Taking photos after a weekend of being lazy - December 14, 2020

I wasn't sure about stopping for photos this morning... it'd been a long weekend of just hanging out in the house and I wanted to get out but it was pretty cold out at -14degC. Driving out of downtown after dropping Jen off I turned at the zoo turnoff and parked in Bridgeland close to Edmonton trail.. I made my way over towards the river and there was Ice floating on the reflective water.. I took a few shots as the sunrise intensified.

In the east the sun was burning the clouds but it wasn't quite reaching over towards where I was.. I swapped lenses and turned my camera the other way.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.. - December 9, 2020

After dropping Jen off, I hummed and hawed about taking photos (this seems to be a common occurrence.. but I will say, deciding to go and take photos always works out, whereas deciding to "just dive home and sit on my ass" does not work out photographically.. but my ass does get a good sitting on.

So I parked and started walking over towards the peace bridge.. I brought my tripod along just for kicks.. and also because it was still a little bit dark out.. the tripod might come in handy for longer shutter speeds.

As I got towards the Peace bridge it started to snow a little bit.. you can't see it below but it exists in other photos that I took. The shot below was after waiting a while for something to happen once I decided on the composition.. indeed, I had set the 20s delay and walked into the frame myself so there would be a human element to the shot.. fortunately the bikers showed up and I don't have to post a "selfie".

I explored the bridge looking for new and innovative photos to take.. 

A quick view - December 7, 2020

Today is Jen's birthday.. I'd made reservations for dinner at 5:30 and had to pick up Jen from work. Clare worked at 4:30 so after dropping her off at 4, I still had a little bit of time. The sun sets early and driving along I saw some pretty light coming out of downtown.. I made my way to a lookout above Bridgeland and took a few photos of the setting sun.

I wasn't there long before it was time to leave.. it was a short session but still I was able to come away with a beautiful capture.

Thanks for looking.

Chamber of secrets - December 6, 2020

I was driving Clare to work along 16th ave.. we were stopped at a red-light as so often happens when driving around the city.. I swear, some days I stop at every-single-light, and tbh, if I notice what's going on, it drives me completely nuts.. for example: when driving along Barlow trail this morning (this morning being today, the day that I'm typing this up, not today, the date of the blog.. ) I was stopped at a light, it turned green so I started driving and as I approached the next light it turned red - for no reason. There wasn't any traffic, there were no car's waiting to criss-cross Barlow trail, it just turned red. OMG I hate that..

Anyway.. I was sitting at a light and looked towards my left and noticed the sun was directly behind the bus shelter and the light was AMAZING!  I quickly reached around to the back seat for my camera and fumbled to get a shot before the light turned.. I felt lucky to get the shot below as frantic as it was.. I think it's everything I've always wanted out of a bus shelter since the city started putting these glass boxes in.

For context, the city upgraded these bus shelters a few years ago (!?).. and I've been eyeballing them ever since waiting for the opportune tine to get a photo.. I've been watching and waiting on a few spots and all of a sudden, this was it.. the two dudes standing to the right are just perfect.. I was so happy I got this shot.

St Patrick's Island - November 25, 2020

After dropping Jen off, I drove towards the east village and parked for a few minutes.. somehow I became distracted with my stupid phone and started reading stuff that doesn't' really matter. Once I came to my senses again, I looked up at the sky and tried to determine if there was going to be any colour. I guessed that there might be some so I packed up my backpack/camera and started walking.. I had just under an hour of free parking.

I headed towards the skipping stone bridge, took some shots and kept on walking.. the sun wasn't quite up yet and the colour was still muted.  Once on the bridge, I headed down towards the island.. I could see the sun was starting to crest the horizon. I bobbed along the river's edge looking for a spot to stop and get some photos.. the light was happening!

I'd followed the river's edge for a while, looking for a spot that had calm water (for reflections) and was accessible without committing to walking across sketchy ice-bridges.. I'd gone a ways and found this spot where I could get low to the ground to try and capture the reflections on the river.

Scotsman's Hill - November 24, 2020

After leaving the house I could see that the morning sky was going to be amazing.. There were no clouds out east which means the clouds to the west would catch some light. Driving into downtown the sun wasn't quite up yet, but it was coming.. the eastern horizon was starting to glow.  

I dropped Jen off and circled back around to 9th ave heading east.  I didn't have a lot of time because Clare had to be at work by 10 and I had to be home by 9 so I could get her to work on time. Also, I was almost out of gas so I needed to stop and fill up at some point or my morning of drop-offs might come to an unfortunate end. Driving down 9th, I thought of where I might stop and grab some shots and soon found myself driving up towards Scotsman's hill which has an overlook of the stampede grounds, the saddledome as well as downtown. I'm not sure what was going on, but there were a bunch of temporary no-parking signs all along the road.. I ended up parking in a residential zone thinking I was only going to be there for a few minutes to try and capture the sunrise.

The sky towards the west/north west was looking pretty good but the sun hadn't yet crested the horizon. In a rush I looked around for compositions of the skyline trying to place the tower in a nice position.

The next 15 minutes was a rush of trying out different compositions, swapping lenses, and hoping I wouldn't get a parking ticket. Above is a shot that includes my muse and a side view of the Saddledome. The sun was just starting to graze the tops of the building.

Unexpected sunset - November 23, 2020

Earlier this morning I waited in the east village to see if the sunrise was going to do anything. The cloud cover was such that there was no pretty light and everything was a dull grey.  So, I drove to the grocery store, got some supplies and went home to pack them all away.  It's been unseasonably warm for November, temperatures today got up to +3degC, the morning clouds burned off and it was a clear, bright day.

Victoria Park - November 20, 2020

So the sun is now rising after I drop Jen off at work. Today it crested at 8:04am I'm usually dropping her off around 8, so my big whiney "I'm missing all the best parts of the sunrise" post from a few days ago doesn't apply anymore and I have zero excuses. 

Since I was at the Peace bridge a couple days ago it's just been murky grey in the mornings with no fun light to inspire me and I've just been heading back home after dropping her off. 

Yesterday I left downtown and drove through Inglewood along 9th ave and kept on 17th ave SE until I got to Stoney trail.. There was a big fog bank on the east end of the city with some sun poking thorugh but I wasn't feeling it. 

Driving along international ave (17th Ave SE) I was forced to stop at every damn light.. and long lights too because of that express bus line that runs out that way. Every intersection has all-way turn advance signals and it was so frustrating. (oh poor me..) By the time I got to Stoney trail to head towards home, I was kind of done with driving though.

