Rural landscapes: Surrounded by Christmas
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALBERTA
One of the
best places to enjoy Christmas lights in southern Alberta is Spruce Meadows, an international equestrian venue in Calgary. We’re talking 250,000 lights spread out among trees and buildings in the beautiful 360-acre facility.
Some of the trees are arranged in circles and that’s where I made this self-portrait – surrounded by lights of this season of hope and renewal. “For a child has been born—for us! The gift of a son—for us! He’ll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness.”
Nikon D7100, tripod, 18-70-mm. lens.
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Natural landscapes: from the shadow to the light
WINTER AT BOW LAKE, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
December days are short in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, but the sunlight is always at a pleasingly slanted level. That makes for scenes like this, photographed just off the Icefields Parkway. When there’s snow on the trees in the mountains, it’s hard to make a bad picture.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter, neutral density (darkening) filter on the top half.
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Urban landscapes: the morning commute
MEMORIAL DRIVE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
It was so, SO cold, -15C with a windchill making it feel like about -25. But I stuck it out on this pedestrian overpass for nearly a half-hour, making 30-second exposures like this and feeling a giddy surge when I saw the very satisfying images show up in my viewscreen. The most visible tower here is The Bow, with the slightly taller Brookfield Place just behind and to the left. (Here’s another downtown view from before the arrival of Brookfield Place: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-gb).
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the ground.
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Natural landscapes: running away
HORSES AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, NEAR EXSHAW, ALBERTA
In the end, it was a desperate photo. The horses had taken off and I scrambled to get something — anything! — with the Rocky Mountain front range in the background. Looking back several years later, I think I made a pretty good photo. Do you agree?
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Rural landscapes: the barns
FARM BUILDINGS, LUSKVILLE, QUEBEC, CANADA
I dug around in the archives and found this beauty dating back a decade, to when my wife and I visited Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Just across the provincial border, in Quebec, are scenes like this.
Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the rocks of winter
LAKE ONTARIO SHORELINE, WHITBY, ONTARIO, CANADA
I had a great time carefully walking along this icey shoreline, looking for gatherings of rocks that would make for pleasing compositions. A telephoto lens was crucial to make closeup views like this.
Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter
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Rural landscapes: snow along the road
FENCE, ROAD AND MOUNTAINS, NEAR PINCHER CREEK, ALBERTA
Most mountainous regions are bordered by smaller foothills. That’s not the case in the extreme southwest of the Canadian province of Alberta. There, prairies lead right up to peaks. As you can see, it makes for dramatic photo possibilities.
Tripod, polarizing filter.
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Check out my coffeetable book “BLUE SYMPHONY: Winter in the Canadian Rockies”: http://bit.ly/kFb3Xw
Rural landscapes: the road to anywhere
PRAIRIE ROAD, CALGARY, ALBERTA
The empty landscape and the curving lines of the road have grabbed my attention every time I’ve driven this route, just 15 minutes’ drive from my home in this western Canadian city. When the combination of sunshine and dark sky happened, I knew I had the conditions for a good picture. Do you agree?
Nikon D7100, tripod, 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, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Urban landscapes: the ghosts of pre-dawn
WINTER POND, CALGARY, ALBERTA
In the hour or so before daybreak, I found this duck-filled pond near the skyscrapers of this western Canadian city. The loooong exposure needed to capture enough light turned the squawking ducks into strange little ghosts. Kinda cool, eh?
NikonD7100, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: the painterly sky
NOVEMBER MORNING AT CARBURN PARK, CALGARY, ALBERTA
In the strictest sense of the word, this isn’t a natural scene. Carburn Park was created out of a gravel pit operation and now it’s a jewel in the parks system of this western Canadian city. And scenes like this show it’s quite possible to make compelling photographs in overcast conditions. 🙂
Nikon D7100, tripod, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Check out my coffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Alberta“: http://bit.ly/1oUzd4A
Urban landscapes: the music of night lights
PART OF THE VANCOUVER SKYLINE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Photographed from nearby Stanley Park, I was blessed to have relatively still water in Coal Harbour to make this picture. (Here’s another Vancouver skyline photo made the same evening: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-6z.) Vancouver is consistently ranked one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I agree.
Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: the spine of winter
MOSTLY FROZEN OTTAWA RIVER, PETAWAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA
It kinda looks like a boney spine, doesn’t it? I saw this line of hardened, protruding snow from a long way off and, intrigued by the picture possibilities, walked the distance needed to use it for photos like this. My shadow is in there to fill up the relatively unremarkable snow surface; it also serves as a secondary (or primary, depending on which one you looked at first) point of visual interest.
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 edge of epic
NOVEMBER SUNRISE, BOW RIVER, CALGARY, ALBERTA
November seems to be the month for astounding sunrises and sunsets in the southern half of this western Canadian province. I captured this one just a few days ago. Set up the camera on a tripod, then waited about 45 minutes for the clouds to glow like fire.
Nikon D7100, tripod, enhancing filter, graduated density (darkening) filter on the sky.
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Check out my coffeetable book, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Natural landscapes: flowing through the ice
WATERFALL CLOSEUP, BIG HILL SPRINGS PROVINCIAL PARK, NEAR COCHRANE, ALBERTA
Because the water comes from a spring, I can always count on finding very pleasing water/ice combinations in this western Canadian park, no matter how cold the temperature (here’s another one I made the same day: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-ta). I love turning the water into a silky flow that easily guides your eyes through the composition.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: walking the canyon
MY FOOTSTEP, JOHNSTON CANYON, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
I arrived at this amazing place, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in early November with the hope of capturing flowing water in a winter landscape. But the temperature was so cold that most of the Stella Falls was frozen. So I wandered around making other pictures, then found one of my footprints made a great foreground subject with Stella Falls in the background.
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: that moment of ecstatic light
NOVEMBER HAYROLL, NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA
The possibilities of this scene grabbed me immediately, but so did the challenge: what do to with that thin, unbroken strip of blue sky. It tended to divide the picture and that’s not a good thing for most viewers. I had two choices: minimize it by using a wide-angle lens or use the hay roll to break up the strip. I tried both; this is the best of the bunch.
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, “MOMENTS OF LIGHT: Thirty Years of Photography”: http://bit.ly/JTNnMX
Rural landscapes: autumn in the foothills
HORSES IN THE YARD, WEST OF NANTON, ALBERTA
Photos like this are iconic visions of western Canada: horses with an epic background of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Sometimes, I find there are more interesting compositions to be had in the foothills than in the Rockies themselves. In this case I made several exposures and picked the one where the horses are most ideally placed in the scene.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: home on the range
BUFFALO AND AUTUMN SKY, NEAR HIGH RIVER, ALBERTA
The buffalo in this field (and the distant peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains) occupied just a thin slice of the scene in my camera, so I opted to put them at the bottom and let a dark sky soar above them.
Nikon D980, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: fighting the frost
THE LAST OF SUMMER LEAVES, INGLEWOOD BIRD SANCTUARY, CALGARY, ALBERTA
As I w
andered this this beautiful urban sanctuary in western Canada, I had my pick of early-morning frosty flora at which to point my camera. This was one of the plants that grabbed my attention because the frost was all over leaves that still had their summer green. Went for a very shallow depth of field to make sure the distracting background was out-of-focus.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Check out mycoffeetable book, “Frank King’s Southern Alberta“: http://bit.ly/1oUzd4A
Urban landscapes: angles of red
PALLISER SQUARE, CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA
The security guards in this downtown structure are truly a blessing. They allowed me to use my tripod to make all the long exposure photos I wanted. That gave me time to try compositions like this. What do you think?
Nikon D7100, tripod, polarizing filter.
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