14 Day Photography Road Trip Across Newfoundland | MAUZY - From Pixels to Paper Documentary
As two photographers, we’ve always wanted to make a coffee table photography book, and being from Newfoundland we always assumed that that’s what the subject would be. Due to some life events, we ended up having to move away from the island and the project kind of just, fell on the back burner. Usually these photography books are a compilation of one’s life work but since we’re not living on the island anymore we thought could we get enough images for a photography book in two weeks? We decided why don’t we take two weeks and plan this epic road trip across the province and try to create this coffee table book. But here’s the catch... we are not landscape photographers! I’m overwhelmed though man, i don’t know what to do! It’s like, we’re in this amazing spot. I needed like a wide shot, but like i don’t know, i
think i need telephoto, i don’t know. You need it all! I’m just not really sure how to shoot this? We're here! and ladies and gentleman welcome to St. John's Current local time is 4:31pm for your safety please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened and your baggage stowed until the seatbelt sign has been turned off. Smoking is not permitted I’m excited! I’ve been looking forward to this for two years! Two years in the making! Yeah! Being a tourist in my own province that i don’t even live in anymore! We start today! We start today. Day zero or day one? Day one! Day zero or day one? Before we start this story we have to get one thing out of the way. It’s not new-found-lind.
It’s not new-fin-land, it’s new-found-land (rhymes with) understand? So the province is called Newfoundland and Labrador and Newfoundland is the island while Labrador is the mainland component for this book we’re just going to be focusing on the island of Newfoundland which is where Chris and i are from. The island of Newfoundland is kind of classically broken up into four regions you have the Avalon peninsula, eastern, central and western region. Every region almost has its own personality. Different types of weather, different types of geography, different geology. When i think
of the weather in Newfoundland the word "mauzy" comes to mind, which is kind of that damp drizzly foggy kind of weather. RDF rain drizzle fog and that’s just part and parcel of how it sits in the Atlantic ocean. We’re actually hoping for those classic mauzy weather conditions because not only do they make for really dramatic and epic moody photos, we’re trying to capture the province as is. and Becki’s equipped me with a camera of my own so we’re gonna be two photographers now focusing 100% on trying to just get as many good shots as possible. when i worked at a marketing agency you’d start a project from scratch you’d open up InDesign you’d have blank pages and you would design something from start to finish with text and images and graphics. that project would go from being blank to fully designed proofed ready to go to the printer
printed off into production x amount of copies made and that project was done . this is something that i used to do all the time it’s just in a slightly different format. we’re designing a book from scratch which means that i can shoot for the layout i can shoot photos composed in such a way where i can leave a gap on the side for text. I know what the layout’s going to be because I’m designing it. So i can shoot for that layout. So for this trip we flew into St John’s international airport which is on the Avalon peninsula of the island of Newfoundland. We decided to start in St John’s because it’s familiar to us
*waves hitting the shore* *wake up alarm* We’re up and i feel like we’re gonna miss the sunrise day one day one TPE said sunrise at 5 :15am civil start at like 4:18. it’s 4:42 right now we’ve got a 32 minute drive to our very first shoot and the sky is epic and we’re not going to be there for 30 minutes so I’m going to be kind of confused I’m scrambling. I’m just so used to shooting video now and i haven’t thought about photos in so long . my photography style. My style was portraits. Portraits with a 50 real estate with a 16. i don’t know how to shoot landscapes i was an amateur landscape photographer it’s what i like to do yeah remember when you lack it, bracket, and stack it! Wow! so we figured we start our shoot at cape spear which is a lighthouse on the most eastern point of north America excluding Greenland. I’ll see you in a bit be careful don’t go over the cliff. batteries
for the camera are in there! We wanted to capture a bunch of landscapes, kind of quintessential Newfoundland but in our own way. So when i think of Newfoundland I’m thinking about whales and puffins and icebergs and epic cliffs and coastlines. so I’m kind of thinking about this project more in terms of page layout so capturing these sets of images that kind of represent a time and place. Some morning this morning, some morning this morning! Tomorrow morning is anything like this morning it's gonna be some tomorrow morning! What? The sun was rising and i was going up to the lighthouse and it was like the stress of trying to get this shot with the sunrise happening and so i got up there and like got a couple of shots and sunrise is over with like we’re done with that once the stress of the shot is over with I’m like warmed up now i took a couple of pictures and now i can just enjoy the location that I’m in and like the camera and just the experience of going out and taking pictures, i just love photography so much. I love that! Yeah? The days that we go out and just shoot for fun and the whole day is just like around photography and we get back and have a big feed that’s like an ideal day and we get to do that for two weeks what’s going on? I’m just trying to do some like long exposures i got a 6-9 stop variable ND on my 70-200 so i just want to get like a slow shutter kind of wave shot. a little bit of drama? a little drama! more abstract huh? yeah, it’s a little challenging actually! yeah it’s funny how it goes from being like super enjoyable to being like okay I’m done I'm cold. 7:42am, some hard to walk away from those waves! i think i took like a couple hundred shots
of waves i don’t even know if i got one. We got a few shots to warm ourselves up in familiar areas and the next plan was to continue westward and see other parts of the island. We’re headed to Dildo to Dildo yes you heard us correctly we are going to Dildo. This is our last destination in the Avalon region of the island
and then tomorrow we’re going to be heading into the eastern region we’re hoping to see a few icebergs but today we’re gonna try and get some fish and chips Yes Dildo is a real place that is the name. It’s like a part of a boat or something i think it’s like the bottom of a boat. All right we’re coming up on Dildo we’re about 7 minutes away it’s really funny driving through these roads that used to feel so familiar to me and now coming back with like fresh eyes like i have a completely new perspective on it. Seeing a lot of pictures whereas before nothing was a picture. Everything was just the same thing i was used to seeing. It gives you a new appreciation. Yeah! For Dildo
