Steve Pell » sky

A View from Grouse Mountain June 30th, 2010 Photo

Steve Pell — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:02:31 +0000

This is a stylized shot of the Straight of Georgia in Vancouver. Sandra and I climbed the Grouse Grind to capture some incredible views of Vancouver and it’s surrounding area. What I like about this shot is the sense of scale created by the ships in the Bay as well as the depth created by the Mountains on Vancouver Island in the background. My main goal of the framing choice was to create that sense of scale and depth. I edited this shot to enhance contrast as the original was quite washed out due to time of day, lens flares and distance.

Almost in Range

Steve Pell — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:52:13 +0000

This is a stylized shot of an alert (and hungry) hunter and it’s prey. I composed this shot using the rule of thirds while keeping a heavy center weight of focus on the main subjects. I also processed it by desaturating a large portion of the original colour and gave it a duotone look and feel. I enjoy the composition and the geometry of it as well as the minimalist approach the cloudless day afforded me. I also love the out of focus dog head watching the Canada Goose nearly centred between his ears, almost ready to pounce!

St. Jacobs Market

Steve Pell — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:00:52 +0000

Waterloo had one great attraction, the St. Jacobs Market. It it is a great place to buy fresh and delicious produce, meats, cheese, anything really often grown from the locals in region. This is a shot of one of the landmarks at the market. I liked how it looked in contrast to the sky in the background. I over exaggerated the mood in the image but that is what I like most about it, the cold steel hues with the stark contrast. I also liked the shapes in this image.

Flags in the Sky

Steve Pell — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:57:18 +0000

Here is a simple shot of some flags set against the sky. What I liked about this composition was the shapes and colours. The shapes and colours of the flags are similar in colour, direction and orientation as the clouds in the sky. Overall I am pleased with how this minimal image turned out.

CN Tower, Toronto

Steve Pell — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:02:04 +0000

This is a stylized edit of the CN Tower in Toronto taken on one of our urban photo walks. Here is some information from Wikipedia. The CN Tower, located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and observation tower standing 553.3 metres (1,815 ft) tall. It was the tallest free standing structure for 31 years until September 12, 2007 when it was surpassed in height by Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai). It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.

A View of Toronto from the CN Tower

Steve Pell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:11:32 +0000

This is a 180 degree panorama of Toronto from the CN Tower’s highest observation deck. This was a joint shoot with Sandra. We do have the other 180degree view but it is simply Lake Ontario. Most panoramas I see are a long image, we opted to go for this fisheye effect. This image was created by shooting a shot out of every window of the observation deck. Post processing was done using Photoshop’s Photomerge to help stitch them together. At full resolution this is over 100,000 pixels wide, the detail this image resolves is quite stunning.

Through the Valley

Steve Pell — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:56:06 +0000

This is a shot along a valley near Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada. This is part of a series of images shot from a road trip we took from Toronto to Tofino and back. This was an area of the southern route through B.C. that took us through some really unique landscapes which were basically deserts in the valleys through the mountain range. I love the colour of this shot and the apparent depth created by the hazy background and the vivid foreground. I also didn’t mind the lens flare as I feel it helps convey the warmth and beauty of the moment.

Spitfire in flight

Steve Pell — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:02:10 +0000

Walking down Victoria Street in Kitchener, Ontario, you will come across a store called “KW Surplus”. On the top of the building is a large scale replica of a Spitfire. I thought it could be a lot of fun to composite a shot of the plane on the roof with the sky that day which happened to be a bright sunny day with a few clouds. I composed them together to come up with what you see here. This is one of my favorite composites as I think it turned out really well.

Dead tree moon

Steve Pell — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:53:37 +0000

This was a shot of a really old and really dead tree. What I really love about this image is the Moon which is real… almost. I enlarged the Moon to give it more detail with in the frame. The location and lighting of it however were real, just not the size. I also really loved the contrast between the blue sky and the yellow bark on the tree. Pushing the colour and Moon size in this image helped it regain some visual interest.

Going Down

Steve Pell — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:30:28 +0000

This image is a composite of 2 images shot about 30 minutes apart. First was 5 trainers flying around in formation, the second was the incredible sunset. When I got back from the walk I didn’t really have any images that were interesting enough on their own so I decided to combine the two. I made one look like it was crashing because during their training they were practicing with the smoke, seemed logical, why not add flames and make it crash? I really like the overall composition though could use additional work.

Enlarge the Image