City Park - May 16th, 2012

Conor was at his piano lesson and I had less then 30 minutes until I had to pick him up. Honestly - I can't get over how quickly 30 minutes passes these days. I had driven to the Starbucks and was having a coffee and reading RSS fed blog postings on my iPhone. I was already feeling a little frustrated and grumpy when I came across a blog posting from Moose Peterson entitled Can we talk. In this particular article he goes on about using various excuses to NOT go and shoot. Towards the end of the article he states "simply go shoot".

So I did. I got up, drove over to the park and made some shots of this tree. I looked at the frames on the back of the camera and it was satisfying to see that I was able to get something worthwhile in less than 10 minutes. Five minutes after that I was picking up Conor.

Doing something I love to do was enough to calm me down and get me back on track.

Thanks for looking
Brad.

Signs of Spring - April 21, 2012

I had been out at Glenbow ranch on the weekend to pick up a copy of the newsletter when I saw some crocuses on the side of the hill. My camera was in the car and I was in a bit of a hurry so I wasn't able to grab any shots.

A few days later I was out at lunch talking a quick walk along the hill in Bridgeland to see what the city skyline looked like when I spotted some crocuses blooming in the dog park. I was somewhat surprised to see them there and went back a couple days later after work to make some shots. Lying on the ground seemed to be a good vantage point for this kind of thing - I just had to watch out for poop and unleashed dogs that were interested in checking me out.

A few days later I was back again! It had been raining all day and after work I had to pick up Clare from school - she was late because she had to practice for the school play. We'd gone to the Starbucks in Bridgeland for a tea latte and a coffee when I thought about the flowers that were near by, how they'd be all wet and how they were fuzzy and how the fuzz might have trapped some water droplets so I had this vision of what the flowers would look like and of course I had to go see. I asked Clare if she wanted to go - luckily for me she said yes but I probably would have made her go regardless.

So this time I was lying on the ground watching out for poop with unleashed dogs checking me out and I was getting all wet in my work clothes because really; you need to get up close and personal with flowers and lying on the wet ground in the rain is a small price to pay for such a fantastic view.

Later it turned out that everyone forgot Clare had to be at the Boys and Girls club for cooking class. So it was a race to get her there. She made chocolate chip muffins and ate them all herself.

Thanks for looking.
Brad.

Great Grey Owl - April 13, 2012

I have a contact on Flickr who posts lots and lots of bird photos from around Calgary and the surrounding areas. He had posted a few shots of the grey owls out by Water Valley and quite frankly I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go see myself. This was my second time trying to drive down the Grand Valley road to find owls this spring. The first was a couple weeks earlier where I ran out of time and had to turn around and come back. I still had loads of fun driving those curvy country roads!

The second time I went out there I had more time which was helpful because I found a hawk owl perched high on a tree. After spending 30 mins trying to get some shots of him sitting atop the tree ignoring me I left and came across this grey owl just sitting on a tree beside the road. I like owls much more than hawks - sometimes the owls just check you out and decide to go back to whatever they were doing before you came along. The hawks almost always fly away before you can get anywhere near them.

I stopped, got out of the car and actually used my tripod with the long lens cause it was a bit overcast and I wasn't going to get high shutter speeds. I took some shots and moved closer, shots, closer, shots, closer. Eventually I couldn't get closer because he was filling the frame of the camera. He did fly off a couple of times and I followed through the heavy wet spring snow that had fallen overnight. I'd put on my winter boots when I got out to look at the hawk owl so I thought I was OK. The snow was really deep in places and pretty soon my legs were wet from kneeling down to frame pictures. The snow was getting into the tops of my boots and making my feet wet, and stinky. I really need new boots, these ones are about 10 years old and are starting to go. Three weeks later my boots were still wet inside!

Anyway, after getting a bunch of shots I decided to leave the owl alone - not that I felt I was harassing it or anything like that it was just time to move on. I quickly came across ANOTHER grey owl. I parked and watched it for a while in my wet, stinky boots. He surprised me by jumping off the tree he was on and floating across the field like he was hunting. I say floating because at one point the owl was moving so slowly that I thought it was just hovering without moving his wings. It was incredible and I feel privileged to have observed it. The trade off to that is that I was so flustered that I missed the in-flight shot. Still, I felt fortunate to have found two grey owls and a hawk owl.

I've now seen four types of owl this year. Hawk, Snowy, Grey and Horned. I'm fortunate indeed.

Click here for more shots from this day.

Thanks for looking
Brad.

Thirty below - January 17, 2012

On the way into work this morning I grabbed my coffee from the Center street Starbucks and then drove over to the hill in Crescent heights that overlooks the city. The hill overlooks Memorial drive, the Bow river and Princes Island park in addition to the downtown core. I stopped because it was very cold outside and I thought the exhaust from all the buildings would make a cool picture (literally :-). I took three shots and stitched them together to make a panorama of the skyline. Each shot was a 15 second exposure, while the camera was exposing, I was jumping up and down to get my blood circulating to try and get some warmth back into my fingers. Needless to day I wasn't out there too long. I hope you like it.

Thanks for looking.
Brad

Winter Sun - January 15, 2012

First real cold snap this winter came in over night. Temperature was -17c with a windchill of around -30c. 

When I peeked outside I noticed a halo around the sun and I figured I would try to catch it. I didn`t have a lot of time so my goal was to drive east and look for some trees to help in the composition. I ended up at the same place as the morning of October 8th when I was out looking for a sunrise. The sun was low enough that I could position it behind the line of trees. There is a pretty interesting pattern in the dirt with the snow on it. I like how this turned out although I wish the halo was a bit more pronounced.

After a few shots, my fingers started to get a bit chilled so I packed up and came home.

Thanks for looking.
Brad

Lake Minnewanka - January 7, 2012

We`d gone up to Banff for a few days while the kids were off school for Christmas break. We stayed at the Douglas Fir resort. The kids really like the Douglas Fir because they have a swimming pool with some fun water slides. When we weren't swimming, we were skiing :-) Conor and I skied at Sunshine on Thursday then Lake Louise on Friday.

Photographically speaking, I didn`t take many pictures on the trip. I`d have loved to have had my camera on the slopes as the scenery is incredible but I`m sure I would have spent more time taking pictures then skiing so I`m glad I left my camera in the car and didn`t tempt myself. I had a hard enough time keeping up with Conor. I get nervous skiing with Conor because he's always pushing to go bigger and better. Sometimes I feel like Nemo's Dad trying to reign him in. In the end we had a great time.

I tried to make pictures twice. The first time was a short stop across from the Banff Springs Hotel.

The second shot was taken after I drove out towards Lake Minnewanka.

Frost - January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Stepping out onto the deck this morning I saw frost on the trees and a bit of fog in the air. I was excited and thought that the fields east of the city might be covered in frost. So I grabbed my bag, ran out of the house and started driving. It seemed that the fog was just skirting the east side of the city and the further out I went the thicker it became. There is a stand of trees in a field not far from the house that I've shot before I thought this would be a good place to start.

I parked near the field and walked in towards the small stand of trees looking for an angle to shoot from. Facing north the sky was quite flat and I was hoping to include the sun and get some nice light. Circling the trees to look from the other side there wasn't much frost on the trees. I guess the frost had come in with the wind and only collected on the south facing side. So, with the direction set I started shooting. The first set of photos were from further out and had a lot of field and sky in them. I kept moving in closer to the trees taking shots as I went. I like this view because it's close enough to see details in the branches and I really like how the circles on the ground surround the trees.