So while staying in Dildo we’re about 30 minutes away from a place called Harbor Grace which is the home to a steam ship that’s been run around called the SS Kyle now i remember the SS Kyle from road trips when i was a kid and my parents would be driving to a place called Carbonear which is less than 10 minutes away from the ship. So my grandparents immigrated from China around the 1950s they started a restaurant in Carbonear called Fong’s. Carbonear is actually a small town only 10 minutes north of the SS Kyle and i always thought that was so neat there’s just an abandoned ship right off the coast that you can see. i think most kids would probably think that’s pretty neat. When i was a kid i remember you know driving to go "out around the bay" each time i would be like i wonder if we’re going to see that old like abandoned ship just like left there to rot. So the initial intention was to shoot at night well after sunset and shoot astrophotography or basically shoot the Kyle with stars in the background of course doing that requires a clear sky and there was not a clear sky. Houston we have a problem
it’s supposed to start raining at in an hour and a half I’m afraid that we’re not going to get our shot tonight. It says 90% chance of showers. How much? Four rain dots. It's got the three rain dots! The icons, the icons!!! The rain dots! All we have is like a couple of fox shots and like a lighthouse Chris: Laughs Becki: Sighs How many shots do you need for this book? Let’s go get fish and chips and then we’ll re assess the situation tonight. it’s a bit windy? yeah! Getting blown away? The rain just started as soon as i opened my fish and chips it’s so smells so good it’s so tempting just to eat it right now but the rain’s coming in off the water now. All right let’s go let’s go this is this is the reality. The book is gonna have this like nice idealic shot of the dock looking over the water eating fish and chips no one’s gonna know how windy it was let’s go and then we never got to eat it here because it was raining *wind blowing* Oh yeah I’m so hungry Oh that's a steep hill look a little disheveled! yeah i feel a little disheveled! all right! oh my god *can opening* Light batter very crispy *wind whistling through house* This is the uh classic, quintessential if you will, Newfoundland weather. rain, drizzle fog. RDF! RDF, yeah
this is exactly what i think of when i think of Newfoundland not like the sunny blue sky day that we’ve had for the past three days and the sound of the wind on the house? yep and sometimes the house just shakes a little bit! I’m using an app called TPE to track the direction of the sunrise and the sunset as well as the time the sun sets and sun rises. If we go to the Kyle across the peninsula over here saying that sunset is at 8:44pm and civil end is at 9:22pm. It smells ew what's that smell? mosquitoes are bad eh all right we’re down in harbor grace so the SS Kyle was used to transport people and supplies between carbonear, Newfoundland and the mainland of Labrador up until about 1967 where it ran ashore in Harbor Grace. Living on the island like i never thought to go out and shoot coming back to the island i was like oh maybe this is like a great opportunity to go shoot this ship it makes for a great photo it’s a pretty epic old ship yeah i think this is my shot I’m thinking if we can get this down this far on the beach you can actually see the other side and look more down the barrel of it I couldn’t have even picked better conditions to shoot this boat in because it looked so ominous and airy just sitting there in the fog. i think this was a success i originally thought we’d be coming out here for some astro tonight but the weather obviously hasn’t been the greatest we got like a little break in the weather managed to get a couple of shots and now it’s raining so i think we’re done for the night no sky no stars it’s pretty foggy so but it worked out because the foggy was super moody it’s funny coming back to the island as a tourist now in your own home province we kind of took all these spots for granted or at least looked at them through a lens of oh "these are just all sites that we’ve seen already you know as kids" but we never thought oh let’s document them let’s shoot them let’s show them to other people through our eyes so living away from the province for over six years now it kind of gives us a different perspective Two weeks seems like a long time to go on a shoot and to be shooting every day but when you really break it down and look at it you know in terms of region and then per location it’s actually not that much time the island of Newfoundland is massive its area is actually the size of Pennsylvania and it’s just impossible to go to every single location in a two-week span especially because some of those locations require a boat to get to in 300 meters slight ride onto trinity road south 80 Newfoundland and Labrador 80 south Newfoundland understand! We are on the road here this morning leaving dildo heading out to trinity we’re transitioning now into the eastern region of the island and today’s gonna be interesting because we’re actually going to bonavista that’s our end destination but we’re heading to trinity first because Chris’s family’s there my parents are there we’re really excited because today we’re gonna get to experience a traditional like lobster boil up apparently takes water from the ocean to boil lobsters in so we’re gonna get to uh see all that in action and then eat some lobsters today which is kind of exciting so we’re making that trip not only to see your parents but to have this kind of traditional Newfoundland experience. As long as they do it i kind of i kind of feel bad
would you consider a lobster boil a traditional Newfoundland event? Nope! No?? So apparently lobster boils are not traditional Newfoundland culture that is news to me by the way this is Eric my mom’s partner and fun fact he grew up in trinity they still have a house there and he took the SS Kyle every summer to the northern peninsula so we learned something new i guess traditional in our lifetime not in Eric’s lifetime! When i was a child nobody ate lobster they actually gave it away it’s not a traditional Newfoundland dish it’s only in maybe in the last 40 or 50 years that lobster has become a something that people eat see! but traditional for us is different traditional for Eric. Mom would wake us and tell us to come sit at the table for lobster feed and it was late at night because they ran a restaurant and then so midnight we’d be sitting down eating lobster but in an Asian family lobster reigns king any seafood in the Asian culture is considered primo we’re going to go on a boat and we’re going to pull a lobster trap well he’s going to pull lobster traps so he can see it i don’t have any motion sickness medication so oh you can’t be ill-equipped. *inaudible* What? over there’s in the Lund? Did you pick that up, in the Lund? Whats a lund? See it’s windy right there right but when he goes over there is in the Lund because he’s inside the cliff so there’s no wind and the Lund means when you’re out of the wind like the wind is blowing here? if you went in front of that car and coochie down there’d be no wind you’re in the Lund. so what did you say? Coochie down! Coochie down. The windchill today! I’d say it’s probably about two degrees close on zero. yeah probably! if you’re
