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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

October Dawn - October 8, 2011

Peeking out the window this morning at 6:30 I saw that the sky was mostly clear after week of rain and nondescript cloud. There were some light clouds in the east and I thought maybe the rising sun would catch them and they'd light up real nice. I checked to see what time the sun was going to rise today (7:48am) and figured I still had enough time for toast.

When I did leave the house there was a nice orange band of colour along the horizon and the clouds were just starting to show some pink. I was hopeful. I drove east to the same location as last weekend because I thought maybe this time the clouds and colour would let me use the trees in the composition. I had this thought of being low in front of the line of trees with them receding into the background, the sky above rich with colourful clouds. When I got to the field it looked like the clouds were going to end up blowing past the trees and probably wouldn`t catch the light the way I'd hoped.

Walking into the ditch so I could get access to the field and see what the composition would look like I was struck by this tall grass against the gradient in the sky.. Actually what struck me first was the red and yellow hues in the leaves of the tall grass, but I didn`t think I could make a meaningful photo given how much light there was. That`s when I became distracted with how the grass was silhouetted against the sky and that's what I ended up shooting.

I never did make it into the field where the trees are. I guess I`ll have to try again some day.

I made a few other shots of the sunrise, and if I end up posting any, you'll find them here.

Thanks for looking.
Brad.

Sunrise and King Creek Ridge - October 1st 2011

I got up early on Saturday to try and shoot the sunrise. I'd seen too many nice sunrises through my rear-view mirror when driving in to work this week and I wanted a chance to try and catch the light. There is a line of trees east of the city in a field that I thought would make a nice foreground object if the sky did catch fire. So I headed out there.

As it turned out the colour stayed in the east and the whole sky didn't catch the whole sky the way I had hoped it would. I swapped my wide angle lens to the telephoto and tried to fill the frame with colour by zooming into the horizon. This first shot was well before the sun reached the horizon. There were some nice blue and orange hues. There isn't really much for foreground interest in the flat prairie so I tend to use power poles and wires to provide some interest.

Arches - March 18th, 2011

After parking the car on my way to work this morning I stepped out onto the street and was stopped by the morning light streaming down 9th avenue. I hesitated with indecision - go get my camera from the car or head up to work. I decide to go get the camera from my car and try to get a couple of pictures.

I should have taken the stairs cause the elevator took forever to come. Then the doors didn't open quick enough, once they did open I got in and pushed the button for the floor and now the doors wouldn't close.. I was cursing the doors and urging the elevator to hurry up. A person walking through the elevator lobby looked at me funny, but when the light is there, its there - and it usually isn't there for very long so I was in a desperate hurry.

Eventually I got the camera and made my way back to the street. The sun had moved off of where I first saw it but I noticed the light pouring in under the arches above the sidewalk. The air was heavy with dust from the road. I waited for some pedestrians to walk into the sunbeam and took some shots.

I like how this one turned out.

Thanks for looking,
brad.

Sunrise - March 15, 2011

I'd booked the day off work to volunteer at Conor's school field trip to Fort Calgary but that wasn't happening until later in the morning so I thought I'd go out and see what the sunrise was going to do. With daylight savings time in effect the sunrise is suppose to happen around 8:00am or so.   I left the house around 7:30 and started driving out east of the city again.

 I stopped the car on Garden Road near Conrich and got out the tripod and cable release. The sky was on fire I wanted to compress the line of telephone poles and fill the frame with the colour on the horizon so I used my 300mm lens. Using a long focal length, the camera is susceptible to any kind of motion so the tripod was necessary. I used the mirror lockup function - which raises the mirror on the first shutter release and takes the picture on the second shutter release and then lowers the mirror. To reduce the vibrations of the mirror slapping up and down you raise the mirror wait for five or ten seconds then take the picture. I use a cable attached to the camera to work the shutter so that I'm not touching anything.

This is the photo that I was able to get.


Out on some back roads I tried to find something interesting to shoot as the sun was breaking the horizon. A stand of trees presented itself. Same kind of setup here tripod and mirror lockup.

The prairie is pretty flat and I think you need to really search to find some interesting things to photograph. I drove around for a while until the sun was up far enough that the day had begun and all the drama of new light had moved on. I was looking for wildlife now - last week I saw an owl flying around and I didn't have a chance to photograph it. So secretly I was looking for owls. They are supposedly active 60-90 minutes before and after dawn and dusk. So I kept driving randomly long the township roads and eventually came across this fellow in a tree.

Early Morning - March 13, 2011

After getting up and stumbling around a bit I noticed that the time on the TV/PVR said it was 7:30am.. it wasn't jiving because it still looked pretty dark outside. I checked my phone and it said it was 7:30 too. I looked  at the weather app because it shows the sunrise time, and it said the sun was suppose to rise at 6:57am which confirmed what I thought.

I'm standing on the deck in the back yard now and definitely can see that the sun has not risen.  From the light it looks like could be a nice sunrise. I make my way downstairs and check on the computer and find out that today is daylight savings time (as I type this, I'm remembering that I need to check the clock on the camera and make sure it's in the right place..) So I decide I'm going to go out and take some photos of the sunrise.

I grab my stuff and start driving out towards the city limits. I now had less than ten minutes before the actual sunrise so I wasn't going to go far. As I waited for the light at 68th and McKnight the sky was all orange and I made this shot.

I like orange. It's one of my favorite colours. The lines are wavey because of atmospheric turbulence. I scaled down a copy of this one and made it my computer desktop wallpaper.

I drove down the road and stopped by a field with some trees.

In this next shot, I like the colour gradient that the light is making. I tried to hide the sun behind the tree so the brightness wouldn't overwhelm the image and black out the rest of it.

In the next image I like how the sunlight is hitting the snow in the foreground. It didn't last long though the sun soon moved up behind some clouds and the light was muted. I setup for a more involved shot with the tilt-shift lens which let me get the foreground and background in focus but the light was flat and missing the playfulness that this image has. Something to take away for next time. I like that I can review images and see what works and use that to think about what I should be looking for when I'm in the field. I think it helps to try and pre-visualize what I might do differently next time.

Thanks for looking.
brad.