This morning it looked like the light would break so my great challenge was where to go. I made my way to the east village to park (meters start at 9:00am so I had an hour or so) I hummed-and-hawed about getting out of the car. It was showing -11degC but little or no wind. I had gloves, a toque and stuff so in theory I was ready to walk around outside.. 

I almost decided against getting out when I looked up and saw a bunch of pink in the sky towards the west.. the colour didn't last all that long. After I had parked and walked back the pink had faded to more of an orange so I just started walking and looking around.. There wasn't much traffic on 9th ave so I was able to snag some nice shots without any distracting cars in the foreground.

Fog - November 17, 2020

Looking out the window this morning I could see that they sky was cloudy and that there was low fog amongst the streetlights. This was a good sign because I'd been hoping to get down to the peace bridge after seeing some photos posted on instagram last week. Someone had gotten some nice photos with the sky overcast and snowing. I thought to make similar photos or at least see what I could come up with.

As we drove downtown, it was foggy but as I turned into the core to drop Jen off, the fog seemed to abate.. I was worried that it was all going to evaporate before I had a chance to get some photos.. 

Luckily, after dropping her off and heading towards the river the fog density increased. I parked and walked over towards the peace bridge taking a few photos on the way.. when I came to the entrance I stopped and framed up the shot below. I loved how the internal lights were reflecting off the wet ground and how the pedestrians were moving along the edges.

As I walked across the bridge, I was stopping to take different photos and then all of a sudden at 8:16am, the lights turned off.. I'm guessing their on a timer because with the overcast skies it was still pretty dark.

A race to sunset - November 15, 2020

A few months ago I downloaded an app on my phone that lets me borrow and read library books on my phone (The app is called Libby if you're interested.. seems to work ok, so thumbs up?!). Since then I've read seven different library books.. You can borrow a book for 21 days or sometimes they have a 'quick loan' which is a shorter 7 day loan. I'm not sure of the reasoning for the short loans but it's let me read a couple of different books so I'm ok with it.. So far I've read a few popular fiction books and a couple on mountaineering. It's been fun but like any library book at some point you have to return it and you need to finish it before the deadline because it'll just disappear from your phone when it's due. If it's a popular book there might be a waiting list before you can get it back.

Saturday was spent trying to finish a 7 day book loan that I was about half way through. It was due on Sunday at 12:15pm (based on the time that I'd borrowed it) so I scrambled to finish it because at some point I became invested in the story. I eventually finished the book ( the book was called 'City of Girls') and was feeling that melancholy you get after leaving a place that you'd spent some time in with some (fictional) people that you grew to like.. 

Sunday afternoon, I decided that I was going to go out and see about some photos.. My tossup was between east and looking for snowy owls or maybe to downtown to find the sunset. I choose downtown and the sunset so I drove down and parked in the east village.

I made my way over towards the library and noticed how the setting sun was creating this amazing light inside of the 'tunnel' near the library entrance.. I'd taken a few shots and moved closer until I found the scene below.

Side-light on fire..

The fellow was on his phone pacing up and down the ramp. I took this photo with the handrails in place trying to balance his position and the placement of his shadow.

Winter mornings - November 9, 2020

The weather over the weekend was cloud covered, snowing and really windy and so I spent most of the time huddled in the house avoiding winter's onslaught. It was kind of sad, really, as I was browsing Instagram it looked like the bad weather was localized ?! with bluer skies out in the mountains.. I dunno. I haven't been to the mountains for a while now and I'm starting to wonder what it's going to take to get out there again.

This morning the sky was clear and the sun was out with no wind it was a brisk -12degC though. As I drove into downtown to drop Jen off, the beautiful orange sunrise light was just scraping the tops of the buildings. About 25 minutes later I was looking for a place to park in Bridgeland so I could get out and grab some photos.

I'd seen the view below as I drove into downtown and wanted to take a closer look at it.. of course in the half hour or so since I first drove by, the initial orange glow was gone and been replaced by a bluer sidelight, which was still pretty nice. Of course it's another photo of the Calgary tower, how could you expect anything less. I don't think I can take a picture downtown without including the tower.

Industrial - November 5, 2020

I've been so excited with photos this last little while.. walks by the river, some amazing sunsets, spectacular morning light, shots with the moon. It was time to up my game so I put my bike in the car. The plan was: I'd drop Jen off at work, park somewhere, then ride around and cover more area. See more things, get more photos! It'd be epic!

Today was the day. Time for a new game.. I dropped off Jen, parked in Bridgeland, unpacked my bike and started out.. it was going to be epic. except for gloves. I forgot to bring gloves.

It's been a great fall.. the weather has been holding, winters been approaching slowly but it was a bit cooler this morning. Temperatures hovering around freezing.

Not bringing gloves is the kind of thing that you do when it's been warm enough to not need them so you don't even think about it.. never enters your mind. But then, one day you're out there riding your bike along the river and you realize that maybe you should have thought about it because hooptie-dandy are your hands cold.

Daylight savings time - November 2, 2020

Imagine this.. you've been driving your wife to work downtown every day for who knows how long and you're in the northern hemisphere and every day sunrise is showing up later and later as winter approaches. In October and November, the sun is making its way south and the angle of early morning light is just about perfect as you drive into the downtown core. Almost every day your gasping at how beautiful the morning light is.

For the past month or so sunrise has just been getting better and better and has just started to occur after you drop off your wife off at work.

Is the moon still blue? - November 1, 2020

Early Sunday morning, I got up and checked the sky to see how cloudy it was and if it was worth trying to capture the moon-set after missing the moon-rise the night before. I wasn't sure, but I thought it might be ok. So after a coffee and mapping out where and when the moon was going to set I put on my coat and collected the camera bits and headed out. With my car making all those loud squeaky noises yesterday I decided to take the van which was nice because of the heated seats.

Happy Halloween - October 31st, 2020

With Covid running rampant and our kids all grown up we decided that we weren't going to be doing anything for Halloween this year. So my evening was free which was good because there was going to be a blue moon rising right at sunset and I was hoping to get some photos of it against the skyline.

I have an app on my phone called 'photopills' which allows you to map out where the sun and moon will rise and set and will give you the times and so on. Using the map I looked for a spot west of downtown that will have the moon rise occur near or between the buildings.  I'd left the house a couple hours before sunset/moon rise so I could scout out a few of the locations ahead of time. 

