Natural landscapes: a view of “epic”

CAVELL LAKE & ANGEL GLACIER, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

This is just part of the eye-popping scenery that awaits anyone who drives to Mount Edith Cavell in this western Canadian park. Waterfalls, glaciers, icebergs, an ice cave (see the little hole at the lower left-centre?) and, outside the picture, avalanches are all part of this epic place. This photo was made in 2012; since then, access to the area has been prohibited because pieces of the glacier can break off and kill people.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Jasper National Park

Natural landscapes: when God shines His light

‘GODBEAMS’, ELORA, ONTARIO

This little village, west of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is famous for a gorge and waterfall and I definitely spent time photographing them. But I also wandered through a cedar forest and found these glorious shafts of morning light. The scene reminds me of one of my favourite quotes, from photographer Dewitt Jones: “God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes”. Nikon D90, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: Sunrise on the badlands

DAYBREAK, DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA

This United Nations World Heritage site, about two hours’ drive south of my home (Calgary, in western Canada) is one of the most stunning locales I’ve ever been blessed to photograph. My wife & I were camping here, just a day before a vicious hailstorm wiped out our dining tent, when I got up early to make photos like these. You can’t see the badlands, but I’m actually standing on a huge ‘badland’ hill to get this vista.
Nikon D90, tripod.

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Wildlife: the young and the restless

IMMATURE OWL, CARBURN PARK, CALGARY, ALBERTA

Young? Yep. Couldn’t fly yet, so that made this owl and one more sitting ducks for all sorts of photographers at this urban park in western Canada. Restless? Well, they were flapping around in the tree, peering this way and that, waiting for Mom to return with food. These kids were in a blue spruce right at the edge of a parking lot. Made for quite an attraction as people came and went, mothers pushed baby carriages, etc.
Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens.

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Urban landscapes: pausing to take it all in

MORNING AT NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO

When I’m at this iconic place, I rarely photograph the falls. (They’re usually so misty that good pictures are very difficult to obtain.) Instead, I drive around looking for other scenes like this, photographed above the falls and showing the city’s gigantic hotels. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Natural landscapes: spring at Carburn Park

SPRING EVENING, CARBURN PARK, CALGARY, ALBERTA

I went to this urban park (which was once a gravel pit, so I’m not sure how “natural” a landscape it is, but it sure looks that way now!) in this western Canadian city to photograph owls. Did that, then wandered around and found glorious landscapes like this. A polarizing filter was vital to darken the sky and bring out the white clouds. Nikon D90, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: the artistry of rock and wood

TREE AND CANADIAN SHIELD ROCK, ARROWHEAD PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO

The spectacular Muskoka cottaging region in the Canadian province of Ontario is rife with amazing lakes and cottages. It also has provincial parks like Arrowhead, where my wife & I camped a few years ago. I was photographing a waterfall when I noticed the play of light on this tree trunk and how it contrasted with the cool blues of the rock in the shade. Made for a pretty cool composition, eh?  🙂
Nikon D50, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: after the rain

MISTY MORNING, MONARCH WOODS, KITCHENER, ONTARIO

It was a damp, warm summer morning after significant rain and my wife & I were staying with her brother in this city in the southwestern part of the Canadian province of Ontario. I ventured out at sunrise to this little suburbia-surrounded forest and found a cornucopia of great scenes to photograph. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Rural landscapes: the surprise of May snow

SPRING SNOW IN THE FOOTHILLS, SOUTH OF CALGARY, ALBERTA

In the Canadian Rocky Mountains – and their foothills on the eastern slopes in the province of Alberta – you just never know when snow will come. Even May can bring a surprise dump. This was early in the month, before the trees truly began to bud. The combination of snow and dramatic skies made for a very satisfying composition. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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May Snow

Wildlife: Enjoying the sun

SUNNING TURTLE, STANLEY PARK, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

One rock in the water of Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon had six of these turtles on it. That was a great photo subject. But this solitary turtle on a water-surrounded rock provided such a clean, simple composition that I like it even better. Lost Lagoon is a great place to see wildlife in Vancouver. On the day I made this picture, I also photographed mallard and wood ducks, a raccoon in a tree and a great blue heron.
Nikon D90, 70-300 mm. lens.

