Photography

I’d like to introduce you to a new photography website – ta-da – jimstewart360.ca. Lots of photographs of places and objects. Also lots of information on farm equipment and astronomy. It’s my husband’s site. He’s been putting it together for a long time, and recently went public with it.

Jim has been into photography for longer than I’ve known him, and I’ve known him a long time. He got the interest from his father, I think. His dad took especially good portraits, a rare talent. Jim developed his own photographs – black and white, colour and slides. He always had a darkroom, no matter how small a space he lived in. When digital cameras came along, he began exploring the possibilities of them. His computer became his darkroom, he says.

Here’s a few of the things he’s posted that I particularly like.

1975 St. Thomas ON

You can see St. Thomas ON in the round in 1975. Jim climbed the water tower in town and took photographs all the way around. That in itself is quite remarkable, maybe foolish too. But what I find more remarkable is that he kept the negatives and prints for decades during many moves. He tried making a 360 just in the darkroom; learned a lot but ultimately it didn’t work. His son later stitched them together in a sort-of 360 with early computer technology. When purpose-designed stitching software came into existence, Jim began working on them again. Finally, he got something he was happy with. It’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else that shows St. Thomas a full portrait of its past.

Boats and Ships on Shore

Playing with filters on the haunting imagery of boats on land. The photographs were taken on trips around Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in the past decade. With the beauty of the subjects, beautiful photography results. But then Jim began playing with filters and effects. A couple more posts show those results with information on what he did. (This pic is from Boats on Shore as Paintings.)

Farm equipment

Jim has become a rather adept farm machinery mechanic. It’s been out of necessity. He’s been helped by friends, local mechanics and YouTube. And his camera, of course. He realized that he should photograph all stages of a repair, and take notes. Because, in all likelihood, the problem was going to happen again. On-line forums that he scours for information and help also told him that his problems are also other people’s problems. So, having already documented the problem and the process of repair, why not share it. Repairing the knotting mechanism on our ancient baler is one I particularly like. In part, because I really like the baler (as I’ve written about).

Astronomy

Star gazing is a relatively new passion of Jim’s. Photography goes nicely with it. His astronomy section shares those, along with information about the skies and the equipment to see it close up. He is a member of the Saint John Astronomy Club. His page on star parties might encourage you to join one, or at least experience it vicariously (like me!).

Arty pics

The arty stuff, of course. Close-ups of stones, buildings, even boxcars. On their own, with no darkroom wizardry, they’re great. Then you can also see the different effects with filters and lenses. Some of these are recent, but many were taken years ago. Like the trains and boxcars. So the work on them was only done with the camera equipment itself and the developing process.

Infrared

He has infrared photos throughout the site. There’s lots of examples of the same picture using different techniques. As well, there’s a section devoted to infrared photography. I find it amazing how something familiar can look totally different – even other worldly sometimes. Here’s one of the small, but spectacular, Old St. Thomas Church in St. Thomas ON. I liked going there with the dogs, and even have ancestors buried there. But beautiful as I know the churchyard to be, effects like this can make it even more incredible.

360 Panoramas

And finally, the 360° panoramas, from which he derived his site name! Landscapes, shopping malls, and more are here. This is a still captured from his 360 at the 45 Bridge and waterfalls in Fundy National Park in NB.

So have a look….

Have a visit and look around the site. He’s adding more all the time. Below is a pic of him that I took off his Facebook page. A selfie of a sort.