I recently found myself a new job, and opted to take two weeks off between positions. But we’re not here to talk about work, we’re here to talk about photography!
Landscapes have never been a strength of mine but New Brunswick is filled with lots of beautiful scenes for practice. I treated the two weeks between jobs as a kind of photography workshop, with the aim to get out everyday with a camera. I had been collecting a list of interesting locales, researching places online – but sometimes I would just go without a specific destination.
Here are my favourite photos. The sections are chronologically ordered, so you can see changes in the leaves. Maybe changes in my photographic approach, too.
Kelly Creek Lookout
This was a bit of a trek. I came across an online discussion of local places to watch the sunset, and Kelly Creek Lookout came was strongly recommended. “Drive until the road gets too bad, then walk the rest of the way up the mountain.” It was worth it.
My wife and would have stayed longer, but after sunset it got dark very quickly. Even with a flashlight, it was a rocky downhill slope to get back to the car.
Early in my photography hobby, I got advice to learn to read a photo histogram. That was great advice! But I also got advice about what a histogram “should” look like. That was bad advice! Or at least, it was advice that I stuck to, too rigidly, for too long. I’m still trying to let go.
Everette Family Orchard
I grew up in this river valley, and sometimes I forget how special a place it is.
Marysville
Another thing you might notice are the different… tones, I guess? of these photos. I experimented a lot with different “film simulations” built into my Fujifilm camera. The one below is “Nostalgic Negative”, but I don’t know what specific film stock it’s based on. I like the shadows here, it’s very muted.
I also tried “Vivid” (which is based on Velvia slide film) and “Pro Hi” (which is based on Pro 400H). I actually have shot on both of these films, but mostly Pro 400H. I once (accidentally) brought slide film with me to Verona, and I found it very difficult to expose for. But, when I got the exposure right, the results were stunning.
Pro 400H was actually my favourite film stock, before Fujifilm discontinued it. It was saturated but only in ways that complimented my photography – I don’t think it’d be great at portraiture.
I like how these different film simulations looked, and it was fun to compare them. My camera actually has “film simulation bracketing”, where it will save the exposure in three different film simulations. It seemed like that would be more flexible, since you could pick the one you liked the most later. I tried this, but really disliked having to sort through triple the images. I actually liked choosing a “mood” in camera, instead of shooting raw and deciding later. It felt like choosing a film stock. And just like film, where you wish you’d have used different film, there are a few shots I look back on and wish I’d used a different film simulation.
In my two weeks, I shot over two thousand photos. Frankly, I’m getting tired of editing. I can do it, but editing from raw every time is tedious. I don’t think I’m a full-time JPEG shooter, but it has become my default.
Another sunset. This one, we stayed longer and lost more light. This really emphasized to me how the ground gets darker way faster than the sky. Like obviously I already understood how light and sunsets work, but it still surprised me to see how quickly I lost the ability to expose for the ground relative to the sky. The sky, though, was beautiful. So it became the subject.
I want to give a shoutout and thanks to my wife Ashley, whose encouragement and support made it easier to find a new job, and to actually disconnect during my the time off. Here’s to watching many more sunsets together!
Royal Road
Fredericton had many old train lines converted to walking trails, along with the rest of the province, during my childhood. I’ve loved these trails my whole life, and still do now, even as I learned how they embody a dismantling of infrastructure. It’s complicated.
The nice thing about the trails is that you don’t have to wander very far off them (or trespass even much at all!) to find some beautiful scenes.
Southside Fredericton
We tried visiting the Southside shoreline at sunset. It was underwhelming so we packed up and raced to find higher ground as the sun quickly set.
Luckily, I knew about an orchard nearby.
Everette Family Orchard, Again
A lot of street photography (for me) comes down to simply being ready with a camera, on the lookout for opportunities. I can’t control the scene, but I can make sure I am ready. It’s part luck, and part “you have to make your own luck.”
Landscapes are similar. You can’t control the weather, or the wildlife, the clouds. But you can be there, you can be prepared.
Canada Street
The power pylons on Canada Street were one of the first entries on my list of local places to take photos this fall. There’s something so interesting to me about obviously artificial structures in an obviously natural environment. Honestly, I’ll be back here again. I’m working on a longer term photo project.
Marysville Flats
One afternoon, I had this magical experience, like I was in a video game. Like I had stumbled across a side quest from Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I was walking on a trail, alongside a field, and I saw a billboard in the corner of that field. So, I left the trail, crossed the field, and chopped the sign down read the signage.
