Natural landscapes: the Balsam birch

TREE TRUNKS, BALSAM LAKE PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO

The morning was cloudy and not conducive to photos with strong lighting, so I went looking for something else and found this intriguing grouping of tree trunks along a forest laneway. I made photos with and without a flash, but the former made for a more striking result. Do you agree? Nikon D90, flash, tripod.

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Urban landscapes: the surprise of spring snow

SKYLINE AND PRINCE’S ISLAND POND, CALGARY, ALBERTA

Ah, March. It can bring all manner of weather to this western Canadian city. I wasn’t complaining about this snowfall, though, since it left ponds open to photogenic reflections like this in Prince’s Island, a 20-hectare oasis squeezed between the downtown core and Bow River. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Urban landscapes: blue hour glory

AWAITING SUNRISE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
Just named as the best Canadian city to live in (by Moneysense magazine), I was up early for this view of the downtown core. That’s Memorial Drive and Bow River in the bottom half. And the white you see down there is SNOW. Spring won’t arrive here for another month. Nikon D90, 18-70 mm. lens, tripod, polarizing filter, 30-sec. exposure.
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Calgary Alberta skyline

Wildlife: a box and a bird

SWALLOW AND BIRD BOX, SOUTH OF CALGARY, ALBERTA

The comings and goings of this swallow and its mate were so regular that I had the luxury of setting up the Nikon D90 and telephoto lens on a tripod, then simply changing the focus as each bird landed. I was able to make a variety of pictures this way and picked this one to show you.

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Urban landscapes: The leaving of ice

SPRING ON THE BOW RIVER, CALGARY, ALBERTA

This river runs through the centre of this western Canadian city and that’s where I made this exposure in the ‘blue hour’ of pre-sunrise light, standing on a bridge while traffic whizzed by. The lights on the opposite shore add a nice touch, don’t you think? Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Urban landscapes: The light of night

COAST CAPITAL SAVINGS, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

I love wandering around downtowns from blue hour right into night. It must have been around 10 p.m. when I found this beautifully lit building on Canada’s west coast. Thank goodness I had a tripod; a long exposure was required to capture this scene and without a tripod, you’d be looking at a very shaky, blurry picture. Nikon D90.

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Rural landscapes: the peace of day’s end

BARN AND FARM BIRDS, PICKERING, ONTARIO

One of those late winter afternoons in 2007 when I was roaming around unremembered country roads northwest of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) when I discovered this utterly charming scene. I walked several feet in from the road, set up the tripod and made several compositions while the geese and hens ignored me. Nikon D50.

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Natural landscapes: steps of ice

LATE WINTER AT HEALEY FALLS, NEAR PETERBOROUGH, ONTARIO

A 150-metre wide series of limestone steps makes up Healey Falls, over which flows the Trent River as it makes its way to Lake Ontario east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city). There are hundreds of steps of varying thickness here, so I had a great time roaming pretty much anywhere I wanted to find and photograph various combinations of rock, water and ice. Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Rural landscapes: the leaving of light

SETTING WINTER SUNLIGHT, UXBRIDGE, ONTARIO

This clean, simple scene definitely lent itself to photography, especially with the rosy hue of sunset casting lovely blue shadows. This area of Uxbridge, a town northeast of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is near the tiny hamlet of Leaskdale, where Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote many of her beloved novels. Nikon D50, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: a sunrise moment

CASTLE MOUNTAIN AND BOW RIVER, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

A classic scene from the glorious Canadian Rocky Mountains. I clambered down through waist-high snow to get to the river’s edge and make this photograph with a Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and two-stop graduated density filter (to darken the sky). The shaft of sunrise light was an extraordinary bonus.

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Rural landscapes: frost and snow

FENCEPOST AND TIRE, NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA

It wasn’t *that* cold, but never mind the temperature. The biting prairie wind made it seem absolutely frigid. I loved this section of countryside just north of my home in western Canada, but after 15 minutes’ outside the car, I was done. Fortunately, that brief time was enough to make this satisfying photo and more. One of my biggest challenges here (besides the cold) was getting a high enough viewpoint to put the tire below the horizon.
Nikon D90, tripod.