going to get wet would that change your mind? Yes it would! What? So you’d want to go twice? No, I’d want to like... not go. Now Life jackets here for anyone who want’s to put one on, they’re auto inflate ones. someone’s been gutting fish in this! it’s gonna be a tumbly ride! you guys aren’t having the second thoughts you don’t wanna come? There’s no there’s no lun out there where the water’s calm. this one, the tail is narrow yeah here it’s wide? Wide is the female *boat motor* ah this is the lund b'y! You can see there’s not a ripple on the water! it is nice in the Lund. Beauty! Nope! Nar ting! only just crabs eating the bait! Thank you so much for taking us out that was just awesome! It’s pretty calm over there! In the lund! in the Lund! the Lund yeah learn a new word today! So even though lobster boils at least to Eric is not traditional it sure felt like it because we took the lobsters to Eric’s shed, you don’t just store your stuff there you have parties in the shed, you do activities in the shed, you boil lobster in the shed. one of the great things about having shed if you have a problem you come back in with your high pressure sprayer! The shed is definitely a quintessential part of Newfoundland culture. With the female
you get the row inside, the red stuff? What made that moment i think so much more meaningful for me was to be able to share that with family i think food does taste better when you’re eating with loved ones and it just sweetens the whole experience. so we said our goodbyes to our family left trinity and we ended up in a place called Bonavista and I’ve actually never been to Bonavista myself so this was a little bit of a new spot for me so about 10 or 15 minutes drive away from where we were staying in Bonavista is a place called Spiller’s cove and rumor had it that there was an iceberg hanging out in the coast. Morning! i just spilled boiling water all over my foot. Are you ready to go? yep! We’re up early it’s like 4:30am and we’re not the only people up there are two fishing boats going out the bay just now. coffee made tea made Don’t accidentally drink my coffee you'll be disappointed the thing about icebergs is that they’re pretty unpredictable even if somebody says that there’s a berg there the night before there’s no real guarantee that it’s still there It’s that an iceberg? i see something poking over the thing there’s a dude standing there. i think it might be a rock. No dude that’s white! I’m pretty sure that’s the iceberg? I don’t know how to shoot
an iceberg the thought of it overall overwhelms me like yesterday we shot Eric doing the lobsters right in my element today uh outside my comfort zone. When you lack it, bracket, and stack it! it’s an iceberg. Iceberg right ahead bergie bits over there You know what they say? When you lack it, bracket, and stack it! I’m overwhelmed though man, just not really sure how to shoot this i don’t know what to do it’s like we were in this amazing spot and i don’t know what to do there’s people right there with the tent my camera is like i want to just shoot them you know what i mean it’s funny it’s like it’s just landscapes are so difficult for me. So the way i got into still
photography is actually because of video and i wanted to shoot high resolution timelapses with a DSLR. Bought my first DSLR in probably around 2005 and then kind of got into still photography by accident so eventually when i was in university i was actually shooting more still photos than video and wanting to beef up my resume i actually applied for a position as photo editor for the university newspaper the muse. doing that one year of photojournalism actually taught me a lot of lessons in photography, forced me to kind of branch out as a photographer and a lot of people probably don’t realize but as a photojournalist you’re thrown into these photo assignments to get a captivating image in less than ideal conditions with time constraints and with subjects that might not be the most interesting photographically. a lot of it comes down to how can i look at this through a different perspective but the pressures of shooting a landscape versus say a high profile person they’re a lot different you’re not taking up someone’s time when you’re shooting landscape it’s just you in the landscape but the difference is that the pressure you’re feeling is the light is rapidly changing you know that okay i have ideal light conditions right now and i don’t want to squander it. am i getting the best angle? am i getting the best shot because i know this light is going to expire. it’s interesting to hear you talk about photography so passionately why did you stop? other interests pop up you know you have a finite amount of time in your life photography fell by the wayside and i haven’t thought about in a while it’s opening up a part of my mind that i haven’t used in a while if that makes sense So the goal of this trip is to have enough good... “good” images to assemble a photo book and well
most people will compile their best images through their entire body of work for their whole career this is not the assignment. the assignment now is to capture Newfoundland in that slice of time We are headed out to our last shoot of the eastern region before we head into central tomorrow. we’re driving 45 minutes on the other side of the peninsula from Bonavista to Tickle cove for the sea arches so we’re going to do a little sunset sea arch mission and we’ve brought our camp stove and some food we’re going to cook up while we’re out there we’re arriving a little bit early we’re going to scope out our location for shooting and um cook up a little meal the road wasn’t in the best shape not gonna lie there were a lot of potholes but we did see a moose and a baby moose and we just caught the tail end of the baby moose going right into the woods that was pretty cool. all right let’s go! okay oh jesus! oh my god Chris! she’s still open
