Tobermory Sunset

I tend not to shoot much in the winter months. It's a combination of a hatred of the cold and low levels of interest in snowy landscapes. This winter has been especially bad. So in these dreary months I find myself looking back through my folders of photos from the previous summer. 

Recently I went back to the photos from a trip to Tobermory in June. The photos below are from the best sunset I got to shoot in all of 2013. I had already edited and posted these photos when I got home from that trip. But something was lacking. I liked them, but they're weren't great. I didn't spend much time on them at the time because I had a week's worth of beautiful photos from one of my favourite places in Ontario. 

So the other day I revisited these two photos and gave them the attention they deserved from the start. Not only was this my favourite sunset of the year, I think these two photos are the highlight of my photography in 2013. 

Abandoned Houses of Ontario, Canada.

A collection of my favourite abandoned houses around rural ontario. From Essex to Hastings counties.

At least 3 of these are no longer there, either demolished or burned down. 

New Book

I haven't been posting here too much lately but I thought I would post this here as well. I just finished up my latest book. Windsor-Essex Landscapes is a collection of my favourite landscape and night images from around my hometown of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is now up for sale on Blurb. Check it out!


     

Windsor Essex Landscapes by Cale Best | Make Your Own Book

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #20

I've already posted this photo on facebook, but I didn't shoot anything else this week. So this is my best photo of the week, even though I usually try to make this post fresh, its better then rushing a junk photo for the sake of something brand new. This is Chase Davidson on a solid day of riding.

Check out Todd's photos of the week.

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #5

Today Todd and I went for a walk at Ojibway Park to find some deer. Eventually we saw one and starting shooting photos. I knew there had to be more nearby. Then another came out of the bushes. Then another. Within about 15 minutes there were 10-12 deer all around us. So here are my bests from the day. Enjoy.

Check out Todd's Photo(s)

Week 45

This weekend I had the pleasure of waking up at 3am to be at work for 4 to make donuts. Sunday I brought my camera along because I knew I had to get a photo for this week.

I shot some at an old abandoned school house the other day. But I'm not posting them here because I already posted them elsewhere, and I figured I've had enough abandoned photos on here for a while. You can check them out on my Flickr.

So here are some tasty donuts to enjoy while I catch up on sleep.

Check out Todd's photo(s)

Windsor Dragway

In 1968 the Wheatley brothers officially opened the Windsor Dragway in front of 4000 spectators, three years later in 1971 it was closed and abandoned. A couple weeks ago I went out to visit the decaying remains just off Manning road at Baseline. I shot some photos but ran out of light way before I was done exploring. So on Saturday my friend Todd and I went back.

Click the photos to enlarge.

This is a shot of the actual drag strip that I shot on my first visit.

The West concession stand interior.

The West concession stand bathrooms.

Once the sun went down I got out my flash and homemade color gels and try to liven the place up a little. I've been trying this technique more and more lately, but without overdoing it (I hope). I find it interesting in old decaying places. It seems to bring back some life and vibrancy.

Deep fryer in a roofless section of the East concession stand.

East Concession stand entrance.

Looking out from the East concession stand.

Ridebmx.com

A few weeks ago I sent some photos in to be included in a gallery that was going to be on ridebmx.com. The BMX photography forum I frequent, BMXperception put a bunch of photos together for ridebmx.com to try and boost membership. Anyway, the photos of mine they used aren't crazy tricks, but the ones I felt were the most technically sound. Check em' out. Both my photos are of Richard Carson, they didn't credit the riders, just the photographers.

The Wonderful (and slightly creepy) world of technology

I took this photo about two years ago on a drive home from Denver. It's just outside of the Rocky Mountains in Loveland, CO. I pulled over at the side of the road just because it looked like a cool place to take a photo. It's one of the few photos of myself that I actually like.

Well yesterday I went on Google Maps to play around with their new "street view" feature. Windsor isn't on it yet so I was looking at places in the US that I had been. I found the actual spot I took this photo years ago. You can see the pine tree on the left of my photo.


Anyway, thats all, no message here, just something I wanted to share. Now go find yourself on google maps and get creeped out.

The Farm

A few weeks ago I went out to St. Joachim, about 20 minutes out of the city. My friend's band was practicing at the drummers dad's old farm house. While I was shooting photos of them I noticed the sun setting outside. I had purposely planned to shoot some sunset photos while I was out there that night.

I grabbed my tripod and slipped out the back door for a few minutes. I headed towards the back of the property and by the time I found a place to start shooting from I could no longer hear the music pumping out of the house.

