Urban landscapes: the circling lights
CALGARY STAMPEDE MIDWAY RIDE, ALBERTA
Night photography on your average midway usually presents a ridiculous amount of picture possibilities. In the case of the annual Calgary Stampede, the biggest challenge is almost every square inch of space is taken up by people. They often bump into the tripod and get in the way of good compositions. That said, a little persistence and patience pays off with pictures like this.
Nikon D90, tripod.
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Rural landscapes: the summer prairie sky
STORM CLOUDS NEAR NANTON, ALBERTA
I’ve always appreciated the cheeky humour of the farmer who added the smiling mouth to the side of his barn, but was never moved to make a photo. Then, while returning to my home in Calgary after a photo day trip, these crazy clouds made me pull off the road and haul out the photography equipment.
While vehicles roared past barely 10 feet away, I captured several pictures including this one. Even as I made this photo, I knew I would create a black-and-white version to fully highlight the drama of the prairie sky. Here’s the colour version: http://bit.ly/BarnAndSky.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Alberta“: http://bit.ly/1oUzd4A
Urban landscapes: morning light, reflected
PUDDLES AND REFLECTIONS, TORONTO, ONTARIO
It was a dry morning along the waterfront in Canada’s largest city, but someone had sprayed down this area in near one of the office buildings and I was intrigued by the pattern of water & pavement and light & dark. I recall it took a bit of moving around before I found a combination that produced an interesting composition.
Nikon D78100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Wander through my coffeetable photography book “Special Places: A Landscape Photographer’s Vision of Southern Ontario”: http://bit.ly/yNU06F
Rural landscapes: the long mountain view
RURAL HOMES IN THE FOOTHILLS, SOUTHERN ALBERTA
The great thing about long summer days is I can go on three-hour sunrise photo trips and be back home by the time my wife gets up. This was one of those trips, touring through the Rocky Mountain foothills southwest of my home in Calgary. The light was very direct on this scene and that “flattened” the contrast, so I did a fair bit of work in Photoshop to add contrast and sparkle to the composition.
Nikon D7100k tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the mountains & sky.
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Alberta“: http://bit.ly/1oUzd4A
Natural landscapes: the glorious valley view
ATHABASCA RIVER AND PEAKS, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
I visited this lookout in the Canadian Rocky Mountains the previous afternoon when the light was all wrong, so I returned at sunrise the next day and captured this stunning example of God’s glorious creation. The colour version is good, but I wanted a more classic Ansel Adams-style version to show you.
(Here’s a colour view from same lookout, looking in the opposite direction: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-19a.)
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the peaks and sky.
Click on the picture for a larger view.
Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Rural landscape: the pond view
DEVITT POND, NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA
This prairie pond, just north of Calgary, must be stocked because fishing folks flock to it every summer weekend. I was there for the vistas and, even though it was mostly cloudy, I was able to find compelling scenes, especially when I found grass from the previous year mixed in with new growth.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
Click on the picture for a larger view.
Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Urban landscapes: the city rose
BLOSSOMING ROSE, OTTAWA, ONTARIO
Looking back on this photo, made in 2013, I find the composition quite interesting with the darkness at the upper left and the giant blossom dominating centre-left. I think what made this design work is how the darkness and the soft-focus leaves add a strong sense of depth to a telephoto scene. (You can see a close-up of the blossom here: http://bit.ly/OttawaRose.)
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Ontario”: http://bit.ly/11kOiRk
Rural landscapes: the weathered remnants
GRAIN ELEVATORS, MOSSLEIGH, ALBERTA
There was a time when these distinctive examples of prairie architecture were common sights in Canada’s western provinces. Now, finding them is a BIG reason to stop and make pictures. There are actually three elevators along this stretch of track in Mossleigh (a hamlet about 65 kilometres southeast of Calgary), but the third one is so new that visually, it just doesn’t fit with these two.
In this scene, I wanted something to counterbalance the elevators and train, so I got as close as possible to the fence, then as low as possible to push the posts above the horizon. And just like that, I have my counterbalance! 🙂
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Alberta“: http://bit.ly/1oUzd4A
Urban landscapes: the city tree
GNARLED TREE TRUNK, ST. STEPHEN’S GREEN, DUBLIN, IRELAND
I loved the expressiveness of this ancient tree trunk. But there was a young college student lying on the grass nearby and I didn’t want to seem like a creep. So I let her know she wasn’t the focus of my photography and all was good.
The other thing I liked about this scene is the near-far perspective; the detailed tree in your face and soft hues of the distant lawn.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “IRELAND: Visions of Light”: http://bit.ly/IrelandVisionsOfLight
Rural landscapes: Navigating the Scottish firth
OIL PLATFORMS NEAR INVERGORDON, SCOTLAND
I made this picture as our cruise ship was leaving Invergordon and navigating out of scenic & historic Cromarty Firth (fjord). I decided to include part of the front end of the ship as a point of interest. There was very little colour in this scene, so I opted to show you a black-and-white treatment.
D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
Click on the picture for a larger view.
Want to buy this picture? Email me and I’ll make it happen! (fdking@hotmail.com).
Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
