I just want to let everyone know, that our popular video that shows the killer whales going under our kayaks off the shores of Sooke, BC, just made the 100,000 viewer mark. This is just under a year, so that is awesome. This still remains the highlight of the 2009 season and is something that I’ll likely never capture on camera again. What an experience. Don’t forget to watch it if you haven’t yet seen it.

Kayaking with Killer Whales, Sooke, BC

This weekend turned out to be a really nice weekend weather-wise. I did manage to get out and take a few photos. I’ve really been waiting for some nice cloud formations to give me that moody look that I always try to achieve, but the weather just isn’t co-operating. I shouldn’t really complain because bright sunny days is just what I want in terms of hanging around outside. But maybe around 8pm the dark clouds could appear for a few hours then leave again. Is that too much to ask for?

The first shot was taken after the sun went down at the new Silver Spray development located in East Sooke. This spot is near Possession Point, which I almost always take from the Sooke side. It was a nice little cove and the waves were breaking nicely on the shoreline. I do however wish I was there a little earlier than I was, as my shutter speeds were a little longer than I wanted. But this is the best of the group.

The next series of photos were taken near Sandcut Creek, about 20 minutes west of Sooke. Sunday night, after dinner, I decided to go for a little drive west. Ended up in Jordan River staring blankly at the calm waters off the coast, looking for something to catch my eye but it never did. Don’t get me wrong, I love that area, but I didn’t have much time for exploring. I quickly got back into the car and headed towards home, looking around every bend in the road for something to stop and take photos of.

As I crossed the Sandcut Creek Bridge, I looked towards the south and noticed some nice rock formations and the river going over them. I knew there was something there to take so I pulled off the side of the road and got out. Walked down the steep embankment and started to look around. It wasn’t that location that caught my eye, but the system of smaller waterfalls on the opposite side that I couldn’t see from the car. As I started to walk towards them, I could see farther upstream and a wonderful waterfall tucked away in the forest.

This was the spot. I nervously worked my way upstream in the water. There really isn’t a clear path through it and my luck with my expensive camera gear and water is very short. I’ve been known to end up in the mud or water a few times, so I was trying to be extra cautious this time. As luck had it, I made it.

This is a REALLY neat area and I will go back and spend more time there. I only had 15 minutes until the sun was setting and I didn’t want to navigate back through the creek at dark.

Don’t forget that you can click on the photos for a larger version. Enjoy!

Nicole Jensen, an central Albertan urban photographer, contacted Inktvis Creative to help her with her brand. She was looking for a logo that she could use to brand herself and to use as a watermark on her photos that she is presenting to clients and to share on the internet.

Nicole knew what she didn’t want but was open to anything creative we might come up with.

We started by looking at her name and trying to see what we could envision with her initials “NJ”.. we went through a whackload of fonts and noticed on a few of them, that the lowercase “n” resembles the body of a camera. Deciding to take it a little farther, we added a lens and something creative was taking shape. Could we tie in the “j” part of her last name?

We started to mess with the idea of making the “j” a side flash mount and have the bottom part of the “j” be the battery grip of todays digital cameras but the whole simplicity of the design was getting carried away. We quickly went back to square one as we had a strong image already.

So we starting to think along the lines of something subtle. The concept of adding a little design flair to the iconic part was something that we wanted so adding a reflection on the lens would be perfect. Not only that, but we could make it so that it slightly resembles a “j”. Bingo.

Nicole knew that she wanted a thin font for her name. After going through a few revisions, we found this font that we all felt worked nicely to offset that bold camera icon.

We presented Nicole with variations of this logo, vertical, horizontal and without her name, leaving just the camera icon for her to use on whatever she can think of.

Here is the final logo.

We had just spent a wonderful day in the small town of Port Renfrew, located about an hours drive west of Sooke, BC, wandering around Botanical Beach. If you haven’t been, you must go. The rugged west coast of Vancouver Island plus the added bonus of thousands of tidal pools filled with sea life. You can spend hours looking into all of them and seeing what each one has to offer you in terms of creatures from the Juan de Fuca strait.

After spending a few hours there we went to a small place called the Coastal Kitchen Cafe, both had a wonderful Halibut Fish and Chips dinner – it was some of the best fish ‘n chips I’ve had.. EVER.

Driving back home, about 20 minutes East of Port Renfrew I spotted a little waterfall along the side of the highway. Stopped the car and walked over and took a few shots. This is one that stood out among the rest. The sun was just setting and the vivid green moss popped from the dark, coastal rain forest in the background. I used my 17-40L lens @f13 and a shutter speed of a couple of seconds to get the motion blur of the waterfalls.

If you haven’t been to the Port Renfrew area lately, why not take a trip out west and enjoy the rugged west coast.

Don’t forget to click on the photo for a larger version of it.

It was a beautiful and calm night last night and we took advantage of that and headed out to Aylard Farm in East Sooke Park. I was hoping for some really good vantage points of the sunset, but it didn’t really turn out that way. It was pretty and nice above the Olympic Mountains in Washington State, but the immediate surrounding area wasn’t too spectacular.

We took the Coast Trail along the waters edge and hiked in for about 30 minutes, finally settling on a spot near the Petroglyphs. Tripod set up, remote in hand, stood around for a couple of hours waiting for that one perfect shot which never really seemed to come.

I need to remind myself that not ever trip is going to yield good photos. Maybe I just wasn’t seeing it. Either way, it wasn’t a total bust, but the best part was enjoying the scenery around the camera, the smell of the salt air and the 4 California Sea Lions snorting their way past us about 100 feet off shore.

The photo above is probably the best one out of the lot of them that I took at this spot. What caught my eye was the small rocks leading me out and around the point.

The next one was a little drab with the lighting, but felt it made a nice black and white print with a lot of contrast. There were some really nice clouds above the mountains, but with the wide angle lens, it made it difficult to capture them well. They were just too far away.

Again, I like the small rocks in the foreground, but it was the two different types of clouds that I really like about this shot. You have the wispy photos directly above, and then the large forming clouds above the Olympics.

But the real winner in my eyes was this last shot that I took. While driving home along Gillispie Rd., we crossed the single lane bridge over Roche Cove. It was about 40 minutes after sunset and there was still a hint of red/orange glow in the sky. I stopped the car, hopped the cement shoulder barrier and clicked away for 10 minutes. This scene shows a boat anchored in the middle ground, the small town of Sooke lit up in the background and the warm glow of the sun setting behind the foothills of Sooke.

I like how the wind/current plays with the colour of the water and the lines it produced. Sometimes photos are best taken when you aren’t putting much thought into it and trying too hard.