Richard M. Grove

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first edition of this book came out in 2003; it had three printings. When I found myself once again down to only 3 copies I contemplated ordering more and then thought that I might rather add a few more images and publish a second edition in a different format that could be more easily distributed as a POD book on the web at on-line bookstores. Oh the wonders of the digital world.  Without it this book would not have been possible. I find it abundantly marvelous that I own a digital camera of such high quality, quite the step up from my first 35mm single-lens reflex camera with diaphragm stop-down actuation mechanism built inside the lens mount. It was a Praktica Super TL manufactured by Pentacon in Dresden, in eastern Germany, in the 60s. That first camera was bought at the age of 13 and now I am into my fourth or fifth digital camera having more fun than I could imagine.

 

The digital world is only half of what made this book possible. The other half is the profound visual stimulation that is fed to me every day by Presqu’ile Provincial Park. My wife, Kim, and I had the good fortune of following our dear friends, Bill and Juli, out to where they had bought a cottage.  To our delight there was a cottage for sale only three cottages away.  We instantly fell in love with it, the park and the sky; we bought it and have never turned back. The last five images in this second edition are much more resent than the earliest images of 2003. I find never ending inspiration in the lake, trees and birds but nothing grabs my attention more than the sky. 

 

The area brought out the photographer in me and within months I had a hundred photographs as I worked on a photography series called “Sky Over Presqu’ile”.  With my experience using Photoshop, a digital imaging program, I turned some of those photographs into digital paintings.  Some of those paintings are in this book.