Natural landscapes: over the edge!
RIDEAU FALLS, OTTAWA, ONTARIO
This waterfall always fascinates me because it flows in the middle of downtown Ottawa (Canada’s capital city). There’s an overpass with roaring traffic just a few metres to the right of this scene. Here’s a colour vertical view of the same waterfall: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-nU.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: the city sunrise
DAYBREAK, EDMONTON, ALBERTA
I was in Alberta’s capital city for a conference and ventured out on my free time to make some photos. Believe it or not, this scene was captured from my hotel parking lot. in the distant background is the frozen North Saskatchewan River.
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Rural landscapes: occupied by ghosts
ABANDONED HOMESTEAD NEAR STAVELY, ALBERTA
This is one of those completely out-of-the-way places on the Canadian prairies where you step out of your vehicle and are presented with endless silence and endless space. In the midst of that was this structure. I kept it in the colour and turned the rest of the scene into black-and-white to make it stand out under the cobalt winter sky.
I also kept the camera as low as possible so the background grain bins wouldn’t get lost in the tree branches. After 30-plus years of making pictures, I’ve come to learn that it’s little touches like this that make pictures just a bit more compelling.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the view into glory
LAKE LOUISE & LOUISE CREEK, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
This is one of the classic views of this stunning place in the Canadian Rockies, photographed from a charming footbridge over the creek. That creek takes water from the lake all the way down to the Bow River, many hundreds of feet below. I really like this black-and-white treatment, but you can check out the colour version here: http://bit.ly/LakeLouiseWinter.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: at the altar
BASILICA OF SAINTE-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, NEAR QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC
One of the most stunning cathedrals in Canada, this basilica was built between 1926 and 1931 and receives about a half-million visitors annually. My wife & I were blessed to attend a mass here after I spent close to an hour wandering around with my tripod making long exposures like this. (Some other views: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-HF and http://wp.me/p2ccTX-cq.)
Nikon D50, tripod
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Natural landscapes: road through the badlands
WINTER AT DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK, NEAR BROOKS, ALBERTA
This is, quite simply, an astonishing place. About two hours’ drive southeast of Calgary, the spectacular badlands in this park are one of the most important dinosaur fossil sources in the world. I was there on a winter day and saw not even one person. It was amazing.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: the bitterly cold skyline
WINTER SKYLINE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
It was -20c when I set up my tripod in Rotary Park, overlooking the gorgeous downtown of this western Canadian city, and made a series of 30-second exposures. The trick was to time the exposures for when the maximum amount of traffic was crossing the Centre Street Bridge, which spans the Bow River
What appears to be the tallest structure in this scene, The Bow on the left side, is actually shorter than Brookfield building, the lower-profile rectangular skyscraper in the centre of the scene. The Brookfield building is the tallest structure in Canada, west of Toronto.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Urban landscapes encountering the crossing
PEDESTRIAN CROSSING, CALGARY, ALBERTA
I saw news media photos of this $13 million project, which safely ushers pedestrians across Macleod Trail to Chinook Centre shopping mall, shortly after it was unveiled in December, 2017 and decided to check it out for potential photos. I was quite unprepared for the stunning main entry on the east side of Macleod Trail. I spent more time photographing here than the rest of the crossing combined.
The entry is mostly monotone, so I decided to add me (and my red Calgary Stampeders coat) to the scene, then keep me in colour and convert the rest of the scene to black-and-white. I’ve used this processing technique before (see https://wp.me/p2ccTX-10P and https://wp.me/p2ccTX-10Y) and like the results.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Rural landscapes: the symbolic sunset
GRAIN ELEVATORS, NANTON, ALBERTA
Like so many landscape photographers, I gravitate to the colour and design of grain elevators whenever I find them. I came up with the title for this post because it really is sunset for these iconic symbols of the Canadian prairies. Hundreds have been torn down in the past three decades and replaced with towering metallic grain collection operations at strategic locales. They’re undoubtedly more economical, but not nearly as pleasing to the eye.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Natural landscapes: the Great Lakes sunrise
WINTER DAWN ON LAKE ONTARIO, WHITBY, ONTARIO
I dipped into the archives to find this beauty from nearly a decade ago. Almost ten more years of experience with Photoshop enabled me to do another round of processing and bring out the best in this glorious scene, captured east of Toronto.
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Urban landscapes: the silence of prayer
ST. DUNSTAN’S BASILICA, CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
I was gobsmacked to find a stunning cathedral like this in a town of just 35,000. Thankfully, no one stopped me from making all the long exposure photos I wanted. I especially like the green ‘spine’ along the ceiling. (Here’s another view of the basilica, highlighting the altar area: https://wp.me/p2ccTX-10b).
