Heart Creek on Clare's birthday.

So today was Clare's birthday, she's eleven now.. I can't believe how fast everything is going by. We went to Banff for dinner to celebrate and on the way we stopped at Heart Creek for a walk - which was Clare's choice. It was real windy while driving out but luckily Heart Creek is a pretty narrow valley nestled between some mountains and the wind didn't affect us while we were walking.

I've processed just one pic so far and here it is.

I'd found a tree stump that looked a lot like a baying wolf up on the side of the hill at the end of the trail. Initially I didn't have my tripod with me and I was having a hard time getting a sharp picture because it was a little bit darker where the stump was and the shutter speed that the camera wanted was pretty slow at 1/20th of a second. I really needed my tripod. So I climbed down the hill got my tripod and was heading back up when Jen said that they were going to start to head back cause they were getting a bit cold.

Ok I said, thinking I wouldn't be too long.. I climbed up took a pic of the tree-stump wolf, took a few other pics of some trees next to the cliff and climbed back down to where Jen and the kids use to be, thinking I'd start to head back.

Downtown Sunrise

For a few weeks before and after the first day of spring - when the rising sun is still low on the horizon - the light will pour down the street wrapping everything in it's golden hue.

I think this light is magical.

As we move further into spring towards summer the sun will continue it's march northwards the angle will change and the effect will be lost. Until the fall when the sun starts to move south again.

I love the changing of the seasons, and am looking forward to the light after so many days of darkness.

Thanks for looking
brad.

Spring weather..

Driving home on St. Patrick's Day, the sky was looking real nice. There was a big cloud moving across the city and the sun was starting to set and lighting it up from the side. I chased the cloud out east of the city for a bit looking for a place to take a photo of it. Most of the country side east of the city is flat.

Driving past Conrich I've seen a field with a windmill in it. I thought that it'd make an interesting subject if I could get it lined up with the clouds in the background. The clouds were moving away faster that I expected, and soon they would be off on the horizon.

I was a little nervous because I had to jump a gate to get into the field and I had no idea if the farmer lived in the house across the road from where I stopped. I didn't really want to get yelled at for trespassing in the field. Eventually, I got enough courage to jump the fence and started walking towards the windmill. I noticed a lot of cow pies in the field which made me a little jumpy but I couldn't see any bovine's in the area so I felt a little safer.

I took two lenses into the field with me, the real wide 10-24mm and the longer 24-70mm. I noticed that the 10-24mm was a bit too wide and because the sun was low behind me my shadow was entering the frame. I switched to the 24-70mm and zoomed in a little to compose some shots. The one above is one that I liked.  I didn't notice until after that there is a pump in the middle of the windmill.

Thanks for looking.
brad