Photographing the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia

“Mr Kerr, there are three ladies looking for  you,” said the desk person to Bob Kerr as he  checked into the comfortable Marquis of Dufferin  motel, where Len Wagg was doing a

witnessed over the weekend by us. There  proved to be many photographically illuminating ones, especially because the weather cooperated fully. Let us take you through

what happened and we’ll let the reader join us in judging the quality of the experiences we had.

Close to the supper hour on the Friday, an informal wine and cheese get together took place where the eight participants got to know each other with Len and his sidekick

Daryl Clarke from Carsand-Mosher (a Retail Photographic Establishment). Concurrently, Len gave a digital presentation on his approach to image capturing which involved

areas and beaches on display. There were so any different scenes the photographer was constantly confused as to choices where to point!

About 0800 it was off to a hearty breakfast at the motel. With two hours in hand Melvina walked down the road and captured some

excellent pheasant pics too! Daryl later in the morning gave a demonstration on “what’s this camera button for?”

After lunch we convened again to car pool to the Sheet Harbour bridge for the next four hour phase of the experience. This area located on the number 7 highway includes rapids, wooden walkways, streams and bridges where the action photographer can shoot about 400 meters of run – a wonderful stretch of images for practice. As an aside, since Cathy was the lone “film only” person in he group, Len graciously offered his expensive digital SLR camera anytime she wished to use it and she took up his offer - “is there a conversion in the offing?” All during this time Len was handy to provide advice as a product of his teaching and job experience. Here, we were put to the task of getting our lenses almost ‘down on the water’ to get that special shot.

Our next phase was to go to a beaver dam about 20 km away but unfortunately the beavers apparently were on vacation that day. As the sun was getting low, we went back to

the motel for supper and looked forward to the evening session. After supper, Len asked us for our digital camera cards and the slideshow began in the lounge/ bar with all individuals involved. As a participant’s images were displayed, the person was asked to indicate which 5-10 images were the best. Often Len and the other participants indicated specific images were worthy too. The object of this effort was to pick shots for a final slideshow later in the evening as well as a printing session next morning. There were many helpful hints provided by all and this approach

proved to be an excellent way to avoid emotional or stressful reaction to one’s own work. The final slideshow of everyone’s products took place in an air of cordiality, which was fueled also because it took place by the bar! Len’s sense of humour really added to the learning experience.

Sunday morning Len flashed up his professional Epson 1400 printer and we were asked to pick out one of our best images and with each of us watching, he used Adobe Photoshop to

adjust some of the photos and we were each treated to, 11”x 17” images to take home with us. Bob said that he learned a lot of Photoshop tricks as an observer of this process.

In closing, the often overheard phrase by participants during the workshop was: “I c a n ’ t believe this is r e a l l y happening!” The reader can probably tell this was a fun learning experience, well conducted, with much planning and pleasantly served up, with a sensitivity for the varying capabilities of the participants. Couple all this with the excellent accommodation, personal approach by staff and great food at the Marquis of Dufferin, a good time was had by all.

Go for it if you have the chance!