Dancing Dragon Seaweed

I’m feeling smug that I made the decision to do some photography this morning as it is now snowing like crazy! Today I took advantage of a short window of time between storm clouds to visit Kye Bay on the Comox Peninsula. This past weekend I explored the beach with my husband and my friends from Nanaimo. We found it to be fantastic beach for beach combing and I wanted to return with my camera. This morning I found the rock and sand beach to be strewn with driftwood and seaweed. I used my Nikon D300 and a 105mm lens plus my handy Joby Gorillapod to capture the beautiful, vibrant colours of this seaweed. I have recently started painting again and I think that this photo represents my love affair with abstraction. It also seems like a great colour scheme for Valentine’s and Chinese New Year.

Morning Shoot at Mack Laing Park

This morning the clouds finally pulled back to reveal the much-missed sunshine. Though direct sunshine at 11am is not typically my preferred time to go shooting, I’ll certainly take the sun over sideways rain! Today’s photography stroll took me through Mack Laing Park which is at the end of my street.

Comox Harbour

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to spend a good deal of time outdoors exploring the landscape of my new home, the Comox Valley. Ideas for a new painting series are brewing but I have yet to put brush to canvas. While I let those ideas percolate I have started doing photography again. The last time I invested time in a photography project was almost two years ago when I created a slideshow/movie on mindfulness.

When the sun peaked out one afternoon this week I grabbed my camera and walked down to a beach in Comox Harbour. Like many projects I start I dive in with a general idea knowing a theme will emerge. On this day I was thinking about texture, movement and balance. With this shot in particular I was remember last August; I accompanied my husband on his week long photography workshop with Sam Abell at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island, WA. Richard’s project focused on the island’s edges where the ocean met the land and a sense of impermanence. Though I did not attend the workshop, I spent a good deal of the week shooting with Richard and discussing ideas from the workshop. Abell encourages photographers to think carefully about the spaces between the elements of the composition and the tension created. This is something I am familiar with in paintings too, and was what I was thinking of as I knelt in the grass and snow.

Birding for inspiration

As I slowly try to get back into the art-making saddle, I’m finding that I need to get outside for some inspiration. Today we went for a walk in the Cape Lazo Wildlife area where we met dozens of chickadees, nuthatches, LBBs (unidentified Little Brown Birds) and one frisky squirrel.

Photography Competition

Nicole at Granville Island

Metal work at Granville Is.

My rainy November got a burst of colour and inspiration today. Last night I challenged my partner, Richard, to a friendly photo competition. We spent the morning at Granville Island taking photos for our little competition. There is nothing like competition and the knowledge that I would be sharing the photos to get my creativity flowing. I haven’t done any photography like this since my Mindfulness project last spring. The rain and lack of foliage made the vibrant colours of the buildings and structures really pop out.  We were also using the time to scout neat stairwells and colourful walls to use in future portrait and wedding photo shoots. While Richard is the professional when it comes to photography, I consider myself an important artistic director. What a great day! I’ll post my ‘contest entries’ after the voting is complete.