Natural landscapes: the beauty of spring snow
SPRING POND, NEAR BIG HILLS SPRINGS PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
It was a mostly cloudy morning in late April. But a few moments of glorious sunrise light did show up just as I was preparing to capture this epic western Canadian prairie scene. It made the resulting photo even more dramatic.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the the sky.
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Natural landscapes: the view from Lighthouse Park
LIGHTHOUSE PARK, WEST VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
According to West Vancouver’s website, “The lighthouse, a national historic site, is one of the most photographed and recognizable landmarks in the entire Lower Mainland.” It’s definitely a gorgeous area and has some defensive relics from the Second World War, when people used the park to watch for enemy submarines entering English Bay.
I was looking for telephoto views of the lighthouse when I noticed the boat entering the scene. So I just waited until the optimal moment and made this photo. Here’s another view of the lighthouse: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-iP
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter
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Rural landscapes: spring on the landscape
SPRING POND, SOUTH OF OKOTOKS, ALBERTA
This is a typical April scene in the western Canadian province of Alberta: even as the grass is turning green, there are still areas of late snow waiting to melt. In this case, I was blessed with a strong sky and that’s what ultimately made this scene worth capturing.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: the food court entrance
CROSSIRON MILLS SHOPPING CENTRE, NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA
Anyone who’s visited t
his website probably knows I’m a sucker for modern architecture. This addition to Crossiron Mills grabbed my attention even as it was being constructed a year ago.
I was on my way to photograph Alberta’s glorious prairies when I decided to make a quick stop at the mall to see if there were any photo opportunities. That’s when I saw the entrance, brilliantly lit in the pre-dawn sky.
Spent nearly a half-hour exploring viewpoints and vertical/horizontal formats. (Here’s a horizontal colour view: http://bit.ly/Crossiron).
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Rural landscapes: looking inside
ME AND THE ABANDONED HOMESTEAD, NEAR BEISEKER, ALBERTA
Traveling along any prairie road that happened to attract my attention, I came upon this abandoned farmstead. The barn is still being used to store agriculture equipment, but everything else had been long left to the elements.
This is just the kind of photo subject that can hold my attention; for this scene, I decided having a person looking inside would make the photo stronger; since no one else was around, that person became ME. (Here’s another version of the scene, with everything but me converted to black & white: http://www.bit.ly/PrairieHomestead.)
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
P.S. Since making this photo, I’ve found out the homestead was used in the movie “Brokeback Mountain”.
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Rural landscape: abandoned on the prairies
DERELICT HOUSE, NEAR CARBON, ALBERTA
How’s this for a stunning find? An outstanding setting for a truly abandoned old home in the glorious prairies of western Canada. The entire scene was in shades of brown (spring green doesn’t arrive in southern Alberta until May), so I decided to keep the house in colour to ensure the landscape complemented it (rather than competing).
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: inside the grove
THE FOREST FLOOR, MACMILLAN PROVINCIAL PARK, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This is Cathedral Grove, easily the most popular part of this provincial park on Vancouver Island. My wife and I wandered through it on a wet day, which caused the temperate rainforest colours to pop so much that I had to decrease the almost lurid saturation. There wasn’t a lot of light in the forest, so a tripod was a must for every photo I made
NikonD90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the west coast morning sky
TONQUIN PARK BEACH, TOFINO, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Our 2012 visit to the exquisite west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island was ridiculously brief, but it did give me time to visit this wonderfully rocky and dramatic beach at sunrise. (My wife and I have visited twice more; it’s not possible to get too much of this glorious place.)
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: before the golf course
FARMLAND, OAK RIDGES MORAINE, WHITCHURCH-STOUFFVILLE, ONTARIO
This quietly beautiful area, north of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) was an area I loved to roam through during my early years of photography. I knew the owner of a property in this area and that gave me access to bucolic farmland and forest. This photo, showing a spring pond, is so old that I made it on negative film. What you’re looking at was scanned from a paper photo, then worked on extensively in Photoshop to bring out what I saw that spring day.
Notice the near-far progression of interest points? You start at the fence post, then go to the tree and finally end at the barn. The entire area is now a golf course for rich people, but I’ll always have photos like this to show it in its glory.
