Younes Bounhar Photography

Making the best of a bad situation (well…kinda…)

As I write this, I am supposed to be at a party in Seattle, at one of my favorite photographers’: Art Wolfe. Mother nature has decided otherwise, as the intense fog, prevented me from flying to Seattle from Victoria, BC. So after spending the night in a crummy hotel, after last night’s flight was canceled, I had to wake up at 4 am in the hopes of catching the first flight out to Seattle. Turns out the flight is canceled too, so I see myself obliged to jump onto a flight headed back home instead.

My first thoughts as this was unfolding were: CRAP, CRAP…ah well…C’MON…CRAP!!!! The fact that the temperatures here in O-town were hovering around the minus 1 billion degrees, didn’t help either. All of this to say, that I am somewhere between angst and disappointment, but, heck what could I do about it.

Where am I going with this, you say…uh…forgot my point really. As we were flying over the Rockies, the sun started climbing its way up in the sky to unfold the most beautiful sunrise I have had the privilege to see. The colours were off the charts, the alpenglow was out this world, as the freshly snow-covered peaks glistened in the morning light.  You could almost breathe the cool and crisp air around those mountains.

I may have no pictures to show for it, but the memory is right up here (well you can’t see it but I am pointing to a particular part of my anatomy as I type with one hand only). All of this to say, that instead of feeling sorry for myself, I ended up enjoying one of the most beautiful scenes that ever unfolded before me…I really do feel privileged. If you have read this far, let me thank you, and sincerely apologize for wasting your time…(While I don’t encourage hate mail, feel free to let me know if you feel slighted by any of this ).

By the way, this obviously not a shot I took this morning…

Posted on January 16th, 2009 in News | No Comments »

Re-discovering the old digs

You know how it is, you live somewhere, but you never go to those very landmarks that define the place. I lived in Montreal for 8 years, and visit regularly. Yet, there are tons of places I have still to see. That’s exactly what I set out to do this past week-end. Hopped in my car and headed straight downtown, first stop: Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral. It’s one of the most noticeable old churches in the city, and I have been meaning to visit for years but never got around to do it. I have to say that the interior doesn’t live up to the amazing exterior look. That said, the place definitely has some oomph to it!

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Posted on January 11th, 2009 in News Travel | No Comments »

Windswept

Shooting opportunities have been few and far between of late, but I simply couldn’t resist the appeal of our latest snow storm, one foot of pure white joy (well I wasn’t saying that earlier today as I was shoveling the driveway). With very little time to spare until sunset, I put my snowshoes on and walked across to neighbouring Britannia park. Here, the river is frozen from bank to bank and offers many great shooting opps.

The light didn’t materialise the way I’d hoped, however if you are willing to make the effort, great photos can be made in any light, provided you open your mind to them. Here, the river is entirely frozen, and because of its size, and wide-open nature, the ever-present winds carve some very interesting shapes in the freshly fallen snow.

As the sun was setting on my left, I positioned myself so that I would be facing north. In this way, the shadows cast by the evening light would help define the beautiful sunlit snow dunes scattered across the river. I then put on my 80-200 and set out to isolate smaller sections of the river to better highlight those shapes. An aperture of f/18-22 was chosen to maximise depth of field.

As the sun set, the contrast became considerably lower in the subdued light. I then chose to slightly overexpose the scene (2/3 stop) to obtain a high key photograph to emphasize the smooth, almost silk-like shape of the snow blanket.

Posted on January 8th, 2009 in News Photography Tips | No Comments »

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