I was back in my hometown of Sarnia recently and thought I’d post some photos I took of Lake Huron. I grew up a stone’s throw from the beach there, and I feel very lucky that my parents still live in the same house, so I can always go home for a visit. If anyone has read my bio you’ll know that I didn’t have many regrets when I left Sarnia. I still have a kind of love-hate relationship with the city, and while I obviously miss my family and friends, I also miss the lake. So it’s great that I can go home once in awhile to spend some time on it’s shores. Lake Ontario can be nice, but to me there’s something very special about Lake Huron and they don’t call Sarnia “Blue Water Country” for nothing. The water really is blue sometimes, and it’s still pretty clean and great for swimming too!
Sorry, no blue water in this image. It was shot in colour with my Canon G10, but I really like it in black and white. I’m a big fan of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, and some of my favourite images are from a series of his called Seascapes. The image above was inspired by the work of Sugimoto, who gained notoriety recently when one of his photos was used on the cover of U2’s latest album No Line on the Horizon. I discovered his work in a book store a few years ago, and ever since then I’ve been wanting to produce a similar image of Lake Huron. I tried a few times in the past, but the weather and light never cooperated. So I felt lucky to get this shot on a hazy morning during my last visit to Sarnia.
At first glance, I will admit that the image may seem a bit plain, even dull. In all honesty, this was also my first reaction to some of Sugimoto’s images. However, the longer I looked at his photos the more I started to like them. The minimalist compositions with vast empty skies and boundless water have a real Zen quality to them. I could imagine myself staring into them and getting lost in the space between the water and the sky. Great for meditating or doing yoga (note to self: start meditating and doing more yoga) and I think I captured some of that feeling in the photo above. I’m hoping to make a large print of it soon, but I’m not too sure how the G10 files will hold up.
The images below were shot a couple of days later. They are more dramatic then the one above, but they still contain some of that simplicity and serenity that I was looking for. I’m kind of torn between the colour and black and white, and I like them both. What do you think? Please feel free to share your comments.