disaster crisis averted. i should probably put on my layers again. yep! i know as soon as we get to the ocean where’s my tripod plate? i know once we get to the ocean it’s going to be a bit, a bit chilly i think hopefully we can find a place to coochie down and ah cook up a little feed and have a tea or something. now where’s the sea arch at? the rock formations are insane like not only are they like purpley red but it’s like so many little layers the whole way fascinating is that the arch right there i think that’s the arch holy [ __ ] cool! wow! now I’m really feeling like the kraken! when the sun goes down i’d like to get a wide shot here i think. beauty! beauty! tonight we’re cooking um next to the sea arch at sunset and we’re having mushroom risotto this is not sponsored but this is good to go i saw a review on this and somebody said it was really good so i thought let’s try it All right what’s the verdict Peckham? this is shockingly good yeah like this was freeze-dried this came in a bag and we put in water and now it’s this there’s so many mushrooms in there yum i get this again yeah um i don’t really feel like shooting right now well we’re here! i know. my drone shots didn’t work out the way i wanted them to, I’m not really feeling the shot either! like i think the location is beautiful and like being here is a really amazing experience but I’m not feeling inspired by a shot i think there’s one shot i want to get like a long exposure down there but honestly i think that this location for me tonight was actually more about seeing it and the landscape and then just kind of cooking out here and having a meal on the side of the cliff. like i think i was more excited about having a meal on the side of a cliff and boiling up some water than i am actually shooting tonight? i think i underestimated how challenging this trip would be from like a stamina standpoint and an inspiration and creative standpoint as well like every day multiple times a day having to shoot and doing it while you’re fatigued is also kind of challenging so definitely underestimated this uh this whole thing so So we’re about five days in the trip now and we’re starting to realize that we don’t have nearly enough photos at this point i didn’t realize that shooting day in day out was really going to be that taxing. getting up every morning for sunrise
staying awake every night till sunset and by the time you get home dump all the card to back all your photos up, it’s well past midnight now and then you’re getting up for sunrise! not just the lack of sleep but also pushing to try and get good photos, different photos. I’ve been using the same techniques and relying on the same patterns that i usually fall back on the same compositions the same decisions in exposure the same decisions in focus. I’m also now starting to worry that all the shots are looking the same we have to think now okay how can we spice things up how can we change the look of these images. i was starting to second guess like am i even gonna have enough good photos to not only create this book but to create a book that I’m actually happy with putting out there So we’re on the road now we just left bonavista now we’re heading to Fogo, which is very exciting because Fogo has been on our bucket list forever. it’s been a goal of ours for this
trip specifically but it was a goal of ours in 2019 when we tried to get to Fogo and we couldn’t because the weather was too bad so this is our second chance, it’s been three years since we tried to get up there. here’s the dilemma, there is an iceberg in a place called Merritt's harbor which is what an hour away from where the ferry terminal is? yeah! it’s like an hour off our course like if we’re going directly to the ferry terminal we’d have to go an hour to get to merits harbor then an hour back it creates this situation where the ferry only departs at certain intervals to get to Fogo island and the last one i think leaves at what, 8pm? I’ve been told that the wait for the ferry is sometimes up to three hours. let’s push it to the lights lower so the photos have a higher chance of looking nice um but Becki doesn’t play it safe Peckham doesn’t want to do it! the sun doesn’t set till 8:50. The last ferry is at 8 o’clock like the math doesn’t even add up we agreed that we
were just going to go to Merritt's harbor and shoot the iceberg with the conditions that we were given there’s a real possibility that if we don’t get on that 6pm ferry that we could very well miss the 8pm one. this is the last chance we’re gonna probably be able to see an iceberg of this size let’s take the chance let’s go iceberg hunting. the one bailout we’re hoping for and we’re checking again checking the aviation forecast is having a lower ceiling or an overcast layer that marginal weather holds that actually could work out really well to make a very dramatic scenario for the for the iceberg during the middle of the day which is typically not favorable conditions the majority of the days we’ve had have been bright sunny days yeah which is very typical for the island i mean we lived here for the majority of our lives and I’ll tell you this is not representative of what the weather normally is like. it’s almost been a week now and i feel like I’ve been bungling like every photo shoot and i have no idea if i have enough images for this book. that anticipation of like we gotta get the bird gotta get the berg was kind of growing hype was setting in and i was like okay we have to get there asap, so we drove four hours from Bonavista through gander Hopefully this weather stays kind of gray! yeah. Moody! we drove 45 minutes past the Fogo island ferry to get to Merritt’s harbor. we’re nine minutes away from the iceberg the alleged iceberg i hope
it’s still there. the overcast marginal conditions have cleared we know we now have the cyan sky of death. here’s the thing like you can’t always just shoot at sunrise and sunset sometimes it’s just not possible the true test of your photography skills is if you can shoot in this type of scenario and still get a shot. it’s just so easy when you shoot at sunrise the thing is it a good photo? or is it just golden hour? yeah exactly! we have like two hours at the most to try and pull something off here. I’m always feeling panicky but i was feeling a little bit of anxiety because i really wanted to get a picture of this berg! if an iceberg is there in the morning it’s not even guaranteed to be there in the afternoon and last year we didn’t have any icebergs! I’m nervous if it’s not there we drove the ferry is really far we passed it way, way back it seems like longer than 45 minutes. Oh no know this harbor looks pretty! empty yeah it sure does! we don’t have any reception either and find exactly where it is. we’ll keep driving up here see you
come on iceberg... I see it! you see it? yes oh a little bit of white popping out! okay i think we have to hike! oh look bergie bits! what are bergie bits for the uninitiated? they’re little pieces of iceberg that are after breaking off and then they kind of float into shore. i wonder how treacherous this hike is it looks pretty brutal. Let's do it, let’s do it! this is really sketchy it’s like a rock scramble up the side of a cliff to get over there and there’s no reception and no way to get help if one of us like breaks an ankle or like gets like falls and hurts ourselves like we kind of risk [ __ ] up our whole trip if we get hurt here nice smell huh it smells amazing if you look out here you can see the little tiny tip of the iceberg! I’m really disappointed yeah it must have moved it probably was in this bay right here like yesterday and then drifted behind this island right here so we are right there and the iceberg is the iceberg’s on the far side of that island even if like there’s no way to get there so i bet that iceberg was probably in here and that’s probably where people were shooting and probably migrated out what a drag