BERNIE EWING
email
Philosophy
Never Stop Exploring’ has been my personal credo for many years – long before a popular brand of outdoor active-wear decided to make it theirs. Photography is my constant companion, and driver, whenever and wherever I explore – documenting the journey, recording the highlights, investigating the details and making visual memories for sharing and reliving.
What do I look for in my explorations? Peace and serenity – in the environment, in the photos I create, in myself as I explore and hopefully, in viewers of the final images.
Style
It depends – if the exploration is of an urban setting, I will tend to favour monochrome imagery, particularly for architectural subjects where line and form are of great interest. Nature subjects get as much natural colour as I can infuse into the subject. Whether nature or urban, I try to simplify the image to ensure the subject is immediately identified – eliminate or reduce to a minimum any and all distracting elements.
Technique
Nikon equipment and lenses. Various Nikkor lenses; the macro is a Tamron 90mm - Simply Still Superb – and there is another Tamron outlier – a 500 mm mirror lens that’s fun to mess with. Surprisingly, it’s a great macro lens too.
Background
I grew up in Ontario, and first experienced the Maritimes in 1968 courtesy of my first car – a VW beetle that I took on a road trip shortly after its purchase. A career in nuclear power plant operation, safety and licensing kept me away from serious photography until semi-retirement and the acquisition of my first digital SLR in 2003.
I have not had any formal schooling in photography – any lessons learned have come from trial and error, the occasional on-line or correspondence course and self-study of well-known Canadian photographers.