Light and Colour on Canvas Blog - Now Live

This is just a quick note to let my readers know that my new Light and Colour on Canvas Blog is operational and just published its first article.

The name and the site was originally a static website, built using Microsoft Front page, where I could display my photos and articles.

As you can imagine hand coding page layout, inserting images etc, can be a bit labor intensive using those tools and therefore it’s obvious why they call them static pages. Too hard to constantly update.

With the advent of good blogging platforms such as this site it became a lot easier to focus on content and worry less about the code thing.

Blogger and Wordpress.com are both good but there are limitations to presentation layers. That is why after experimenting with Wordpress themes and configurations, I have finally settled on the version you see.

The Atahualpa theme has variable width, rotating headers images, auto-adjust image for smaller windows and plug-in ready.

I wanted a left and right column blog as I believe there is a need to separate content but I found that most sites with 2 columns on one side were a bit cluttered looking.

The big benefit with Light and Colour is that I will be able to provide links to eBooks, pdf articles as well as display the fine art photographs and paintings that are for sale.

It’s not all completely filled in but at some point it’s good enough and you need to let it go.

“Letting It Go!”  I love the expression on my wife’s face. This was shot from the other recumbent bicycle while still holding a handle bar and the other trying to guess on the right framing with the other hand and not run off the pathway.


Differences between the 2 sites.

Light and Colour on Canvas provides a forum where I can discuss all my art forms and not just photography.  I have, on My Camera World, occasionally presented some of my other artworks when I thought it would help explore creative ideas with photography.

Since photography is still a major creative driver, both sites will focus on photography and the articles will be different from each other.  There is some old and good content on this site, which will be refreshed and posted on Light and Colour from time to time.

I do use 3rd party sites like Imagekind for the sale of some images, but any fine art photo, which are signed, are only available directly from me. I need to hand inspect every part to make sure it meets my high quality standards.

Like any artistic journey I suspect these sites will develop their own personalities as I learn how to express myself artistically.

“The Journey”  My friend Neil, and others, out on  kayaking excursion to LacVert (green lake). Every now and then we would mash-up for some drinks, snacks and good stories as we venture through the connecting lakes.


Feedback is always appreciated because if you want to grow in your craft “seek criticism not praise as praise only makes you do the same thing over”



Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo – Book Finished

I have finally finished the SoFoBoMo Book project, at least in PDF form. The composite image below shows what a published book might look like if I ever get around to publishing this photography book.


The creation of a photography book was quite enjoyable project to undertake, even though it did take up a fair bit of time to complete.

I decide to use “OpenOffice.org” as my publishing tool as I found MSword not able to completely remove the margins. Learning a new tool while undertaking a project does have its pitfalls, but luckily after a few hours I was able to get the hang of it. I did find that since the file was 170MB it did become a bit slow while doing editorial changes and a few times I found the image moved around.

A large PDF version of the book found can be accessed by this link (33BM with 75% jpeg compression) as the book was designed to 11.5x8.5 inches. This choice was not based and design criteria, but I selected one of the photography books I had that I though would be a good size and used these dimensions.

A smaller version with more compression can be accessed here . (15MB with 25% jpeg compression). Either way these are large files.


The B&W continuous pano images of the Quebec shoreline, which are along the later pages in the book, are 70,000x500 pxs. This started to become am editing problem in Photoshop and I had to eventually break it into 2 files

Image from book – Muted Ferns

The journey to produce the book took on 2 round trips of 300 kms to visit very good friends at their remote property that cover the rugged area north of Gananoque, Ontario which has lakes and beaver ponds on the land.

I also took 2 photo excursions along the shoreline of the Ottawa River on both the Ontario and Quebec side within the city limits of Ottawa. We are very fortunate that the city planners have made the river access public and have left some places as wilderness areas.

I took a week off work, as holidays, to work on the files and edit the book. I am not sure that I would have gotten it all completed otherwise.

Image from book - Flooded trees along shoreline of the Ottawa River

I would undertake another such project but if you are using nature as the backdrop then the month and season is critical to the theme and availability of images. Maybe next a food project where I can shoot indoors.

As the other bookmakers have stated it is an all consuming project and now that it is over I do feel a bit tied. I wish I had another week to really work on the book design elements, but there is a deadline that I need to meet.

Also there is standing about 10 deep, the outside and other chores that I have neglected as I pursed this passion blindly and they now want their place in the sun.

If its not too big to download, please let me know what you think. As a first book there is always room, maybe too much, for improvement.


Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo – The Fuzzy Month and now Fuzzy Mind

2 weeks ago I mentioned that I had finally locked in on my SoFoBoMo project, this being a special place that I visit regularity, known to a small circle of friends as “The Land”. There was a concern I had that I may not have enough good photos to make the list of 35 needed and it was a good 1 ½ hr drive to go back there again.


I've talked a fair bit about creativity lately and with the concerns I was having. I wasn't about to let the strictness of my own decisions stifle my creativity (or to find a way out of my firm decision). I have therefore decided to 'augment' a fancy word for changing my mind, the theme to include the 'River' in the title to arrive at a new and hopefully better theme 'The Land' and the River. These 2 subjects are separated by more than 150km and the only physical connection is the lakes at the land eventually feed back to the Ottawa River. The spiritual part that invigorates the mind is that both places have water near by and like many others I can just sit an look at the waterscape for hours.