McHugh Bluff - October 30, 2020

There was fog along the low areas in the Deerfoot valley as we drove towards downtown. Rounding the corner at Memorial drive we could see a dense fog bank along sections of the Bow river and further west of the downtown core. 

After dropping Jen off for work I decided to stop up at Rotary park and take a few photos as the fog was hanging around.

There was a low hanging cloud over the center street bridge. There was little traffic as I crossed the road and I was able to take a few shots of the tower. The light hadn't quite arrived yet. 

On the hunt for Owls - October 25th 2020

It'd been cold and snowy for a few days and on Sunday afternoon I decided to drive out east of the city to see if the snowy owls had arrived yet. I'd looked online at some birding sites to see if anyone else has some intel but my searches came up empty. I looked at my photo library to see when I'd found them before. 

I think it's still pretty early but I was hopeful I might spot something to photograph so off I went. I took this photo while stopped at an intersection out there on the prairie. I kind of like it's simplicity so I've posted it here.

I kept going east on gravel roads and got as far as Highway 21 before swinging north for a bit then heading back on the 563. My recently-installed winter tires were kicking up rocks all over the place. I think some rocks got thrown up into the breaks and something must have gotten stuck in there because my back right tire was making an awful noise.. backing up and going forward didn't seem to dislodge it. 

When I eventually got onto paved roads I didn't notice the sound so I was hopeful that it had fixed itself.

In the end I didn't see any owls. There was a bald eagle in the distance one time and lots of magpies and some smaller birds. I'll have to try again some time.

Thanks for looking.

Grey - October 19, 2020

It was cold and grey out with low clouds. As I left downtown I wanted to capture some photos where the tops of the buildings would disappear into the gloom. 

I spied the tower peaking out from behind the buildings and took a photo as I made my way towards the center street bridge and Rotary park.

Tom Campbell's Hill - Oct 20, 2020

After dropping Jen off at work I was driving out of downtown and I thought to stop at Tom Campbell's hill which is just above Memorial drive and close to the Zoo. There's a dog park there and a nice view of downtown. After making photos yesterday I wanted to get some shots again today and see if I could pick up on my hobby.

It was busy, so I parked the car up the street a little bit and walked through the entrance. To my immediate right there were some tall grasses and a view of the skyline. I stopped to make a photo, trying to position the head of the Calgary tower between the grasses.

Winter comes again.. October 19, 2020

It's been a cold and un-inviting couple of weeks as October zooms by.. I'm writing this on Oct 19, 2020.. It looks like the last blog post was on April 23 so anything that you read between then and now has been backfilled.. I might do it for certain things or I might not, who knows at this point.

My last hike was a few weeks ago at Gibbon pass in Banff, I then went mountain biking a couple times out at Bragg Creek. I'd hoped to ride a few more times but it snowed, got cold and it's been cold since. 

We had a regular kind of fall this year where it got colourful then cold and now it looks like winter has settled in. In recent years it would get suddenly cold in mid September, snow would fall, all the colour would be sapped out of all the trees leaving dead brown leaves hanging limply on the branches. It'd warm up for a few weeks before the cold came back and there'd be this back and forth of cold/warm until the -30's hit in Nov.

It wasn't like that this year, and for that I'm grateful.. you'll hopefully have read some of the backfilled posts that I have yet to create which will show off all the beautiful colours I saw. 

Back to the current situation, it's been a cold an un-inviting couple of weeks as October seems to be zooming by.. The sky went grey and the snowflakes were falling; adding to the dusting of snow that's been collecting around the city.  It was reported that twitter was showing pretty photos of snowflakes on this cool Sunday morning.. after looking out the window and seeing evidence of the snowfall I scrounged around for my camera. I located my macro lens and a set of extenders and found myself outside trying to find snowflakes to photograph.

I'm still in denial that our summer and lovely fall is truly over.. I was wearing shorts and was spelunking around in bare feet as I wandered around the yard looking for snowflakes to photograph. I found some on the hood of my car and as my body temperature started to fall and the shivers came on. I desperately tried to frame up some photos. The goal was to find a snowflake that was standing in the right position against a compatible background.. after a number of attempts I headed back into the house. My feet were colder than I had thought because they did that achy-breaky-heart thing as warmth started to return to my extremities.  

Of all the photos, I think the one above turned out and so I'm sharing it here.

Thanks for looking.

Chaos - April 23, 2020

A fellow that I follow on Instagram had re-posted an image of a downtown cityscape that someone had taken. He went on to find an old photo that he had taken at the same location with a similar view. I took it that he felt like he'd been copied so I replied to his post saying that that's where I was going to go shoot next. He replied and we LOL'd back and forth.

A few days later I was picking up Jen from work and realized that the place mentioned in the correspondence above was just around the corner from where I was parked. I grabbed my camera and ran around the block to try and capture it. When I got on scene I quickly discovered that I couldn't exactly remember the photo in question.. just that it was shot upwards and had a lot of leading lines pointing at the sky. I made a couple shots before heading back to the car.

chaos

Later I looked up the post and realized that I'd missed in my attempt but in spite of that I'd made my own image. From left to right the lines and textures become more chaotic, hence the caption.

Thanks for looking.

Gratitude - April 22, 2020

Earlier this morning I dropped Conor in the north west and was heading home along John Laurie past the southern edge of Nose hill park. Earlier we had looked up at the various paths rising from the trail heads and discussed riding a bike up the hill and whether or not I could do it. From where we were all the trails looked quite long and reasonably steep. Half jokingly I said I would. Now that I was alone I wasn't sure but decided to parking in the lot off of 14th street. Soon I was pulling my bike out of the back of the car.

A few weeks ago I'd parked at this spot for sunset and ended up taking some photos of a big cloud that was hanging over the downtown core. At the time I felt like there wasn't much for photo opportunities across the top of Nose hill because of the lack of features. Once on top it's really a vast expanse of flat prairie like conditions, perhaps once the grasses sprout and wild flowers bloom the mood will change. I pedaled up the hill and soon reached the top where I picked a path and rode off towards the middle somewhere.

What's cool is that you can completely lose sight of the city while you're up there and become lost in the natural setting. Being somewhat new to the area I wasn't sure where to go or how to get there. There seemed to be some main/paved paths and a bunch of boot worn paths that crisscross the landscape.

