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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Fall Sunset - October 16, 2012

Driving down 26th street the sun was low on the horizon and had just peeked out below some clouds. Looking towards downtown and the western sky I couldn't help but stop and take a few photo's of the sunset. Soon the leaves will all be off the trees and the snow will be flying. Luckily I had my camera with me (If you don't know me, I always have my camera with me ;-) There wasn't much time because I was on my way to pick up Conor from Grandma's house and take him to his piano lesson.

I wasn't stopped for too long and still got Conor to his lesson on time. Phew!

Thanks for looking.
Brad.

Calgary Skyline sunset - October 3, 2011

I was driving home from work, the sky was overcast with high thin clouds but the sun was low and there was some muted colour. I was heading north on Deerfoot from Memorial drive and it looked like the sun was directly behind the buildings downtown. When I saw what was happening I imagined shooting the skyline silhouetted against the colourful sky with the sun directly behind the buildings. I often get the impulse to stop and take a photo but more often than not I just keep on driving. Tonight I circled back to a spot that overlooks Bridgeland and has a pretty good view of downtown.

When I first got there I could see light spilling around the Bow. I quickly took a couple shots because I didn`t want to lose the opportunity before it went away. It did not last long before the sun moved and the light changed. This shot wasn't quite what I originally had in mind but the sunlight spilling around the building is quite nice. Sometimes you get more than you asked for. The little black specs are birds that were flying across the scene. I waited a little while for them to pass but they just kept on coming.

First day of Summer. June 21, 2011

I can't believe the first day of summer is here already. I've been trying to get out with the camera this spring and take more pictures. Some of the problems I'm having with processing and posting are all mental.. I love taking pictures. I don't necessarily love key wording and making up the titles to the pics.. that's why your reading things like "stand" as the title.

It's a stand of trees in the field.

Deep hey ?

What really drew me out tonight was the clouds. They were amazing, and with the sun going down, I had to get out in case the sun was going to catch them and light up the sky. So I drove just east of the city towards 100th street where I regularly look for hawks and owls. I haven't seen owls here for ever but I do keep looking for them.

I parked the car and walked across the field after putting on my big rubber boots. I didn't know if the field would be wet and muddy or not. It wasn't really wet but when heading back to the car I did find a stand of water that I tried to walk through. Not far in I decided that the water would eventually be deeper than my boot was tall so I backtracked and went back across the field the way I`d come.

For this photo, I walked around these trees at least ten times brushing off mosquitoes and taking various pics - trying to find an interesting composition. I really like how this shot turned out. I hope you do too.

Click here to see some more photos from today.


Thanks for looking.
Brad.

--

I know ( as of today ) that I have a lot of catching up to do to match my blog posting with the number of photos that I've posted over at my smugmug site.. last post here was April 1st. A lot has happened since then. My goal will be to go and backfill those posts so I can tell you what happened and bring some context to the photos that have been uploaded.