Natural landscapes: into the deep valley
MORNING AT JACQUES CARTIER PARK, NEAR QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC
My wife and I spent a few days camping at this provincial park back in 2007; this photo captures just a bit of the spectacle. The park is really a one-trick pony – but oh, what a spectacular trick it is. The Jacques Cartier River flows through a deep valley in the midst of a mountainous landscape. As I photographed it, I felt like I was in a land of endless fjords.
Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: in the land of hoodoos
BADLANDS LANDSCAPE, DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
I drove more than two hours from my Calgary home in hopes of capturing sunrise light at this UNESCO World Heritage Site. As you can see, my hopes were in vain. So I made the best of the situation, finding landscapes like this and using Photoshop to darken the cloudy sky.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of the richest fossil areas on the planet. Forty dinosaur species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums around the globe.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: blooming in the badlands
SPRING FLOWERS AT DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
I arrived at this incredible place – a UNESCO World Heritage Site about two and a half hours drive southeast of my Calgary home – hoping to photograph in sunrise sunshine. Nope. The clouds didn’t break up ’til 11 a.m. So I improvised, finding intimate scenes like this and using the built-in camera flash to make them ‘pop’ against the big, BIG background.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of the richest dinosaur fossil areas on the planet. Forty species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums around the globe.
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Urban landscapes: the reflections of morning
POND AND SKYSCRAPERS, CALGARY, ALBERTA
I was here a year earlier, but at least one of the major buildings you see here was under construction, so I vowed to return when the work was done and I had a clean skyline to photograph. So glad I did. Ironically, most of the buildings you see here aren’t major elements of Calgary’s skyline. Those towers are further away and these structures – mostly apartments – block the view.
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the buildings and sky
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Natural landscapes: where winter grimly hangs on
SPRING SNOW AMONG THE HIGH PEAKS, KANANASKIS COUNTRY, ALBERTA
As the earliest sunlight hit the mountaintops in the Canadian Rockies, I had to stop the car and do my imperfect best to capture the glory. I adjusted my camera light settings to emphasize the warmth of the light. It’s common for the mountaintops to keep at least some snow well into June.
Nikon D7100, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: captured in the shade
SPRING TREES, GLENBOW RANCH PROVINCIAL PARK, NEAR COCHRANE, ALBERTA
This is one of those times when I really appreciated my telephoto zoom lens. I noticed the distant hillside tree, in full spring bloom, through another tree that wasn’t there yet, and recognized the opportunity to make an artistic statement. It wouldn’t have been possible without the zoom lens to zero in on this tiny section of landscape.
Nikon D7100, tripod, 70-300-mm. zoom lens, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: The spring plunge
BALLS FALLS, JORDAN VILLAGE, ONTARIO
This area is glorious for photographers. The 25-metre waterfall you see here is one of two and there’s a charming historic village nearby (you can see some of it here: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-i0).
I opted for a fairly standard vertical perspective on the falls and went for a long exposure to turn the water silky. It’s good to get here in the spring because Twenty Mile Creek often dries up in the heat of summer.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the study of a stump
CATHEDRAL GROVE, MACMILLAN PROVINCIAL PARK, VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This won’t be a favourite for many people, but I like the repeated curving lines and how the opening at the top right breaks up that pattern (and adds visual interest). I enjoyed the colour version, but going monotone removes a distraction to the pattern and adds a dark/light drama.
Nikon D7100m, tripod
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Natural landscapes: under the green canopy
SPENCER GORGE CONSERVATION AREA, DUNDAS, ONTARIO
The highlight of this area is Webster Falls (you can see it in winter glory here: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-ek) but on this cloudy spring day I chose to follow Spencer Creek as it wandered away from the falls. I was rewarded with stunning scenes like what you see here.
This photo goes back to 2006, when I was still using a film camera. I had the slide burned onto CD, then did a lot of work in Photoshop to create this glowing version.
Nikon FM2 film camera, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: the long goodbye of winter
THE SLOW MELT OF WINTER ICE, UPPER KANANASKIS LAKE, PETER LOUGHEED PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
While most of the northern hemisphere is enjoying spring flowers and grass, winter is reluctant to depart from many lakes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
I saw this meltwater pool from far off and delicately approached it, hoping the I wouldn’t sink up to my knees in the wet, icy snow. Thankfully, it was hard-packed all the way. There was very little colour in this scene, so I dispensed with it altogether.
That’s the 8,750-foot-high Mt. Indefatigable in the distance, named after a British battlecruiser that sank during the First World War.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Urban landscapes: like a mighty ship at sea
STUDENT RESIDENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, ALBERTA
The strong angle of this building, and the fascinating dashes of red, made for a compelling subject and I tried a variety of compositions, all of them intriguing – especially when I tilted the camera to make the building appear to be a tall ship listing against a strong ocean wind.