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Urban landscapes: the clash of light and shadow

INTACT AND FIRST CANADIAN PLACE, CALGARY, ALBERTA

The Intact Insurance building (on the left) has already yielded one very satisfying image (you can see it here: http://wp.me/p2ccTX-1O) and I’ve long wanted to capture the cool angles and light hues of the 41-storey First Canadian Place. I didn’t realize these buildings were so close together until this photo trip; when I did, I figured some sort of combination would work well. Was I right?
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Natural landscapes: Cascades of bubbles

MORE ICE BUBBLES, ABRAHAM LAKE, ALBERTA

My third trip to this amazing man-made lake, in the front ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, produced this image and many more during four hours wandering around the ice. Unlike the first trip, I didn’t fall even once! Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Natural landscapes: whispering winter water

DUFFINS CREEK, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO

If you check out this website regularly, you’ll know that Greenwood and Duffins Creek are among my favourite subjects. Photos like this tell you why. I lived close to Greenwood for several years and it was my ‘go-to’ spot whenever interesting weather came through. Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Natural landscapes: when ice and tree meet

ICE AND TREE TRUNKS, STOUFFVILLE, ONTARIO

I spent several years in the 1980s photographing a wonderful area of farmland and woods north of Toronto (Canada’s largest city). This is one of the results, originally photographed on negative film, then scanned and processed about 10 years ago.
The other day I hauled it out of the archives and gave it a new round of processing, hopefully improving the final result because I know so much more about Photoshop. Most of this land is now a golf course, but I’ll always have these photos. Nikon FM2 film camera, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: catching the light

AFTERNOON SUN, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

I have no idea what this section of peak, in Canada’s glorious Rocky Mountains, is called, but the light was dramatic enough to stop the car and haul out the Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and 70-300mm. zoom lens. Those curving ridges of light are pretty amazing, eh? 🙂

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Natural landscapes: the creek keeps flowing

DUFFINS CREEK, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO

This area, just east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is an oasis of nature in a desert of suburbia. This was a cold, snowy day, but I went ahead and made an exposure and hoped for the best. I think the streaks of snow add something to the scene. Agree? Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.

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Rural landscapes: the expanse of space

WINTER RANCHLANDS, SOUTHWEST ALBERTA

Couldn’t tell you exactly where this is – I stumbled upon this scene years ago and found it again last winter while wandering around country roads in the glorious prairies and foothills of this province in western Canada. Found a great vista overlooking the valley and positioned myself so the fence would lead your eye into the scene. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter

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Natural landscapes: walking the canyon

WINTER IN MALIGNE CANYON, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

This canyon, in the glorious Canadian Rocky Mountains, is a treat to see in the summer. It has several bridges and a number of amazing waterfalls. Making it even better is walking along the bottom in winter. My wife & I joined a tour group and saw massive ice formations like this.
Everyone in the tour group had waterproof boots and crampons – but I still managed to fall once. I was glad to include a fellow tour group member in this photo, just to show the massiveness of the canyon and the ice formation, which is known as the “Queen of Maligne”. Nikon D90, 18-70 mm. lens, tripod.

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Natural landscapes: bubbly

ICE BUBBLES, ABRAHAM LAKE, ALBERTA

This lake, in the front range of the Canadian Rocky Mountains just outside Banff National Park, has long been on my bucket list. In winter, the lake is renowned for fantastical ice, including amazing columns of ice bubbles and I’ve seen incredible photos that prove it.
I finally visited a week ago (it’s a four-hour drive from my home in Calgary) and spent more than two treacherous hours making pictures while the wind whipped around me. How treacherous? I took two mega falls on the slippery ice, leaving my left knee quite sore for several days.
That said, I came away with more than two-dozen ‘keeper’ photos, including this one (here’s another: http://500px.com/photo/24800283). The processing is quite bold, with very dark blacks and strong whites, plus a decidedly bluish hue, all to help you connect with the brilliance of the ice and the lake. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.

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