I pedaled across in kind of a north west direction and somewhere in the middle I stopped to take a photo of this lone hiker. The muted colours and light tones matched my mood. A kind of calm simplicity.

simplicity

I'd been riding quietly across the plains, just me and the whisper of the wind. After a while I started to feel a sense of gratitude and peacefulness for being in this place. I spent an hour or so just moving across the landscape and taking it all in.

Sandy Beach - April 21, 2020

I'd dropped Jen off at work this morning. Her office has been closed for a number of weeks because of Covid and she's been working from home but there was some work that she needed to do from the office.  Rather than pay 10 or 15 $ for parking it was just as easy for me to drop her off, the bonus was that I could find a spot to park and see about getting some morning photos along the river.

I'd parked the car at the bridgeland spot and kind of rode around a bit aimlessly before reaching the river. I wasn't too sure what direction I wanted to go and soon found myself at the east village. From there I thought about exploring something new again and perhaps riding south along the elbow river.

Crossing 9th ave at the Deane house, I could see the light facing downtown was nice for 8:30am.. (sunrise was about two hours ago). There's a path detour with a narrow section that I thought would make an interesting photo. I got off my bike and tried to scout out a photo that would include the bridge and the buildings in the background.

Initially I climbed up the side of the pathway and stood on some road barricade's to shoot over top the edge of the bridge. I could hear a train engine idling and wanted to include it in the photo.

industrial

Pirates and more! - April 20, 2020

I parked at the Bridgeland spot with the intent of heading up onto Tom Campbell hill to see if there were any prairie crocuses blooming. There's been a couple days of warm weather and we're well into spring now so I was hopeful that I'd find some.

After unloading my bike I rode over to the base of the hill and petaled my way up by following a boot worn path to the top. I was secretly pleased that I was able to ride up the hill and had a view dreams about heading out to the mountains to do some actual mountain biking. The old Powderface mountain bike loop in Bragg Creek is calling out to me.

Once on top I scouted for the flowers but didn't find any. I wasn't too surprised, it's only been a couple days of warm weather. Now that my photo idea was squashed I was free to go anywhere and decided to head down the other side of the hill towards the zoo parking lot where the light in the egg/art thing caught my eye. I stopped to take a couple of photos. It took a few minutes before I realized that the animal pattern was repeating and that there was some symmetry to the display.

animals in a cage

Downtown again.. April 16, 2020

Earlier this morning Conor and I drove out to the mountains west of Longview. Some friends had figured out how to get around some of the covid-19 restrictions that are in place to keep people from parking at public land use zones or recreation areas as everything is currently closed. The workaround involved parking at a spot more than 1 km from the trail head. They used bikes to get from the parking spot to the trailhead which seemed like a good idea. I'd hiked the trail in the past and thought it would be a fun objective for Conor and I to try.

Driving out there was nice and we both were excited to be out after spending so much time at home. Turning onto a secondary highway we discovered that it was covered in about 6 inches of fresh snow. We'd packed the van with bikes and our hiking gear and as we drove further into the back country I was getting more and more nervous about the potential of getting stuck. There wasn't any cell service and the van wasn't really meant to be driving these conditions. I was worried that later in the day it would be slushy, wet and really bad.. We ended up turning around and driving home but I was able to grab a few photos.

Winter? O Sure.. 

In the photo above, some skiers head up highway 40 at the winter closure.. note the fresh depth of snow.

The winter that wouldn't end. - April 15, 2020

It's been about five days since I've been out shooting anything.. or out of the house even.. I don't really remember. There's been a bunch of snow and grey and un-inspiring cold weather. Even the lunch time walks have been deferred. It's surprising how quickly it's already the middle of April. Today wasn't that great either so I was surprised when the suggestion of the lunch time walk was agreed to.

For a while now when we've walked the circle there have been gophers running around enjoying the spring like weather. I thought a capturing a gopher poking out of a hole surrounded by snow would make a fun photo. So I grabbed my camera and an old lens.

I don't normally bring the camera on the lunch time walk but maybe I should, cause you never know what you might see. As it turns out having the the camera with me also turns on my photographers eye and now everything I look at becomes a potential photo.

I brought a long lens (300mm + 1.4x Teleconverter) to take the gopher photo because you don't want to get too close to them or they'll just run away and pop down into their hole.  The long focal length also offers up a nice compressed view which I used for the photo below after asking Jen to go waaaaay down the path.

white

On the opposite side of the circle we ran into a cold north wind that surprisingly(!) diminished our enthusiasm for walking outside and we ended up cutting back through the community where the wind was largely blocked by houses. Due to the route change there would be no gophers today.

Again with the river - April 9, 2020

Less than an hour until sundown and here I am just parking at my new Bridgeland spot to start my photo walk/ride.  If you read yesterdays entry you might remember that I had discovered a new spot to park and unpack my bike and access the river paths but unlike yesterday I didn't start by getting lost in the heart of Bridgeland. Instead I made a beeline straight to the river pathway. To cross Memorial drive I went up and over the c-train bridge.

At the end of my journey yesterday I saw the view below but decided that I didn't want to stop an take any more photos. Since I'm now emotionally invested in the building on the right I stopped to take this shot thinking that it'd probably make a better sunrise location as the light would be a lot better. The sun currently sitting in the top left behind some clouds blowing out the corner of the image.  I waited for a view clear of cars on the road.

curvy

Along the river - April 8, 2020

It's Wednesday and mildly warm out I was driving towards downtown to find some sunset photos. My thought was to drive to the Inglewood spot, park then ride my bike and search for photos. While driving I must have been lost in thought because I'd missed my turnoff. I quickly recomputed the route and turned into Bridgeland with the hope of circling around to my original destination.

That didn't seem to work out - I quickly became distracted with an influx of new ideas, perhaps I could park here and walk or bike over there, oh what's that look like I wonder if I should stop now, oop, there's a car behind me gotta keep going. My simple idea had hit turbulence and now I was unsuccessfully in computing a new path. Sunlight on the corner of a building with a large tree seemed important so I stopped and walked over to take a few photos, the scene didn't quite click.

Back in the car now, more confused driving with unclear goals. I give up on the Inglewood spot. I find a Bridgeland spot. I'll just park and go from here. Bike unpacked and on my way I take the non-obvious way and ride through the neighborhood rather than proceeding directly to the river pathway another reflection on my confused state of mind.

