Photographer James Brouwer

I live on Vancouver Island, BC. I work; I have a family. I did a lot of photography as a teenager, then let it go. I recently took it up again after seeing some great photographs on Flickr. It was an easy hobby for me to resume as cameras are always with us now. I take panos on my iphone, but instead of standing in one spot and turning left to right, I walk in a line parallel to my subject matter. The results are genuinely unexpected. 

Tug - This is taken in a boatyard in Sooke BC. I like how big and bloated the object is. The pano captures it well. To me, the slight imperfections imposed by the camera make the image more interesting.

The camera 'mistakes' what it sees and creates these oddly abstract, flattened images. They blend the three-dimensional with the two-dimensional -- so much so that the photograph often half-resembles a painting. The photos are a hybrid of what I intend and what the camera itself imposes.

Amsterdam 2: These are my kids exploring a public park in Amsterdam. I asked them to move whilst I took the pano. This was an earlier experiment.

But you often have to try several times to get the balance just right, and the whole process is very conspicuous with the walking back and forth. Countless times I've been asked "why are you filming this building?" or "i'm afraid you'll have to leave". The challenge for me is to find new things to photograph, take them in a place where i am actually allowed to be, and be given some time and space to get the perfect shot.

Seating Area: This is on the ferry to Vancouver, BC. Where I live ferries are a common fact of life, and they're dull journeys once you've seen the same scenery hundreds of time. On a whim, I just asked my son to wander through the empty tables whilst I took out my iPhone. I like the result here.

More info:

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142116646@N02