About

Parry Sound is best known as the gateway to Georgian Bay and the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve. Every summer Parry Sound is host to thousands of people on their way to their cottages, friends’ and families’ cottages, parks, their boats or an adventure on the water or in the air.

There is more to Parry Sound that is not easily discovered unless you spend a little time walking through the town, not just in the summer but also the spring, fall and winter. You will surely be surprised, at times delighted and at other times not so.

We, well that’s me for now, will be posting up images that will range from the familiar to the surprising to the puzzling. All of the images reveal a little bit more of Parry Sound and the surrounding area. But the images are just way of piquing your interest to come up and see Parry Sound for yourself.

This blog was relaunched January 2013 with a photo of the day feature. So come by often and watch it grow. We are also on Facebook where we post a photo of the week. As always I suggest you clck on the photo to see a larger photo that is sharper. If you access the site through an RSS feed the images can appear less than optimal.

Have questions or suggestions? You can reach us by email. We are at jo@parrysights.com.

In terms of equipment I use whatever I have in my pocket or camera bag, and I almost always have something with me. This include an iPhone (those crazy 360 shots), an Olympus E-PL5, and Nikon D3200, D600 and D750. I have swapped a typical pocket point-and-shoot for the Olympus E-PL5 because I’ve had too many point-and-shoots develop dust on the sensor that can’t be cleaned. One unit was under warranty and I sent it back for cleaning. They provided me with a replacement; that had dust on the sensor. Arghhh! The Olympus is a bit bigger, not as pocketable but has removable lenses so I can clean the sensor when I need to. For pockets I carry an iPhone 5s (my iPhone 5 died after getting dunked while kayaking, even though it was in a waterproof Otter Box). It’s okay, but nothing beats the full frame bodies. I may move to a waterproof point-and-shoot at some point for water sport activities. It should in theory be sealed to prevent dust problems. (I picked up an Olympus TG-4, and wasn’t impressed by the handling. It went back.)

I generally carry two bodies when I’m out photographing. I hate changing lenses in the field. They are too easily dropped when using gloves in the winter, and at night it’s no fun fumbling in the dark. I probably look like a dork, a harness and two cameras in holsters plus a tripod, but where I wander I rarely see others.

The D600 and D750 are pretty fabulous in terms of image quality. The D750 body was added because the D3200 didn’t offer important features offered by the bigger Nikons, especially battery life in the cold. The tilting screen is also valuable, letting me get close to the ground or water for shots without having to crawl like a lizard. Even then you can’t get as low as you can with the tilt out screen. The lens I use for most of the images on this site is a Nikkor 18-35 G. It’s light, has great image quality and only let’s me down if I’m not careful when shooting backlit scenes. It’s prone to flare. The Nikkor 70-200 f4, like the 18-35 is sharp, sharp, sharp. It’s usually on the D600 and ready to go. Add in a 50mm f1.8 G and there isn’t much I can’t capture. Once you get over looking like a dork, with a couple of cameras in holsters, it’s all good.

The macro and plant shots are usually done with the larger Nikons and Tamron 90mm f2.8 (VC) lens. It is remarkably sharp, and the image stabilization is welcome. While image stabilization is of much less benefit for true macro shots, every little bit helps. I added a Tamron 150-600 lens to the collection to shoot an event this summer and was impressed by the quality of the images. It’s big and doesn’t get as much use as it should. I will see what I can do about that in 2016.

You can find more of my images from around Parry Sound and the Georgian Bay Biosphere hosted at SmugMug. For ideas on exploring West Parry Sound and the Georgian Bay Biosphere head over to another website I manage Red Rock ecoAdventures. It offers tips on adventures in and around Parry Sound that can be done on foot, bike, or kayak/canoe/boat.

jo 12/2015
parrysights@gmail.com