Gems of the Canadian Rockies
Over 20 years ago, Jack had watched a PBS show on some of the great lodges from around the world where he first saw images of the beauty surrounding Chateau Lake Louise, thus creating an entry to his world travels bucket list. So, in 2019, he and his wife Susy made plans to stay at the Chateau and to further explore the Canadian Rockies. Their plans centered around bus tour to the great resorts of the Canadian Rockies which included stays at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, also known as the “Castle of the Rockies”. What he learned on the trip was that the beauty around Chateau Lake Louise that first attracted him to the area extended throughout the entire Canadian Rockies. The pictures shown tonight are just a small sample of the widespread mountain beauty that they experienced on their journey.
Jack’s photography journey began with his first 35mm film camera, a Minolta X-370, back in the 1980s. He enjoyed his photography for several years, mostly while traveling, until his interest waned in the early 2000s as the digital transition began. His interest in photography was renewed when he picked up his first digital camera, a Nikon P610 in 2015, in anticipation of a European River Cruise. He enjoyed the freedom of the digital medium and certainly all the auto features on his point-and-shoot bridge camera.
After Jack retired from his years in the software engineering industry in late 2018, he needed to find something to pass his time so he thought about photography. His searching for photography clubs brought him to his first NVPS club meeting in September 2019. Since then, it has been a good whirlwind of activity. He was fortunate enough to have an image juried into NatureVision and has received a couple of ribbons in the NVPS monthly competitions. The club has been very encouraging, and he believes he has grown his skills by upgrading his camera to a Nikon D7500 with an 18-300mm zoom lens. moving fully onto manual, learning better composition, and venturing into post-processing. He is enjoying all the benefits of the club and learning from all of the extraordinary talent in it.
Jack is still trying to figure out what he likes to photograph, but he certainly likes taking pictures of big landscape vistas and capturing his travels from around the world.
Abandoned Places, Abandoned Spaces – with Karol and John Murray
Karol finds herself drawn to abandoned places. She’s not sure why, but finds herself wondering what it was like when they were functioning, who lived or worked there, and why they were abandoned. She began dragging John along on fieldtrips and he caught her fascination with such empty spaces. Fortunately, Karol hasn’t abandoned him on any of these trips – yet.
For this collection, we wanted to share photos from some of our favorite haunts in this genre, including images from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Eastern State Penitentiary, Ellis Island, A. Hoen & Co. Lithograph Building, and other abandoned places and abandoned spaces.
Karol and John Murray have been involved in photography in one form or another since the early 1970s but did not get “serious” until more recently. John started with a Mamiya Sekor and shot friends, family, sunsets, and travels when he was in the Navy. He even had a darkroom in the basement. Karol shot mostly our children but has a good eye, won several photo contests, and even got a picture on a magazine cover.
After a long pause from photography, Karol joined NVPS in 2013 and became enthralled by her ability to see things differently and capture her vision digitally, using a Nikon D7200. John eventually got tired of being her Sherpa and began taking pictures about five years ago – first with a Nikon point and shoot that Karol bought him for Christmas and now with a mirrorless Fujifilm. Together they have travelled far and wide taking pictures to satisfy creative urges and document their adventures. They mostly shoot landscapes and architecture but will stop along the side of the road if something catches their eye.
