erik g peterson's photostream  

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I just returned from an amazing weekend at the Vancouver Island Mountain Center with a pretty rad group of people. I was photographing OmTown Yoga's Snowshoe and Yoga Retreat. TONS of fresh snow, beautiful sunny days, lots of new friends and some of the tastiest fresh food I think I've ever eaten.

This is a preliminary fave from the trip - the warmup to one of the afternoon sessions in the great room overlooking the Raven Lodge, Strathcona Park and Albert Edward. Tons more to come!

I've found over the past several years that I'm not very good with words in difficult life situations. I've always tried to express emotions through song (although frequently that ended up backfiring based on different perceptions of songs...) and recently I've begun trying to use photos as an allegory for how I feel.

This photo is for the Moss family; I'll let them construct their own meaning.

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I was very excited to go to the Natural History Museum - I was just as happy photographing the building as I was was enjoying the many exhibits. Some personal highlights were this room, the dinosaur section, a very old print of 'The Great Wave of Kanagawa' and the Darwin exhibition.

I tried for this shot as soon as I arrived but the throngs of visitors quickly drove me away. Not only were they in the photo but they were bumping into my bag and walking through the shot. I went about my way and when I heard the announcement that the museum was closing I ran back to the spot. It was nighttime by that time and the building had a totally different vibe without sunlight coming the windows; much eerier and older feeling.

I got home and discovered two things about the photo. 1 - it's slightly off center and 2 - there's a dude checking out the statue (of Darwin) at the far landing. I'm still pretty bummed about the symmetry as I feel the photo would be much better all equal but I kinda like the dude checking out the statue. Your thoughts? Would those few centimeters to the left make that big a difference to the photo?

[7/52] - Worth viewing large - hit 'L' to see this large and on black!

On the plane the other day I noticed a faint orange glow coming from the back of the cabin; because everyone had their shades closed I had to go to the little window at the very back to investigate. I nearly lost my mind when I looked through and saw this. Seriously - over 100 passengers and nobody had their windows open to witness it!?

I crouched there for several minutes, entranced by the smooth graduation of the colours, texture of the clouds (little dark, but look closely, it's there!) and the enormity of the entire scene. No photograph could portray the scale nor the true feeling of the scene so I satisfied myself with a few snapshots, but I think it's too pretty not to share.

Sometimes I look at this photo and think it's pretty, but boring; I wish another plane had been flying past at the same time. Othertimes I look at it just enjoy the colour. What do you think?

[6/52] - Definitely worth seeing large. Please hit the 'L' key to see it in the lightbox!

I shot this several months ago when Bill and Dan and I set out to ride, film and build a little. We had started sessioning a set of corners and quickly decided that they could be way better. We spent several hours rebuilding them into a work of art and then several more shooting them.

There's a flash/pocket wizard for each rider, balanced on fallen trees and hidden behind ferns. 1/1 power on the back (admittedly, that's too much!) and lower on the front (can't remember but probably 1/2 power).

When we tried this shot we kept messing it up. Most frequently I missed the focus or the timing or they messed up their spacing. Finally got this one and was reasonably pleased with it until I saw it big on the computer. I had focused on Dan (in the back) and because of it Bill (in the front) was very soft. I've sat on it til now when I sharpened it up a little and am much happier with it; Bill is still a little soft but I've come to terms with that, haha.