive online interview with one of Oopoomoo’s famed shooters. Lawyer turned photographer … Samantha Chrysanthou.
Read the full interview here.

In The Eye of the Beholder

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the newest installment of Wild Side in Outdoor Photography Canada magazine. John E. Marriott gives us the facts on sharpness in our images and how to attain it. Click the image to read the full column!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays to all
Roy Ramsay
Editor-in-Chief

Becoming a Better Photographer by Knowing When Not to Shoot

In the Fall 2012 issue of OPC, Darwin Wiggett our advanced shooter columnist, writes about becoming a better photographer by knowing when not to shoot. Sounds crazy? You can read the full column here.

Thanks for stopping by.
Roy Ramsay
Editor-in-Chief

Couple of cool announcements

Firstly I just launched my October Editor’s Assignment contest over on the Outdoor Photography Canada website. This months theme is “Your best autumn image”. To enter or to just check out the entries as they are uploaded visit the contest by clicking the contest name above. Contest closes October 31, 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly I wanted to announce to those who are attending this falls Exposure Photo and Video Imaging Expo in Toronto this weekend, that I will be at the OPC booth across from the Canon booth to meet and greet anyone that wants to drop by and say hi.
Times:
Friday 9:30am to 6pm
Saturday 9:30am to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 5pm

Hope to see some of you there!

Roy Ramsay
Editor-in-Chief
Outdoor Photography Canada magazine

What do photographers feel when they take a photograph?

Recently I had a reader ask me a few questions: Why did you take up photography? When are you the happiest while shooting? And what do photographers feel when they take a photograph? I answered in the following way.

I have always had the artistic bug within me, so to speak. I tried drawing and painting and found I didn’t have the talent for it. I realized, at least for me, I needed to do something that I could identify with, something that would allow me to speak through my art. It was not so much my hands that would allow this expression, but my eyes, mind and heart. Photography allows me to do just that. In the beginning the technical was a bit frustrating to grasp, but practise, practise, practise got me through it. Then one day it all came together and I was able to express my innermost feelings of a place through my photography.

I’m the happiest when I am in nature – anywhere in nature away from the city. Nature’s sounds, the temperature of the air, and the quieting of my soul is what draws me there. Nature brings me a sense of peace that’s found deep within me. When I need to recharge my batteries, I go shooting. To take this one step further, I’m most happy when I’ve composed my shot and I trip the shutter. Whether the shot turns out or not isn’t what draws me, but rather the process that leads me to that point. The peacefulness that photography brings me is my reconnection with nature, and that’s my happiest time. The “good” photography comes with practise, but the process, which allows me to reconnect with nature, is what matters most to me.

So to answer your question of how photographers feel when they take a photograph…I can’t speak for all photographers, but I find that nature speaks to me through its trees and babbling brooks, so I answer with a photograph.

Photos: ©Roy Ramsay
Top photo: Main Chutes, Chutes Provincial Park, ON
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at 35mm, ƒ18@0.3 sec., ISO 200, Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer
Bottom photo: Minor Chutes, Chutes Provincial Park, ON
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at 105mm, ƒ18@1/6 sec., ISO 200, Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer

Making The Time

Most, if not all, of us have busy lives and we don’t seem to have enough time to do the things we enjoy most. In order to do these things we must make the time. This is often easier said than done. I’m guilty of this myself.

I would like to begin with a story that deals with this topic head-on. I was neck deep in our most recent issue of the magazine and had very little time for anything, let alone my own personal photography pursuits. When things get this hectic, where I have little or no time for myself, I get grumpy, and no one likes a grump.

Even in the most hectic times, as long as you keep your creative eye open you can often see things in the most obscure places. Take this image, for example. While on a break from working on the magazine, I was making myself a coffee (yes, I love coffee) and noticed a pattern through one of our frosted windows. My creative process began in earnest and I had to drop everything to explore it. I figured if I had five minutes to make a coffee, I had five minutes to grab my camera and experiment with my idea.

So with my camera on a tripod and a 70-200mm lens, I composed the outdoor landscape through the frosted window. I made sure I could make out the implied details of sky, trees and foreground meadow. The technique I employed has been used many times in many places and I thought this might be a great time to use it also. During the exposure, I zoomed my telephoto lens out from 200mm to just shy of 70mm over two seconds. The resulting image gives you converging lines in a painted landscape.

Regardless of how busy we may get, we should always make the time to do the things we love.

Photo: ©Roy Ramsay
Image info:
Zooming Landscape
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 70-200mm f/4 L USM lens, ƒ22@2 sec., ISO 100,
circular warming polarizer

Hello world!

This is my new blog. Who am I? I am Roy Ramsay, Editor-in-Chief of Outdoor Photography Canada magazine.

The purpose of this blog is to share my personal thoughts on photography together with the images I shoot as I continue my 25 year photographic journey. I will attempt to post an entry once per week where my crazy schedule allows. Although I enjoy landscapes, nature and wildlife images I will let my creativity decide what I will shoot and discuss. So feel free to follow along and join me on my adventures from behind my lens.