Rural landscapes: the snowy autumn drive
ROAD THROUGH THE FOREST, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
I was delighted to find a thick coat of wet snow when I visited this park in the Canadian Rockies. A single set of tire tracks near a picnic area grabbed my attention; I like the solitary silence in this scene. And the lack of strong colour made turning the picture into black & white an easy decision. I darkened the sky considerably so it would complement, rather than compete, for your attention with the snowy road .
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: the mirrored autumn pool
FALL AT INGLEWOOD BIRD SANCTUARY, CALGARY, ALBERTA
Visit here at the exact right time, in the right weather, and you’re practically guaranteed to come away with a camera full of eye-popping, almost flourescent photographs of the glory of autumn.
Although I usually go there for landscape pictures, Inglewood is a birder’s paradise. It’s also near the mighty Bow River, which flows out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, so there are good photo opportunities there, too.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, enhancing filter (probably), graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Rural landscapes: walking the autumn path
TRAIL ALONG THE RED DEER RIVER, DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA
I visited this wonderful Canadian badlands photography mecca at the height of autumn, spending an entire day finding very compelling scenes almost everywhere I looked. Encountering this glowing red bush, I decided to go with a very shallow depth of field so your eyes can enjoy the foliage, then wander along the pathway under a canopy of brilliant yellow.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: the roadside splash of autumn
FALL COLOURS NEAR COCHRANE, ALBERTA
I was finishing a day-long trip to capture autumn colour (and autumn snow in the Canadian Rockies), ambling back to my home in Calgary, when this stand of aspens and bush made me stop the car. I like the wall of yellow backing up the brilliant red bush.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: a touch of fall in the badlands
AUTUMN BUSH NEAR DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA
I was wandering around the lookout point for Horsethief Canyon, a place of some history in the badlands of western Canada, when I spotted this colourful bush.
The mix of autumn red and the dramatic badlands background made for a great combination. The canyon is named after outlaws who hid their stolen livestock here more than 100 years ago.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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Urban landscapes: the place for worship & contemplation
ST. MICHAEL’S CATHEDRAL BASILICA, TORONTO, ONTARIO
Given this cathedral is in Canada’s largest city, I walked in expecting an ornate interior similar to what I encountered at cathedrals in Newfoundland (https://wp.me/p2ccTX-15a) and Quebec (https://wp.me/p2ccTX-cq).
That this cathedral’s creators were satisfied with something less overwhelming didn’t lessen my interest in appreciating and photographing the awe-inspiring space.
The city’s first bishop, Michael Power, was instrumental in the cathedral’s construction. He arranged to buy the land (part of the cost coming out of his pocket) in 1845 and construction began that year.
The bishop never saw the cathedral completed; he died two years later from typhus, contracted while ministering to sick people who fled famine-era Ireland. The building, designed by Anglo-Canadian architect William Thomas, was dedicated and consecrated in 1848.
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Natural landscapes: autumn in the north
AUTUMN COLOURS NEAR BAKER LAKE, NUNAVUT
There are no trees of any kind in the region around this isolated hamlet of 2,000. So when I was there on a business trip, everything I saw was knee-level or lower. That means when autumn arrives, the place to look is straight down at the ground. I saw artistic possibilities in how the brilliant red vegetation snaked amongst the giant rock formations that litter the Arctic landscape.
The mostly blue sky was troublesome; a vast swing from polarized dark on one side to light on the other. Rather than manually trying to fix it – and create a noticeable mottled effect and colour shift – I simply replaced it using Photoshop. I have no qualms about this because I’m trying my imperfect best to be a fine art photographer and that means interpreting a scene, rather than simply documenting it.
Nikon D7100, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the terrain of fungus
THE IN-YOUR-FACE FUNGUS, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
You know autumn is approaching when mushrooms and fungus appear in sheltered forests. I was in this western Canadian park to photograph a roaring mountain stream, but there were so many fungus alongside the trail that I had to stop and photograph a few of them.
This one was pretty epic, so I opted for an extreme close-up – in fact, what you’re looking at here is much larger than life-size. Because I was hand-holding my Nikon D7100 (and close-ups usually have a very small depth-of-field), I did a lot of exposures to ensure one was in focus. That was a smart decision, because all the vertical pictures I made lacked the tack-sharpness I want in a photo.
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Natural landscapes: the hard northern life
CARIBOU ANTLERS NEAR BAKER LAKE, NUNAVUT
During a work trip to this remote Canadian territory, we visited a friend’s cabin and that’s where I found these antlers. Instantly realizing the photographic possibilities, I used them in a half-dozen compositions. This is one I especially like because it shows the remarkable Arctic landscape – rock, muskeg, lakes and not even one tree.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Urban landscapes: the ships at dawn
AWAITING SUNRISE AT OSHAWA HARBOUR, ONTARIO
This working port, just east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) has produced many satisfying photos, but this one is sort-of a repeat. I visited here before dawn a few years earlier and photographed a nicely lit ship – but my camera settings were all wrong. Another attempt to get it right turned out better, because this time there were TWO ships in port and my camera settings were correct.
