Painting Sahsima

Back to the transformer stone, Sahsima,  on Harling Point. This time I was trying out my “new” 24mm lens on some landscapes at the Chinese Cemetery. The lens is an old Nikkor which I have modified and adapted to my Canon body as described in a recent post.

I went to the cemetery near sundown with two wide-angle lenses, the Nikkor 24mm and a Takumar screw mount 35mm which I have also modified for use on the Canon. I will probably show some shots from that lens in the near future. I don’t think it’s as good a lens as the 24mm, but still high quality. As I was nearing the end of my time there, with numb fingers from having left my gloves behind, a man showed up with his palette and canvas and brushes and set up to paint Sahsima and Trial Island as the sun finished setting behind him and the scene he was painting. He was moving fast and constantly and got much of his painting done in about 5 minutes while I was photographing!

I was not quite done as the sky was getting interesting and I found that he was in some of the shots I wanted to take. I decided to not work around him but use him for scale. These are some of the shots I took – he made a good subject with his dynamic body movements. Sahsima is the rock in the distance and is much larger than the one in the foreground which has no legend associated with it, at least not that I have heard about. This location is marked on this map and if you click on the markers you will get more information and links to other posts of mine about these places.

I have mixed some colour and black & white here, mostly because each has something different to offer and a different feel. I am having fun with the wide-angle lens, making some real rookie mistakes I am sure, learning to keep an eye on the horizon level, figuring out its depth of focus and so on. I am so happy with the lens and it’s so nice to pull forward a nearly obsolete and neglected lens into active use. The only possible problem is that it may focus beyond infinity, though that could be my eyes, or could be the focus confirm chip in the adaptor. I need to do some focussed experiments to find out. I tried, but the shots got all mixed up with the other ones I took and I can not remember what I did. However, that is not much of a problem since it does focus at infinity.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Canon EOS 5Dii, Nikkor-N Auto 24mm f2.8 (pre-AI) lens. ISO100, f8, 1/125th (first shot) and 1/60th (all others).

.

.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

28 thoughts on “Painting Sahsima”

  1. Pingback: Sahsima Sky « burnt embers

  2. Pingback: Littlerock Sahsima « burnt embers

  4. The light affects the way the rock looks very nicely. Beautiful colors especially in ‘painting sahsima littlerock’ and ‘littlerock sahsima’. It is great that we can find this exotic looking scenery so close by.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Thankyou Toad. Its nice when the unexpected walks into the frame and makes the whole thing better. I usually avoid people in my shots, but this guy really helped a lot, without knowing it.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  6. oh my gosh….these are wonderful ehpem! The sky is glorious. I can’t take my eyes off it. The rocks are such multicolored beauties! Your compositions are so easy on the eyes…so interesting.
    Great post!

    Like

    Reply ↓

  7. No seals this time. Someone must have told them Sahsima means harpoon!
    How nice for the Nikkor lens to wake up after its long sleep and see such splendid vistas.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Well, part of this story is that Harpoon Rock is a protector of seals along the south eastern coast of Vancouver Island, which might be why I see them off this shore quite often. More likely that with sundown they were heading off to their beds, whereever those might be.

      Like

      Reply ↓

    • Hi Lynn – I wonder if they too are photographed best at sunset? Possibly that is why you are reminded of them? The sunset colour. Although there are orange soils in that part of the world unlike anything we get here as the glaciers scoured the older soils away and it takes a very long time to develop that colour of soil again.

      Like

      Reply ↓

      • Another place a bit like that is on the Burrup Peninsula in western Australia – do an image search on Burrup Rock Art and you will find a lot of red rocks with Aboriginal rock carvings on them, some of them close to the sea. An amazing place that I would like to visit some time.

        Like

  11. This certainly was a very productive outing. The shots with the painter are exceptional, especially the 4th from the bottom. The stone itself has beautiful tones in it and you captured it well.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks Ken. I like the 4th from the bottom and probably would have led with it, except the pedant in me did not allow it since Sahsima is not actually visible in that image. Silly, eh? These stones are so great when the orange light picks out the lichen like this, its irresistable. And only a few minutes walk as well, which makes me one of the luckiest camera wielders around.

      Like

      Reply ↓

    • Hi ashkitty – it was one of the nicest evening lights we have had for some time around here. Somewhat diminished as the sun actually set behind a bank of dense fog or low cloud and the evening glow was much reduced. But at this time it was reflecting nicely off these clouds and boulders.

      Like

      Reply ↓

    • Hi AnaLucia – your post went into my spam folder. If this keeps on happening you may need to get WP to help you. And, to do that you may even need to create a new WP account with a different email address as a vehicle for your complaint to them – otherwise your complaints may go into their spam folder too.
      And, thanks for your comment!

      Like

      Reply ↓

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.