The finishing touch was keeping all the red and converting the rest of the photo into black-and-white.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: flowing through the chutes
EGAN CHUTES PROVINCIAL PARK, NEAR BANCROFT, ONTARIO
Back in 2006, my wife and I were in Bancroft for my older brother’s wedding. I took advantage of this to check out this series of waterfalls off a dirt road about 10 kilometres away. As you can see, it was a very impressive section of the York River with more cascading water sections that what you see here.
Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter
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Urban landscapes: sailing through the portlands
BELFAST DOCKLANDS, NORTHERN IRELAND
This picture won’t find favour with many people; I suspect they believe scenes like this are unattractive. But I find industrial lands a fascinating subject because it’s a good challenge to find compositions amidst all the activity and buildings and equipment.
I think I found a decent composition with this scene. There’s the broad, diagonal thrust of the waterway, a colourful place to rest your eyes and a curious left border formed by the Caribbean Princess cruise ship my wife and I were on during this 2017 trip. Notice the other person (besides me) checking out the scene? I didn’t until fishing this picture out of the archives and giving it a careful look. 🙂
P.S. here’s a fun historical note: the Titanic was built in Belfast and there’s a very cool museum all about it.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Rural landscapes: under the dramatic spring sky
BARN AND DISTANT MOUNTAIN VIEW, COCHRANE, ALBERTA
I wandered down a dead-end road in this western Canadian province and was gobsmacked to find this glowing red barn with a stunning background featuring endless prairies, foothills and the Rocky Mountains. All under banks of morning clouds.
I have a full-colour version (you can see it here: https://bit.ly/AlbertaSpringBarn) but I knew it would also be quite dramatic with just the barn in colour. Do you agree?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Rural landscapes: the castle and the brooding landscape
URQUHART CASTLE AND LOCH NESS, SCOTLAND
Of course, I would have preferred sunny conditions to capture this epic castle, which is one of the most popular castles in Scotland. But I think I did okay to make the brooding conditions quite compelling.
According to Wikipedia, the ruins you see here date from between the 13th and 16th centuries. The site came under government care in 1911. Here’s another part of the castle site: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-1an.
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Rural landscapes: the curves of a prairie spring
NOSE CREEK, NEAR AIRDRIE, ALBERTA
Spring is usually very short on the southern Alberta prairies – just a few weeks without snow until the green finally arrives in mid-May. To most folks, that in-between time doesn’t seem very photogenic, but I knew if I was diligent, I could find something compelling. I think the curves of this stream and the dramatic sky fit the bill, yes?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, two graduated density (darkening) filters on the sky
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Rural landscapes: the last of the spring snow
CROWSNEST RIVER, LUNDBRECK, ALBERTA
I was photographing Lundbreck Falls, a popular tourist site in the deep south of this western Canadian province, when I decided to turn my attention in the opposite direction. Standing on a bridge over the river, I saw this composition come together. See the bits of snow along the right bank of the river?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Rural landscapes: closed for the pandemic
ROSEDEER HOTEL AND LAST CHANCE SALOON, WAYNE, ALBERTA
This charming tourist attraction is in a tiny hamlet that was once a coal mining powerhouse of 2,500. The first mine closed during the Great Depression and today, Wayne has less than 50 people and the mining industry is long gone. But the place continues to fascinate, in part because getting there from the main highway requires crossing 11 single-lane bridges over the Rosebud River.
There’s a standard close-up view of the hotel and saloon that’s pretty good and I have that photo. But I wanted something that was unique to my vision, so I used these bushes – which serve as the boundary to a nearby residential property – to provide a near-far perspective.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Rural landscapes: Colour in the midst of a struggling spring
WAGON ON THE PRAIRIES NEAR CARBON, ALBERTA
This scene looks like mid-winter, but it’s mid-April. On the Canadian prairies, that often means random snow days that leave fields looking many months away from planting.
I was driving a random road when this ornamental wagon came into view. I so loved the glowing colours amidst a muted landscape that I went all the way and turned everything but the wagon – and the ground it’s on – into black-and-white. You can see the scene in full colour here: https://bit.ly/PrairieWagon
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Natural landscapes: beauty before the spring growth
MORNING BAY NEAR BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO
Early spring in much of Canada means messy landscapes and no green. Those were the conditions when I was in Belleville (east of Toronto, the country’s largest city) looking for morning landscapes that could overcome the early spring handicaps. I believe I found it with this unnamed inlet on Lake Ontario. I stayed back far enough to use the leafless shrubs and tree branches as framing elements.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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