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the top half.
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Natural landscapes: the silence and the rocks
SHORELINE ROCKS, SAUBLE BEACH, ONTARIO
I came across the group of boulders in Lake Huron on a cloudy afternoon and instantly knew there were photographic possibilities. But I also knew this scene would benefit from strong early-morning light. So I returned the next dawn and made this picture. It’s a looong exposure which smoothed out all the water ripples.
The colour version is quite muted, so a created a black-and-white version that lets you focus on the rocks and the velvety water.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky, Lee ‘Big Stopper’ neutral density (darkening) filter on the entire scene.
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Natural landscapes: the gentle, quiet flow
DUFFINS CREEK, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
On my first visit back to this charming area in a decade, I revisited a little forest cascade shortly after sunrise. A long exposure ensured a silky water flow and a lack of wind meant almost every leaf and twig stayed still. (My previous visit to this same little cascade yielded this winter image: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-N0.)
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter along the top quarter.
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Natural landscapes: the surreal summer view
SANDBAR ON LAKE HURON, SAUBLE BEACH, ONTARIO
I saw the curve of this sandbar, the yawning empty space all around it, and decided it was time to try a very loooong exposure to smooth out the water and create a slightly unreal sensation as you view the photo. I kinda like the result because to my eyes, it makes a fairly unremarkable scene far more interesting. What do you think?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky, Lee “Big Stopper” darkening filter on the entire scene.
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Rural landscapes: the end of a summer day
LAKE HURON SUNSET, SOUTHAMPTON, ONTARIO
My first time back to this charming vacation community in a decade happened to come on the evening of a truly stunning sunset. I had time to move around and find various perspectives as the sky stayed epic, then the sun peaked through to produce this unforgettable moment. What a blessing! 🙂
(P.S. See the dude squeezing in some end-of-the-day fishing?)
Nikon D7100, tripod, enhancing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Rural landscapes: the epic summer sky
HAY ROLL AND CLOUDS NEAR LONGVIEW, ALBERTA
The lighting wasn’t ideal – early afternoon, when the sun is high and bleaching on the landscape – but the sky was gorgeous and I endeavoured to make the most of this blissful western Canadian scene.
The composition is designed for your eyes to go to the hay roll first (since it’s the ‘brightest’ thing in the photo), then wander over to the fence and follow it back into the hills.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Urban landscapes: the puzzle of light
LOWER LEVEL, RALPH KLEIN PARK ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTRE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
After photographing a glorious sunrise and reflections on the man-made wetlands in this 75-acre park, I ventured along the walkways in and under the environmental education centre.
I really liked the play of light and shadow in this view; it’s kinda like an underground garage, but brilliantly lit and with some water reflections. There was very little colour in this scene, so I converted it to black-and-white.
Ralph Klein Park is named after Calgary’s 32nd mayor and Alberta’s 12th premier. The wetlands are designed to improve stormwater quality before it enters the Bow River system (source of much of the water for this western Canadian city).
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter diagonally on the bottom half.
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Rural landscapes: the wetlands sunrise
DAWN AT RALPH KLEIN PARK, CALGARY, ALBERTA
This scene looks quite natural, but it’s not. This 75-acre park is entirely man-made, an extensive set of wetlands designed to filter stormwater before it enters the Bow River (one of the chief water sources for this western Canadian city).
The park is named for Calgary’s 32nd mayor and Alberta’s 12th premier. I was blessed to visit just before a stunning summer sunrise, where I had nearly an hour of breathtaking clouds and perfect reflections.
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Natural landscapes: the elegant ocean shore
PACIFIC OCEAN DRIFTWOOD, EL BALSAMAR RESORT, EL SALVADOR
During a day off on our Samaritan’s Purse trip, our gracious hosts took us to a resort to spend part of the day enjoying the surf, dark sand and glorious views. I wandered off with the camera to find artistic scenes like this.
This is another photo where the colour version is good (you can see it here: http://bit.ly/ElSalvadorBeach), but this lent itself very well to monotone.
Nikon D7100, polarizer.
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Natural landscapes: the road to sunrise glory
HIGHWAY 40, KANANASKIS COUNTRY, ALBERTA
As I drove south through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I kept seeing his beautifully lit peak in my rear-view mirror. Finally, I found a spot where I could stop and use a telephoto lens to combine the peak with a curve in the road. The colour version is good (you can see it here: http://bit.ly/KananaskisRoad), but I like how this version lets you concentrate on the sunrise lighting.
Nikon D7100, 70-300 mm. zoom lens, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the peaks and sky.
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Natural landscapes: the morning mountain view
MOUNT RUNDLE REFLECTED IN TWO JACK LAKE, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
It was, as you can see, a glorious morning in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and I loved this view framed by the trees. I have what I think is a compelling picture without any human presence, but tried this one (with me) and find it even better. What do you think – would this photo be better without a person in it?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter
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