The streets are gridded and easy to follow until they aren't. I turn left then right, left again and end up at a dead end overlooking a set of wooden stairs to the streets below. I contemplate riding down the hill but renege after looking closer at the cluster of bushes, rocks and tree limbs scattered on the ground, surely a trap. The woman exercising on the stairs dissuaded me from taking that option, with thoughts of awkwardly carrying my bike around her on the narrow stairs. I backtrack and soon find a way to the familiar river trails.

I spot some light and stop to capture an image waiting for a scene to unfold. People across the river and a tunnel of light. I take some shots, zoomed in, zoomed out, how many arches to include. I like my images to be clean and the bushes are a distraction but there's no way around them. I'm not sure I like it when people are walking into the arch with their backs towards me. I see a shadow appear on the wall and soon runner and doggo emerge from the cave. I snap a few photos hoping to capture form and position in at least one of the frames.

Under the bridge

I head across the river to investigate the tunnel of light from a different perspective. I don't find anything I like and move on.

Pink Moon - April 7, 2020

On the morning of April 7th the mostly full moon would set in the west at or around sunrise before rising in the east at sunset.  The full moon is always at opposition to the sun otherwise the angles wouldn't work out and it wouldn't be a full moon. Another feature of the sunrise/sunset full moon is that there is ambient light from the setting or rising sun so that you can still see part of the landscape.

The trick to making the moon look bigger is to shoot it near the horizon with a long zoom lens. Usually there is just one day per moon cycle that everything lines up - a day earlier and the moon is out with too much sunlight and you can't see it. A day later the moon is out after dark and you can't see the landscape.

I woke up at 5:30am so I could drive downtown and try to capture the full(ish) moon setting against the downtown skyline. According to my app, the moon would be in place by 6:45am or so.

I'd lucked out last year and got some good photos on the way to work (link) and was willing to try again in spite of going to the same area. I was anxious that I'd just end up with the same set of photos and almost decided not to go because of it, but I hardened my resolve and was soon driving downtown in sparse traffic.

zoom

East - April 6, 2020

I didn't go out yesterday and with time running out today I found myself packing up my camera and heading out to try and find some light. A quick glance at the sky and it looked like downtown might be in shade but there was some open sky towards the north west. I didn't really want to head downtown again so I decided to drive just east of the city and see if I could find something to shoot, perhaps a sky/reflection photo or some trees.

At first I was regretting my decision because the first part of the drive was just past flat fields and the ponds were all still frozen over. The sun seemed to be heading down fast adding to the pressure to find something. I continued further north and made this photo out the car window at the first thing that was sticking up off the ground.

solar power

I find that when I'm out looking for photos that there is often a mental barrier to the process of finding a composition until I take a first photo. It's almost like I need to shoot something/anything before my brain turns on and I start to focus on the task at hand.

Missed - April 4, 2020

I'd left the house well after 7pm, closer to 7:15pm or so.. sunset was supposed to be sometime around 8:15, I thought I had time, but in reality I didn't. By the time I got downtown any direct sun was gone.. In spite of that I kept on hoping to find something to photograph I ended up parking the car near the west end of Prince's island.

I walked towards the Peace bridge thinking that I really didn't want to take the obvious bridge photos from this location (ie, one's I'd taken before). There was still a very low chance that the sun could do something like light up the sky but I wasn't very optimistic.

I took a hard right on the path onto Prince's island and walked over to the apex across from the Peace bridge where there were a few runners. I took a few zoomed in shots trying to for photos through the lines on the bridge. The posted photo below is zoomed out and was better than any of the other shots.

run

Nose Hill - April 1, 2020

As I drove west on Mcknight I could see a heavy cloud hanging over the downtown core. The western end of the cloud was catching some sunlight but looked like it wasn't quite over top of the buildings. I didn't have a way of gauging how fast the cloud was moving and if the light was going to change a lot. By the time I reached Center street it looked like the big cloud hadn't moved at all. I didn't think that the angles would work out if I drove any closer to downtown so I decided to drive up to Nose hill off of 14th street.

I've lived in Calgary my whole life and I've probably been to Nose hill less than 5 times that I can remember and just once with photographic intent. I shot some crocus flowers a few springs ago for a 365 project that I was doing. I wondered if there might be some frozen crocus's covered with recent snow but honestly I don't think it's been warm enough this year for anything to have had popped out of the frozen ground yet.

I had seen an instagram post recently where someone had posted a photo of downtown from Nose hill so I had an idea of what the view would be like. Of course I was hoping for a brilliant sky and yada yada yada.. it's a common mantra that I'm sure you've heard already if you've been following along. lol.

After parking the car and hoofing it to the top of the hill I saw that there was a streak of light across the downtown core and the cloud that I was tracking was in a good position. I quickly setup the tripod and mounted the camera.

Light brushing the scene.

Grungy - March 30, 2020

With the car battery dead to the point where the key fob wouldn't unlock the door I'm unable to pop the hood to get a charger on the battery. For some reason the key itself won't work on the door handle. I've researched a bit online and some options to get out of this predicament are: raise the car on jacks and attach a power source to the starter motor input, which comes directly off the battery, then use the fob to unlock the door. Take apart the drivers side wheel well and yank on the cable that's latching the hood down or break in through the window by poking a long stick at the lock. None of these options seemed feasible to me with my current skill set so I guess it's time for a new car. Anyone want a well used Honda CR-V?

Oh wait, we have AMA. A quick look at their website and they offer break-into-your-car services. Yay. I just saved $40k for not having to replace the car. We called and soon the fellow showed up and was trying the 'poke a long stick' method. It was tricky because he need to push the lock latch forward but the latch is smooth and there's no real edge to leverage off of. He had a rough time getting his stick to stick. After quite a number of attempts he was finally able to open the car door. We then jumped the battery. I left the car running for a while so as to build up a charge.

Later I headed to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner, hoping that the battery had charged enough to start the car after I was done shopping. (spoiler: it was, but I did have a scare when I pushed the fob button and the door didn't unlock. I turned out that I had both my regular keys and the spare keys in my pocket. The spare key's battery is dead - so many dead batteries - and I had pulled that fob out of my pocket with out realizing it.) As I left the parking lot I decided to drive around a bit. The weather was cold and it was foggy which can make for interesting photos.

truck trailers

Uncomfortable - March 29, 2020

I must have left a dome light on overnight and now the car battery is dead. A few times this winter when the temperature dropped and block heater wasn't plugged in the battery would struggle to start the car. No problem though, I'd hook up the charger, plug in the block heater, wait a bit and that would do the trick. But now it seems the battery seems deader than dead. I can't use the key fob to unlock to doors and the key doesn't work in the handle lock. I'm guessing the door lock is electronic it just doesn't turn or maybe it's broken somehow. I don't know, I never use the key in the door. Anyway, without being able to unlock the door I can't pop the hood because the little lever is inside the car. If I can't pop the hood I can't charge the battery. I might have to call the AMA to see if they can slim jim the door.

