2020 has been a strange year, to say the least. We at Power To Be tried to quickly adapt our programs to the new state of the world, and create some new ways to experience nature in our community. Our program team has always played with the idea of starting a “Nature Photography” program, but most of our staff don’t know their way around a camera.
Enter Glenn: a long-time Power To Be volunteer, bird expert, professional photographer, and generally awesome human. Glenn agreed to help facilitate a Nature Photography program, and that’s when the magic really started to happen.
Over the course of three weeks, participants learned all kinds of tips and tricks to take the best photos possible in nature. They also learned about the three pillars of photography, and how to use their cameras’ settings and features to maximize their artistry.
Our group went to a different location each week. We started at Prospect Lake, where we started with the aforementioned pillars: Aperture (how much light the camera lets in); ISO (the quality of the photo); and Shutter Speed (how fast the camera takes the photo). We played with these pillars, learned about how they interacted with each other, and put them to the test the following week at Esquimalt Lagoon. We took some awesome bird photos, and got to see how light and shadows can enhance photos. Finally, we spent our last week together at PKOLS (Mount Doug Park) to bring it all together, and have some fun photographing “Autumn”.
Through a series of challenges, we practiced taking photos of specific colours, we captured natural patterns, we explored a 2-meter space from all angles, and most importantly: we had fun!
We learned that anything can make a great photo, and that nature is a pretty great subject. We at Power To Be can’t wait to see what great photos the next program will bring!
