Free E-book: Churches Around the World

 

I have been photographing churches since 2008, when I was a graduate student in Stockholm, Sweden. I was first fascinated by the spectacular structure, and later the history behind the every single churches, the culture, religion and architecture - it is just like reading a history book when I step into the church. Since then, photographing church has become my priority in every single trip. I have been photographing over 50 churches around the world and it is still counting. I continue to explore the churches since I moved to USA in 2012. This mini e-book is the partial collection of my church photography over the past few years. Feel free to download the e-book at: http://www.kahwailin.com/Store/EBook. It is free-of-charge!

Bandon Beach in B&W

This image was taken at Bandon Beach during our trip to Oregon last month. This wasn't in our plan, we were initially planned to stay 2 days in Crater Lake but we later decided that we want to explore other location in the area. We spend 4 hours of driving from Crater Lake to Bandon Beach, in hope to catch up the dusk light. When we reach Bandon Beach, it was so misty that the visibility was very poor. We were just waiting and scouting around, fortunately in the last 30 minutes before sunset, the mist went away. Despite cloudy and no magical light, I was still trying to capture some images for black and white conversion. Nonetheless, I would love to return to this fantastic place, not only the nice surrounding that is so photogenic, but also the richness in wildlife. I saw many harbor seals, gulls and common murres this time, and I really want to see the tufted puffins when I return here next time!

Flowers and Fly Impressionism

(To see the effect, click to enlarge the image.)

This image was originally taken at the Vidae Falls in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon a few week ago. After seeing an oil paint-like flower image on Facebook yesterday, I was very tempted to create one too. The resulting image just looks like a Van Gogh's impressionist painting! It is really simple, just apply the oil paint filter in the Photoshop CS6 or earlier version (this feature was removed in the newer version of Photoshop). If you want to be a digital Van Gogh, just a click away! 

Vidae Falls

Vidae Falls is perhaps the best known waterfall at Crater Lake National Park. It’s 100 foot drop is spectacular and the environment give a feeling of intense serenity especially at this time of the year when the flowers are blooming.

Guest Blog by Kaz Canning: Turtle Pond, Stony Brook Reservation

I recently had the chance to take a quick day trip to Boston during the peak of the fall colors. It was my first time in Boston, and I was only there for a short 24 hour stay so I had to make the best of my time there. In the peak of the fall colors, this was the perfect time to be in the northeast. I knew that I wanted to find a nature preserve that would have un-touched nature.

I found a small park a few miles from where I was staying, and set my alarm for 3am to make it there before sunrise. The next morning, the temperatures were near freezing and it was pitch black. I parked in an empty church parking lot, pulled out my small flashlight and started stumbling through thick brush and fallen leaves in the general direction of the nature preserve not knowing what I would encounter. As sunrise neared, I was able to navigate a little bit more efficiently and found a trail to follow. I came across this small pond, the air was so still the water gave a perfectly rendered reflection of the tree line across from me. As the sunrise came nearer, the brief window of time of absolutely perfect light lit the autumn trees and I took the picture I knew I needed. After I returned to my hotel I noticed I had brought some ticks along with me, just one more memory to add the this memorable preserve.

By: Kaz Canning

 

Panorama of Painted Hills

Painted Hills - one of the seven wonders of Oregon. Millions of years of history revealed in the colorful layers. Each layers corresponding to different geological eras, formed when the area was an ancient river floodplain. It is also a famous archeological site with abundance of fossil remains of early horses, camels, and rhinoceroses. I was chatting with the park ranger and he told me that he was participating in an archeological activity in the park and he found the fossil of extinct canid with long teeth.

Dusk at Crater Lake

A beautiful dusk at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. This is the view to the west of Crater Lake as seen from West Rim Drive. Before this image was taken, there was a light rain and I witnessed a lightning struck a tree in the forest which occurred ~3 miles away from the Rim Drive according to the park rangers who were surveying the forest fire. Despite the rising smoke covered the struck area, fire doesn't spread though.