The Hunt For Fall Colours

 It's that time of year again in the northern hemisphere. The leaves of deciduous trees start to change colour. It is a time of year when a lot of people go out and take pictures. It's very understandable. Maple tree leaves that are turning red or yellow look incredible beautiful with the sunlight reflecting off of them.

Where I live if I want a variety of leaf colours that aren't in an urban area I have to go leaf hunting. This is not a complaint rather it is a fun time of heading out and finding places where the forest is not solid conifers.

Now I love conifers aka evergreens but I do enjoy watching trees like maples changing their colours. It is a fun challenge to locate these regions where you can find a mixture of deciduous and conifer trees. It's also a great reason to spend a day out exploring in general.

So with this autumnal season upon us soon I want to wish you all Happy Leaf Hunting.

Influences

While doing some clean up at home a few weeks ago I came across a schedule from when I used to work at one of the major tourist attractions in Vancouver. Looking through it I saw the names of the people and their faces were recalled by my brain. Memories of my now former colleagues came quickly to mind, with more memories as I write this.

It's interesting to think about the influences we had on each other, both positive and negative. Was I the best person to work with? I tried to be but being human I know that I probably failed many times and hopefully sometimes I was the best person to work with. We all influence the people around us whether we know them or not. We can all be a positive or negative influence on others.

Here's an example that happened yesterday, as I write this.

On of my computers decided to not respond to anything that I did. The previous day it had run low on battery and needed to recharge. That evening I plugged it in to have it recharge overnight. The next day it seemed it wouldn't turn on. It had become a 'brick.' It sat on my desk like it was holding it down so any wind wouldn't blow my desk away. I took it to the Canada Computers store close to where I live and they figured out what had happened and got the laptop working again. Those two men had a very positive influence on me. Their customer service reinforced a reasons to use that retail location to get more computer related stuff in the future.

We all influence each other every day. Let's try and be encouraging in that influence.

I know this is way different then my photography related blog posts but I just wanted to share this.

Start of Summer

 Well, July is here. The summer holidays are in full force. The weather is mostly sunny and getting hot.

A fun time to try and get some relaxing in.

However I do find the summer a challenge to do the photography I like. There's lots of sun! This is great and challenging at the same time. The sun rises a lot earlier and sets a lot later. Many more hours of the day to shoot. This also means that the sun is, generally, a lot brighter which makes getting certain pictures much more difficult. When travelling I have to compromise on getting certain shots. The only time I may be in particular location will be near midday when the sun is overhead and very bright. Often this provides a difficult situation to take pictures in. Everything is overexposed. Yes filters can help but you also have a lack of shadow that many times just makes the picture seem meh and not awesome. But you do the best you can and hope that in post processing you can tweak just enough to look good.

Another challenge with nature photography in summer is wildfires. There have been many times when I have planned to go visit a certain geographic region and then when the day comes the trip has to be cancelled because of a forest fire near there that is making it difficult to access, the smoke pollution means difficulty breathing or evacuation alerts/orders are in place. I was on a trip to capture some fall colours but the smoke in the air made it quite difficult to breathe. It didn't affect the pictures but I had a sore throat and was coughing for a few days. That fire was two mountain ranges away from where I was. I thought I would be fine. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

One of the things I enjoy about photography in summer is that the daylight comes much earlier. I enjoy being woken up by the sun. Most people are still sleeping from spending most of the evening around the campfire so I go out and take the camera for a walk. If I'm by a lake quite often you can get a little bit of a mist coming of the lake and it looks just great. If I'm not taking pictures there's a good chance that I've got a fishing rod in hand and hoping to catch lunch.

Another great thing about summer photography is being able to go out with different people and do photography. More people are able to take vacation during the summer and are able to go out during the week and explore than only on the weekends. It's nice to go explore with people and not just by your lonesome.

Overall I find there are definite pros and cons to summer nature photography. What's the conclusion? Let's just go out and take pictures!

Photography out of the urban environment.

 Those who know me will know that I don't take a lot of pictures in urban or even suburban environments (or places if you prefer). The truth is that I am not fond of cities. I've been to quite a few and overall they all seem to be about the same to me. Lots of people living in close proximity to each other. Nothing really wrong with this. It's just not a place I enjoy being most of the time. I have enjoyed being in cities at times and lived in them for a while. I lived in the City of Vancouver, BC for about five years. Didn't take a lot of pictures actually inside Vancouver. Still haven't and that was close to thirty years ago that I lived there.

My passion is photography that is not urban. I love the wilderness. As I write this blog post I am currently camping in the interior of British Columbia. I am on a photography trip. I am exploring a lot of areas I haven't been to or had the chance to explore other than driving through on the highway on my way to somewhere else. I love being able to leave the paved road, put the pickup in four-wheel drive and just see what is there.

Doing nature, wilderness, wildlife photography or whatever you want to call it means you have to prepare for a few things. In a city or town if you need urgent help it is fairly easy to get. You call 911 and help comes. When you're a three hour drive from the paved road using four-wheel drive you can't just reach for your cell phone to call for help. The best thing to do is not allow yourself to get into an emergency situation. There are devices which can connect you with a satellite for communications but these don't always work either. You really need to plan ahead.

