Labour Day Weekend at the Cottage
This is the third year in a row we’ve spent the Labour Day weekend sending summer off with a bang. Because our cottage is on Lake Erie, the end of the summer is (often) the warmest the lake gets. This makes it prime for the kids’ final few days of freedom before the rhythm of school takes over. We’ve been lucky to spend a ton of time at the cottage this summer (thank you mom and dad Knechtel!).
As cottage days practically demand, our mornings have been pretty lazy (watching the Formula 1 race, playing on the bouncy castle, eating breakfast around the table) and our afternoons are filled with the beach.
On the Sunday night of the weekend, we head into nearby Port Rowan for their fireworks show. Last year was the first time we went and it was fantastic: You can get right up to the water’s edge and basically sit right underneath the fireworks. It’s a huge hit with our kids (and the other ~2,500 people that are in town for Bayfest). This year I enjoyed snapping as many abstract photos as I could with the Nikon D600 (my main body). A whole lot of pray-and-spray due to needing to manually focus in the dark on kids that don’t want to sit still with fireworks that make exposure and white balance wildly inconsistent. You get some fun results though if you’re willing to embrace what the camera gives you and not necessarily expect your vision to be the result. Sort of like shooting film in that regard.
As I spoke about in the last photo set: I am continuing to adjust back to shooting a DSLR as my primary camera body. This weekend was a phenomenal prep experience before we head to Florida for 2 weeks and I’m locked in with what I bring.
The D600’s 1/4000th maximum shutter speed is pretty limiting wide open (the only way to shoot Sigma Art lenses, as far as I’m concerned). I’ll be picking up variable NDs for these lenses which will also be useful for any future video gigs on my Nikons.
Fun weekend shooting. Really nice time with our family to enjoy a quiet weekend before the hubbub. Grateful for these moments I get to hold on to via the magic of photography.
