photography: June 2009 Archives

Keeping a photograph simple and easy to look at, while still getting all what you're trying to show, is sometimes tough. Certainly, you don't want a photograph that's clogged up with information.

Canada's Prince Edward Island was isolated from the rest of Canada until just a few years ago when the Confederation Bridge was built. It's become the new life line to PEI, and is the quickest way to the nation's smallest province.

The trip across the bridge takes only 12 minutes, and it opened PEI to the world. Tourism is up, and tourists like me are thrilled. The ferry still operates for those who prefer a slower, more scenic trip but it takes about 90 minutes.

Getting all of PEI in one picture is tough. But once on the island, tourists discover rolling hills covered in lupines in early summer, plenty of fishing villages and small wharfs, churches of every size and shape and color, and scenes made for postcards. Lighthouses are miniatures, and at least one on every cape.

This photo has the bridge, the flowers, the working fishing boats, lighthouse. It doesn't appear too busy, despite all the visual information.

Now Nunavut is the only Canadian province not yet visited.

Nothing special, except that it's some of my favorite people in one of my favorites places on Monday. Ricketts Glen State Park, a niece, nephew, their kids and spouse.

It's tough to take a bad picture of Ricketts Glen. Or this bunch.

Shooting in Mount Gretna Monday for a future possible Excursion, I wandered up and down the streets of this boro most of the day. Some streets in the area were so narrow that my van tires barely made it between the curbs. Very quaint. Very nice.

There's plenty to see. The Jigger Shop--a wonderful shaded restaurant and ice cream stand-- a lake for swimming and canoeing, a live theater, tall evergreens everywhere and houses that were originally summer cottages for wealthy folks from Philadelphia. A bike rail-trail is a block outside of town. And there's an art show in August that will knock your socks off.

I stopped to shoot the narrow roads and saw Jasmine, this pure white, long haired cat lounging on a porch. Being white and in the sun, the shade background went black. So I tweaked the contrast, dodged the porch rails, and generally did more work on this than are done on some of the city's downtown murals.

Can't do that in the newspaper. But sometimes it's fun to get into the Photoshop tool box and play.