Landscape | MiKS Media Photography

Waterton, Before the Fires – Travel Photography

by Kasia Sokulska | Oct 25, 2017 | Landscape, Travel

As the weather becomes colder, I find myself missing summer more and more. It is a good thing, I have so many pictures from our travels to look at. With my family visiting from Poland we were given a perfect excuse (not that we ever needed one, really ;D) to travel all over our province to show them around. This time, we have taken them to visit Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta. And, as we found out later, it was a great thing that we have visited in August. The whole area suffered from fire damage later on and our pictures became rather historical.. I’m so glad I have been able to show my family the beauty of the places we have seen now. It’ll take a bit of time for the damage to be repaired..

Unlike our Jasper / Banff trip, the sky was filled with smoke and clouds and rain, during our full day of exploring the park. It allowed me for some pretty dramatic pictures at times, which I do enjoy taking. You know me, if I have a sky to work with, I will incorporate it for sure.. I have also been given a chance to work more with a fish-eye lens, not by design, but because I simply forgot my normal wide angle lens. But, it allowed for some cool shots to come out of my camera and, I decided, it was all in all, a good thing. Let’s the pictures speak for themselves, though. Enjoy!

Kasia

Vacations with old film cameras – part 1

by Mac Sokulski | Oct 20, 2017 | Families, Landscape, Nature, People

Taking old film cameras on vacation, deciding to take images only with those can be a little risky. Specially when you never shot with a camera before. A great friend of mine, came all the way from New York, and brought me a Minolta X570, with a very nice 50mm f1.4 lens. I never shot with that camera before, and neither did he. We didn’t know that it would develop a strange light leak, that would run in different places on almost every image. Practically ruining every shot I took with that camera. Good thing I had my medium format TLR Minolta Autocord.

I knew from the start that this is not going to be a photo trip, as we had family and friends visiting with limited time to show them around our favorite places, and friends and family were my main concern with photography. I was hoping that I was able to catch a few good images, I mean you cannot take a bad picture while in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.

It’s a lot of different experience shooting with film cameras. There is no way of telling that the shot you envisioned is done properly. You have to trust your knowledge that all is good. Then it teaches you discipline. You are limited to 36 on 35mm, but only 12 on 6×6 medium format. So each image has to be the image you want to create. It’s not easy, but it’s a part of learning. Really, who wants to sit at their computer and go through thousands of photos and pick only a handful, when you can take just a handful of great photos.

Enjoy!

All In A Day’s Work – Travel Photography

by Kasia Sokulska | Oct 11, 2017 | Landscape, Nature, Travel

As the weather continues to deteriorate (they are forecasting snow for the next 24 hours) my mind seems to be drawn more and more to the time when sun was shining bright, it was warm and everybody was in a mood for exploring. Yes, I do mean summer ;D.

The trips we take with family and friends are a great time to indulge in some travel photography. There are so many beautiful places in Alberta Rockies. We have had a pleasure, this summer, to take some of our family and friends for a trip throughout Jasper and Banff National Parks. Today, I would like to share images from the last day of this adventure. We have managed to fit a visit at Columbia Icefields including the SkyWalk, Lake Louise and Vermilion Lakes, with stops in between, whenever a place caught our eye. So many absolutely stunning places to visit. We are used to them, having been visiting for years, but it was so great to watch the first time visitors falling in love with our mountains.

Well, enough of the chit-chat, lets enjoy a little bit of summer beauty.

Kasia

Fading Light: The Film Adventures

by Mac Sokulski | Sep 8, 2017 | Film, Landscape, Nature

As the film adventure progresses, I find myself more accepting and creating images that I would usually not create. I’m talking about the fact that film has a set speed. I cannot increase the ISO because the conditions require me to. I’m dependent on the film that is inside the camera. I’ve learned that having ISO 100 film in the camera is great for normal daylight photography, but during sunset, or right after the light fades rather quickly, and the ISO 100 is not sensitive enough, and it definitely requires a tripod, or very steady hands. As some of these images show, I had neither.

This is the time where mind goes into an experimentation mode. What makes this a little more challenging is the fact that on a film camera you cannot preview images, and see if your experiment worked. You just have to trust your instincts. I was hoping that, the images I experimented with would work, and they did. After developing the film (that process is getting easier and more of routine with every roll), I was very happy to discover that the images came out the way I intended.

Shooting with film on old cameras, has it set of challenges. I think that overcoming those challenges, makes you a stronger, better photographer. You have a different set of decisions to be had before leaving. You have a different set of questions to ask yourself, while on location. A set of challenges that cannot be solved with your camera. For now the Big Film Adventure continues. Enjoy!

One May Sunset

by Kasia Sokulska | Sep 5, 2017 | Landscape

It has been a few years since we have taken this ride into the rural Alberta one May evening. The weather was good, the prairies called and we went to visit one of our favorite places to see what was happening. It wasn’t the most beautiful of a sunset, but we still enjoyed ourselves driving along Alberta roads, stopping here and there and trying not to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. Here is a few pictures I’ve taken that evening. Enjoy!

Kasia

Chasing Bison with an old Russian

by Mac Sokulski | Jul 18, 2017 | Art, Film, Landscape, Nature

It’s funny, how I almost cured myself of digital GAS, and how quickly I fell for the analogue GAS. It’s really easy to forget about actual photography, when scouring eBay for old cameras. The amount of old film cameras is just staggering. The prices are decent for the most part, although so old cameras fall into the “collectible” or “famous” category, which drives their prices through the roof. I try to keep to the cheap side. This also has it’s pitfalls, specially when it comes to lenses. I learned the hard way, that Vivitar lenses, although some can be had for real cheap, in great condition, are usually absolute shit. Having an Olympus and Minolta systems, it’s best to stay within the manufactures lenses. They maybe a bit more expensive, but they are worth it. This brings me to a absolute star. The Kiev 6C. After it came back from repairs to correct the film spacing issue (which I mentioned before in another post.) I took it out for more fun. This time I paired the medium format with a 35mm Olympus.

Creating images with film is both frustrating, and freeing. Knowing that there is a limited number of frames available in the camera, I have to be absolutely sure that the image I want to capture is THE image I want to capture. Gone are the days of snapping willy nilly just because something looked somewhat interesting. Now it’s all focus focus focus, wait wait wait, and decide not the press the shutter.

I find it really hard to switch my mindset of digital photography, to film. Not only I cannot preview the images, I have to make sure I know which film I’m using so I can adjust the way it’s being exposed. Each film has it’s own characteristics, which I have to take into account while creating an image. We take that for granted in the digital world. We forget that there is no AutoISO, that if exposure is not right, we can quickly adjust and shoot again. We all worry about digital noise…. let me tell you, go shoot Agfa Vista 400, and I promise, you will not care about digital noise anymore.

Yes, this film adventure is frustrating at times. Full of dust and pet hairs which appear out of nowhere when scanning images. Fingerprints, bent film stock, development temperatures, and at times like these I really want to dump everything and go back to my favorite little Fuji camera. Is it making me a better photographer? I honestly don’t know. I think it’s making me a more careful photographer.

Here are some images from the Bison trip to Elk Island one glorious evening. Enjoy!

« Older Entries

Next Entries »