Nikon D7100, tripod
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Rural landscapes: the winter fenceline
WINTER AT GLENBOW RANCH PROVINCIAL PARK, NEAR COCHRANE, ALBERTA
This 3,300-acre park opened in 2011, making it one of the newest parks in this western Canadian province. It has more than 25 kilometres of trails that lead to outstanding views of the Bow River Valley.
There’s lots of iconic Canadian stuff here, from a railway to distant views of the Rocky Mountains to roaming deer. Parts of the park continue to function as a working ranch. The long-abandoned building you see here is known as the Glenbow Store; it dates back to when a brick plant operated in the area.
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Natural landscapes: when the ice cometh
ICE-ENCASED WEEDS, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
Freezing rain is a common winter occurence in southern Ontario. It creates havoc for people who have to chip the ice off their windshields, but look what it does to simple weeds! I think the one on the right is shriveled Queen Anne’s Lace. I went for a shallow depth of field, which made the background — and its subtle shades of beige and off-white — quite complementary.
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: where the creek flows
DUFFINS CREEK, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
A high vantage point enabled me to capture the creek as it flowed south out of Greenwood Conservation Area east of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. I did a lot of manoeuvring to keep the distracting grey sky out of the photo.
Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter
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Wander through my coffeetable photography book “Special Places: A Landscape Photographer’s Vision of Southern Ontario”: http://bit.ly/yNU06F
Natural landscapes: beneath the glorious peaks
BOW RIVER, NEAR LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA
I was on my way home from a full day of making pictures in the Canadian Rocky Mountains when I crossed a bridge and glimpsed this scene out the side window. Stopped the van, backed up and clambered up on a snowbank on the bridge to capture this glorious vista. I was fortunate to make a half-dozen exposures, since passing vehicles caused just enough vibrations to render several versions useless.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the peaks and sky.
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Natural landscapes: the pooling creek
WINTER CREEK, PETER LOUGHEED PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
I fished way back into the archives to resurrect this scene, photographed in the 1990s with a tripod, Pentax 6×7 medium format camera and Velvia slide film. Water pooling on top of the icy mountain creek created an amazing blue. Combine that with ideal winter conditions (i.e. snow on the trees) and you have an iconic Canadian Rockies scene.
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Urban landscapes: marking 150 years
2017 ART INSTALLATION, CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
During a business trip to Canada’s smallest province, I had time to wander down to the waterfront and discover this giant red 2017 art installation. Created to mark our nation’s 150th birthday — and Charlottetown’s pivotal role in that anniversary (it was an 1864 conference in this city that led to Confederation), I was intrigued by the abstract art possibilities and spent a half-hour exploring the shapes and light gradations.
Nikon D7100, tripod
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Urban landscapes: the trees of Christmas
CHRISTMAS AT EIGHTH AVENUE PLACE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
This beautiful arrangement of trees, flanked by the glittering towers of Eighth Avenue Place, stopped me in my tracks for more than a half hour of trying out various compositions. This is one of my favourites.
From Frank’s Cottage, my other website: “At its heart, Christmas is not about us doing. It’s about God doing. Basic Christianity (which I believe) tells us Christmas is about our creator seeing our broken condition and reaching out to us — coming to earth as a helpless baby born in an obscure Middle Eastern village.”
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Urban landscapes: Christmas on Stephen Avenue
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALBERTA
Every December I have a project: find and photograph something Christmasy that can only come from the Canadian province where I live. This year it was downtown Calgary, a pedestrian mall surrounded by office towers. The street looks empty, but that’s only because I made a very loooong exposure that turned most of the fast-moving pedestrians into barely discernable blurs.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Urban landscapes: Parish Church of St. Peter Port
TOWN CHURCH, GUERNSEY ISLAND
Completed in 1466, Wikipedia says this church is known as Town Church or Paris Church of St. Peter Port or Town Church of St Peter, Apostle & Martyr. But the church’s website simply calls it Town Church. Obviously, it’s not as big or grand as the places of worship most folks associate with Europe, but I liked the mix of stone and plaster and the intricate carving behind the altar.
FYI: Guernsey is an island in the English Channel, off the coast of France. It’s part of a group called the Channel Islands. Guernsey is a British crown dependency but not part of the United Kingdom. I had a day to explore St. Peter Port during a cruise ship vacation my wife and I took in 2017.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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