The Marine Museum of Manitoba

The Marine Museum of Manitoba Selkirk

For this field trip assignment our class was given the task to create interesting images based on the design elements that we have been learning in class. These images were to be taken at the Marine Museum of Manitoba. Prior to this assignment I had no knowledge of this museum so I decided to visit their website to learn more about it. I found that the museum has been in Selkirk since 1973 and still adheres to its original plans to collect artefacts that relate to marine life on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River.

The location of the field trip was kept a surprise however, we were informed that it would be both indoors and outdoors. Since its cold at this time of year everyone got a little taste of what’s to come for shooting in the winter time. It was necessary to make sure that we were dressed appropriately to shoot in any weather, rain or shine. Luckily there was no rain but it was definitely cold enough for mitts, hats, jackets and even leg warmers in order to keep warm.

Even though it is cold at this time of year, we were fortunate to see some of the Halloween decorating they do for the occasion. The rooms may not have reached their full frightening potential due to the fact that it was the middle of the day but I can imagine all the frightening little details that they added really standing out in the dark. What I enjoyed most about the decorated rooms was that everywhere you looked there was something different to see such as jars of blood filled with things like human eyeballs and fingers and a room dedicated solely to creepy children.

Not all the ships were decorated for Halloween. I thought the non decorated ships were interesting because nothing was restored on them and everything has a lot of wear and tear because of its age. I liked this because it reminds you of just how old the ships are as well as the objects in them.

There were even random items like books, cooking appliances, and displays of tools used throughout the ship. I thought this was a great collection of artefacts that you wouldn’t normally get to see and made for really good photo opportunities.

The lighting inside the interior of the ships we entered was very low and offered opportunities to get practice using our tripods, even though it’s not much fun to carry them around and they didn’t necessarily fit well in the smaller locations on the ship. I’ve learned that a tripod is a great tool to have in such situations and definitely came in handy on this assignment.

Due of the nature of the objects being photographed I found that at any given time when I was looking around at the other photographers they could be seen contorting into strange positions in order to get the specific shots they were looking for. The assignment also had everyone twisting around in order to get pictures for some of the specific design elements like Worm’s eye view. It was a fun and unique challenge.

The field trip to the Marine Museum of Manitoba was a great learning opportunity since we got to see some interesting things and try to take attractive pictures of some unusual and abnormal subjects. We got more experience using our tripods and a chance to practice doing whatever it takes to take compositionally interesting photos of somewhat challenging subjects. Overall I believe everyone enjoyed their visit to the museum.

Shelby Fraser

PV Student 2011-12