Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park, Washington

The Hoh Rainforest is one of the wettest places in all of the continental United States, and has been on my bucket list for years after moving to Washington. The Hoh Rainforest wasn’t dry per se, but it was definitely experiencing a drought, much like most of the west this year. The rangers had posted that it had received 5-7 inches less rain than previous years. It’s a bit of a drive to get here (although one of the prettiest I have ever driven), and it can become a crowded experience, especially during a weekend. However, it was still great to visit and a wonderful spot to see. Hopefully it will survive the implications of climate change, because it’s a gorgeous place in the world. This was taken towards the end of the Spruce Nature Trail. It was definitely one of the highlights within our visit of Olympic National Park. My inner critique would be, get low and get close (again)!

Taken with my 3D World TL-120, and again with Fuji Provia 100f film.

Douglas Fir Campground, Mt. Baker Wilderness, Washington

This campground is great if you are ever up near the North Cascades and near Mt. Baker, another active volcano in Washington. It features tall Douglas Fir trees and is great to stop off at before heading into Canada. Upon walking around the campground (RV and car camping mind you), we came across these stone steps. The lighting was pretty nice, so I took a few shots. All in all, it came out ok IMHO. However, in hindsight, I would have liked to get a little closer and get more detail in the shot. Since I have moved to using the TL-120 from having used a Sputnik for years, I find myself shooting from further away. However, after looking at other pics in the folio, it seems to me that some of you are shooting closer than I had ever thought I could with the TL-120. So, we’ll see how I can make up for that in the future. Wish me luck!

Shot on my new TL-120 with old expired Fuji Velvia 100f film. Hence the subtle magenta cast.

Diablo Lake, North Cascades National Park, Washington

This was taken at one of my favorite campsites in all of Washington. It’s by far, one of the prettiest and most secluded sites on Diablo Lake. It features a lookout, swimming hole, a bear box, and even an outhouse! Not to mention access to the serenity of the lake and it’s wonderful turquoise glacier fed water. Now, this shot could easily have NOT been taken near any lake, since you can’t see any water. However, it was one of my favorite shots on this roll of film, and was taken spontaneously. The lighting was amazing, and definitely inspired me to take a shot. Diablo Lake campsites are on a ‘lottery reservation’ system through the National Park service and reservations are especially needed for this spot on the lake. The North Cascades are wonderful to visit, and I highly recommend coming here if you are ever in Washington. My personal critique would be, maybe get a little closer, and show some of the lake! Other than that, it was a moment of time that I was happy to capture, especially in 3D!

Shot also on my 3D World Tl-120 camera, with Fuji Provia 100f film.

Ian Andvaag’s D23 submission



Jade Lake (Narrow Hills Provincial Park, SK)

The last round I submitted a couple images I took at Narrow Hills Provincial Park, but not at this location. This is a lovely location in the North West section of the park with seven small (but very deep) lakes with very clear water. They are called the Gem Lakes, so-named for their rich blue and green colours. A network of trails runs around the lakes with several camping locations. I pitched my tent at the Diamond Lake site for two nights, which gave me a full day from dawn to dusk to photograph the area. The trails only total a length of about 6 km, so I did about 3 loops around the lakes throughout the day. This is a high spot overlooking Jade Lake. The spruce tree in the foreground is perhaps a bit gratuitous or cliche, but I thought it looked pretty and gave a good impression of what it is like to look down at the lake from the trail. The film is Delta 100, home-developed in D-67 reversal.



Meewasin Trail – Fall (Saskatoon, SK)

Meewasin Trail – Winter (Saskatoon, SK)

This is a section of trail quite near to my apartment in Saskatoon. It’s not the most remarkable location, but due to its proximity, I do get the opportunity to photograph it a lot (although I haven’t been recently). It’s the location I go to when there is some interesting light from a clearing storm or when there is hoarfrost in the winter before it gets blown off in the wind. The power plant and waste water treatment plant discharge into the river about 15 km upriver, so this section never completely freezes over. I thought the two images contrast each other nicely, although perhaps it’s a bit too repetitive since they are both taken from nearly the same perspective.



