Regular readers of my blog will be familiar with love for Canada’s Sugar Beach. I first started my Sugar Beach series of photographs last winter, capturing it when it looked like an unearthly landscape, so hidden was it in mist, ice and fog. It is still one of the most amazing urban landscapes I’ve shot. Being back there in the summer I was greeted by vibrant greens and blue water to complement the sand and beautiful pink parasols. This past weekend I decided to head out to Sugar Beach again.
This time the beach was surrounded by a low metal gate – presumably to protect al the equipment for a car expo that was taking place on the beach. Wandering further up the path I found an opening in the gate and proceeded to set up my tripod and camera. Nothing was going to get in the way of the photography – although standing my tripod in the sand made for an interesting challenge.
I’ll publish more of my photos a bit later, however this week I’ve decided to share a short video clip I took of the fountains. The interesting thing about taking photographs in a place several times is that there is always something a little different about it. Even though it may seem I know the place there is always something new about it. It could be the light, the perspective, the emotion, the time of day… and even the people I meet when out doing a shoot. That makes the photos taken there each time unique. This time my unexpected discovery was – the fountain.
The Sugar Beach Fountains Play
I’ve seen photos of the Sugar Beach Fountains of course. At night they are pretty spectacular. But until Saturday I had never actually seen them in action myself. The fountains are set in a giant black maple leaf in the ground and they come up from the ground. They are also on a timer and play at different heights. So, on this early morning there I was standing on the maple leaf with my tripod and camera. I’d stood on it before so it never occurred to me to even think much about it. Imagine my surprise, when, after stepping off the maple leaf with my camera set up (purely to get something in my frame) – the fountains suddenly started up! Actually, surprise is an understatement. I got quite a fright. I initially thanked my stars that I had moved off the maple leaf in time so the water didn’t start with me on it (that would have been crazy and would probably have ruined my equipment and thoroughly soaked me). Then I thought that there was probably a sensor in the ground, so that the fountains wouldn’t start up if there was anyone standing on them –i.e me,photographer getting shots of the beach. Even so, I backed off to a safe distance. It wasn’t long however before I thought – what a great photo opportunity this was. Playing fountains, that I had never seen before.
I spent the next little while taking many shots of the fountains playing, experimenting with different shutter speeds and perspectives and shooting in both colour and black and white. Stay tuned – I will be sharing some of them once I’ve finished sorting and post. Sunday consisted of a boat cruise in beautiful weather (and more photos) so any work on photography post-production took second place to sun and fun on a boat.
