The Universe (as I see it) » school

Young Worlds

Don Komarechka — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:27:16 +0000

Yesterday I had my final class with my students, an excursion to photograph waterfalls in the Bracebridge area. The weather was great, although a little chilly in the morning. I think everyone had a great time, myself included. Now, I had been to these falls many times so I was looking for different subjects – which I found:

Water bubbles. Formed by a small cascade of water in a calm pool of water that slowly moved on to larger falls. I was fascinated by the reflections, and took a hundred photographs until I found the perfect one.

The temperature overnight had dropped below freezing, but I believe this was after dew had already formed on many low-lying plants. The result of frozen dew drops should speak for itself:

I haven’t researched this, but here is my idea of what creates those interesting frozen patterns: The outside of the water droplet likely freezes first. Once it freezes into something of a shell, the inside begins to freeze. The water inside expands when it freezes and has nowhere to go, so it breaks the outer shell of the water droplet in random (and beautiful) patterns. It reminds me a turtle shell.

I took a few more water droplet photos, I’ll probably post more later but there are a few extra in the gallery below. Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone who took my course – it was a blast!

Waterfall Tour

Don Komarechka — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:06:39 +0000

I’m in the middle of teaching my class now, the final day is November 4th. I am having a blast with it, and coming up on the 30th is an outing that I’ve had to plan and organize as well. I decided on waterfalls as the subject, and had to explore most of the area’s waterfalls. From Owen Sound to Muskoka, I finally settled on two that are in Bracebridge – Potts Falls and Wilson’s Falls. My adventures took me many more places though, with a full gallery of local waterfalls below:

Oh, and I thought I’d through a map on these, as all of the photos are geotagged.
(map best viewed full screen)

Teaching Photography

Don Komarechka — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:44:28 +0000

I just wanted to let everyone know of my latest endeavour. I’ll be teaching photography at Georgian College this fall – specifically the Nature and Landscape Photo (PHTO 0054) course, part of the continuing education programs offered at the college. It has no prerequisites – anyone can register! It runs from October 14th to November 4th, filling 18 hours of in-class and in-the-field time.

I am very excited to be doing this, and to be given the opportunity to teach photography on a professional level. Thanks to everyone that has supported my photography over the past few years – your constant encouragement and support have brought me to this point – and I certainly am not stopping here.

18 Years Later…

Don Komarechka — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:55:56 +0000

From four years old to the age of 22, I’ve spent a good part of my life has been spent learning. June 17th was the culmination of 18 years of education, with my college diploma.

By no means is this an end – only a point of reference on a lifelong journy of learning. I have to say though, its great to be out of the classroom!

Mom, Walter, and Desi attended my commencement, using up all three of the guest tickets I had been given. It was long and ultimately quite boring, so thanks guys for putting up with three hours of blabbering for 30 seconds of me walking across the stage. Much appreciated!

…and a special thanks to all of my family and friends that have helped me over the last 18 years. The help and support you have provided to me has got me to where I am today, and will never be forgotten. Thanks again!

Duck, duck, deer!

Don Komarechka — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:43:03 +0000

Just recently I received my new camera, the Canon 5D mark II. Itching for a subject to photograph, I headed down the road to the place where I can always find ducks, even in the dead of winter. Sure enough, there were plenty of Mallards to photograph, and a couple of the shots turned out really nicely!

Taking photos of these ducks really made me wish I had a longer telephoto lens, as 300mm just doesn’t seem to cut it with my camera. At one point, a couple of ducks (male and female) swam much closer and I snapped another great shot. Wish I had more like this!

The owner of the property told me that after the sun sets, there are quite a few deer that come around. Thinking this would be a great chance to test out the light sensitivity of my camera, I came back just after dusk and sure enough, there were a few deer roaming around. Here is one of the better shots from that evening:

Can’t wait to get some more use out of my camera, I’ll have tons of photos to post just after Christmas I’m sure. As of Saturday I have finished my 3rd semester at Georgian, so I have much more free time now and you should see more updates from me here

School! (no free time)

Don Komarechka — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:55:58 +0000

So the new semester is here, I’m a little more than a week into it and the work seems non-stop. Trying to stay ahead of the deadlines, which isn’t always easy but I’m managing much better than last year.

Sorry for the lack of updates here, I just haven’t had very much time for it. My camera will be getting tons of use on the weekend on the 20-21st so hopefully then I’ll have something interesting to write about