we went two hours outside of our way it’s how quick it can change this was kind of our only chance to see this! all right i don’t know what the easiest way up is, kind of looks like right here maybe? It’s been a bit of a bust isn’t it ? yep it is it’s beautiful up here stunning yeah the iceberg has clearly migrated from a nice view for there used to be nice feet from the harbor and it’s massive and then clearly it’s migrated down i guess downstream and then is now situated behind this giant island we’re at the top down at the peak and you can just see it kind of cresting over this little saddle in the island there’s not really a photo! there are no photos. no so we’re gonna throw the drone up and uh we can get some shots that way My uh timer saying time to leave for the ferry just went off like 20 maybe 15 minutes ago that wasn’t a total bust air support for the wind air support coming in clutch! let’s get packed up Great job Peckham! This is not over yet that’s the easiest part! oh the most treacherous part There’s like a whole group of people that just came over looked over the bridge you’re like no i just turned that on my back but i also saw a bunch of people coming from the opposite way which i think is a lot less treacherous than this but a guy said it’s really wet Well that was a nice little hike after quite a long drive this morning we could see the iceberg from here when we first pulled! Ugh my shoulders! yeah bum wad! okay so over her discussion in the parking lot someone’s saying that there’s a uh the Twillingate causeway goes like right next to it you get a perfect view of the iceberg from the road here we are trekking to the top of this hill! we see it from over here it’s real far away! you got some Sobey’s bags for your feet? no i should have brought me rubbers! no yes very far. 200-600mm? i don’t even think it’s going to reach it pretty far away dude! we thought that we’d be able to at least fill the frame and get an unobstructed view of the iceberg which we weren’t able to get from on top of our rock climbing area. 600 mil we’ll be able to get something we got high resolution worst
case scenario we can pop a little crop in but the factor we didn’t account for was that during this bright sunny day with high noon sun it was almost like a mirage there was ripples! what i wasn’t expecting was atmospheric distortion to completely destroy my shot! in 19 years of shooting photos i definitely learned something new that day because i had never seen that before but also probably because i don’t usually shoot telephoto and i don’t shoot landscapes so why would i have seen that before? we just did what we said we did not want to do, shoot a high-value target at dead ass noon with bright sunny light. we don’t really have the option of coming back. this whole thing is a challenge not only trying to get enough photos for a book which i have no idea if we have but also shooting it you know different times of the day and sometimes it’s just not ideal and sometimes it sometimes it’s too sunny and sometimes it’s too flat! What are you having a tea? very enjoyable very enjoyable! got about an hour to Fogo! Fogo island has been on my list for so long but i was also a little bit worried that i had over hyped it! what if we get there and it’s not what i thought? kind of can’t believe we’re in the lineup for the Fogo island ferry right now we’ve been trying to get here for years since 2019! I hope it’s not one of those things where you’ve like you know hyped it up so much and then it’s a let down? it could be! so we made the fog island ferry. Ferry ride from farewell Newfoundland to Fogo island is about an hour my experience with ferries and Newfoundland have not been greatest because of the wind and the open ocean the ferries that I’ve ever taken off Newfoundland have been choppy as hell and I’ve gotten super sick. this was in sort of a protected little area with all these little tiny islands almost acting as a buffer so it’s actually a very calm and smooth ride. Fogo island’s another spot that we just neglected when we were home living on the island. We just never really thought hey let’s go to Fogo island until we moved away and it’s kind of along the lines of like the old saying you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? you don’t know what you had until your gone.
looks just like the island of Newfoundland just broke off good morning! not morning it’s 2pm! late start but it doesn’t matter because it’s a bright blue sunny day we all know that bright blue sunny days don’t make optimal photos. there are four artist studios on Fogo island because they have artist residency programs where they put artists in them for a set period of time and they work that’s the purpose of them. they are all architecturally designed by Todd Saunders who’s one of my favorite architects we’re gonna photograph them. and I’m really excited because they’re all different. they make for very cool architectural features in the landscape so this is like Pokemon gotta catch them all? first we’re gonna go check out squish studio let’s go I’m excited! there it is! there it is! oh my gosh the color of the water! okay, check out one now we can go, no just kidding! Actually the harsh light is actually working really well it’s actually casting a perfect shadow for almost from angle to angle which really works Studio number two long studio i can actually see it. the landscape is incredible what do you think of this thing? wow! It's magnificent! it’s large isn’t it? it’s so big! it’s way bigger than i thought! gosh just the setting with these white rocks and stuff and the contrast between the black siding and the white, man i love this, this is the best, this is a highlight! couldn’t have asked for a better activity to do today! so while i appreciated the architecture on these studios i didn’t appreciate it nearly as much as Becki did and she was in her element. i just loved
seeing the pure joy and her face light up as we walked up to each one it would almost be like if someone took like four really rare helicopters and just like sprinkled them around Fogo island and then told me to go on a scavenger hunt I’d probably be the same way! i just got joy through her vicariously. all right honey how was it? the experience has been really great! this was amazing insane! i did a long exposure down by the water. nine stop ND. fun! yeah fun! it was fun! We’re hitting studio three and we’re a bit late and it’s dark I’m not really sure if we’re gonna get a shot here tonight we’re gonna try Okay so there’s too much contrast there’s a bit of sunset still behind the tower it’s basically being silhouetted. so you can’t really see any detail in it. there’s also no ambient light at all there’s like zero ambient light here yeah so it’s not really working out the way we want it so let’s go walk up to it and see. turn your headlamp on and just walk up there? I’m hearing coyotes like in the background. what do you want me to do with the light panel? Back to positions everybody okay that works! keep your head cheated like that? all right another exposure in three... two... one...
