A summer photo exhibition in Gananoque — TimothyBentley.Photography

My article about photography is out

The March issue of Thousand Islands Life includes an article I wrote about the joys and challenges of photography on a sailboat, as we travel among the islands.

I hope you can read it, and enjoy a foretaste of summer on its way.

Here’s the link:

https://thousandislandslife.com/a-photographer-navigates-the-thousand-islands/

And here’s one of the images that’s featured.

Here our boat is anchored in a sheltered bay on the north shore of Camelot Island, with a tether running to the rocks to keep it from possibly going aground.

Art gallery show

As I mentioned in the last blog, Dennis O’Connor of the O’Connor Gallery in Gananoque has invited me to show my work in his photography space for the month of August. I’m looking forward to my first gallery exhibition immensely, and I hope you’ll be able to come.

Here’s a story that illustrates Dennis’ generosity. Last summer, I was in a coffee shop in Gan that’s connected with several artist’s studios. So I asked the proprietor for advice about where I might display my work, not expecting much beyond generalities.

But she immediately mentioned Dennis’ gallery, and suggested I talk with him.

Then, “Wait,” she said, pointing out the window. “He just walked by.” I hurried outside and called his name. Dennis stopped and turned, and I told him I wanted to show my work in a gallery.

He then treated me, a complete stranger out there on the sidewalk, to a 20-minute master class about the business of artists and galleries.

Before he left, he invited me to bring my portfolio to the gallery.

A few days later, he offered a number of positive and thoughtful comments about my work, and said he’d like to display it next summer.

Those encouraging encounters with Dennis have helped me develop from being an enthusiastic photographer to having greater expectations of moving people with my art.

Lunar learnings

On March 14, a lunar eclipse was predicted, with a forecast of clear skies, and it got me curious.

So before bedtime, I organized my camera, long lens, tripod, and flashlight, then went to sleep fully clothed, with my alarm set for 2 pm.

At the appointed time, I staggered out to the street, set up my tools and began experimenting. It was eerily quiet, with no one around. As forecast, the night was indeed clear, but the moon seemed tiny, sitting at its apogee, very high in the sky.

Still, using an extreme telephoto lens, I was delighted to see that I could make out the varied colourations of my subject.

My first experiment was to frame the moon with trees. But it wasn’t satisfactory; the trees were just a dark, distracting blur. So I changed locations, and standing right outside our home, found a view of the sky with nothing in the way.

However, I noticed a bit of shake in the image, caused by camera movement each time I pressed the shutter button. So I connected the camera to an app on my phone. Now, using the app to open the shutter, the camera no longer shook. So far, so good.

Next, I experimented with various long exposures, ultimately settling on 3 seconds as best for my purposes. If you look closely at the top right of the photograph below, you can see a little streak among the stars. It was probably a jet flying at a very high altitude, moving across the sky in that interval.

I’m guessing that anyone who specializes in night-sky photography could have done all that in minutes, but I enjoyed the learning experience. After less than an hour on the street, I packed up my gear, went inside and took a quick look at my exposures, before tumbling into bed.

This is the one I liked best.

Return to Blog Main Page

If you enjoyed this, please share the link with anyone who might appreciate a fresh vision of our world: TimothyBentley.Photography

You can also visit my pages at 500PX.

Three Short Stories