Peter Bowers
Tags: amazing, flickr, hobby, lecture, peterbowers, peter_bowers, photo, Photography, shots, show, slideshow, techniques, tips, toronto, tpmg
Peter Bowers is one of my favorite photographers on Flickr. His canoe nature shots are just amazing, and the proof of that is that this shot has been faved by more than 1000 people already and this one is close to reaching 2000 faves, probably the highest number ever reached on flickr. He has always been an inspiration for me since I found his flickr page more than one year ago. The most surprising thing about Peter? He is just an amateur photographer, with a regular job and taking pictures on his free time.
This past Tuesday, I had the pleasure to attend a public lecture by Peter, where he explained some of his techniques, his inspiration and we even got to hear about some peculiar stories that can happen to any photographer, like encounters with bears or being gate-locked in a private property 
Peter showed 3 8-minute slideshows, and discussed a few shots from each show telling us the story and the technique behind it. Here are a few notes I got from the lecture and that may interest you if you are or want to be a nature photographer:
- the most important piece of gear for landscape photography is the tripod. You don’t need expensive lenses or ultra-modern bodies… you need a sturdy tripod so you can get sharp images. Some of Peter’s shots were taken with his camera’s kit lens.
- timing is very important, as the best light is before sunrise and after sunset. In a cold country like Canada, sacrifice is needed Some of Peter’s extraordinary shots were taken at -20C, early in the morning for example.
- Rule-of-Thirds and Near-Middle-Far rules should be used as guidelines and not strict rules.
- The “secret” for most of Peter’s sunrise/sunset shots is a ND grad filter, from Sing-Ray. Using the ND grad filter he can get the perfect exposure for both the sky and land.
- his favorite aperture if F11-F13, and he focus at 1/3 of the depth of field. With such a small aperture, a tripod and a long shutter speed, all the depth of field will be sharp.
- be prepared to fail Most of the days you will go out and won’t find any decent light to create your shots, so just try again in the future.
- another thing I noticed in Peter’s lecture is that he likes remote places. Most of his shots are taken while doing canoe trips, and even in the city he likes to take his shots from places hard to get, to guarantee a unique perspective of the scene.
Overall, it was an excellent lecture, one of the many organized by TPMG, one of the biggest photography groups in the world if not the bigger, and from which I’m a proud member.
Here are some of my favorite shots from his pool:
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