With my car out of commission I was able to borrow Jen's van and was again headed towards downtown. Like the past few days, there were clouds above and towards the east, a heavy cloud bank on the western horizon and a gap in between. The gap was wider than yesterday and I was hopeful that the setting sun might catch the clouds at some point. With the sun directly out I ended up on 10th ave and about 5th street SW. The shot below is just after I'd parked the car.

hard light

Grey - March 28th, 2020

If you're reading this in the distant future we're in the early stages of the Covid-19 epidemic. Jen's been working at home for the last week and a half and we're staying away from other people as best we can when going to the grocery store. Lots of things are closed off. I've not really checked what the malls are doing or other stores are like but overall it's been pretty quiet. We've been taking walks 'around the circle' at noon-ish as a break from work and for a bit of exercise. I've been out in the evenings at sunset looking for light and see few, if any, other folks on those excursions.

Today being a Saturday, the walk ended up being a bit later in the afternoon. It was chilly and overcast at -3 degC with a light wind. Normally I don't bring my camera on the walk but we decided to head down towards a wetlands area with a bit of trees and I thought there might be some photo opportunities, and who knows, maybe there'd be owls (spoiler: there wasn't..)

Grey skies

Skyline - March 27, 2020

Left the house with about 30 minutes before sunset. There were clouds in the sky and I was hoping that they would catch fire today. I didn't have much time and I knew that after the sun fell any foreground light would be pretty dark so I decided to head towards Deerfoot and 17th ave for a view of the skyline. I was visualizing a horizon shot with colourful skies. I wasn't sure that once I got there if I'd head north towards MaxBell or south to the bluffs over the canal.

As I drove up 17th ave I figured heading north towards MaxBell would be the better option due to the positioning of the sun. I ended up sitting a streetlight waiting to turn left for waaaay too long. The intersection has been modified somewhat recently to include an express bus route lane, with that and the various advances it seemed to take forever before my light turned green. I was losing sun! From there it's sort of a convoluted path through residential housing to get to the MaxBell parking lot.

I drove past the middle school that I attended so many years ago. My memory banks were tweaked and I started remembering all kinds of random bits of my childhood. It's kind of cool how we can have inactive thoughts in our heads that are activated by visual stimulation. I attended that school for thee years in the early 80's during my formative years.

Just missed the sun.

As I finally pulled into the MaxBell parking lot the sun had just dropped out of view but the sky was still glowing.. I quickly stopped and took this photo out the car window just in case it suddenly became pitch black and I ended up with nothing for my trouble.

Empty - March 26, 2020

All afternoon and into the evening the wind was howling and blowing. It was still sunny out and kind of warm but the wind had a bite to it.

After dinner I was eyeballing the clock, watching it get later and later and I wasn't moving. I finally got up and started gathering my things.. the memory card from downstairs, the wider lens that I wished it'd had yesterday and packed up. Soon I was out and driving with the sun directly in my eyes it was about 30 minutes until the sun would be down.

I didn't have a destination in mind but I drove along McKnight towards Center street then turned south on Center towards downtown.  The sun dipped behind a cloud for a while and I could see again but as I neared the river it was back out in full force. I turned west on to 4th ave and directly into the sun blinding me again. I quickly found a place to park on the empty street and got out of the car.

Tunnel view

On foot now, I had an idea about taking a wide angle photo of the sunlight shining down the length of the street with the buildings on either side reflecting light and there'd be this cool tunnel effect. I kept moving up the street towards the sun looking for this image to appear.

It didn't quite work out, the buildings weren't reflecting any of the light and I could see that it wasn't going to work out how I imagined it. So I swapped my wide lens for the telephoto zoom in order to compress the view.

It felt like a bit of a ghost town there were very few people around. When I did spot some pedestrians crossing the street, they were far away. I took some shots in a hurry trying to frame them up in the light. Sadly the photos have quite a bit of motion blur because I wasn't holding the camera all that steady. It's not as noticeable when the picture is small so I'll post it here and maybe on instagram, but it'll never make it into the book.

Gaps - March 25, 2020

It was snowy and overcast yesterday with little or no light so I didn't venture out and continued to social distance by staying in the house. Today though there were big puffy clouds in the sky that I got a excited about but that was at noon. By early evening it was clear. 

I left the house at around 7:05pm with no clear ideas about where I'd go.
I did pack my bike in the back of the car so that I could go somewhere, park, then use the bike to cover different locations.. at least that was the idea. I thought about going up to McHugh Bluff above Prince's Island but while driving I realized it was actually later than I exected so I parked in Inglewood at the same place as last week.

I quickly unpacked and re-assembled the bike ( the front tire and seat have to be taken off so I can stuff it into the back of the car) and started riding towards the river and crossed the Zoo bridge.

The birds

Two things right away, one was the number of seagulls on the ice/snow covered river and the other was that the sun was almost directly behind the tower from where I was positioned.

I took some photos of the tower first but because I had to keep an eye on my bike I was somewhat limited in movement.  There was no way to avoid the massive number of birds in the sky and I was behind some trees.  It's interesting how quickly the sun was moving. Within 10's of seconds it's position would shift and I'd have to take 5-10 paces to my left to keep it centered behind the tower.

My goal was to have the sun positioned symmetrically behind the tower but the birds and the trees and trying to keep an eye on my bike made it more complicated that it should have been. I was able to fire off a few shots that I was happy with. It's pretty close to what I got last week but I guess that's just how it is.

Sunrise on Monday - March 23, 2020

I woke up early with the intent of trying for some sunrise photos. Looking out the window squinting at the sky to see if it was cloudy or not and if it'd be worth heading out.

I'm still looking for a mixed sky and cloud sunrise/sunset to occur where the light catches and burns the clouds across the sky.. it's going to be so awesome when it happens ! (I've only really been at this for about a week or so, lol.. I'll happen eventually.. right?!)

