Natural landscapes: Autumn in Algonquin
AN AUTUMN MOMENT, ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO
This gem of a park, about three hours’ drive north of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is famous for fall colours and for good reason. If you arrive at just the right time – and that’s always a bit of a crap shoot – you’ll be rewarded with overwhelming photographic possibilities. What grabbed my attention here is how rain made the leaves positively glow.
An interesting point about Algonquin – it’s such a huge park that you can be in the midst of autumn highlights on one side, yet still a week away from peak colours on the other end.
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Natural landscapes: The snows of autumn
‘BLUE HOUR’ AT MORAINE LAKE, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
My wife & I stayed at Moraine Lake Lodge, a fabulous getaway spot on the shores of one of Canada’s most spectacular Rocky Mountain lakes. (How amazing is this place? So amazing that for years, a picture of it was on the backside of the Canadian 20-dollar bill.)
We were blessed with several inches of snow overnight, and this was the scene when I arose early to capture the lake in ‘blue hour’ – the 45 minutes or so before sunrise and after sunset. Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Autumn at Rock Lake
ROCK LAKE FROM BOOTH’S ROCK LOOKOUT, ALGONQUIN PARK, ONTARIO
Algonquin Park is one of the undisputed natural and scenic gems in this Canadian province. It was a long three-hour drive from my home east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city), but I still made the drive a few times because I knew the effort would pay off. It certainly did on this autumn day.
Booth’s Rock Trail is a five-kilometre loop trail that visits two lakes and a spectacular lookout, returning via an abandoned railway. Rock Lake is definitely the top visual payoff, as you can see. This is afternoon light, but I think it works pretty well. Nikon D50 (or maybe this was photographed on slide film & scanned onto a CD; can’t remember for sure now), tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the glory of autumn red
SUMACH IN AUTUMN, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
I spent a lot of time with my camera at this quietly beautiful area east of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Autumn is particularly picturesque there, not the least because of this plant. Sumachs are nothing special to look at most of the time, but when autumn comes – wow!
I did a fair bit of cloning out dark spots of decay to make this little scene as attractive as possible, but obviously left in some to keep what you’re looking at within the boundaries of realism. Photographed on my old Nikon D50 with a tripod and polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: the glow of autumn
AUTUMN AT LAKE AGNES, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
This is one of the most popular photographs I have ever done. I published it on the Flickr and 500px photo sharing websites and it gathered more than 12,000 views from around the world. I was astounded.
Lake Agnes is a glorious little lake sitting in a valley high above world-famous Lake Louise in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It’s a strenuous hour-long hike up to this site, but as you can see, the reward is incredible – especially when conditions are as wonderful as they were that day. I used a Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and a soft-edge, two-stop graduated density (darkening) filter on the left side of the scene.
The glowing trees on the right are larches, the western cousin to the eastern tamaracks. The tiny house on the left is the Lake Agnes Tea House where, during summer months, you can buy drinks and sandwiches.
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Natural landscapes: Last rays of autumn light
AUTUMN IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOOTHILLS, WEST OF CALGARY, ALBERTA
I was driving around the glorious Canadian Rocky Mountain foothills near my hometown when the last gasp of evening light illuminated this fabulous field and forest. I jumped out of the car and raced to this spot, so I could include the tracks in the field. Got the tripod set up, slipped a polarizing filter on the Nikon D90 and made this picture with a few minutes to spare.
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Natural landscapes: Autumn on the forest floor
AUTUMN AT GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
Fall in southern Ontario is generally best a few hours north of Toronto, in the Muskoka/Haliburton cottaging mecca. That said, a diligent photographer can certainly find stunning autumn hues not far from the province’s capital city. Ajax is just a half hour east of Toronto and this conservation area is a favourite area for my wife & I to walk and pray when we’re in the area.
On this day, I was glorying in the forest hues and started wandering around, staring at the leaf-covered forest floor, looking for suitable compositions. This overturned leaf grabbed my attention and I used my old Nikon D50, tripod and polarizing filter to make the picture.
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Natural landscapes: The glory of Autumn
AUTUMN AT HILLSDALE MEADOWS, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
Hillsdale Meadows is one of the best places to photograph autumn colours in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. A quiet two-lane roads runs through the meadows, flanked with amazing aspens, meadows and, on one side, the Sawtooth mountain group.
I encountered the meadow at the end of a thrilling day of landscape photography and was enthralled with the evening light and dramatic sky.
For this composition, I lay on my back, hand-held my Nikon D90 and, as you can see, photographed straight up. I got close to some of the tree trunks to put a strong line in the picture that your eyes could follow to the explosion of colour.
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Urban landscapes: Humber River bridge
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE OVER THE HUMBER RIVER, TORONTO, ONTARIO
I saw pictures of this fabulous piece of architecture on a photo-sharing website and knew I would photograph it one day. While in Canada’s largest city this summer, I found the bridge in Toronto’s west end, just as the river enters Lake Ontario. There were so many great perspectives from almost every angle that I spent an hour doing nothing but photographing the bridge.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Urban landscapes: The play of light and shadow
SUNRISE LIGHT AT CHERRY BEACH PARK, TORONTO, ONTARIO
It was a humid summer dawn in Canada’s largest city when I stopped in this park, along the shores of Lake Ontario, to make pictures. The magnificent mix of light and and shadow, played out on the dewy grass and amongst the hundred-year-old tree trunks, drew my camera away from the water to make photographs like this.
Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: Paddling the Ottawa River
SUNRISE CANOE TRIP, DEEP RIVER, ONTARIO
I was photographing this river, which serves as the border between the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, when the unexpected bonus of these canoeists opened the gates for several unplanned compositions. One of the things I especially like about this scene is the action of the front canoeist. The implied action of stroking the paddle in the water adds a nice touch to the picture.
The only thing marring this photograph was a blank white sky. So I replaced it with what I hope is something more interesting, yet realistic to the scene. What do you think? Nikon D90, tripod, probably a polarizer.
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Natural landscapes: the flow of water
TWELVE MILE CREEK, NEAR ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO
This little section of the creek is just below Decew Falls, one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the south of this Canadian province. I rappelled down into the ravine below the waterfall, then spent several hours photographing it and the Twelve Mile Creek as it flowed through a tranquil and lovely forest. Believe it or not, this is NOT a black-and-white picture; it just looks that way.
I’m a sucker for long exposures of rock and water and I think this is one of the best I’ve done in recent years. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizer, probably one or two darkening filters, as well.
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Natural Landscapes: Fighting the flow
SUNWAPTA RIVER, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
This boulder (and I assume it’s a boulder and not rock that’s been sculpted to look like a boulder) is perched just above Sunwapta Falls in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This photograph is my second attempt at the boulder; years before, I used a Pentax medium format film camera and put the boulder dead-centre. This time, I move it above the vertical centre, so it would appear to be battling the forces of the river. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter, probably one or two darkening filters as well.
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Natural Landscapes: the pause before dawn
AWAITING SUNRISE, DEEP RIVER, ONTARIO
There’s an irony here: the main river in this small Canadian town is the Ottawa River (shown here), which is the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. There is no Deep River! The name refers to the depth of the Ottawa River.
My stepson lives in Deep River, so I’ve had several good opportunities to explore the river and surrounding landscapes. This exposure was made when the water level was low enough to show a sandbar.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Wildlife: Rutting season in the mountains
ELK PAIR, JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
Rutting (mating) season will soon be underway among the elk living in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. It’s an exciting (if slightly dangerous; the males become quite aggressive) time for wildlife watchers, because the elk seem so much more visible, often gathering in large groups – and often, in places where they can be watched by us humans.
I made this photograph in the campground where my wife & I were staying near the Jasper townsite. The goal was to keep distracting white sky out of the picture; glad I pulled it off. If I recall correctly, I hand-held a telephoto lens, fully ‘opened’ at F 2.8 to put the background out of focus.
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Natural landscapes: Orange & black
SUNRISE LIGHT, LYNDE SHORES CONSERVATION AREA, WHITBY, ONTARIO
The sunrise, on this Lake Ontario inlet east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city), was amazing and I saw opportunities for some cool closeups. So I swapped my wide-angle for a telephoto lens and made some intense water photos like this. I like how dark the surrounding water is; gives the picture more of an non-literal (abstract) feel. Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: flowing around the rocks
WOODLAND STREAM, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
I’m a sucker for long-exposure studies of rocks and water. It’s all about the contrast between hard edges and soft, flowing lines. This conservation area, east of Toronto (Canada’s largest city) is a favourite area for my wife & I to walk and pray when we’re in the area. It’s not spectacular, but there is lots for a discerning photographer to appreciate. Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: the glory of yellow
CANOLA FIELD NEAR CALGARY, ALBERTA
When this important cash crop begins to bloom in late July, I get an itch to get out of the house and find some breathtaking fields to photograph. This spot is barely 20 minutes from my home in this western Canadian province. I made a variety of photographs from this one spot, using various lenses to highlight the old farm buildings or overwhelm them in a sea of yellow.
Here’s some funky trivia I found out about Canola: The name stands for “Canadian oil, low acid”, because it was first bred, from rapeseed, in the early 1970s in the Canadian province of Manitoba (thanks, Wikipedia). Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: Farm field monument
ANTIQUE TRACTOR, NEAR OKOTOKS, ALBERTA
I was cruising around the glorious prairies south of my home in Calgary when I spotted this monument to the past. Wanting to keep all the background clutter out of the picture, I clambered up on top of the fence and, balancing precariously, made this picture. If I recall correctly, this perch made using a tripod (normally a staple in my photography) impossible. But I did use a flash to fill in some of the shadows caused by the morning light. Nikon D90, polarizing filter
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Natural Landscapes: Dastardly devil’s club
DEVIL’S CLUB, MT. REVELSTOKE NATIONAL PARK, BRITISH COLUMBIA
These plants, which can grow to heights of six feet, are nasty to the touch, with prickles all over the stems.
That said, they can make for excellent photography subjects, such as in this forest scene on the slopes of Mount Revelstoke in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The spotlight-style illumination was certainly helpful and I used a polarizing filter to reduce glare on the leaves. Nikon D90, tripod.
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