I tried shooting these the honest way, with a graduated ND filter but the angles were too much and the sunset was too bright for it to really have an effect. So I started shooting everything twice, first exposing for the sunset, then again exposing for the foreground. It took me awhile to get it right in photoshop putting them together but I finally got this one to turn out decent.

I'm still not 100% happy with it, which is why I'm posting it here and not saving it for a greater use. I have others from this shoot that I'm holding on to for the time being.


After looking through all these photos and working on them in photoshop I really got the desire to shoot more photos in the county. But first I need a car to explore in.

End of the Season

Monday night was the final points race of the season at the kart track. After four months of racing many drivers were still close in points. I myself was just aiming to keep a spot in the top ten. I haven't seen the final point standings but I figured I ended up tied for 8th out of about 45 karts.


I was happy with my top ten finish in my first year back in a kart in about ten years. Almost all the karts in the top ten had much more horse power then our modest near stock Honda clone 6.5hp engine.


I shot more photos than I usually do on a Monday. I enjoy taking photos at the track but I usually don't have the time to do a lot of photography if there's work to be done on our kart. But this week the kart ran great, and I stayed out of trouble on the track.



As the season went on the word spread about the track and each week more and more spectators showed up. This week there had to be at least 300 people in the audience and that's not including the people in the pits.





After the drivers meeting we had all the drivers assemble on the track for a class photo. I set the 10 second timer and jumped into the photo at the far right.


Now we move to Saturday afternoons until the end of October for fun racing and testing for the 2010 season.

Snowbirds

The Air Show is in town this weekend and yesterday there was much commotion in the skies over our house. I caught Canada's own Snowbirds flying overhead from my backyard. Usually I don't have enough to get my camera out and change lenses from the time I hear the roar of a jet to the time it streaks past. But they made a few passes and I was able to get one decent shot without trees or telephone lines in the way.

I was planning on heading out around the airport to get some photos today of the planes warming up for tomorrow's events, but its been raining all day so far. I have to work tomorrow but I might journey to the airport on Sunday, weather permitting.

One Day Drifters

(Click photos to enlarge)

About a month ago some friends and I decided we wanted to go camping for a few days. The original plan was just to spend a few days at a campground about an hour away, Wheatley Provincial Park. But as usual, we procrastinated long enough to leave us without a campsite. The weekend we wanted to go was a long weekend, Civic holiday here in Canada (I still don't know what its for exactly). By the time we all got together and started laying down plans, there was no where to lay them, virtually everything within an eight hour drive was booked solid.


As the weekend approached we decided to just take the three hour drive North to Grand Bend, drink some alcohol and fall asleep on the beach. We actually got up early and were on the road by 9am. As we neared southwestern Ontario's greatest beach town, the traffic slowed to walking pace. As we expected, the town was packed.


We found some free parking in front of an abandoned house on a side street. At first I joked about spending the night in that house...but after I thought about it for a second it seemed like a decent idea. We didn't stay there, but we probably could have without incident.

Jorge, Red and Steve

After we had an expensive sub-par lunch at the Growling Gator Bar & Grill on the beach we headed back to the car to move it to a permanent spot for the night where it wouldn't get towed. Steve and Jorge dropped Red and I off at the beach with the cooler while they took the car to Oakwood Inn Golf & Country Club.


Red and I set up on the beach with our cooler of whiskey, Gatorade and Ginger Ale, away from the thousands of people.



We hung out on the beach from about 3 o'clock until well after the sun left the cloudy sky and all the people went back to their cottages.


We had planned on sleeping on the beach, but the weather forecasts warned of a 70% chance of rain between 11pm and 6am, so we figured we better spend the night in Jorge's car. It's not a big car, we all slept (barely) sitting mostly upright with towels and shirts for pillows. I don't think I ever fell completely asleep. Every time I'd start to drift off, the position I was in ran out of comfort.


Around 2am I heard a car pull into the parking lot, then seen a police cruiser's spotlight search around the parking lot and settle on our car. The OPP officer came and asked us where we were staying that night. "Nowhere" I replied, half asleep. He asked if we had any open alcohol in the car, no, and no one is going to drive in the near future, no. "Good idea" he replied, "have a good night".

Steve was the last one up, so we took some photos of his discomfort.

Finally, morning came. We had planned on spending that day in Grand Bend, but we were all pretty sore and tired still so we decided to start heading home. But first we had some breakfast at a 50's themed diner. I took the wheel for the trip home, missed a turn and ended up in Sarnia. I didn't know where the highway I wanted was, but judging by the sun I headed east and eventually found the highway I needed. Twenty seven hours after we left, we were back in Windsor with all the comforts of home.