I could see a few stars in the sky so I got dressed. There was still time for a coffee. ;) Sipping my coffee and browsing The Photographers Ephemeris website I angled around and looked to see where the sunlight was going to be and decided I'd try Memorial drive and Edmonton trail.. There's a few bridges and the river's right there. Should be great!

When I finally left the house I saw that there was a cloud bank in the east with a small gap at the horizon. As I drove, with about 20 minutes until sunrise, I could see in the rear view mirror that that cloud bank was starting to catch some colour. I contemplated aborting my plan and just going east of the city but decided to keep on with my original destination.

I found a place to park that had 1 hour street parking starting at 8:30am so I had until 9:30.. perfect! Looking back towards the east the little cloud was having a colour party. Sadly, downtown was still in shadow and there weren't any clouds to catch the light.

Maybe I should have gone east!

Frost and fire - March 20, 2020

When I first got up in the morning I peeked outside and it looked like the sky was cloud covered and that there wasn't going to be an interesting sunrise. I had thought that if it looked like the light was forming that I'd head out for some photos. A while later, as I drank my morning coffee, I noticed that the sun was indeed out and brightening the neighbors house. After deliberating back and forth for a few minutes I decided yes, I'll go.

Being that it was later I wasn't going to head towards downtown because all the great light would be gone. So I soon found myself driving east on McKnight towards Conrich behind a big truck that wasn't going very fast.

Usually when I finally decide to do something like this and I feel like I'm late to the game, I notice ALL the little delays.. like all the lights turning red as I reach the intersections, being trapped behind another car that doesn't care that I'm chasing light and so on. It's a test in patience.. Soon enough though, the truck pulled off and I had nothing but open road before me.

otherside

Center Street - March 19, 2020

Yesterday, I went out after dinner thinking that there would be a sunset. I had been fiddling with a photography app on my phone (photopills) using it to determine where the sun would set and what the best position to be in would be. I knew as soon as got outside I knew it was all for not.. there was heavy cloud in the west and the sun hidden. I quickly lost interest in the plan but drove around anyway. I couldn't really find the motivation to stop anywhere and with all the flat light so eventually I just drove back home. Today, after dropping Conor off in the Northwest I thought I'd make my way downtown to see about taking some photos. The light still wasn't great and it was pretty cloudy but I wanted to go anyway, possibly to make up for last night.

On the way, I needed gas and stopped at a station on 16th ave over by the Foothills hospital. As I was filling up I noticed the group of workers gathered across the street. It looked kind of interesting (to me) so I parked the car, changed lenses and tried to frame up a photo. For some reason I felt very self conscious about the whole thing. Because I was across the intersection I needed to wait until there wasn't any traffic between me and the scene so I'd end up standing there out in the open waiting to take a photo. Some workers were making their way across the intersection and buying snacks at the gas station or coffee at the Tim Hortons behind me.. As they came close I'd put the camera down and sit in my car and for them to move out of the way. It got a little silly because I'm sure I was in and out of the car about four times before being able to grab a couple shots and then decide that I was going to move on.

On break

Photo walk - March 15, 2020

Oh no.. another photo walk, which will likely result in a horrifically large number of posted photos. I'm not sure we can keep up with the processing and uploads that I add to my smugmug site. So to compensate, at the end of this post I'll link back to the smugmug site that will link all the photos that are not featured here.

It's Sunday. It feels like I haven't been out of the house much the last week other than to get groceries or to drive Conor somewhere. I've been following all the panic buying on twitter .. wow.. it's nuts out there. Luckily I was able to grab some groceries last week before it all blew up.

Regardless, it was sunny out for a change.. and cold (-12 degC). After dinner, I decided I'd head out to see about taking some photographs. I left the house around 6:30pm. Sunset would be after 7:30 so I felt I had some time to find some compositions.. I drove towards downtown and while driving I tried to think of different places to go and decided to head towards the Deane house on 9th and see what the light might give. From there I could walk towards downtown.

Elbows deep.

After finding parking on the street I started walking west behind Fort Calgary.  I came across a scene where the light was grazing the snow and creating nice textures.  The view in this photo is quite low, I was scrunched down a snow drift propped up on my elbows trying to get the frame. The sunlight here is actually a reflection off the distant building. The sun was setting on the left side of the frame. I'll be a while before the sunset is that far north..

Winter returns - March 13, 2020

After performing my taxi duties for today I drove towards downtown thinking that I'd have a photo session in the mid-afternoon. While in the car I saw a bunch of scenes and I though for sure I'd be able to get some shots today. Winter has returned and there was snow and blank skies everywhere. Being a weekday and the middle of the afternoon there's no free parking downtown. I thought that the streets near rotary park might have street parking so I made my way up there.

I was correct in my memory, 3 hour street parking on top the hill. The only downside is that it was pretty cold out -15 degC with gusty winds and I'd have to walk down the hill and across the center street bridge before I could scope out any downtown locations.

Crossing center street bridge, I can't help but make the photo below.. it happens every time if I have my camera with me..

Obligatory Center Street Bridge shot..

It's O.K. though. I was watching a youtube video and the premise was that you should shoot the things you know across different conditions.. so based on that I don't feel guilty for posting this photo as the entry to the rest of the story..

More skyline - March 11, 2020

I had a chance to get out around 6:45pm which was perfect given that that sun sets at 7:35 tonight. I had high hopes about the light because I was out so early. Trying to think of a place to shoot from I picked Scotsman's Hill. There's a nice lookout over Stampede park with the Saddledome and downtown buildings clustered around behind. After figuring out how to actually get there I found parking on the street in a 1 hour zone. A city parking authority car happened to be skulking around so to be safe I set a timer on my phone for when I'd have come back and move my car.

I made my way over to the lookout and mounted the camera on the tripod, picked my view and waited for the light to do something. It was kind of flat, with clouds hovering in the sky casting a shadow over the downtown core. My hopes for spectacular light were diminishing.

Throwing shade

Skyline - March 10, 2020

Driving to Tuesday horn lessons after springing ahead into daylight time last weekend meant that there was still light in the sky at 7:30pm when we left the house. In fact, sunset was at 7:33pm and is setting later by 2 minutes every day.. by the time spring arrives on March 21, it'll be setting at 7:52pm. The latest the sun will set around here will be 9:54pm on June 21, the first day of summer!

In our somewhat northerly location after sun sets there's still about an hour or more where the western skies aren't totally black. In case you can't tell, this is getting me all excited that we're finally starting to crawl out of the depths of winter's night. The changing seasons are one of my favorite things.

