Looking through a different lens~

The boats on the shore around PEI and New Brunswick provide a fertile ground for the imagination. Quite often they seem to offer something beyond just taking the photograph. This page is for exploring some of those ideas, and the originals are on my Ships and Boats on Shore page for reference [link below]. If I were to go back I would also take infrared with a full spectrum camera using different filters. There is nothing that says we have to look at everything the same way all the time.

Above~ A scene in a field using a Chalk Smudge technique. Below~ Same, except as Rembrandt might paint it.

Get closer~

Moving in a bit we see it as Georgia O’Keeffe might have painted it. Below is the same except as a charcoal sketch.

Everybody’s buddy~

This boat in a field by the ocean continues to be a show stopper for anyone driving by, including me. Although I’m not sure if anything really matches the impact of the original image, I like the one above in the Radiance style of the Italian painter Lorenzo. Somehow it seems to float a bit.

Above~ Same boat but showing more of the surroundings in the Oil Glaze style of photographer/artist Blake Rudis. Below~ Same except in an Impressionist style.

Below~ Different angle, in a Chalk Smudge style.

Near Skinner’s Pond~

Above~ This was a boat and horse in a field close to Skinner’s Pond done in a Watercolour style. Below~ Same, except in a Chalk Smudge style.

Same boat, different angle in an Impressionist style. Below is the same image in the oil painting style of Jim LaSala.

Above~ A fishing boat in a field in PEI in a Chalk Smudge style.

Near Cedar Dunes~

This boat near Cedar Dunes Provincial Park in PEI seems to almost float in the landscape because of the heavy overcast sky that day, which makes everything softer. I pretty much like the original image just as it is, but I do like how using the Radiance filter (above) enhances the effect, which is almost like a Neutral Density filter over the lens.

Named boats~

Above~ The boat My Three Sons IV on shore in PEI using a Watercolour style. Below~ My Three Sons IV in the field as Degas might have painted it.

Above~ The Tiffany Dawn on shore in PEI using a Watercolour style. Below~ The Black Panther on shore in PEI as Cezanne might paint it.

Above~ Richard’s Pride on shore in PEI in a Watercolour style.

Above~ The boat Gone With the Wind on shore in PEI in a Watercolour style. Below~ Gone With the Wind as Cezanne might have painted it.

New Brunswick~

Here we find what appears to be a boat graveyard on Campobello Island, NB. Above is in an Impressionist style, below is in a Chalk Smudge style.

Above~ in a Chalk Smudge style. Below~ with a Charcoal Smudged treatment, which I rather like.

Above~ A wonderful ship sitting on a farm in New Brunswick in an Impressionist style. Below~ with a Radiance filter applied.

Getting a little closer, we see the same ship in an Watercolour style above, and below as Van Gogh might have painted it.

Near Bouctouche~

Finally, let’s end on this little guy tied up in an inlet in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. Although not technically resting on shore I like it anyway. Above is in an Impressionist style, below is in a Pastel style.

Notes~

For those of us who grew up with darkrooms in our bathrooms, spare bedrooms or basements, it is almost surreal that the whole process is now contained inside this little box sitting on our desks or a tablet in our hands. Something has been lost, that whole process in a magical place where the hours go by like minutes. The book The Joy of Photography delved into it a bit, but the book never written was The Joy of the Darkroom, where for many of us this magic happened.

It is hard to explain to people that at one point almost everyone I knew had a darkroom of some type, usually least a bathroom with a towel stuffed under the door to keep out the light for doing your own film. Many didn’t have an enlarger but they had a piece of glass on a flat table under a light bulb for making contact sheets and developed in small trays in the bathtub. This was normal and required very little investment.

For those of us who had these darkrooms, the idea that images shouldn’t be manipulated or played with is ludicrous: you manipulated the image as soon as you stepped into the darkroom. You manipulated it when you selected the paper–glossy, pearl, luster, satin, matte or whatever, plus the contrast and type of paper which could totally change the image. It was a real revolution when Ilford came out with the Multigrade or polycontrast paper, where you could go from soft to hard contrast with one paper using different filters. There is a whole world out there, especially in papers. Tools in a toolbox.

But for actual manipulation and experimentation, we were more or less limited to solarization and posterization, putting tea in the paper developer or using sepia toned paper, or even fluorescent or metallic papers, sometimes making elaborate masks out of Kodalith film and so on. While it wasn’t something you did all the time, it was fun to play with.

Now a whole world is out there with endless possibilities offered by various software such as Topaz Impression and others. And, it should be noted, this is without pouring developer or fixer down the drains. So with something lost, something has also been gained. And, here we are now on the cusp of AI, and who knows where that will lead.

While I still don’t think anything much beats a well exposed image at the right place, right time, and in the right direction, occasionally it is good to have some fun with it.

Links & Sources~

Topaz Labs~ Parent company of the now discontinued Topaz Studio and Impression.

Nik Collection~ Now called DXO, excellent photo editing software.

North Cape Coastal Drive Trip Planner~ Extensive website, lots of info.

Explore the North Cape Coastal Drive~ from Tourism PEI.

Motorcycle Tour Guide/North Cape~ An all-round good website.

Photography and Life in Rural New Brunswick