To begin, an apology that I have not been very active here at Photography Life for the past few months. My time has been consumed with client video work, as well as working on a photography eBook project. My wife and I recently spent two weeks in Nova Scotia doing a partial circumnavigation of the province as field work for our recently launched eBook: Nova Scotia Photography Tour. We have visited Nova Scotia a number of times in the past and have always enjoyed the people and scenery. This article features some of the images contained in the eBook.
We started our trip in Halifax, and made a number of stops as we made our way to Peggy’s Cove.
We had a full day with stops in French Village, Indian Harbour, Mahone Bay, the Blue Rocks and the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial. We ended our first day in Lunenburg.
The next morning we spent some time photographing the harbor in Lunenburg and doing some street photography. We then headed off to Shelburne for our second night’s stay. We made stops at Hunts Point, Fort Point, Liverpool, Lockport, Petite Riviere and Port Medway.
Shelburne is an interesting historical town that has been used for a number of movie productions. We spent an hour or so in the Old Town section of Shelburne then headed off towards Port Maitland. We spent a good part of the day on Cape Sable Island exploring and capturing shoreline images.
After a farm stay in Port Maitland, we had a busy day with stops in Salmon Arm, the Gilbert Cove Lighthouse, Cape St. Mary’s, Church Point, Digby (where we had an amazing seafood chowder for lunch) the Annapolis Historic Gardens, and Annapolis Royal.
After overnighting in Granville Ferry we headed off to Truro. Our stops that day included the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station, Evangeline Beach, Grand-Pre National Historic Monument, Burntcoat Head and the Shubencadie River.
The next morning we headed off to Antigonish. Our route took us to stops in River John, the Hector Heritage Quay in Pictou, the Arisaig Lighthouse, the Cape George Lighthouse, and Ballentyne’s Cove. We also made very quick photo stops in Earltown, Lower Barney’s River, Marshville, Sand Point and Tatamagouche. My wife and I always enjoy getting off the beaten path when we travel as our impromptu explorations often lead to unusual images.
After spending the night in Antigonish we headed off to Louisbourg with stops in St. Peter’s Canal, Sydney Harbour, Dominion Beach, Irish Vale, Red Islands, Soldier Cove, and Lighthouse Point in Louisbourg.
I revisited Lighthouse Point in Louisbourg first thing in the morning to capture some early light. We then spent about 3 hours at the Fortress of Louisbourg which is one of the world’s larges historical reconstruction sites. We headed off to Baddeck for a brief visit, then backtracked to our motel in Boularderie East.
We had a very productive day as much of it was spent on the Cabot Trail. We made stops at Goose Cove, Cape Smokey, Ingonish, Lakies Head, Green Cove, Neil’s Harbour, White Point Harbour and Pleasant Bay. We also spent some time at the various pull-offs along the Cabot Trail as we headed west and south towards Cheticamp. The image above is my favourite one from the entire photography tour.
After capturing a few quick images in the morning as we left Cheticamp, we continued on the Cabot Trail. The road along the coastline is quite scenic and we made a number of short stops along the way. Other photography stops that day included Lake O’Law Picnic Park, Little Narrows Beach, Estmere, John Neil & George Road, and Highland Village. We ended up in Iona where we spent the night. This route gave us the opportunity to take the cable ferry across to Iona.
The next day was the worst one of the trip from a weather standpoint as Hurricane Jose was moving northward and sending clouds and rain into Nova Scotia. We faced some heavy downpours at times. We did the best we could under the conditions and made stops at the Guysborough Museum, Queensport Lighthouse Park, Canso Museum: Whitman House and Little Dover. We followed Union Street in Canso almost to the end as this is the most eastern part of mainland Nova Scotia. We ended our day in Charlos Cove.
We made sure to include photographs captured under difficult conditions in the eBook for two reasons. The first was that we wanted the eBook to have a ‘true to life’ orientation and document the photography tour accurately. As we all know, when we’re out on a photography tour image opportunities will be variable. The second reason was to give photographers and travelers some view of the potential sights and scenery, appreciating that they could view a photograph and imagine how it could look if shot under more favourable conditions.
The next morning brought much better weather as we headed off to Sheet Harbour along Marine Drive. The Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia is relatively untouched by tourists which is a shame as it is very scenic and provides many glimpses of life in small villages in Nova Scotia. We started the morning with a few quick photographs in Charlos Cove. We then made stops in Goldboro, Larry’s River, Liscomb River, Moser River, Sherbrooke, Sober Island, Parc do nos Ancetres, Tor Bay, the Port Bickerton Lighthouse and Marie Joseph. We overnighted in Sheet Harbour.
We continued our explorations on our last full day on the road with stops along the river in Sheet Harbour, Taylor Head, Clam Harbour, Martinique Beach, Lawrencetown Beach and ended our day at the Halifax Waterfront. We spent about an hour and a half at the Halifax Waterfront which was the bulk of the time we spent in any large city in Nova Scotia.
Our objective with our photography tour and subsequent Nova Scotia Photography Tour eBook was to replicate what the vast majority of travelers do when they go on a driving holiday. Almost all of our images were captured between 9am and 5pm with very modest hiking required into various photographic locations – usually no more than 400 metres (~ 1/4 mile). We shot hand-held for the entire trip on a ‘catch as catch can’ basis. We did the best we could given the weather conditions each day.
While I captured most of the images included in Nova Scotia Photography Tour, my wife contributed a number of photographs to the eBook project as well. When working on this type of project it is always good to have another perspective when at various locations. My wife was also instrumental in doing the initial location research for the project, keeping records of the trip and working on the manuscript, shot selection, and final editing with me.
Nova Scotia Photography Tour is now available for purchase and download on my photography blog at a cost of $12.99 CDN. At current exchange rates that is approximately $10 US, about 8.6 Euros, and less than 8 British pounds. It is 375 pages in length, containing 64 featured locations and over 625 original photographs. All featured locations are organized in the book by the day and order in which they were visited. This makes following our route on a map very easy. The PDF file is approximately 135MB and once prepared for an individual purchaser, takes about 5 to 8 minutes to download depending on internet speed. It is designed as a B5 size eBook and best viewed at its native size of 176mm x 250mm (6.9 inches x 9.8 inches).
Nova Scotia Photography Tour uses standard anti-piracy encryption as well as buyer-specific QR coding. We hope readers understand the need for creators of intellectual material to protect their work. Readers interested in this project can read the Nova Scotia Photography Tour eBook launch article on my website and also view my extensive collection of related Nova Scotia articles.
Technical Note:
All images were captured hand-held in available light using Nikon 1 gear as per the EXIF data. All images in this article and in the eBook were produced from RAW files using my standard process of DxO OpticsPro 11/PhotoLab, CS6 and the Nik Collection.
Article Copyright 2017 Thomas Stirr. All images Copyright 2017 Thomas Stirr & Rosemary Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, adaptation, or reproduction of any kind is allowed without written permission. Photography Life is the only approved user of this article. If you see it reproduced anywhere else it is an unauthorized and illegal use. Readers who call out offending websites that steal intellectual property by posting messages on offending websites are always appreciated!