Water intensifies light—an important fact for paddlers to consider.
When light is coming at a low angle, the water acts like a huge mirror that reflects and intensifies the power of the light. This additional reflected light will cause your paddler and boat to be brighter than the similarly lit background. You might want to underexpose slightly to counteract the effect of that intensified lighting.
F
inally, the colour of the light will affect the mood of the image and your reaction to it. Light can be either warm or cool. Early morn-
ing and late afternoon light is warm. It adds life and vitality to pad- dlers’ faces because of its warm tones. Shadow light is made up pre- dominantly of light reflected from the blue sky. It is cool. Faces in shadow tend to look pale and sickly because of the blue, cool cast to the light. However, you can use that cool, blue light to your advan- tage. Notice how the soft blues of the moonlight create a calm reflec- tive mood in the Lake Superior photo. With a little practice this new awareness of the direction, intensity
and colour of light will become an automatic reflex that kicks in when you look through your viewfinder. You will find yourself making conscious choices about how to take advantage of what you know about light. No matter what type of light you like best—the mysteri- ous, silvery white light of mist over the water, the bright overhead light of mid-afternoon under clear blue skies, or the low light of dawn or dusk that blasts every detail with red-hot colour—soon you will begin to understand and look for the type of light that really inspires you; the light that makes you want to grab a camera and get out in your boat. By paying as much attention to the quality of light that strikes your
subjects as you do to their composition, you will start to see dramatic improvements in your images. Possibly, you won’t need a trek into the Himalayas to see that photography is the art of making pictures of light.
Rick Matthews is a professional photographer and avid paddler.
Moonlight on Lake Superior
More by good luck than planning we had a full moon for many days of a 12-day kayak trip along the North Shore of Lake Superior. I found the silver reflections off the lake very pure and the soft blues of the moonlight very calming. It also helped to have a very cooperative motionless model.
Autumn on Lake Temagami, Ontario We spent a great week on Lake Temagami one fall on a houseboat-supported kayak adventure. The blue-sky days gave brilliant colours to the boats and the lily pads. Also being able to shoot from the top of the houseboat gave some great angles, not to mention a great place to sleep when the rains came.
Georgian Bay Sunset
This amazing sunset over Georgian Bay near Killarney went on for almost 45 min- utes after the sun went below the horizon. The soft reds bleeding through the clouds are quite even and non-directional but the varying density of cloud cover and the reflection off the lake gives a real sense of direction and depth.
28 Early Summer 2004
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