Interview with Patrick Kilburn, Toronto Area Creator and Landscape Photographer
Interview with Patrick conducted by Tdot Shots founder Mike Simpson during July 2024.
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Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Patrick Kilburn, I’m a Toronto area photographer. I kind of reinvented my career after a number of years, almost two decades actually, of being a massage therapist here in the GTA. When COVID hit, I thought maybe it was time to take care of the joints that were paining me quite a bit after that much time treating my clients. A time to rediscover a passion for something new in photography. Who knew? I’m probably like a lot of people who were looking for some kind of outlet during COVID.
Absolutely, yeah. Can you look back to a moment in your adult life when you were really inspired to take up photography?
That’s easy. While I’ve always enjoyed photography from a young age, I have to say that the birth of my first son. Which was in 2000. Really sparked my renewed interest in photography, and partly because if you can think back to those days, that’s when digital cameras started to make a bit of a splash. And you know, the DSLR, you know, film people were kind of knocking it, I would say, it was not very good, but it was cool and I’m a bit of a tech nerd, so for sure it was a natural thing for me to go and drop my 1500 bucks at Henry’s.
Where in your last two decades of photography have you enjoyed traveling most, or do you enjoy shooting in the city or in the country?
I would have to say that I was lucky enough to go to Europe a couple of times, in the 2010’s mostly. I would say visiting Portugal really, really spoke to me. So much to see and do – taking in not only the lovely landscapes and the seascapes in particular, but just the life, the people and the old architecture.
And all of that I think that was kind of a real blessing. I would say that was a spark for sure.
Where do you like to shoot in Ontario? If you have the option.
I love the north – mid-North. I would say Algonquin. A lot of my recent posts have been from there, and if I could hop into some sort of travel tube and be there in 10 minutes every day, I’d spend 10 hours a day there without any trouble. I really, really enjoy it up there in those natural landscapes. But you know, Ontario is beautiful, so I could go pretty much anywhere in Ontario and find something to shoot.
Can you tell us about the Oxtongue Lake shot? That’s incredible.
My favorite drone shot to date. I’m a relatively new droner – I’m not really into it that much – but I’m starting to kind of feel it a bit more. That was honestly, quite literally from a highway pull off spot. Paved – I needed a break, and I knew I was outside of the park boundary so it was legit to send it up for a look.
I knew the Oxtongue River was there, but I had no idea what I was going to find. It was the right time of day, and it was a beautiful sunset with lots of haze atmospherically. Just a beautiful shot and the light was just outstanding. So Mother Nature gets the credit there. I just sent up the drone and took a shot or two. Or maybe 10. Or 50. It was absolutely beautiful and I’m very inspired now to go back up there and shoot.
What cameras are you shooting with today?
So my main shooter is an OM System, formerly Olympus, model OM-1.
Attached to it is actually a Pana-Leica branded telephoto lens, which I’ve been using quite a little bit lately. This one is pretty fantastic because it gives me an equivalent of 800 millimeters of reach which I have been enjoying using.
Wow.
I absolutely love these telephoto compositions that are I’ve been sharing lately.
The computational abilities of this little camera are amazing also, and I can pack everything I have into a bag (points to it) this size, right? All my lenses, couple of camera bodies, extra batteries, all the gear that I’ll ever need and yeah, comfortably on my back. So I love the system for that.
I do wish it had a few more pixels in it to just to give me some crop leeway, maybe a little more detail, maybe a little bit more dynamic range. But you know what, it’s pretty forgiving.
(The telephoto lens) It’s pretty beastly, you know.
Yeah, my biggest lens. it’s a good system. This older one is my backup camera, which I’ll often set up a timelapse on. This is Olympus branded – before it became OM System. This older E-M1 Mark iii is very similar in capability.
This newer OM-1 has a little more processing power, a better buffer, and honestly, it’s just fantastic. I love it – and it’s not mainstream. A lot of people don’t even know about this too much, but it’s very capable and I’ve shot some images and made prints that I’ve later sold, so I’m very proud of it.
Yeah, you’ve got some beautiful shots in your gallery.
Thank you.
Congratulations and keep up the good work on your photography.
Thanks very much, Mike. Appreciate it.
Links
Website
Social
https://www.instagram.com/pkphotography.ca
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