Nikon FM2 film camera, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: reflections in the spring pond
SPRING POND, PRESQUILE PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO
Spring growth was only a whisper when I wandered through this park in April 2007. But ponds were everywhere and I like the supple, mildly surrealistic mix of light and dark in this pond.
Nikon D50, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: spring, delayed
SPRING SNOW ON MT. KIDD, KANANASKIS COUNTRY, ALBERTA
This is common in the Canadian Rocky Mountains; just when you think spring has truly arrived, along comes an epic snow dump to remind you that at this elevation, anything can happen at any time of year.
Mt. Kidd’s epic twisting rock makes it one of the most distinctive peaks in the Kananaskis region.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the disappearing ice
SPRING BREAKUP, GLENBOW RANCH PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
The Bow River flows out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and through this park, just west of the city of Calgary. I found scenes like this on the river, greatly enhanced by warm evening light.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter
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Natural landscapes: the beckoning spring
CAMERON CREEK, WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
The strong diagonal lines of old, melting snow, creek and rocky land attracted my eye to this scene. That it all starts with an imposing mountain didn’t hurt, either. 🙂
This is one of the windiest national parks in Canada; so windy that it prevents most of the lake around the Waterton townsite from freezing.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: Lines of brick, stone & glass
BUILDING FACADE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
I don’t remember the name of this building in Calgary’s downtown; it’s older, not very tall and probably didn’t have a name. But I was intrigued by the converging lines and the one centre line that bisects the entire scene – yet still doesn’t cut the photo in half.
Photos like this, where it’s crucial to achieve straight lines and balance throughout the scene, are a good reason to use a tripod. I kept the bland white sky out of the picture so your eyes could concentrate on the lines and textures.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Urban landscapes: light and lines
VIVO RECREATION FACILITY, CALGARY, ALBERTA
This is where I go to work out, about five minutes’ drive from my home. I’ve always been impressed with the architecture, but knew I couldn’t photograph it well without making long exposures. Fortunately, the folks who run the place kindly allowed me to bring my tripod in just after the facility opened and before the place was overrun with people. This is one of the results.
Nikon D7100, tripod.
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Rural landscapes: where the birds stay
BIRDHOUSE IN LATE WINTER, NEAR PINCHER CREEK, ALBERTA
I was blessed with strong morning light to illuminate this glorious scene in the deep southwest of this western Canadian province. The mountains in the background are mostly in Waterton Lakes National Park. The mountains are slightly out of focus, which is perfect to ensure your eyes go to the birdhouse first, then enjoy the rest of the scene..
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter, fill-flash (to illuminate the front of the birdhouse).
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Natural landscapes: wetting a frozen line
ICE FISHING ON UPPER KANANASKIS LAKE, PETER LOUGHEED PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
Yes, this is usually what the Canadian Rocky Mountains look like as spring arrives. It will be at least another month before spring physically arrives here. After making this photo, I returned to the same viewpoint in mid-summer to capture the scene at sunrise: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-xQ
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: photographing the orca
TOURISTS AND ORCA WHALE STATUE, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
I was in this west coast city for the Greater Vancouver Festival of Hope and didn’t bring my tripod because the weather was supposed to be cloudy and rainy the entire three days. Then this happened on the second day. *Sigh*. Oh well; just walking around the glorious downtown and hand-holding my Nikon D7100 still led to photos like this.
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Rural landcapes: the BIG view
HAYROLLS AND PRAIRIES, NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA
I’m constantly amazed that I live within a 10-minute drive of scenes like this, which are etched in the consciousness of Canadians when they think of western Canada. I went with a shallow depth of field so the focus would be on the near hayroll, yet all the background is still sharp enough to let your imagination roam through it, starting with the distant hayrolls (which serve as a secondary point of visual interest).
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: on the edge of spring
SNOW AND SLOUGH, COWBOY TRAIL, ALBERTA
The Cowboy Trail is another, more lyrical name for Hwy. 22, which runs south through incredibly scenic ranching country in the Rocky Mountain Foothills. Outside of the mountain national parks (such as Banff), it’s one of my favourite drives and almost always yields many memorable compositions. In this case, I waded through snow to capture the drowning fence. When the sloughs are no longer ice-covered, you know spring is not far away.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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