All posts by Thomas Stirr

Thomas Stirr is an author, executive coach, and photographer/videographer based in Grimsby Ontario Canada. He specializes in industrial photography, safety and corporate videos. His work also includes landscape and nature photography, and experimentation with photo art. Nikon Canada has featured Tom's work numerous times on Facebook and Twitter. To follow Thomas, please visit his website and his YouTube channel

Photographing Cars on Display

Often we have a particular goal in mind when we visit an area as I did when visiting Point Pelee National Park. Sometimes nature does not cooperate and we end up finding an unexpected treasure. That was certainly the case for me when I stumbled on the Canadian Transportation Museum in Kingsville, Ontario.

This article shares a few images that I took during my visit as well as discussing some approaches to consider when photographing cars on display. Continue reading Photographing Cars on Display

Point Pelee National Park

After a very hectic few days working on an urgent client project my wife and I decided to take a short break and head off to Point Pelee National Park. Our original intent was to capture images of migrating birds as Point Pelee is a major stopping point in the migration route of many species of birds and butterflies. Continue reading Point Pelee National Park

Bird Portraiture

One of the things that I love about facilities like Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls is the variety and character of the birds. Some of them seem to have human-like qualities and I find their faces can be very expressive.

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to visit Bird Kingdom with two of our readers, Don and Janice Berman, and spend a number of very enjoyable hours photographing various bird specimens. My focus with my most recent visit was to get as many tight-in images as I could – bird portraitures – for lack of a better description. Continue reading Bird Portraiture

Goose Beating Wings at 15fps

Sometimes we just happen to be at the right place at the right time to capture some images. That was certainly the case on Wednesday this week when I visited the Dufferin Islands at Niagara Falls Ontario and managed to capture a large, white goose beating its wings. Luckily I had my Nikon 1 V2 set for AF-C at 15 fps with subject tracking. So, here is a series of images of a goose beating its wings at 15 fps. Continue reading Goose Beating Wings at 15fps

Vultures at Niagara Gorge

This week I had the opportunity to shoot a few images of vultures with one of our readers, Ray Miller. He has been kind enough to provide our readers with some of his favourite photographic locations in the Niagara area and once again shared his expertise. There are quite a few vultures at the Niagara Gorge and they can be easily viewed and photographed from the Locust Grove Picnic Area. Continue reading Vultures at Niagara Gorge

Abstract Waterfall Images

After burning the midnight oil quite a bit recently working on a major safety video project for a client, I decided it was time to take a break so I grabbed my camera bag and headed off to the Niagara Falls area for the day. Since I’ve always enjoyed working with Topaz to add more dramatic and artistic impressions to some of my images, I wanted to see if I could capture some waterfall images that could work as ‘photo art’. So, what follows are some abstract waterfall images. Continue reading Abstract Waterfall Images

Airshow photography

Since I was a kid the official end of summer was always the airshow at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto, Canada. Luckily the weather cooperated this year and I was able to spend a couple of afternoons on the Labour Day holiday weekend taking images at the CNE Airshow. This was my first attempt to use my Nikon 1 gear for airshow photography. Continue reading Airshow photography

Using smaller sensor cameras in low light

As with all things photographic there tends to be differences of opinion and the occasional hard-edged viewpoint that people bring to on-line discussions. Shooting in low light is one such subject. Many folks have a strong belief that if you shoot in low light you must use a full frame camera to get good results. Period.

But… is this actually true? Continue reading Using smaller sensor cameras in low light