Tundra Swan (Wascana Waterfowl Park, Regina, SK)

In my hometown of Regina, there is a bird sanctuary beside the creek. There are some “display ponds”, but the grounds are really not that attractive. Although the birds are not captive, they are not easily frightened since they are used to being fed. In the shade it was rather dim using ISO 100 film, and I really was at the limit of what I could manage in terms of exposure. Handheld Tl120, not sure of the exposure settings, perhaps 1/60 and f/8. The shutter speed wasn’t enough to freeze the swan. There wasn’t enough DOF to cover the background or the foreground, but it wasn’t particularly interesting, so I just cropped it out. Next time I’ll hopefully have a flash with me, or maybe I’ll consider pushing Provia. I enjoy viewing these type of “action shots”, but I find them very challenging to take!



Seattle Skyline from Jose Rizal Bridge

Seattle Skyline from the Jose Rizal Bridge

Seattle Skyline from the Jose Rizal Bridge

I’m including this photo because I think it demonstrates a point about composition and fusion. The rail on the bridge is too close in the image, but It works because the line of trees behind it have turned to featureless black and have separated the railing from most of the rest of the shot. I didn’t do that intentionally. I’m not that smart! (There is a small stretch of road that meets the railing that you can see in one image and not the other). The point is that the darkness of the trees act as a separator making it like 2 photographs — the close railing and the far city, so it’s not so difficult to fuse. If there had been a close vertical element (like a tall signpost) that passed through both the near and far parts of the image it couldn’t have worked.

Some notes about this image: The Jose Rizal Bridge is a favorite spot for photographers, and you can imagine why. You need a long exposure to get traffic trails, but the bridge bounces horribly when the frequent buses pass by, so you need to time your shots to avoid them. The image suffers from lens flare that could have been avoided had I been more attentive. And the railing is painted with the ugliest of insitutional green paint, but under the vapor streetlights it looks like solid gold!

Bubble Star

Bubble master Tom Noddy displays the extremely complex Bubble Star

Bubble master Tom Noddy displays the extremely complex Bubble Star

My friend Tom Noddy came over to my house so I could capture some of his amazing creations in 3D. The back wall is draped with black velvet. DOF is pretty narrow. Shot with TL-120, Provia 400x, and flash units aplenty.

The Bubble Star is a very complex bubble and takes some time to build, So by the time it’s finished it will not last long. Something is going to pop.

Tom was presenting once in Israel (he does a lot of science museums) and you can imagine the reaction he got when he presented this.

Go Raptors Go!

Because of the Toronto Raptors historic 2019 NBA Championship win over the Golden State Warriors I have decided to send all my images this round from that fair city. Interiors are Fuji Velvia RVP 100F and exteriors are Provia RDP III taken with the TL 120.

Ontario College of Art And Design It kind of looks like they wanted to preserve the building underneath and stuck this one on top of it.

Roger’s Toronto Late Afternoon.  This is a cha-cha and I got pretty lucky with the lack of clouds and so not much movement between shutter clicks in the bottom although I just noticed a ladder or small crane in one image and not in the other one. I took a bunch at sunset but they are unviewable because of the cloud movements in the sky. This was taken from the balcony of  by brother’s appartement very close to the centre of the city which is basically Yonge and Bloor streets.

Stained Glass Silhouette Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street. Tried to expose for the stained glass windows but maybe a touch too dark.

Scared Arts : Painting, Music and Sculpture. Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street

Miracle Mile – Coral Gables Florida

The center island of the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is lined with these trees.   I used a TL-120 on a tripod with a Vivitar 285H fill flash, this was taken after sunset.   The fill flash brings out a little touch of detail in the passing cars.   I used an incident meter to determine the exposure, hoping to bring out the detail in the trees at the expense of blowing out the store in the background.   I think this was a 30 seconds at f22.

