Tuesday, November 24, 2020

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.


I moved towards the north end of the bluff and became fixated on capturing a zoomed image of all the buildings.. from this vantage point, the light and the shadows added some unique depth to the photo. I was trying to find a composition that showed how the lower buildings were lost in the roots of the bigger ones.. 

I ended up with a lot of photos that were very similar (seems to be my shooting style.. why take one photo when you can press the release four times?) In the photo below I tried zooming in, looking for that elusive story what would define the view.. Part of the reason I snapped so many shots was because I felt rushed - had to get home soon.. - and the other is because if one photo was out of focus, I might pick up another that was.  

Either way, the net result was that I had about a hundred photos of the zoomed-in skyline to choose from. It took a while to evaluate and pick the final shots.


I was sure I was running out of time, and I still had to find my way out of Ramsey (it's a bit of a maze in some parts.. I had to back track more than once. lol.) While turning down a side street I spied the scene below.. It looked amazing (to me) and I pulled over and got out and tried to capture the view. I think I'm drawn to light-reflective powerlines.. I mean, how can you not be.


About 10 minutes later I was driving off again. I got gas and was home at about five after 9.. plenty of time for the next drop off.


Thanks for looking.

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