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.