But back to today, as I drove I was trying to think of a location to shoot from that might take advantage of it not being completely dark. I wouldn't be able to shoot anywhere until about 8:10pm which is almost 40 minutes after sunset so I kept my expectations in check about what I might be able to shoot.

I decided my goal would be to head towards 14th street bridge and see if I could shoot the skyline. My hope was that shooting towards the east would allow any light in the west to reflect off of the buildings and give them a bit of colour.

Looking down 6th Ave.

RGB tree - March 5, 2020

Dropped Conor off for his horn lesson, had a few errands to run and drove around for a bit looking for something to photograph. I was largely uninspired not having a preconceived idea this time. I was sort of hoping something would spring up in front of me but for the most part it was a bust. I drove through downtown and everything just looked so inky black.

I'm anticipating that as the days pass and spring returns the evening light will come back and I'll have more opportunities. On the other hand, maybe this is just a stupid excuse to be lazy and not make any photographs.. I'll admit that I did feel kind of lazy.

After killing time I ended up back at the university.. I still had 30 minutes before he'd be out. There's a parkade nearby that has some colourful lights in the stairwell. I've looked at them every time I've driven by and wondered what a photo would look like, so I decided this was it. I stopped and took some shots. Below is the result.

stairwell pixels

Using a telephoto zoom I took a bunch of photos at different shutter speeds so that I could HDR the result in lightroom. I knew that the colours would be way over saturated and blown out if I tried to expose for a single photograph.

One thing that was totally cool was an owl flew by and disappeared into some trees at the edge of the parking lot. When I was done taking photos I drove past the trees to see if I could find it, but alas I did not.

Thanks for looking.

Wood - March 4, 2020

I was heading downtown on the c-train and waiting for the train at the McKnight-Westwinds station. The platform is covered with this really cool wooden structure. I think I've made a photo here before and I didn't really want to replicate what I'd shot. I took this photo of one of the pillars. Converting it to monochrome helps to bring out the texture in the wood.

steam-punk windmill?

My dad was an accountant and had a couple side clients to his regular job that he did books for. One of the clients was a lumber yard. Baldy's Lumber (?! I was pretty young). Maybe I'm not remembering or I wasn't privy to the information but he ended up with a lot of wood. Maybe that's how he was paid for his accounting work. Cedar mostly.. Our yard was more than half covered in decking, the roof of the house was covered in cedar shingles. The basement was all done up with cedar on the walls, the ceiling.. Dad had a lot of wood working skills. The wood textures here remind me of those days, so long ago.

Thanks for looking.

Diamonds and rainbows - March 3rd, 2020

The days are a blur, it's Tuesday already and after spending most the day routing through items and trying to get a little more organized we headed out for horn lessons and some photography time.

After dropping of Conor I drove towards downtown thinking I'd try and get some shots of the parkade entrance on ninth ave. The plus15 people recently built a section connecting Gulf Canada Square and Penn West Plaza and it was done up with a bunch of colorful lights and I thought it might make an interesting subject that I could fill the frame with.

On my way I passed an empty Mercedes dealership lot just off of 9th ave. The outside lot was empty but all the lights were on and they had built some structures to park cars under. I'd seen this spot a few times while driving here and felt like I could find an interesting photo there.

Diamonds

Nifty Fifty - Feb 27, 2020

I had an appointment downtown so I was gathering up all the stuff I'd need for all the things I wanted to do. Some gym clothes, runners, a book, laptop, notebook, pencil case, phone, water bottle.. When it came time to grab the camera (always take a camera) I started poking though a few lens choices. I was going to be downtown at sunrise and maybe nice light would hit the buildings so I thought of a wide angle but also maybe a zoom then I realized I wouldn't be able to carry everything with my two bags.

The other night when shooting the bridge I'd had the 50mm prime with me and it was already on the camera and is rather small so I settled on just bringing the one lens. I'm not a huge fan of the 50mm because it's too narrow for wide angle views and too wide for telephoto shots. For me it's kind of a no-mans-land.. I remember thinking maybe it'll be a fun challenge to shoot with something unfamiliar.

As we drove into downtown the light from the east was reflecting off of the buildings. Nearing the end of February the light is starting to get brighter earlier and earlier. I'm not out every morning these last few months so it felt like a sudden occurrence to have all this light. I made a few photos out the window of the van. I have a large collection of photos that include a very similar view but I find it doesn't get old for me and I'll just keep on adding to my collection. I especially like the way the light was in a gradient on the buildings.

From the bridge

Also from the bridge

I have this thing where, when I photograph the Calgary skyline, that I need to include the Calgary tower if it's visible.. so that second shot makes me feel uncomfortable in ways that I can't explain.

Red Bridge - Feb 25, 2020

With Conor taking french horn lessons three nights a week I've developed a new-found ambition of making photos while waiting for him. After dropping him off I've been driving around seeing things. It's quite dark in the evenings and the sky's been inky black and most of the stuff I look at isn't all that interesting because of the super harsh shadows. I have a suspicion that with the changes that the city has made moving towards LED based street lights that there's way less ambient light floating around and everything just feels darker.. or maybe I'm just old and my eyes are starting to go.

During my short photo stints, I usually head downtown to find something to make a photo of.. time passes quickly and oftentimes I'm rushing back to MRU, driving up Bow trail to get to 37th street. During that drive I've noticed this bridge and I've noticed how the light caresses it and I noticed that it might be an interesting subject that I wanted to shoot. Today would be my attempt to go there.. I had it all planned out in my head.

Sexy reds

Day and night. Feb 18, 2020

I had an appointment downtown in the early afternoon and rather than take the train downtown I grabbed a ride with Jen. It was a pretty lengthy time to hang out so I started by going to the gym to get some stairclimber time in. Instead of watching netflix like I usually do, I had some reading to do to prepare for the meeting. After the gym, I grabbed a coffee, made my way up to the building's cafeteria and did a bit of work before finally walking over to the appointment at around 1:30.

On the way I was distracted by this frosty tree  It was somewhat cold out so frost was forming on the branches dressing it in white.

Frosted

After the appointment I walked back towards downtown. The sky was clear with the sun lower in the sky making some nice colour. I had packed the 70-200F4 for zoom and a 24mm tilt shift for wide angle shots in my bag. I like the 24mm for building shots because I can 'shift' it instead of pointing the camera upwards and the buildings stay straight.