Through the Lens - July 2020

A yawning sea otter off the coast of Vancouver Island. Photo: Troy Wood

Photos of the Week for the month of June

Other photos we featured this month included a young buck on Vancouver Island (photo by Dean Myhal), a close up shot of an everes amyntula butterfly near Grande Prairie, Alberta (photo by Heather Mellon), and a prickly porcupine in some flowers in New Brunswick (photo by Carole McGrath).

We choose a new photo every Monday to be our banner images on Facebook and Twitter, plus we share the picture on Instagram too!

Want to see your photos featured? Be sure to join and upload to our Photo Club.

Tips from Photographer-in-Residence
Michelle Valberg

If you want to improve your wildlife photography, photographing birds is a perfect way to practice. They are beautiful, small, fast-moving and provide lots of photographic opportunities.

Know your camera settings and work off of automatic. If you don't feel comfortable in full manual mode, use a semi-automatic mode. I recommend shutter priority for action (birds or otherwise). This will allow you to set your shutter speed (at least to 1/400 second depending on lens and camera body) and your camera will choose the aperture for proper exposure.

With fast moving subjects, I will take as fast as a shutter speed I can get without going too high with my ISO. However, with the newer cameras now (I use the Nikon Z6 and Z7) I will increase my ISO to levels I never thought possible. Everyone has their preference and limit as to how high to go with ISO settings.

Auto-ISO is also an option, especially if you want to practice photographing wildlife or motion without worrying about your exposure (other than shutter speed). I would recommend setting a limit as to how high your ISO goes to, based on what you prefer (taking into consideration the higher ISO the more grain you get).

- Michelle Valberg, Photographer-in-Residence

#ShareCanGeo

We love when you tag us on Instagram using #sharecangeo. Here are a few of our recent favourites.

Click on each picture to be brought to the photographer's Instagram page!

Photo Contest: What does home mean to you?

The photographer’s daughter exploring beneath a rainbow. Perhaps home for you is symbolized by a person rather than a place. (Photo: Mike Hurley/Can Geo Photo Club)

Community relocations are part of the story of what has and continues to shape Canada as a country. As part of our educational project on relocations in Canada, we want to know: what does home mean to you? We’re looking for photographs that capture your personal concept of home, be it the house you grew up in, a place you visit when you need to rest and recharge, a landmark that makes your community unique, or a person who represents comfort, hope and identity.

Submit an image and tell us the story behind it for a chance to win one of three cash prizes, including the grand prize of $1,000.

Submit

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Stay safe and support the RCGS

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has teamed up with Roots to produce limited edition, lightweight reusable face masks featuring the Compass Rose. Support the Society and keep your loved ones safe, with proceeds from each mask sale going towards supporting the critical education programming of the RCGS. Our masks are proudly made in Canada. Purchase below.