oh that kind of works out! yeah? dude! yo? i hear coyotes man. coyotes? This path feels awfully long when you can hear coyotes in the background. *chris makes coyote sound* stop it’s pitch black there’s like no lights either i see the end Stars are out Gas prices sucks. Oh yeah! So moral story? Yeah. When you’re ready to quit and the doleboy says keep on pushing? it’s always worth it! another moral of the story, even though you charge your batteries and they’re charged in your bag? don’t assume that they’re still charged in your bag and when you lack it, you bracket and then you stack it! yes that’s right! tomorrow we do bridge studio! the last artist studio we’re gonna find it today this one apparently is the most work because it’s a bit more of a hike in we saved this one for last uh how long is the hike? about 20 minutes? we’re terrible at being outdoorsy! we’re terrible! they said there was a lot of stairs I’m glad we saved this one for today because i don’t think i would have the energy to do this yesterday he was about 11C degrees today okay we made it to bridge studio the hike wasn’t that bad this place is epic this one’s actually gray with this bridge to it and i just looked inside it’s small and messy but it looks great see if you can see it .wood stove there’s a toilet
All right Peckham! i think was a success i got some pictures there’s some pitcher plants got to shoot a couple of those i got a bunch of textures with like colors in them, just kind of more abstract detail shots which I’m excited about. how about you? a couple shots from across the pond yeah and i got a shot of a texture that had all the colors for itself excellent that’s the last studio that’s bridge studio we have all four! A feed of fish and chips i think is well deserved after finding all these being out late last night trying to get her shot go back do laundry get cleaned up and get ready to hit the ferry tomorrow western region tomorrow that’s where we’re going! all right! we’re taking the 7 am ferry! There we go! let’s go to fish and chips! those like backlit style signs the old school ones are so classic Newfoundland ya knows the fish and chips are going to be good! do you need a menu? No, one piece fish and chips b'y tartar sauce, gravy on the side. I wonder if they’ve got the cod bite special? ooh we look at cod bites! to mix it up! Man I’m some excited there is literally no better activity to be at after you have a shoot than get fish and chips at a local spot. we’re gonna get this to go we’re gonna bring it back to the airbnb enjoy our fish and chips and then we’re going to rest. got goods! maybe look at dem cod bites! *wind howling through the house* this is the face of a person who basically got probably two hours of sleep last night. definitely got what we asked for the weather turned but significantly! not only did we get gray skies at rain but we got a 40km an hour winds gusting 60 kilometer an hour pouring down rain of course that rain is coming sideways hitting the window trying to get up for the 7 a.m ferry
so now we’re trying to catch the 10 a.m. it’s like 7:42 in the morning and the internet says to get to the ferry two hours at a time so hopefully we can catch the 10 a.m ferry kind of hoping it’s a [ __ ] day like maybe there won’t be too much of a lineup but the travel gods are looking down upon us and saying "you asked for this!" Look at that flag, the flag is like this this! yeah it’s literally pointing up We completed our goal of making it to Fogo Island and shooting the artist studios but now we had a new goal of shooting some astrophotography in some abandoned fishing villages up the northern peninsula. but before we went up there we had to go see Gros Morne. So we have not been to Gros Morne probably in about a decade and back when we used to live on the island. in fact i think it was when i was doing medical school rotations was the last time that we were out in Gros Morne but we wanted to come back to the actual park and actually shoot some photos in the area *Rooster squawks in the background* Did you just get in the wrong car? i packed everything in the car that was next to us, it’s identical! over ten thousand dollars worth of camera gear you just put in somebody else’s car...
and left it ! it’s 5am and they didn’t drive off all right now we are unpacked and repacked the right car, let’s go! beautiful morning yeah 10 degrees and calm the key no wind don’t jinx it! jinxed it dude! yeah man it’s windy we must have been in the lund we’re actually walking here on the earth’s mantle which is insane we’re in Gros Morne right now there’s trees and mountains everywhere and then there’s just one patch of just reddish orange rocks with not a lot of vegetation apparently this is actually the earth’s mantle and it’s pretty incredible there’s literally no trees on any of the mountains here and then you turn around and it’s just all trees on all the other mountains here insane, insane shall we keep trekking in? Successful shoot overall never regret getting up for sunrise! Painful at the time, definitely type 2 fun! I’ve got coffee in the car calling me, absolutely starving so we’re gonna go try to find some breakfast! you can learn a lot about being outdoors by watching backpacking videos because not only are my photography gloves the best accessory that i brought on this trip but also I’m wearing a full wool base layer underneath this and I’m so comfortable! I’m actually warm! yeah! there you go all right it’s about seven o’clock we’ve been out for a couple hours we’re hungry! I’m hungry too! not a bad view huh? not bad man pulling yourself out of bed at 4 am is terrible. nothing gets me up out of bed faster at 4 o’clock in the morning than the prospect of a delicious breakfast. I’m talking eggs bacon hash browns coffee. being able to enjoy a dirty feed of greasy breakfast that is the best. so we
wanted to get one more really strong image before we left the Gros Morne area and i wanted to go to a spot that i could potentially also get a drone shot as well so i had to be outside the park looking at the weather for our final couple of days on the island it wasn’t looking so great but the forecast said there was a 60 chance of precipitation but you could also look at that as a 40 of not having precipitation so we took our chances and hoped for a sunset over trout river oh no babe! it’s raining. see little specks collecting on the boardwalk here so ... we forgot the rain gear we have to see it through we made this decision we’re gonna do it. it’s not looking so good man! no i think we’re down to a a one percent to 99 chance for versus against the sunset tonight the cliffs I’ve been wanting to shoot! great sunset. It might have been a bit of a bust, bit of a bust there babe! yeah! we got to be able to try to find another photo? well we got to find something we ain’t leaving until we get something. what about that bird? that’s a seagull. that’s a shit dove. What about your eyeball? that’s my eyeball. Well well we got a sliver i guess a ten percent it depends on if you consider that a sunset i do. someone else is having
a really good sunset next door. what did you say at the beginning of this? you gotta find joy in the little things! that’s right i did say that! yeah dude i don’t know if we’re gonna have enough photos for a book? I’m concerned like enough good photos? here we are a week in a little bit in and I’m thinking like we’re on the last region of the island and I’m not even sure i got enough photos of the three regions we just passed through let alone anything from western so far. better get snapping Peckham! All right i give up, I’m done, let’s get out of here. let’s go! when you’re sitting at home you know planning a trip like this you’ve had like a full night’s sleep it’s like wow 14 days of photography is going to be an absolute blast but the reality is that like it’s very fatiguing you’re not getting a lot of sleep you’re putting a ton of creative pressure on yourself to deliver every single day the expectations were definitely different than the reality and i think i was a little ambitious um on the to-do list there so we sort of made a last-minute decision to check out a place called western brook fjord. the night before we were like let’s see if we can get tickets for the boat tour. we’re able to secure tickets
and we thought great we’re gonna get these epic views of these crazy towering gorges so now at this point we’re trying to balance the weather if it’s just foggy enough it’s gonna make these amazing epic moody landscape shots but if it’s too foggy you’re gonna lose the tops of the gorges in the clouds. when we woke up the conditions were more or less perfect This is exactly what we asked for. it’s perfect! yeah this is pretty much the quintessential Newfoundland weather that we’ve always thought. Now I’m wondering
how low the ceiling is going to be if it’s going to be below the level of the gorge like are the edges of the cliffs going to be in cloud? it is wet! yeah. it is wet outside it’s foggy which is okay but it’s also raining. four statute miles visibility also not surprising with a 1 000 foot ceiling i don’t know forecasted to deteriorate to a 900 foot ceiling oh no 130. we’re probably not going to see the fjord. probably not. we got to work with whatever we’re given. are you ready to go? are you ready? it’s cold! it’s so cold windy it’s like it’s six degrees windy and icy. it’s cold windy and wet! so between the western brook fjord parking lot and the actual launch of the boat tour there’s about a 30 minute hike. looking promising!
