Originally my intention was to start a simple photography website. However the more I thought about it the more a blog site made sense. So while I will have several ever evolving galleries of images, I may have the urge to post some commentary on life in general and please feel free to add your thoughts and comments as they will be greatly appreciated. Either way I sincerely hope you enjoy your visit.
A little bit about my images…I do use Lightroom, Photoshop and most recently Color Efex Pro as pretty well any image in any magazine or advertisement these days has been altered in some way shape or form. It is still a learning experience with all of these post production programs and while some of us old dogs aren’t afraid of this new technology, it may take us a bit longer to get to know the ins and outs of each of them and what seems to work well, and of course what doesn’t. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment, what you like or don’t like, as above all I am still learning this craft and likely will for the rest of my life.
I would also like to remind visitors to my site that opinions expressed, images and information posted in my blog are for information and entertainment purposes only. While I do my best to be as accurate as possible with information I may post, I make no promises of complete accuracy, currentness and validity of any and all information, as you all know things do change, and I will not be held liable for omissions, deletions or changes of any information use herein.
All images posted in this blog are Copyright@2009-2013 Mark Shephard unless otherwise stated. Please do not copy or steal any of these images.
opticsandperspectives 
I am so very proud of the great work you do Mark. Your pictures are absolutely beautiful
Aww thanks Laura….they are a lot of fun and who knows once I get a chance to slow down in life and get to spend more time with my camera and clean up my grammar and sentence structure a bit maybe I will see some more followers.
Do you have set fees for permissions? I’m interested in 1 of your Vancouver pictures for use in a montage background for a Vancouver based hockey tournament website
Hello Peter my sincerest apologies for the delay. I’ve been away from the website due to some personal reasons and I’m guessing that your requirement for any of the images has passed. If you might be interested in any one of the images still or for something next year I’d be happy to send you a copy. Once again I do apologize.
Hi Mark,
I would like to display your photo Canola Fields 0146 in my office. How can I go about purchasing? Can you put it on fotolia?
Hi Paul….I used to think i was somewhat computer savvy but I can see I am missing some messages. Please use the photo or any others that you like and hang them wherever you feel they’d have a happy home. Thanks very much for your interest in my photos.
Cheers
Mark
Hi Mark,
Just wondering if you received my message asking about using Canola Fields 0146? I’m not sure if these comments are working… 🙂
Hello pchrzanowski, I believe i sent a response a day or two ago also, so you might be right about whether the comments go or not. Sure let me check the file but I am in the process of reloading my computer with all of its files after my last hard drive crashed recently but it shouldn’t take all that long to get everything back up and running. Not sure how to send the full size file but i’m sure I will figure that out as well. I will keep in touch.
Thanks
HI Mark,
I actually found the full sized file in a google search that lead me to here:
Is it ok to use this? And how can we compensate you for it?
Paul
Hi Paul I’m the kind of guy that couldn’t sell a hamburg to a starving billionaire lol . If you like the image and feel its worth something you could etransfer me whatever you feel is appropriate and at least let people know where you got the image is really all I could ask. If there are any other images you like let me know. I’d be happy to share them also. You are the first person that ever asked to pay for one. So thank you for that.
Cheers and have a great day.
Mark
Hi Mark,
If you can give me an email address, we can chat privately about it if you like… 🙂
Paul
Hi Paul…its been a while since I’ve been on the site…been dealing with some personal/health issues. You can reach me at my email address if you are still interested. I hope you are enjoying the image…that’s all really all i hope for. mcshephard@gmail.com and thanks for the positive comments.
I’m also looking to use an image of yours for a contact page of my website. I want people to get a glimpse of how beautiful the Bragg Creek area is! The image is elbow-falls-0019adj.jpg.
Hi Trevor, sorry for the delay…by all means you can use the image for your website. All I ask is that you let people know who you got it from. Enjoy
Hi Mark,
I’ve been enjoying your Vancouver photos. Great photography and I just love the colours and overall look and feel.
