A Weekend at the Camp
Why, hello there! I've decided to start a blog to document my photography adventures, but more on my motivation behind that, later in a future post.
What I wanted to talk about today was my weekend at my best friend's family's camp.
The camp is located in a wooded area, by a brook, not too far from Moncton, NB. A couple of times a year, we'll head out there to shoot the shit, do a bit of hiking and watch some old movies on a small television screen. Inevitably, this leads to us eating junk food and going to bed very late, both of which are a rarity for me.
What kind of movies, you might ask? This time around, we watched Lost in Translation, Employee of the Month, Purple Rain, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, 100 Girls, Mr. Deeds and One Week.
As I almost always do when I leave the house for an extended period of time, I brought along my camera. I recently unloaded my DSLRs in favor of a mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z50 to be exact. The body and the kit lenses are both light and compact, which make them ideal for when I'm on the go.
The first part of our Saturday-afternoon hike had us walking in the woods roughly parallel with the aforementioned brook at a distance. Eventually, we reached the river that runs perpendicular to the trail and brook, and at the point where the trail converges with the riverbank, my friend remarked on the view over our right shoulders. He was hinting at how it was worthy of a photograph, but at that moment, I wasn't feeling it. The harsh sunlight was part of it, but more so, it felt as though the scenery had just snuck up on me. I hadn't had enough time to settle into it. I decided to reevaluate the situation on our way back, when I would have had more time to contemplate things during our approach.
We continued our trek along the river until we reached a pebble beach. We stayed there for a bit, gathering flat pebbles and skipping them on the calm water's surface. At one point, my friend issued a challenge to see which one of us could successfully skip a rock across the river, into the crevice under a tree's exposed roots on the opposite bank. After three or four tosses, yours truly nailed it! To be fair, I wasn't able to repeat the feat.
On our way back, I was able to ease myself into the previously-mentioned scenery, and as you can see just below, my friend was right. It was beautiful! You might not notice it right away, but the tree that's fallen into the river adds a nice touch. And how could you not be in awe of that red foliage?
Near the end of our hike, just as we exited the trail onto the main road to the camp, I stopped to snap a picture of the pine branch below. To be honest, I had noticed it when we'd started our hike, but I didn't want to stop as we had just set out. Perhaps I'm fretting over nothing, but I have a tendency to limit my stopping to take pictures when I'm with other people to avoid being a hindrance. It was those golden needles in contrast to the green ones that caught my eye. As lovely as they were, I felt I was unable to capture them as they appeared to the naked eye, which is why I excluded the image from my Facebook and Instagram posts.
The photo below was taken as I was sitting on the front porch. I liked the silhouettes of the ceiling, the post and the hanging wrought iron sign. I tried framing it from various viewpoints, but the one from where I was sitting was my favorite.
Later, while we were playing washer toss, I noticed the trees' reflection in the camp's front window. As I took a break in between games, grabbed my camera and approached the glass, I realized that I would be able to incorporate the floral pattern of the closed curtains into the shot if I focused the camera just right.
The photograph of the antlers and horseshoe at the top of this post was taken on Sunday morning as we were packing the car for the drive back home. I had walked by them several times over the years, but this time, the light was hitting them in a way that immediately captured my attention. I emphasized the vignetting afterwards to really set the two objects apart from their supporting wall.
If you have any questions or comments about the photographs I shared in this post, please don't hesitate to post them in the comments or to reach out using the contact form below. I always enjoy discussing photography, whether it's about my images or someone else's! If you'd rather discuss our weekend's choice of movies, I'm up for that too!
If you enjoyed what you saw and would like to receive email notifications for new posts in the future, Subscribe to my newsletter!