Wild Drake Photography

Tag: fine art

  • Woodland Photography

    Woodland Photography

    One of the many things I love about living on Vancouver Island is how I am surrounded by trees. When I hike or just wander in the woods I get a relaxing, calm feeling and other concerns seem to fade away. The Japanese have a term for it “shinrin-yoku” (forest bathing) and apparently studies have shown what many already suspected: it is relaxing and beneficial to your health.

    Ferns growing from an overhead moss covered branch

    To get to many of the places I’ve photographed and written about on my blog, I’ve had to spend time wandering through the woods before arriving at my destination. While those posts may feature a waterfall, the ocean, a lighthouse, sunset or some other spectacular sight, the wander through the forest is always an important part of it for me.

    The arbutus tree branch tree

    I always keep an eye out for a new location to photograph. Sometimes I check out areas on a map or by using various apps, but other times I see somewhere that looks interesting while driving by. The location of the images in today’s post is from an area I drive by daily and have often thought I should check out. As you can see, it is a beautiful area to explore; rich with a variety of trees.

    Standing alone, surrounded by many

    I’m glad I stopped to check this area out a couple times in the last week. I will keep going back and looking for different conditions, as a nice fog or even misty rain would really make some of these trees (like the ones just above and below) stand out from the others.

    Moss and lichen give a distinct look to this tree

    Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog post. Please comment and let me know what you thought and share it with anyone who you think may enjoy my photography.

    “Ancient trees are precious. There is little else on Earth that plays host to such a rich community of life within a single living organism.”
    — Sir David Attenborough

  • The Vegas Photography Adventure

    At the end of March, I travelled to Las Vegas for the Create Photography Retreat, where there were three days packed full of photography lectures, interactive classes and practicing practical skills. I thought I’d share a brief review of my adventure here!

    roman statue in the desert in Nevada
    Caesar’s Palace Centurion Visits Red Rock Canyon (Composite)

    Pages: 1 2

  • Hiking, Photography and Creating on YouTube

    Hiking, Photography and Creating on YouTube

    As I recently mentioned, I have started to create videos on YouTube, following along on when I go out photographing on my hikes around (mostly) local areas. With all the time I have spent on creating videos, I have had less to spend on the blog, so I thought I’d give a little recap of some of the recent hikes I’ve been on. Each of the locations mentioned has a hyperlink to the video, and it would be great if you could view some (or all) of them, like those you enjoy, and leave a comment or two on YouTube to let me know that you thought.

    My new hiking / photography companion, Cosmo

    In my first video, I visited Sheringham Point Lighthouse, at Shirley, BC and I brought my new hiking buddy, Cosmo. He’s since made appearances in several other videos.

    lighthouse at Shirley BC with blue sky
    A beautiful day at Sheringham Point Lighthouse

    Next, I took a quick, exploratory trip up to Mount Washington, to see some snow. My other frequent travelling companion, Henrietta (who you’ve met before) was introduced in this video. I had never been there before and I know I will be returning at some point in the future.

    Fresh snowfall on Mount Washington

    I then went to Mary Vine Falls, which is in Sooke Potholes Regional Park, and an easy hike from the trailhead. As of this time, it is the most watched and liked video I have published.

    January brings lots of volume to Mary Vine Falls

    A trip up to Tofino and Uclulet followed, and I visited Amphitrite Lighthouse.

    The light shines brightly at the Amphitrite Lighthouse

    On the same trip, I stayed at my favourite resort on the beach just outside the town of Tofino. I hiked around the trails at Cox Bay at that time.

    Storm watching is always enjoyable at Cox Bay

    For my most recent video, I travelled just past Port Renfrew, and visited Fairy Lake, where there is a unique little tree growing from a mostly submerged stump in the middle of the lake.

    The Fairy Lake tree is probably the most photographed tree in the region

    Most of my excursions are local and not planned long ahead, however I do have two more significant photography trips planned for later this year. One just a little further than I’ve been before on Vancouver Island, and another outside British Columbia, so keep an eye out for my upcoming posts and videos.

    As far as my YouTube channel goes, before I started it, I thought I’d start slow, and do one video a month. As soon as I began, I realized that would be too infrequent and I wanted to get some content out there before slowing the pace a bit, so I have been publishing a new video every Sunday morning. Very soon, I will be settling in to two videos a month, coming out on the First and Third Sunday’s of each month. This should allow enough time to get new, interesting content and process it, but hopefully not too infrequent to grow my followers. Thanks for checking out this post, and I hope you were able to watch some videos as well. 🙂

  • Photography on Display

    Photography on Display

    Lately I have been more active in the local art & photography community. It’s something I enjoy and is definitely beneficial to my photography, as I feel encouraged to get out with my camera more often and enjoy the ability to show some of my work. One of the things I am involved in is as a member of the board of directors at the Sooke Arts Council. It is through SAC that I had the opportunity to hang six of my prints in the lobby of the Richard Blanshard Building, which houses BC Ministry of Health offices.

    A trio of photos hanging on display

    A group of three of my prints on display

    Along with four other artists work (painters and photographers) my prints will be hanging there for December 2018 and likely January 2019 as well.

    Waves crash on the rocks at Botanical Beach in Port Renfrew

    Fresh off the press

    I had a number of mid-size prints around that I used, as well as having the one, shown above, printed just days before the hanging. Normally, I have my images printed on some variety of fine art paper, then frame them, but for this image, I chose to have it printed on canvas by a new, local printer, VI Spectrum. I’m very pleased with the results. At 24″x36″ it’s also the largest print I have on display. Images smaller than 13″x19″ I generally print myself, as was the case with the two 8″x11″ prints I hung. A fantastic photographer I know (check out his wonderful images here) spoke highly of the Hahnemühle Matte Fine Art paper I used for these prints, and since trying it earlier this year it has become one of my favourite papers to print on.

    B&W image of a rocky shoreline

    One of the images I self printed

    I encourage everyone local or who is visiting Victoria to stop by the lobby of the building, at 1515 Blanshard Street, to check out my work and that of others from December, 2018 through January 2019. Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed it!