Fiery Dawn

It's Looks Like A Flaming Tornado

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I took this shot two years ago, in Muskoka, Canada. I was driving from Huntsville to Algonquin Provincial Park and left my hotel at about four o'clock in the morning because I wanted to be at Algonquin before dawn. This was just one of many amazing sights I was rewarded with that morning. It looks like flames rising over the hill, but it's just dawn colours diffused through thick cloud.

Hocus Pocus

Just Focus On The Crocus

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I had to chuckle at a comment a few hours ago from the inimitable Goddess. She surmised that I am not toting around a $99 el-cheapo camera and said (in a mock flouncy but not princessy kind of tone) that her pictures never turn out like mine. Why, thank you, Goddess. I'm glad you like my photographs.

Most of the time, I use a Pentax K100D, but it wasn't so long ago that I was using (believe it or not) a $99 el-cheapo Instamatic camera. But I treasure many of the photographs I took, in several corners of the world, using that simple Ricoh. If you'd like to have a look at some of those shots, just go to Putting Cameras In The Picture.

Just for the record, the frame above was taken with a simple, non-expensive, non-digital Canon. It was a cold morning in Huntsville, Ontario, and the crocus had keeled over completely, pointing to all quadrants of the compass in a little circle of shade and bright sun. It was a very interesting subject with subtle colours and strong variation of light quality.

Blue In The Phase

The Sun Gets Its Come-Uppance

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot was taken at Algonquin National Park in Muskoka, Canada. I had driven down, pre-dawn, from Huntsville, taking good care not to run the rental car into an errant moose. I stopped for some great shots at Oxtongue Lake and Tea Lake before pulling in at Smoke Creek. I shot about fifty frames here, using a Canon EOS 3000 and a Pentax Optio, but this picture would have been one of the ten best results from the morning. Interestingly enough, I always tell amateur photographers to look away from the ``obvious'' shot, because you never know what you'll capture. And a few moments after I shot this frame, I turned my lens ninety degrees to the right for a great result. If you want to see that shot, just go to Blue Riband.

Click here: Canon EOS 3000, Kodak 100 ASA film, Shutter 1/1000, F2.2