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.

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.

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