I’m from the Netherlands and I’m married to a beautiful Vancouver girl. She left Vancouver behind for us and is living in the Netherlands for a couple years now. We recently bought our first house here and I’d love to use one of your Vancouver photos as decoration. Is it possible to acquire this photo:
Looking forward to hear from you.
Best regards,
Davy
Hi Davy…sorry for the delay, I’ve been dealing with some personal and health issues and haven’t had the time to spend here. I will upload a full sized copy of the image that you can download and hope you enjoy the image for years to come.
Thanks for the positive comments
Mark
permission to use photographs of Hamilton’s old pumphouse
Dear Mark Shephard,
I would very much appreciate your permission to include six of your photographs currently on the web at https://opticsandperspectives.com/ontario/hamilton-museum-of-steam-and-technology/ , in a short PowerPoint presentation on Hamilton’s Old Pumphouse, that I am to give to engineers who have registered to tour the pumphouse next Friday (March 3rd). The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday evening March 1st and some 100 attendees are expected, of whom only about 2 dozen are expected to undertake the tour. I will certainly fully credit you and your website, and hope that you will indicate how you would like that to be done.
The presentation is face-to-face, and is purely instructional. No publication is to be made. Registrants will be attending an International Conference on Water Management Modeling https://www.icwmm.org/. I am not being paid for the presentation, and no income is involved. Registrants pay for the bus ride and a small fee to the pumphouse museum. The whole effort is educational.
I am uncertain about Fair Use provisions in the Copyright Act, but have tried to meet them. However, it will be best if I can obtain your permission. These are thumbnails of the photos:
Incidentally I hope to play a recording of “When you and I were young Maggie” while showing the slides.
Thanks for your attention, and especially for sharing your magnificent photographs.
Sincerely,
Dr William James
University Professor Emeritus,
University of Guelph,
Canada.
Dear Mr.James
I would be happy to permit you to use my photos of the Museum of Steam and Technology for your presentation. I was actually involved with the old Gartshore Museum personally back in the late 70’s or early 80’s as a volunteer with the Institute of Power Engineers. I spent many Wednesday evenings, Sundays and Holidays giving tours and was most fortunate to be there when the city actually piped 15psi steam over from the water treatment plant in which we used to run the North engine. That was something to see. It was really my favorite volunteer project and every time I had the chance to get back home to Hamilton I would always spend a few hours in the old museum. Someday I hope to be back to take another round of photos. It is an incredible testament to the engineering and construction practices of the day. All I ask Is to receive credit for the taking/ownership of the photos.
I hope your presentation is a complete success and it would be interesting to hear how things turned out.
Thanks very much for your interest in the photos.
Mark Shephard
Hi Mark,
Thanks again for your help. My presentation went very well, all the audio-visual worked perfectly, and the audience enjoyed it. Your photos were excellent.
My PowerPoint can be shared at this link:
https://www.icwmm.org/Archive/2017-C026-59/hamiltons-1860-pumphouse-hamilton-water-works
In the page which comes up, at the end of the abstract, click on “here” in the prompt:
“Click here to download a static ppt version of the presentation.”
The slide show will then download, if you’re patient (takes 10-15 minutes here). Then open and run the PPTX file (you will need MS PowerPoint).
Of course, there is no recorded narration (yet) so you have to guess the meaning of the 1st 34 or so slides (quite obvious though). At the 35th slide you will see an audio control icon and you should click on it (in the middle of the slide). Run the audio, an immediately manually advance to the next slide – the following 35 slides will advance automatically with the music. Again at the 70th slide the progression stops and you similarly activate and run the 2nd audio clip. The show ends automatically (with part of our tour group actually).
Lyn and I really miss Tom Salisbury and the Power Engineers – we regretted having lost contact almost immediately we left for Alabama in 1986. The IPE group were solid folks, and we would like to learn what happened to them, should you have any news. We helped in a very small way to get them established at the Pumphouse, and I fear it may have all ended abruptly, some time after we left the scene.
Anyhow, let me know how you manage to view the PPT. Sometime I hope to add the narration.
Kind regards,
-Bill