I Underestimated My Own Backyard
For most of us landscape photographers, living somewhere surrounded by enormous mountains, gorgeous waterfalls or dramatic desert scenes isn’t a reality. It would be ideal to live near any of the types of landscapes listed above but life makes it so that we have to make reasonable decisions and living near our workspace or our family sounds logical. For these exact same reasons, I have always lived near Montreal. Now don’t get me wrong, Montreal is a lovely city with great culture and social options! There are a ton of amazing museums, we have amazing food! It’s probably one of the best cities in the world if you want to party!
…but for the nature lover in me, Montreal has very little if anything at all to offer me. For that reason, you won’t see very many images from my home province in my portfolio! I travel far from home to capture images. I have often said that the Province of Quebec had nothing to offer to a landscape photographer when compared to locations in the likes of the Canadian Rockies, Pacific North West of USA, South West of USA, Iceland, Norway…only to name a few. Quebec is nice but does it have enough for the landscape photographer in general?
Read below and find out how things went in my favorite part of my home province of Quebec: Gaspésie Peninsula! I will not only share locations but also some tips on how I was able to capture some jaw dropping moments!
STORMY SKIES TURN INTO GORGEOUS LIGHT
I am not going to lie, the weather forecast was everything but optimal for most people who want to go on a vacation! There was some rain in the forecast for everyday! The whole Gaspesie Peninsula is located where the St-Lawrence River becomes a gulf. It becomes so much wider that it actually looks like the ocean! There was some heavy cloud coverage too but thanks to a wonderful app called Windy, I was able to predict the cloud conditions in such a way that we could get the most out of the given conditions. Our first day ended with some heavy rain…so no sunset on that evening! But the conditions for the next morning were looking very promising. Heavy fog started opening as the sun was poking above the horizon which literally gave me one of the most spectacular sunrises of my life!
WATCH OUT FOR TIDE SWINGS
The further you go north, the heavier tide swings will become. And for that reason, you must absolutely look carefully at tide charts to avoid trapping yourself in dangerous locations. Imagine a scenario where you forgot to look at the tide charts and get trapped somewhere where the waves will crash you against cliff walls… You always want an emergency exit when it comes to seascape photography. If there aren’t any emergency exits and you don’t plan your shoot correctly and safely, consequences can be life threatening.
Tide swings can also have a monumental impact on the quality of elements you can use in your composition. You can take advantage of what’s underwater at high tide if you plan your shoot wisely. Sometimes low tide will unveil some truly amazing treasures! Think about cool tidalpools, textured rocks, star fish, marine plants and more.
Do not omit the use of a circular polarizer to reveal some pretty details in a small tidal pool. Water doesn’t always have to reflect the sky! There could be some really amazing juicy details underwater! And that's exactly what I did for the image below. I love plants and flowers...marine plants are still considered plants, right? They add such a fun impact in the foreground of that image.
THE IDEAL SHUTTER SPEED
As mentioned in another blog article, I truly love lighthouses! It’s the only man made element that I will gladly accept to photograph! I think they complement a landscape scene so well! Gaspesie Peninsula, being a maritime environment, requires many lighthouses all along the coast to allow ships to navigate safely. Some of which are just average looking…while others are truly breathtaking. In most cases, after scouting the areas before photographing them, I found that low tide was going to be my best option. That specific one below is called Cap-DesRosiers Lighthouse and in order to access that part of the beach where I was standing, the tide had to be low enough. Low tide not only revealed some beautiful boulders to use as a foreground but I knew very well that the incoming waves crashing against them would create a huge impact. The shutter speed I chose in order to retain a beautiful amount of detail here was 1/4 of a second. If you want similar results with waves, you can try a shutter speed between 1/4 and 1/2 a second. You will most likely need to use a Neutral Density Filter to cut some light and achieve the desired exposure time. Looking for filters? Have a look at Kase Filters Canada’s website!
GO FOR A MINIMALIST APPROACH
On one particular morning, we knew the tide wouldn’t be on our side for sunrise. The tide was going out but still too high to offer great foreground opportunities for my regular type of images. I love to capture images in portrait orientation with very strong foreground elements. I had to think differently this time as I couldn’t find a proper foreground. But these partially submerged boulders were definitely catching my attention. I truly loved their rugged shapes against a very smooth and horizontal surface. I used a telephoto zoom lens and composed a very minimalist image which consisted of only a few rocks. I tried many different shutter speeds but the one I preferred was 1/6 of a second. I wanted to retain those ripples which were warm on the side catching the first light and dark on the shadow side. Sometimes less is more! You can read more about Minimalist and Intimate Photography in the article!
WILDLIFE IN A LANDSCAPE IMAGE?
Right after sunrise on one particular morning, we were lucky enough to have some lovely birds. I can’t tell exactly what kind of birds they were since I am no bird expert…so let’s just call them ducks! Ok? Don’t send hate if they aren’t ducks though!
As the sun was coming up, the atmosphere was really improving! Fog was raising and a mist was very present. It was a dream morning with conditions to die for! I went for a tighter composition of a small islet and I noticed that some « ducks » were going to gently roam into my composition. So I got ready to capture them. I simply wanted to have a couple of them in my scene as I knew they would add a little something special. Then all of a sudden, they decided to take off and boy was I happy to be ready to press the shutter! Flapping their wings and their palmed feet against the water was epic! If I knew in advance that they would take off, I would have raised my ISO a bit to use a faster shutter speed…but all in all, the important thing is that I was able to photograph them!
…IN CONCLUSION!
In conclusion, I will take back my « There’s Nothing to Photograph in Quebec »! MY home province, Quebec, gave me a huge smack to the face! We had beautiful conditions to shoot at almost every sunrise and sunset… It was a truly memorable and fruitful trip. I am really proud to share images with you, my audience! And maybe in the near future, you will consider visiting me here!
