Natural landscapes: Marsh marigolds
MARSH MARIGOLDS, GREENWOOD CONSERVATION AREA, AJAX, ONTARIO
May is a fabulous month for these wonderful wildflowers, which proliferate in wet, swampy places. Greenwood is a favourite place for my wife & I; when we lived in the Greater Toronto Area, we liked to walk and pray here. The effect you see in this picture comes from zooming in & out my lens during a long exposure. The trick is to try it several times at different exposure times to achieve an attractive result. Nikon D50, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: Bayview cottage
EVENING AT BAYVIEW COTTAGE, MUSKOKA, ONTARIO
Went back a few years, to the summer of 2009, to dig up this beautiful scene in the Muskoka cottaging region in the Canadian province of Ontario. My wife & I were blessed to stay at the cottage of our friends, the Stevensons, and one of the other cottages owned by their family caught my attention when I wandered around with a camera one sublime evening and saw this reflection. As you can probably tell, this is a pretty simple composition, with my only specific goal to keep the distracting sky out of the picture.
Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: Niagara River
NIAGARA RIVER AND GORGE, ONTARIO
I hiked to the bottom of the gorge, several kilometres from Niagara Falls, and found this wonderful red rock to work with along the river shore. The other side of the river is the United States. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and a soft-edge, graduated density filter to darken the upper left section of the picture.
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Wildlife: Black wolf
DRYING OFF: BLACK WOLF, SPRAY VALLEY PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
Let me start off by saying the series of photographs I made of this gorgeous creature is one of the absolute highlights of my 30+ years of photography. I was driving along Highway 40 in this provincial park (a hidden gem in the Canadian Rockies, little known outside the province of Alberta) on a wet morning when I spotted her (apparently wildlife official have named her “Lillian”) walking along the opposite shoulder.
Scarcely believing my luck, I pulled off the road, scrambled like a madman to (a) pull the camera bag from the back seat without clipping myself in the head and (b) put my 70-300 mm. zoom lens on the Nikon D90. Incredibly, the wolf didn’t run away, so I made a series of close-up compositions against a ho-hum earth-and-rock embankment.
A conservation officer came along and asked me to move the car (it was right on a corner beside a rock wall), so I did and, incredibly again, the wolf was still there when I parked, got out and walked back to where I was. Now, it was on top of the embankment, giving me the much better background you see here.
I made tons of pictures while it almost seemed to pose for me, not just to get various looks but also to ensure at least some were in focus (the camera was set at F 5.6, which allows for very little depth of field). On this picture, I darkened the trees and grass so your eye wouldn’t be distracted from the wolf.
Before these pictures, made just a few days ago, I’d never even seen a wolf in the wild — and I’ve visited the Canadian Rocky Mountains at least 100 times — much less photographed one. (you can see another photo of Lillian here: http://bit.ly/Z5jbeg)
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Natural landscapes: Tiger Lily
TIGER LILY, REVELSTOKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA
The flower was hanging perfectly in this open forest glade on Mt. Revelstoke in Canada’s westernmost province. And when I checked the view with a loooong telephoto zoom lens, the background wash of gentle colour was equally perfect. Nikon D90, tripod, 70-300 mm. lens.
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Rural landscapes: Road through the valley
SOUTH DINOSAUR TRAIL, NEAR DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA
Evening is really the best time to photograph the Red Deer River valley in this section of the Canadian badlands. But as you can see, there are a few choice morning views, too. I used a tripod and telephoto lens to make this photograph, along with my usual Nikon D90 and polarizing filter. I made an even more telephoto view – cropping out the sky – of this scene, but I think this photo works a bit better.
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Wildlife: Waterton deer
RESTING DEER, WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
This Canadian Rocky Mountain national park, tucked into the southwest corner of the province of Alberta, is generally a windy place. But the weekend we camped there was so uncomfortably windy that we couldn’t sleep. Then it started to rain. So we went home.
But before that, we did get a few sunny breaks, and that’s when I spotted this deer resting in a patch of forest near the campground. I must have spent a half hour hanging out with him, getting progressively closer and having more and more time to improve my compositions.
By the time this photo was made, I was lying on my stomach to put the foreground grass firmly out of focus and put nothing behind the deer except forest. And I had time to position myself so the deer’s head was perfectly positioned between two tree trunks. Nikon D90, 80-200 mm. lens (handheld at F2.8).
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Urban landscapes: Midway magic
MIDWAY MAGIC, CALGARY STAMPEDE, CALGARY, ALBERTA
I made this photograph last summer at the Calgary Stampede, one of Canada’s most famous summer fairs, with a Nikon D90 and tripod. At the time, I had an incredibly painful sciatica nerve issue, but the long-exposure pictures I was making were so eye-popping that I barely noticed the pain. I’m looking forward to another night with the lights this year, the Stampede’s 100th anniversary.
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Natural landscapes: Potts Falls
POTTS FALLS, MUSKOKA, ONTARIO
This stunning forest waterfall is part of a little area of Ontario’s cottaging mecca that I call waterfall heaven. within a kilometre, there are three amazing cascades to photograph. I spent nearly an hour “working” this waterfall, trying various perspectives and focal lengths. This looooong exposure was made using my old Nikon D50 (since replaced), tripod and polarizing filter.