we might really luck out if the view stays like that we won’t be able to see the top but we kind of want that in between! so glad we bought our raincoats yeah and gloves. you didn’t forget this time! six degrees and sideways rain! and we were thinking our whole time okay this is gonna be amazing yes it’s a little bit foggy, yes it’s a little bit rainy! update on the fog can’t see [ __ ]! so within the span of like five minutes! yeah it really socked in so you know whatever I’m going in with open mind. make the most of it right? Can't come back tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day ,we gotta keep moving. four days left of the trip and we gotta bang off a few spreads while we’re here. fill them pages! fill them pages! we’re about to check in and we overhear that this boat tour might not even go! all the weather conditions that we worry about for aviating you also have to worry about when you’re navigating on water. they just told us that
we’re gonna make an announcement and we might not go and i think they’re making an announcement right now? everybody’s getting up! Is it a go or no go? i don’t know! your pass! it’s a go! we’re really putting your camera and weather ceiling to the test today. all right, haven’t had a problem in the past? so, not planning on having one now! not planning on having now! let’s go before the boat takes off without us! i don’t know if you can see on video but the rain is sideways. the rain is sideways! Alright Beck! Holy shit! We're going in! It's cold as shit man, holy god! Wet and windy! RDF! True definition of the RDF! rain, drizzle, fog! freaking epic . It’s cold though man Like, yeah it’s raining but conditions are perfect! what do you think? it’s insane insane! the rain was just like coming directly on the lens like you bring your camera up to take a picture after one picture covered in water! I’m soaked and freezing and i don’t give a [ __ ] because this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life! Pack towel! you take it down wipe it off bring it up to shoot again and then immediately it was covered in water. i was just so happy to be there and to be shooting i didn’t even care that there was water on my lens just dipped into my second card, take a couple pictures bring it down wipe it off and keep going! mine’s dry. I’m freezing! it’s so like three kilometer hike back will keep you warm!
all right I’m wet, I’m cold! i think i aged about 10 years on that one! oh man that was so good! it’s so cold and so wet but it was so worth it like the fog made it so good yeah just really amazing to see it i can’t believe it took us this long. my shoulders are burning same I’m so tired and everything, my legs are wet our dead cat looks dead right now. to Port Saunders! so after the boat tour we were freezing our asses off there was freezing rain there was sleet at that point i knew i had not just one but i probably had a couple shots that were that were printable print worthy. so we were soaked we were wet we were freezing so we stripped down
in the parking lot, put all of our wet clothes on the dashboard, and the heater. hung stuff up in the back seats. it was the actual car was an absolute mess. So Port Saunders was the second to last stop on our trip and the plan was to home base there so we’re hoping that the last few days of this trip would give us a small window at least one night so we’d get some shots of the Newfoundland landscapes with some stars in the background. the problem was is the forecast for the rest of the trip was not going to be clear skies at night. in fact it was more rain, drizzle, fog, and high winds. so we
finally got the weather that we were wishing for foggy, overcast, mauzy, and the only issue though is it’s still very windy. which makes it unpleasant. i think the weather’s supposed to get worse later so. We’re not gonna be able to shoot any astrophotography because the sky is supposed to be overcast basically for the entire time we’re here we’re just gonna kind of shoot some stuff around here. probably drive around a little bit afterwards and see what we can find. let’s go!
we just spotted a caribou on the side of the road! Morale is pretty low today. It’s getting pretty dark so we’re going to throw the 200 to 600mm on hope for the best! Im her caddy! you’re my caddy! I'm like, what lens you want? it’s like 200-600mm. yeah i got to peep that wildlife! i sniped them from the car! look at his fur! i wanted to see caribou! there you go! that was pretty cool that was definitely a little bit of a boost.
i was really like not feeling it today man feeling like I’m done with this like I’m so fatigued and tired i didn’t realize how difficult it would be to like shoot photos and actually get good photos for two weeks straight. up up early and out late shooting all day long i don’t know just almost tipped over my tripod just like lost my shit, like that’s where I’m at right now! i gotta get in the car! come on in! dude it is so cold, it’s like you can’t even do anything out here! these conditions are impossible to shoot in. all right my only thought of maybe getting somewhat of a unique shot is to because there’s no contrast in the sky so if we can get on higher ground and shoot telephoto looking down at it i think it’d be a unique perspective and you also might get the horizon in the background then! those highlands over there are pretty far away, it’s probably further than it looks. it’s super windy and super cold also we’re losing light and also it’s too windy to even use a tripod for somewhat of a long exposure like I’m literally i was in the car trying to shoot clips of Becki with the telephoto lens and it was like you could see the vibrations of the car shaking because of the wind shaking the car oh jesus! i feel like this shot would be improved if i could get to some higher ground hopefully I’ll get a better view of the lighthouse that will at least allow me to take a more interesting picture so i start my trek, and the wind now was howling it was so windy! I’m walking through this bog, dodging little puddles and then i hit this little forested patch it looked like shrubs and bushes from far away! i don’t know what it was, it was tangly and they were trees, so i find this little game trail where i can kind of like step over some of these scraggly old trees. Getting whipped in the face branches. so there’s piles of snow and piles of moose droppings Poop! and then after i get past that then there’s this steep incline which i have to scale but I’m thinking you know what keep pushing Chris there’s gonna be a huge payoff at the end you’re gonna get this awesome shot of the lighthouse it’s all gonna be worth it climb to the top out of breath. what do you think i see when i crest the top of this hill?