One of the nice parts about photography in the wilderness is you don't have people coming up to you, while you're busy attempting to take a picture, asking if you're a photographer. This has happened to me more than once. I'm using a camera to take pictures. It sure seems like I'm a photographer. I don't hate this but sometimes it can be annoying.

Photography out in the wilderness does require more than just a camera and a lens. If you're going to be out in the backcountry you will need to take your other needs with you. Food, a method to prepare food, a place to sleep are just a few for starters. I happen to have lots of experience with both camping and photography. As mentioned previously I received my first camera when I was five years old. My parents took me camping for the first time when I was about a year old. I guess you could say that I've got four more years of camping experience than photography experience. Is it any wonder that I love doing both, either separately or together.

Something that makes nature photography so desirable, particularly in British Columbia, is the abundance of epic scenery. BC has been blessed if not spoiled with amazing scenery. I love the challenge of being able to capture it in a picture and share it with others. Not everyone is as fortunate as myself to be able to travel and experience these amazing locations. Hopefully my little bit of skill with a camera and lens can help others enjoy.

Urban photography is a wonderful challenge. I know quite a few photographers who are very skilled at capturing the (sub)urban locations in a photograph. I really appreciate their work. Especially night photography in a city locale. That is a skill that I have just not had good success at developing. Yes, I know I could work at it more but there are others who are so good at that and have a great eye for it. My passion just happens to be away from all that.

Well, thanks for putting up with this rant, for lack of a better term. Off to hunt more waterfalls.

There's been a change!

 2025-05-01 There's been a change!

Hi everyone. Yes there has been a change. No, I'm not quitting photography. I've now got a job in addition to travelling around British Columbia and taking pictures of nature and wildlife. Here's the lowdown.

Since I was a child I've been involved with an organization called Christian Service Brigade (CSB). CSB has been around in Canada for close to 80 years. Basically it is an organization that mentors/disciples boys into becoming men. CSB helps set up clubs in churches for boys to attend, do activities and learn stuff. More information can be found on their website www.csbcan.ca.

At the end of March the President of CSB Canada asked if I would be willing to come on board as a Staff Associate for British Columbia. This would mean I would basically keep doing stuff with CSB that I already have been doing but in a more formal relationship. I've already been helping out in the background for years. I was a leader in my home church's CSB Battalion group for over 10 years before work scheduling made it difficult to attend the meetings on a regular basis.

What does this mean for BushmanGarth Nature Photography? Not a lot actually. But if I am travelling for CSB around British Columbia and I have some time when I'm not working on CSB stuff I'll probably be taking my camera for a walk wherever I happen to be. It's very likely that I'll combine some photo trips with CSB trips in the future. I'll still be providing shots of BC's epic scenery when I can. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming trip to the Kootenay/Rocky Mountain region.

That's all for now.

What's been happening and what's coming up.

 2025-04-01 What's been happening and what's coming up.

Hey everyone. Here's an update as the some of the things that have happened and some of the plans for the next few months.

I recently had a few days exploring in the Nicola Valley region of British Columbia. I went to visit someone who lives off-grid in the general area of Merritt. Initially I had planned to get camp out quite high up and do some time lapse videos but the snowpack was more than I was comfortable driving through. Basically I went until I 'almost' got stuck, at which point I made the decision to just spend the night at my buddy's place. I didn't want to be forced into spending the night on the mountain and having to walk down to get help.

The next day he and I went exploring on a few Resource or Forest Service roads to see what all was there. Basically only turning around when we reached the end of the road or the snow was preventing us from going further. On the third day I returned home having had a great time with my buddy whom I hadn't spent a lot of time with in over a decade. I am working on putting some of the video and images up on YouTube. Look for it in a few days.

April is looking busy with a variety of things other than photography-videography. I do have a camping trip planned for the end of April with a group of friends so probably not a lot of picture taking on that trip. May and June are the months where I have significant photographic activity planned so we'll see what happens then.

In the mean time I hope you stay well and enjoy the outdoors.

A Place To Buy Prints!

2025-03-01 A Place To Buy Prints! 

I finally have it! A place for people to purchase prints of the pictures that I take. It took a bit of work but ultimately I was successful in getting it going. On the website you will notice that the Contact page is now the Store – Contact page. Going to this webpage will allow you to click on the link to the online store to purchase prints of selected images.

You can select prints of the images in two different materials: paper and metal. The paper print is a regular photo print similar to what you may print out at home but available in larger sizes. The metal print has the image printed on an aluminum sheet. The metal prints do cost more to produce but the image on them is amazing. It's a fantastic way to have a beautiful picture on display in your home or workspace.

At the moment I have the images, both paper and metal, available in three sizes: 8 by 12 inches (approx. 20 by 30 cm), 12 by 18 inches (approx. 30 by 46 cm), and 20 by 30 inches (approx. 51 by 76 cm). I have chosen these sizes because they seem to be the most popular sizes for photographic art in general. In the future I'm sure I will have images in other sizes including some panorama style images.

I'm planning to offer more than just wall-hanging type pictures in the future. I've got a few ideas. If you see me out and about go ahead and let me know if you have ideas of what you would like to see available on the store site.

Also please note that I am only shipping to addresses in Canada at this point in time. When that changes I will announce it here.

Enjoy!