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Rural landscapes: Leaskdale Stream
LEASKDALE STREAM, ONTARIO
Leaskdale is a tiny hamlet northeast of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. It’s probably best known as one of the places Anne of Green Gables author L.M. Montgomery lived. In fact, she wrote many of her novels in this quaint village and the Presbyterian manse where she lived from 1911 to ’26 has been declared a historic site and carefully preserved.
This stream is about a kilometre away.
Originally photographed on Velvia slide film, this picture was burned onto CD during processing and I worked with that version. The rock is absolutely crucial to the success of this composition; it it wasn’t there, I doubt I would have bothered photographing this scene.
Nikon FM2, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Dinosaur Provincial Park
MORNING IN THE BADLANDS, DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA
Definitely one of the most amazing places I’ve ever made photographs, Dinosaur Provincial Park is a is a UNESCO World Heritage Site about two and a half hours drive southeast of my home in Calgary. It’s one of the richest dinosaur fossil areas on the planet. Forty species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums across the globe.
This is definitely an area best seen at sunrise and sunset, especially in summer, when midday heat makes hiking a tiring experience. Midday light also bleaches the colours; sunrise and sunset help create the glorious hues you see here.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter, enhancing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Evening on the Bow River
EVENING ON THE BOW RIVER, BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA
I photographed this along the edge of the Trans Canada Highway in one of Canada’s most iconic national parks. That’s Castle Mountain soaring above the trees. I could have gotten a higher perspective by crossing the road (away from the river) and climbing a hill, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t keep the road and a few distracting shrubs along the river edge out of the composition. So I opted for this view instead, relying on the fabulous evening sky to make the picture memorable.
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Rural landscapes: Spring in the foothills
SPRING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOOTHILLS, SOUTHWEST OF CALGARY, ALBERTA
I made this photograph a few weekends ago during a wonderful Sunday morning communing with God’s glorious creation. Just enough colour on the trees (spring comes late to the Canadian province of Alberta) and lots of snow still on the Rocky Mountain front ranges. This is a telephoto view designed to compress the distance between the road/trees and peaks.
Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Schooner Cove Trail
THE TRAIL TO SCHOONER COVE, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Schooner Cove is part of glorious Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island. This is wet, temperate rainforest and the morning I walked the trail certainly reflected that.
Fortunately, the rain was light and intermittent, so I was able to make lots of satisfactory long-exposure photographs without getting excessively soaked. This is a carefully designed composition, to ensure no distracting white sky got into the picture. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter.
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Natural landscapes: Evening glory at Emerald Lake
EVENING AT EMERALD LAKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA
I fished around in the archives to find this September 1996 photograph, made at one of the most picturesque Canadian Rocky Mountain lakes in awesome Yoho National Park. At the time, my favourite camera was a medium-format Pentax 6×7.
I used Velvia slide film for this photo, plus a tripod, polarizer and (if I remember correctly) a 45-mm. wide-angle lens.
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Natural Landscapes: Morning at Grice Bay
MORNING AT GRICE BAY, VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Pacific Rim National Park, on Canada’s west coast, is rightly known for beaches and Pacific Rainforest. But drive a few kilometres inland and you’ll find the peaceful waters of Grice Bay, surrounded by coastal mountains. I would have liked to have gotten to this outstanding spot in earlier morning light, but what I’ve captured here still works to my satisfaction. And the rowboat is a HUGE, unexpected bonus! Nikon D90, polarizing filter, two-stop hard-edged graduated density filter (to darken the sky), tripod.
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Urban landscapes: Pedestrian underpass
PEDESTRIAN UNDERPASS, KAMLOOPS, BRITISH COLUMBIA
While seeking landscape compositions of the Thompson River, I stumbled upon this illuminated walkway pipe under the Trans Canada Highway. The tight confines and strong circular lines intrigued me, so I went to work with my Nikon D90, tripod and 18-55 mm. zoom lens. Experimented with all kinds of light balances, with and without a flash (this photo is likely with a flash) and did some long-exposure zoom pictures like this. Ended up with lots of interesting photographs of a very unlikely subject.
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Natural landscapes: Cathedral Grove
CATHEDRAL GROVE, VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA
All it took was a one-hour walk through just half of this un-freaking-believable forest of 300-year-old trees on Canada’s west coast to produce more than a dozen photographic “keepers”. This is Pacific rainforest at its most grand and stunning – and it has a winding, two-lane road running through the middle!
Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: Tonquin Park Beach
DAYBREAK AT TONQUIN PARK BEACH, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This beach is in the quaint, picturesque town of Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada’s westernmost province. As you can see, it’s a stunning locale and I managed to get there for some pretty decent daybreak skies. (Thank you, God, for creating such magnificence!)
I used a hard-edge, two-stop graduated density filter to darken just the upper section of the picture, so the sky – which was much brighter than the ground – wouldn’t be overexposed when I made the picture. Nikon D90, tripod.
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Natural landscapes: Clouds at Long Beach
AFTERNOON CLOUDS AT LONG BEACH, PACIFIC RIM NATIONAL PARK
This park is on the stunning west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. I recently returned from several days there, enjoying incredible beaches, rainforests and wildlife. The amazing thing is, we weren’t supposed to get sunny conditions on our one full day there. And yet, check out this picture! Already thinking about a return trip. Nikon D90, tripod, polarizing filter and, possibly, a hard-edge, two-stop graduated density filter to darken the sky (just can’t remember for sure if I used it on this photo).
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