News Flash
Bad news is I didn’t recliam my trophy as Photographic Artist of the Year. 
I was however a finalist.
Good news is I won first prize in the Experimental Catergory for "The devil’s in the details’ I get a small, but very nice trophy 🙂 This image also won a Judge’s Choice Ribbon and, while this is not official yet, – I have heard that it also made it into the Loan Collection – the top 40 images in Canada created by professional photographers.
That would make it 4 images in three years that made it to the loan collection!
I am happy. I am grateful to the Judges for their consideration and the time they gave to try to "get" that image. I guess they all got it.
Have a superb weekend – I may be out celebrating at my fav restaurant, FUDE. Maybe I’ll see you there!!!
Entry # 4
The Devil’s in the Details
This one was concieved 2 years ago as a result of a short trip down my road, and some random playing in photoshop.
I had a pretty good version of this concept all made up as a large format print (it really needs to be seen LARGE – so the web version is not quite as dramatic), but the horizon in the distance was a very negative distraction.
No amount of photoshopping could remove it in a realistic way. I have to say I was more than perplexed as to how to get rid of it, to complete the transformation of what I saw in my head and what would be renedered on the page.
I put the images away but never quite forgot about my vision. Fast forward to Spring 2010 – we had 2 weeks of fog.
The fog obliterated everything more than a few feet from the camera. Back to the devil shrubs – PERFECT!
Mother Nature made the distracting horizon invisible just so I could create this image.
The vegetation had grown and changed quite a bit in the ensuing 12 months so I started a new version and I am very glad i did.
Awarded EXCELLENT – PPOC Image Competition 2010.
Entry # 3
If displacement maps are a mumbo jumbo term for you, then I will keep this one short!
I was experementing with displacement maps, and as I was playing around, this was going through my head – don’t ask me why!
From The Tempest (by William Shakespeare)
Full fathom five thy Father lies,
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearles that were his eyes,
Nothing of
him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into
something rich & strange…
And what you see is the result of several hours of meditation on one of Willy’s grand verses.
ACCEPTED at the PPOC National Image Show, 2010
Entry # 2
Last summer I hiked around parts of Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, (too many tourists to do it right!), but it was a stunning view just the same, and from some angles I could get shots sans people. I’m going back there very soon BEFORE the tourist season starts so I can take a day to explore it in more detail.
There was one lone paddler amongst all the sightseers, and I would have given almost anything to hitch a ride with him to the far shore of the lake where people couldn’t get to. But why should I spoil his adventure – he took off in a hurry eager to enjoy the unreal emerald waters and the sunlight that danced on each wave. Lucky man.
This image was ACCEPTED.
No it’s not HDR in case you’re wondering 
.