Center Street Bridge - Sept 28 2010

The more I look at this picture the more I like it. I wasn't sure at first.

I was driving home up Center street and had just crossed the bridge. There is a steep road just after the bridge that climbs up the hill and gives you this view. The sunlight was nice so I stopped and took a few shots from the side of the road.

I was shooting with a 24mm tilt shift lens. It's a prime lens which means it only has one focal length - I can't zoom in and out to compose the shot. At the time I felt that the composition was really tight and I was worried that I wouldn't have enough sky in the shot.

I`m still learning how to use this lens - which is manual focus and has tilt/shift movements that allow me to adjust the focus plane so that it`s not always perpendicular to the lens. I was trying to get the focus plane follow the bridge and have the edges out of focus to draw your attention in.

The colours are nice and I was lucky enough to be there with the sun coming in at a low angle.


Thanks for looking
Brad

Elliston Park trees - Sept 12th 2010

The kids were very excited to show me the trees at Elliston park in South East Calgary. They'd been there the day before and had spent time in the trees playing hide and seek and really really wanted to go back. I was thinking I wanted to run to the hills but time constraints and common sense prevailed and we ended up spending a couple of hours at the park.

I walked along the path in a small loop while the kids were in the trees playing. After a while I decided that maybe there was a picture here and sat down on the grass to compose a photo. I liked how the trees were all lined up here and how they led into dark shadows. I tried to enhance the shadows by adjusting the focus to highlight them. The turning leaves added some nice texture. I wasn't sure about the hose, but there it is. The trees are all planted as part of the first BP Birthplace forest. Each of the trees here have a name associated with them.


Thanks for looking.

brad

Meadow in the Sky - August 8th 2010

Meadow in the Sky parkway is at the top of a long twisty 26km long road that climbs from the TransCanada
highway to the top of Mt. Revelstoke in British Columbia. 

A good way to visit would probably be to get up early in the morning, maybe packing a lunch then drive up the long twisty road at a reasonable pace - taking care because of all the switchbacks and blind corners involved.

After reaching the end of the road you could spend a few minutes finding a parking space. Maybe look around a bit and trying to get your bearings after parking the car. I'm sure there are signs posted with information that lets you know where the trails are. Maybe there would be some history about the parkway on those signs and you could pick up some interesting tidbits from that. From there you could go and figure out what it was you wanted to see. If you were a wanna-be photographer you might have a chance to scope out where you wanted to be when the light turned nice during the fabled golden hour, assuming you were allowed to stay that long.

Rainbows - August 2nd 2010

Hi, it's been a while since I've posted.. not that I've stopped taking pictures, but just neglecting this process a bit. This blog is suppose to complement the pictures that I put up on my smugmug site. The idea was that I'd write something about a picture so you, the reader, can better connect with the photo, or at least have some background around the pictures. Every picture has a story and that story should be told.

So here I am posting an entry and linking a photo. The photo today is a rainbow. I knew it was raining - hard - cause I'd gone around and tried to hook up all the drain pipes on the house so that the water wouldn't collect around the foundation and I got pretty wet doing so. The reason that the drain pipes were all disconnected is "kids". That's all I'm going to say about that.

Heart Creek on Clare's birthday.

So today was Clare's birthday, she's eleven now.. I can't believe how fast everything is going by. We went to Banff for dinner to celebrate and on the way we stopped at Heart Creek for a walk - which was Clare's choice. It was real windy while driving out but luckily Heart Creek is a pretty narrow valley nestled between some mountains and the wind didn't affect us while we were walking.

I've processed just one pic so far and here it is.

I'd found a tree stump that looked a lot like a baying wolf up on the side of the hill at the end of the trail. Initially I didn't have my tripod with me and I was having a hard time getting a sharp picture because it was a little bit darker where the stump was and the shutter speed that the camera wanted was pretty slow at 1/20th of a second. I really needed my tripod. So I climbed down the hill got my tripod and was heading back up when Jen said that they were going to start to head back cause they were getting a bit cold.

Ok I said, thinking I wouldn't be too long.. I climbed up took a pic of the tree-stump wolf, took a few other pics of some trees next to the cliff and climbed back down to where Jen and the kids use to be, thinking I'd start to head back.

Downtown Sunrise

For a few weeks before and after the first day of spring - when the rising sun is still low on the horizon - the light will pour down the street wrapping everything in it's golden hue.

I think this light is magical.

As we move further into spring towards summer the sun will continue it's march northwards the angle will change and the effect will be lost. Until the fall when the sun starts to move south again.

I love the changing of the seasons, and am looking forward to the light after so many days of darkness.

Thanks for looking
brad.

Spring weather..

Driving home on St. Patrick's Day, the sky was looking real nice. There was a big cloud moving across the city and the sun was starting to set and lighting it up from the side. I chased the cloud out east of the city for a bit looking for a place to take a photo of it. Most of the country side east of the city is flat.

Driving past Conrich I've seen a field with a windmill in it. I thought that it'd make an interesting subject if I could get it lined up with the clouds in the background. The clouds were moving away faster that I expected, and soon they would be off on the horizon.

I was a little nervous because I had to jump a gate to get into the field and I had no idea if the farmer lived in the house across the road from where I stopped. I didn't really want to get yelled at for trespassing in the field. Eventually, I got enough courage to jump the fence and started walking towards the windmill. I noticed a lot of cow pies in the field which made me a little jumpy but I couldn't see any bovine's in the area so I felt a little safer.

I took two lenses into the field with me, the real wide 10-24mm and the longer 24-70mm. I noticed that the 10-24mm was a bit too wide and because the sun was low behind me my shadow was entering the frame. I switched to the 24-70mm and zoomed in a little to compose some shots. The one above is one that I liked.  I didn't notice until after that there is a pump in the middle of the windmill.

Thanks for looking.
brad