I'm thrilled to have one of my personal favourite photos spread across two pages of Scientific American, read in print by 3.5 million worldwide. The shot is from a beautiful Sitka spruce forest near Nitinat Lake on Vancouver Island and compliments an article with Dr. Sally Aitken from the UBC Faculty of Forestry and BC Big Tree Registry. Check it out on the shelves until the end of August to get the full scoop!
Press: MacLean's Magazine Features Big Lonely Doug Climb
The 2015 Canada Day edition of MacLean's included a Guide to Being an Awesome Canadian and one of the things they featured was my photo and some words from our epic tree climb up Big Lonely Doug, Canada's second largest Douglas-fir tree. You can spot tree climbers Matthew Beatty (at the base) and Will Koomjian (near the top) for scale. See out a photo gallery with more pictures from the climb here: www.tjwatt.com/big-lonely-doug-climb/ Ascending Big Lonely Doug was an unforgettable experience - both inspiring and heartbreaking. I can now only hope that the awareness he's helped raise across so many media platforms about the threat to BC's ancient forests will help to keep the remaining adjacent forests alive.
Press: 2 Portraits for Canadian Wildlife Magazine
I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing two great individuals for the July/August edition of Canadian Wildlife magazine. Alana Krug-MacLeod was awarded the Youth Conservation Award and Brent Cooke the Robert Bateman Award (given to one who brings awareness and conservation through artistic work). It's always a fun yet somewhat nerve wracking challenge shooting environmental portraits on location but it's also great way to get to know someone and their unique story in brief window of time and an opportunity to showcase them in a beautiful light.
For Alana's shot we walked around the Pearson College Campus in Metchosin until we found this nice glowing Garry oak meadow. The harsh midday sun was challenge in most areas but here the leaves helped filter it. I crouched down low in the grass and used the Canon 580EXII strobe as a fill light.
For Brent's shot we trekked around some nice forest trails near his house before deciding on this beautiful mountain top arbutus scene at sunset. Here I used the last rays of sun as a rim light while shooting my Vivitar 285 strobe through a white umbrella on a light stand as a soft fill.
Road Trip: BC Interior and Alberta - August 2015
in Exploration, Landscape, Travel
Back home now after 2 weeks summer vacation and 2804 km of travel through the BC interior and parts of Alberta. Quite the change in scenery from my usual trips to see big trees! This time it was big mountains and gentle rolling prairies. The focus of the trip was to spend some relaxing time with my partner and not to shoot that many photos but I still snapped a few. Here are some of my favourites from various parts of our trip which included seeing Waterton, Banff, Glacier, and Revelstoke National Parks, amongst many other areas :)
Snapshot: Morning Light at Goldstream Park
Exploration: Central Walbran - Proposed Cutblock 4403
in Exploration, Forests, Logging
Here is a gallery of new images featuring part of the endangered Central Walbran Ancient Forest. The area in focus is the proposed '4403' cutblock, flagged by logging company Teal-Jones for cutting just a few hundred metres from where people camp and swim along the Walbran River. This section of forest contains some absolutely incredible old-growth redcedar trees as well as sensitive limestone karst features. Volunteers from the Friends of Carmanah Walbran have snipped and flagged a Witness Route into the area with yellow flagging tape, making access easier now. It rained pretty good on us (one of the only rains this July!) but it added to the mystical feel. To me, the dense old-growth forests of BC's coast are one of the last frontiers of exploration on this planet. Very few venture into their deepest depths but the rewards are overwhelming. The fact that their fate is also uncertain makes it all the more important to be there on the ground, capturing what secrets lie within. The fight to protect the Walbran Valley continues, one of Earth's greatest remaining natural treasures.
Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70mm f4 IS, wet wet gear. Camera took a full day to de-fog.