The book design elements is completely new to me and I am having some fun thinking about how to layout the pages, covers and exploring how book design components all come together to form a cohesive entity. The river idea got me thinking about using the far shoreline, which is the province of Quebec, and taking many overlapping images for many miles along the shore to form one giant panoramic image. I would then use this panoramic shoreline as a horizontal continuous bar along the bottom of each page. As you move along from page to page you will also be seeing the far shoreline moving from west to east. I am trying to decide if I should leave the shoreline in full colour or convert to B&W and set to a lower opacity. I am concerned that if it was in full colour it might detract from the book images. As B&W and somewhat see-through it becomes more a like colour strip and a page design element.

I have taken next week off as holidays to work on finishing the book as I just hate the stress of completing things I enjoy when there are constraints imposed such as deadline. Luckily I do have enough vacation days to carry me through the year.

The image below was taken at the Land from a bluff overlooking several connected lakes which are part of the Rideau River system connecting Kingston to Ottawa.

I liked the wildness of the snarly tree branches contrasting with the of tranquility of the distant landscape peering through the opening in the canopy.

This is one of the images I will be using in the book, I guess you get a sneak preview with this. I thought this might make a good image to tie both themes of the land and the river.

The original image from camera Raw is shown below. I found that there was not enough separation between the colours of the foliage in the foreground. The cedars had more orange and the rest of foliage had more green with some yellow and blue.

I therefore decided to accentuate the difference in the orange in the cedars and the remaining foliage. I changed the hue for yellow to more orange, increased the saturation for orange and the luminance a bit to create more separation.

The colour adjustments available with Adobe Camera Raw are simply great as I can individually adjust the hue, saturation and luminance not only for the primary colours but also the secondary. This is a tool I use quite often to play around with the image. There is no set formula as to what works. Normally, I go to the luminance setting and change each of the colours from min to max luminance to watch where the effects occurs. I find this mode provides the best clues to colour changes in the other 2 modes.

The rest of the foliage and in the the far background, which is mainly green with some blue and cyan, I wanted this darker and less saturated. For the hue I moved the cyan slider towards more blue and desaturated the blue colour a bit. I also reduced the luminance for both the cyan and blue to darkened the foliage and background.

Click on image to see sliders in more detail

The Ottawa river is at maximum water height and there are many parts of low shorelines which are flooded at this time of year from all the snow melt in the feeder rivers up north.


This is taken from the Ontario side of the Ottawa River along its flooded shoreline.

I converted to B&W, cropped a bit of the extraneous side detail and then darkened the image to create more mystery about the hole or is it a house for some large strange creature or hobbit?

Niels Henriksen

A Photographer's Adage

When Jack London had his portrait made by the noted San Francisco photographer Arnold Genthe, London began the encounter with effusive praise for the photographic art of his friend and fellow bohemian, Genthe. "you must have a wonderful camera...It must be the best camera in the world...You must show me your camera." Genthe then used his standard studio camera to make what has since become a classic picture of Jack London. When the sitting was finished, Genthe could not contain himself: "I have read your books, Jack, and I think they are important works of art. You must have a wonderful typewriter."

Perth on the Tay River

Last week as I was heading out to the ghost town of Balaclava (pervious post), I decided also to drive by the town of Perth since it was somewhat in the general direction I was heading.

Perth is a very picturesque town about 75 km west of Ottawa that has a small meandering river winding through the town. Perth has become an artistic and retirement community and also a tourist destination with its many craft shops and restaurants

I was hoping that the fall colours would be at their peak but this was not the case. Most of the maples were in brilliant plumage but many of the other trees, which add the many hues of yellow, were still in the finest green with just a hint of yellow on their fringes.

In one of the parks along the river, this one behind city hall, there was a group of ornamental grasses that I managed to position in front of a colourful orange maple. A shallow DOF keeps the background colours.

















In a corner of the same park along the river I saw this perfect tranquil setting with a picnic table under a larger willow tree. It just seems to call you to sit, ponder and reflect on the rich and colourful world we live in or to enjoy reading a great novel in the warm morning sun.







In another park I was able to look up the river towards the central areas of the town and capture the river winding around the buildings surrounded by a canopy of trees.

I can definitely see why this has become such a popular retirement location.


















Earlier in the summer in a pervious visit (I do like dropping by), I captured this image which I think clearly demonstrates the tranquility and beautiful vistas of this town.

Here we have a couple sitting on the bench and starting to share a lunch while this magnificent panorama unfolds before them.
















One final parting image, I couldn’t resist the contrast of the brightly lit ornamental grass against the old stone wall.




If you have a chance, do take the time to drive to Perth and enjoy some the local and fine hospitality of this interesting town with a river winding through it.




Niels Henriksen




A Photographer's Adage


Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense, means using your senses, you intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you. -Freeman Patterson, "Photography and the Art of Seeing" by Freeman Patterson , ISBN: 1550130994 . (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979), page: 7