Newsletter No. 45: April 2009

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CONTENTS

1. Volcanic Landscape: Helmcken Falls.
2. Expressing the most Powerful Moment: How I did it.
3. Revisiting Old Slides: Using the latest software.

Hi everyone,

When I heard the first sandhill crane flying high above the Gallery this week, I felt both relieved that they had made it back for another season, and energized to begin another season of summer shooting for my Cariboo-Chilcotin volcano book. I do, however, have one more set of winter volcano images to share with you. I think you will find them extraordinarily beautiful.

Enjoy the Newsletter, and pass it on to interested friends. Our goal here at the Chris Harris Gallery is to share the creative process, promote the arts, and strengthen our artistic community. Thank you.

1. Volcanic Landscape: Helmcken Falls

In my last Newsletter, as part of a winter portrayal about how water and ice crack open and erode through hundreds of feet of lava, I took you on a photo excursion to local Canim Falls. Two days later I went Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Park. My discovery was beyond my wildest dreams! By good fortune, the snow-and-ice-covered cone in front of the falls had broken off, revealing the most magnificent aqua colour. It was spectacular and I knew immediately I had an amazing photographic opportunity before me.

Helmcken Falls: Spring
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII;
ISO: 100; Focal length: 65mm;
Aperture: f 16

This is the point where I have to deliberately calm my excitement and clearly think through my photographic options. Beyond the decisions of composition (which includes the choice of lens), technical decisions are critical. The challenge was to capture the details in both the extreme highlights of brightest snow, and the deepest shadows on the cliff wall to the right of the falls.

Although my eyes could see this extreme range of brightness, I knew that no film or digital sensor could.

I decided to create an HDR (high dynamic range) image. I made 5 images of the above scene. All were made at f16 but at shutter speeds of 1/80; 1/40; 1/20; 1/10; and 1/5th of a second. That range of exposures covered the full dynamic range of brightness – from brightest to darkest. By combining all five images in Photomatics, I created Helmcken Falls in glorious detail.

Helmcken Falls: Spring
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII;
ISO: 100; Focal length: 115mm;
Aperture: f 16

Using a more telephoto lens, I moved in capture the finer details of shape and colour. This image is also an HDR image. The shutter speeds of the 5 images were 1/125; 1/60; 1/30; 1/15; & 1/8th sec.

This process is very exciting for photographers and the future of photography. I’m sure it won’t be long before it becomes a feature option in every camera.

2. Expressing the most Powerful Moment: How I did it

While preparing for a feature Bowron Lake presentation in Quesnel this week, my thoughts focused on one image. This photograph, above all the thousands I have made there over the years, talks to me about the most emotionally packed moment of every Bowron Lake canoe trip I have made; over one hundred.

This moment takes place in the first 30 seconds of every trip. It is the moment I leave land and carve my very first J-stroke. It is the moment I leave all phone, fax and email connections. With ten days of grub in my canoe, it’s the moment I leave the claws of the consumer world. From this moment on, a sense of freedom takes over and I can enjoy the natural world at leisure. It’s a most wonderful, powerful and freeing moment; one that we don’t experience very often in life.

Entrance to Kibbee Lake
© Chris Harris; Film camera

To express this moment I made this image purposefully. This is not a snapshot. It required deliberate thought and execution.

First, to create a more thought-provoking image, I required a sunny day with no wind for a perfect reflection.

To saturate the colours, I wanted to use a polarizing filter; this required I make the image around 3:00pm.

To bring out the reflections in the lake, I had to balance the light values above and below the horizon by using a 2-stop split neutral density filter.

To obtain sharp focus throughout the image I had to use a tripod and thus stand on land.

Finally, one last detail. The angle of the sun put the right hand interior of my canoe in deep shadow. To capture the richness of the cedar strips in my cedar-canvas Chestnut canoe, I attached a flash.

So there you have it! By combining creative vision and technical knowledge, I created the above image. It is titled Entrance to Kibbee Lake and is available as a limited edition print here at the Gallery.

3. Revisiting Old Slides: Using the latest software.

While waiting for the snow to melt and the landscape to reveal itself, I decided to look through old slides that might pertain to my upcoming volcano book. The big question was, could I restore them to a level of quality required for today’s printing standards?

Rainbow Mountains
© Chris Harris; Film camera

While some slides were beyond repair, many were not. Using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 slide scanner, I made the best scans I technically could. I then painstakingly went about retouching each one; eliminating all scratches and extracting as much detail from the film as possible. With Adobe’s latest software I felt I was able to restore them amazingly well. These two images, for example, now represent a truer rendition of the landscape than either of the original slides.

Rainbow Mountains: abstract
© Chris Harris; Film camera

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