The billboard turned out to mark the entrance to the Marysville Flats, a nature restoration project to plant a forrest of Silver Maple trees. I followed goat trails through the forrest, which would occasionally spit me out at various points along the Nashwaak River. I returned the next day for more photos, and I will be back again.
The below photo set is when I switched from “mostly Pro 400H” to “mostly Vivid” film simulations. Things get more colourful from here.
Falling Barn
Another entry on my list of local locations to photograph. It’s hard to stop your car on the side of a country road to take photos of someone’s barn, without seeming like a creep. My approach in these situations is to seem like an obvious photography nerd, which comes naturally to me.
Like with street photography, I try to avoid making people feel uncomfortable. But unlike street photography, where I try to blend in to a scene, I intentionally tried to stick out.
To the owner of this barn: I’m sorry your roof was torn off last winter, but I’m grateful you didn’t fix it. I’d been looking forward to taking these photos for months, and I think your barn is beautiful.
A pretty scene doesn’t necessarily make a pretty photo. I think two of these next three are good. The other is pretty enough of a scene to at least make a good wallpaper for my phone.
Like I said earlier, be there and be prepared.
Marysville, Again
I tried playing more with composition, looking for patterns repeating in the scene. I usually found myself at the long end of my lens, and admittedly several of the photos in this post are extreme crops.
Priceville Footbridge
This is another spot that I saw recommended online. The Priceville Footbridge spans the Miramichi River, which is very low in these photos due to a historic drought. I mention the unusually low water because this footbridge has a deadly history, once being swept away by the river in 1939. There is a sign describing the story, and I’m glad I only read that sign after I’d crossed the footbridge twice.
After the accident, the bridge was rebuilt with a midway support embedded in the riverbed (the footbridge had been spanning the entire river, which, yikes). However, that is not to suggest that this footbridge is safe. This bridge got me, by which I mean, its side wall scraped a six-inch cut into my left arm as I brushed by it. (This is why it’s important to keep a first aide kit in your car.)
I’m still not great a sunsets. I think I’m exposing for the highlights still. The problem is, sunsets are hard to do with big cameras.
Okay hear me out. Smartphones embody the “computation photography” approach to making good photos, to “just make this scene look pretty” using algorithms and clever image signal processing. “Big cameras” with dials and controls and whatnot embody the “let me make the decisions” approach. I find it hard to make the right decisions to take a pretty sunset photo, even if it’s easy to take a good sunset photo on my smartphone.
Frankly, I don’t want to mess with stitching bracketed exposures into HDR photos, or whatever else, when shooting on my big camera. I want the control, without the faffing, but I’m not yet consistently getting the results I’m looking for. This is a work in progress.
North Riverfront Trail
The North Riverfront Trail, aka, “the trail behind the Superstore.” It’s not glamorous and I wouldn’t go wandering around alone in these woods after dark. But wow! The light was changing so fast, dappled by shifting clouds. I didn’t really expect to find that kind of dynamism in landscapes.
My only goal in my time off was to take one really great photo, nice enough to get printed on canvas. This is it.
I’ve also started experimenting more with “intentional camera movements.” I’ve made some nice photos accidentally while moving my camera during the exposure (example from Melbourne). But this is more intentional. Mostly I want to use these as background banners on my personal blog. But I have to admit, it’s pretty fun! Get weird with it.
Durham Bridge
Getting closer to the end of my time off here. We’re past peak autumn.
Adults don’t often get the opportunity I had here, to truly vacate from work. There was no task list piling up for me, waiting for my return. No coworkers waiting for me to get back, to ask me anything. No ongoing projects to think about. But I also had the security (and excitement!) of starting in a new position soon. I felt refreshed.
Eel River Lake
This hill and I go way back. I wish I could take a photo that conveys what it’s like to drive over this hill. It feels like a dolly zoom, as stacked layers of trees swoop down around you then fall away. As the car crests over the top of the hill, you feel gravity get turned down for just a moment before smashing you down into your seat. Maybe its just childhood memories I have – and those are hard to capture in a photo.
I found myself driving over this hill again so I stopped the car, and tried to take a photo of this feeling.
It didn’t really work. Taking photos while standing in the middle of the road on a blind hill is very dangerous, so I couldn’t quite get the effect I was going for. Maybe I’ll try again someday.
New Brunswick, Canada