Infinity Pool – Singapore

This is the famous Infinity Pool at the top of the Sands three-tower hotel in Singapore.   You’ll find a lot of images online of this pool that feature the illusion that the back edge of the water drops off to the Singapore skyline, you’d think swimmers were in danger of falling off.   This shot shows why they aren’t.

May 2018.  I used a TL-120 with Provia 100F pushed one stop.

Galactica Bubble

Tom Noddy blows a Galacitica Bubble

One of the stalwarts of the Moisture Festival is my good friend Tom Noddy, who does an act with soap bubbles. Yes, you read that right. Tom performs all over the world and his act can include caterpillar bubbles, yin yang bubbles, tornado bubbles, a carousel bubble, a bubble tetrahedron, a bubble cube, a bubble dodecahedron, (long time members of the folio have probably seen a number of those!) all delivered with a patter that he’s worked for probably 40 years. When Johnny Carson had his anniversary special with highlights from the last 25 years, a clip of Tom was included. Here he’s creating a “Galactica Bubble” in my living room.

Moisture Festival Finale

Seattle’s Moisture Festival has grown to be the largest comedy/variety festival in the world. (Perhaps if they had known that when they started, fifteen years ago, they would have given it a different name.) It grew out of a collaboration of performers on the left coast vaudeville circuit and other performers from around the states and around the world. One of the inspirations for the festival was a cabaret run by the great German clown, Hacki Ginda.

I was once part of that vaudeville circuit, and many of the folks in this shot are friends of mine. This was shot a few years ago at the end of the festival, and that’s Hacki Ginda at center stage. Also pictured in the back, sporting a beard, is the great American clown Avner Eisenberg, aka Avner the Eccentric, who years ago did a one man show on Broadway to critical acclaim. The Moisture Festival has very little money to pay performers and yet they come from all over the world to participate.

Ian Andvaag A30 submission

Encroaching Dunes and Storm Brewing were taken during the four separate times I visited Douglas Provincial Park this summer. It is a nice ~4km walk out to the dunes, through scrubby aspen parkland full of scraggly junipers and cacti eking out an existence off the dry, nutrient deficient soil. Unfortunately our provincial government has thoroughly defunded our provincial parks, so the nature centre at the trail head has been permanently closed and has fallen into disrepair. So, I don’t know much about this unique ecozone. At least the trail markers remain mostly in tact, so it is still easy to find the dunes, although the trails are not used very frequently. During my visits I only ever encountered maybe 3 groups of people.
The first time I went I discovered rather dramatically at the end of my 5 hour hike that my TL-120 had not been working properly. It was getting dark and I decided to do a couple of longer exposures. I set up the camera to 1 sec and took the shot … the shutter did clicked open and shut without any delay. Uh-oh. I had always thought that the camera had a mechanical shutter, so even if the battery was dead, it would still operate normally, except for the light meter. Earlier in the day I had been shooting at around 1/60, and didn’t notice that the shutter wasn’t staying open long enough. I think I developed 5 super underexposed rolls from that excursion. Lesson learned, I’ve now carefully reread John Thurston’s excellent page on battery options, and I always carry spares now, and I change the batteries periodically.
Canola Fields and Milkhouse were taken near the farmyard where my Dad grew up. I should have been there about 1 week earlier to get optimal colour in the canola flowers. I wish I would have had an opportunity to photograph the field in the early morning or late afternoon warm light, but it was cloudy. I think Milkhouse is a bit weaker than the other slides in my submission, but I really like the colours, so I decided to include it.
I’m really enjoying shooting with the TL-120, but I still take out my Sputnik in adverse weather conditions and when it is inconvenient to lug around the heavy TL-120. Sometime in the future I’d really like to try some hypers after seeing some amazing slides from the folios. I still struggle with exposure a bit, I’d say only about 80% of my shots come out properly exposed (provided my camera has functional batteries!) Was the TL-120’s internal light meter calibrated for colour negative film, because it seems to overexpose most scenes by a bit. I use my Gossen Luna Pro F primarily. Perhaps I should consider getting a spot meter.
I really enjoyed the folio again, thanks all for your lovely images!