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Stanley Park turtle, Vancouver

Urban landscapes: a touch of morning light

DOWNTOWN TULIPS, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

I was doing modern architecture photography in the downtown core of this glorious western Canadian city when I encountered a little garden of tulips. Then light reflected off an office tower and provided photo opportunities like this. Who would have thought that some of my best flower pictures would come in the middle of soaring skyscrapers? 🙂
Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens.

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Urban landscapes: Houseboats in harbour

HOUSEBOATS, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

The morning light was superb and the water was still enough to create very pleasing reflections of these colourful boats on Canada’s west coast. I did my best to eliminate all the distracting clutter from other boats, then did a lot of ‘burning in’ during processing to further focus your eyes on just these two homes and their reflections. Nikon D90, tripod.

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Rural landscapes: Butchart beauty

TULIPS AND ROSS FOUNTAIN, BUTCHART GARDENS, VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

This 55-acre National Historic Site is a stunning tourist attraction on Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast. My wife and I toured it recently and came away pretty stunned at the display of flowers and shrubs (and the roses weren’t even out yet).
I took the Nikon D90 with me, but left the tripod behind and still came up with compositions like this. I used a flash here to fill in the shadows and make the foreground flowers more prominent.

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Rural landscapes: Relic of the past

GRAIN ELEVATORS, DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA

There was a time when these elevators dotted the Canadian prairies like dandelions. But during the past 30 years they’ve been steadily torn down and replaced, when needed, with concrete silos. This one, photographed during the 1990s with my old Pentax 6×7 medium format film camera, is one of them. It’s quite sad, really. This distinctive architecture is unique to the prairies. Tripod, Velvia slide film, polarizing filter.

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Natural landscapes: Lighthouse Park

POINT ATKINSON LIGHTHOUSE, WEST VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Living on the Canadian prairies, many hundreds of kilometres from any sort of major body of water, I rarely get the chance to photograph lighthouses. So when I found out about this park during a visit to Vancouver, on Canada’s west coast, I put it on my bucket list. Vancouver is often rainy, but I scored with a fabulous sunrise and near-perfect conditions on this morning. I crouched down as low as possible to get the lighthouse reflected in the pool.
That strange concrete box you see to the right of the lighthouse is a searchlight bunker dating back to the Second World War. Lighthouse Park was staffed by people who watched for potential Japanese attackers between 1941 and ’45.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter, two-stop hard-edge graduated density filter (to darken the sky).

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Natural landscapes: Peace at sunrise

DAYBREAK, PIGEON LAKE, ALBERTA

Photographed in the mid-1990s with my old Pentax 6×7 medium-format film camera, tripod and polarizing filter. This was an incredibly still and glorious sunrise and I came away with several compositions that are still among my favourites today.

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Natural landscapes: a mushroom moment

SPRING MUSHROOMS, PRESQUILE PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO

I didn’t realize mushrooms grew in spring…always thought they were a late summer-autumn thing. So it was a nice surprise to encounter these beauties amongst a sea of spring green on a cloudy morning in this park along the shores of Lake Ontario.
A shallow depth of field was important here, to ensure the background would complement, rather than compete, with the main point of interest. Photographed on slide film with Nikon FM2 camera and tripod, then scanned onto a CD.

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Natural landscapes: Cathedral Grove trilliums

SPRING TRILLIUMS, VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA

I don’t know where trilliums grow outside of Canada, but in this country I always thought they were only found in southern Ontario. So it was quite a surprise to encounter them in glorious MacMillan Provincial Park in Canada’s westernmost province.
My wife and I toured this old-growth forest, known as Cathedral Grove, right after a rainstorm and that made for wet, saturated colours. Perfect for flower photography. Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. zoom lens, polarizing filter.

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Urban landscapes: missed a spot

CLEANING THE BELL BUILDING, CALGARY, ALBERTA

Would you want to be doing this at 7 a.m. on a Sunday? Alone and with nothing but a few ropes holding you up? The weather was grey and I was not hopeful for good photographs when I spotted this dude doing his thing. I detoured, parked on the street below and hand-held my Nikon D90 and 70-300 mm. lens to make this composition, twisting the camera to create diagonal lines. I don’t think he ever knew he was being photographed.

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Natural landscapes: spring dew

APPLE BLOSSOMS, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO

After my very wintery previous “spring” post (you can see it here: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-ij), I had to go for a REAL spring photo. Those of you who check out my work regularly know that Greenwood, east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is a favourite photography locale and I often go to that stock of pictures to find you something appropriate to enjoy.
Nikon D50, tripod.

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