Oh you've got to be f*cking kidding me! You could drive here? What the f*ck! i could have driven there! and then i turned around and the lighthouse looked pretty much the same as it did on the ground from the lower ground the shot wasn’t really that good at all There's wires in the way! So i just said you know what screw this I’m going home so i just pulled my phone out called Becki and had her pick me up on the road It’s actually too windy to open the door There’s a road... I was stepping over moose droppings! climbing through, the those trees are taller than they look! it was a trek and i could have just leisurely walked on this road i just snapped off motor drive i don’t even know if there’s anything usable there. i thought it was a cool shot of you coming up with like the the headlights but it might just be too noisy but we tried right? i pushed! i got cranky. The caddy! You smell great! you smell like spruce!
oh there's a word for that? yeah okay it was tuckamore! yeah it was tuckamore. spruce trees that are weathered and tangled from the wind and they just look like this well this! Well was an interesting excursion i think it’s time to go back to the airbnb. Man after Port Saunders we were feeling so defeated and we didn’t really get any good images despite trying so hard at the lighthouse we you know came away with one picture we are leaving port Saunders today we are on the home stretch here now headed to corner brook which is the main city center on this side of the island on the west coast. we have one more place that we want to shoot. i think it’s going to be a bust tonight the weather does not look good looks about what we experienced last night but tomorrow we’re supposed to get sunset so we’re gonna try to meet up with our friend Dru for our last sunset shoot of the trip oh she’s driving! to our last destination of corner brook newfoundland! Are you ready to go home? yes! i am excited to stay in the hew & draw though just to get my brain tickled with some interior [ __ ] we knew we had two days left and the weather was not looking good for this one day so we just decided you know what let’s take a step back the weather’s not going to be good let’s relax let’s take the night off. Oh ahh.. you wanted one too? Let’s go in the hot tub let’s just recharge so that
we can go out the next day if the weather’s good and just have a really great last night We’re on the way to our last shoot we are heading from corner brook out to lark harbor which is about 53 minutes. We're meeting up with a buddy of mine Dru he was like shooting snowboard videos when i was shooting bmx videos like I’ve known him since like i was a kid. he shoots photos he’s a professional photographer now, and uh we’re going to meet up and uh he’s going to take us to one of his favorite spots i think we’re going to sunset i think it’s probably going to be a pretty good one too. Is that the bay of islands that we just saw off the right?
We're currently going down humber arm south on this side. *unreadable* Coming back unreadable My battery is ahh... dying! All right Dru took us to his favorite spot in bottle cove up on these cliffs here known as sunset rock, is this sunset rock? yep! colloquially named !we’re here at sunset, what if you’re here at not during sunset? it’s just a rock! it’s just rock! i think this is a fantastic way to end off this trip. there’s like not a lot of wind and it’s like actually warm out
great evening! it was very nice to interact with people again who share a passion for shooting who share an interest in photography and video too and it was just a really enjoyable night very enjoyable very enjoyable night! there’s a cotton candy sunset over there i need to get that shot you know the interesting thing was is that despite it being the last night and despite us having all this pressure to get banger images to really end the book off on a strong note we sort of forgot about all that when we were with friends because we were just hanging out! went back to the parking lot and i saw a shot of bottle cove and i wanted to try to get it along exposure at night wasted all of our time now it’s really dark. we’ve got one more shot left on our list before we leave and we call it quits for this trip and that’ll be i guess the final image for this trip! yeah! how do you feel about that beck? it’s been really nice to spend this last night with Dru and Joey and just being outside with friends who shoot as well and it’s just so much fun to just sit there shoot the [ __ ] take a couple pictures and like not stress about the shot at all basically just hanging out with friends yeah I’m glad we came out and it’s pretty exciting to be kind of like on the last kind of shoot now and you know I’m ready to head home but i think this is a great last night. it’s 11 o’clock now we’re gonna push it a little later midnight! The ol' midnight oils out! I’m like definitely ready to go home pretty tired, I’m ready to be home. i just wish i could teleport home! shooting photos all day every day it didn’t really leave enough time for anything else.
i mean we got to see everything which was fun. you hit sunset and here sun sets at 9:20 pm you might be at a location that’s maybe 45 minutes to an hour away from your airbnb. you shoot till civil end which is like pushing 10 o’clock now, then you drive home now it’s 11. and then you get you dump all your cars now it’s 12. get ready for bed it’s 12:30. yeah so you’re like in bed at like after midnight
so it was very, yeah a lot less sleep than i had anticipated. your mom texted yesterday and was like "what are the most disappointing and the most memorable parts of your trip" when you sit down and think about what some of those moments you start to realize like how much we just experienced over the last two two weeks! you plan a trip and you figure it’s going to be this certain way and then suddenly you’re like oh there’s more time in a day there’s more experiences to be had and things don’t go as planned. so i started thinking about those disappointing moments and those exciting moments and i was like wow, like we actually had a really great time and there were a lot of memorable moments! i couldn’t really think of one disappointing moment. you know i think we’re gonna
look back on this trip and be like, wow that was like a lot of fun! let’s hope that we have enough pictures for uh this book! oh my god we’ll we’ll be able to tell in the next couple weeks. it was a Dru who asked like, do you have enough pictures for the book? and we’re like i have no idea it’s... like it might be a pamphlet instead of a book, a little flyer? yeah a little trifold brochure? the trip is winding down coming to an end we’re flying out that day and the big qu
2022-09-15 06:48
