Christmas Lights - January 3rd, 2011

Was driving home from work up Center street and turned East on 12th Ave. Drove past Edmonton trail and found myself on 8th Ave. I went in a couple of blocks and stopped on a hillside above Bridgeland.

There is a pretty nice view from here. I took a few of shots of the downtown skyline. I was there just a little bit too late as the sky had started to become quite dark and Bridgland itself is really just a pit of darkness. On this photo, I got car headlights coming up the road on the right.



While I was taking these pictures, there was a car parked a little ways down the street, it got there just after I did. And they sat there the whole time I was shooting. I found it a little curious that they were just sitting there in the car but didn't think too much of it. As I left they pulled forward - I think I had been in their parking space. It looked like parking was a little tight on that street.

As I made my way down 8th ave and into Mayland heights I saw this house on a side street. It was all lit up with Chrismas lights. Being in a photo state of mind, I turned around and stopped again. Playing with the Tilt-Shift lens I was able to make a nice effect with the lights. Anyway, I like it.



Thanks for looking.
Brad.

Heart Creek and Vermilion Lakes - January 2nd 2011

We all drove out to Heart Creek for a walk today. We got there by one o'clock and walked along the trail to the end. The creek is mostly frozen over with some patches of exposed water. I tried to get some photos but in reviewing them I'm not finding that many of them turned out as well as I would have hoped for. It was chilly and our faces got cold, no one remembered to bring tissues to wipe our runny noses. It makes me wonder why your nose runs when your out in the cold.

When we were nearing the end of the walk we saw the sun setting on Grotto Mountain across the valley.

Here a pic for you.

After the walk, we drove into Banff. I tried to get a few shots at the Vermilion lakes before we went to dinner. Here is a shot of Mt Rundle that I like. I froze my fingers again because I rushed out of the car without putting on my gloves and the wind was blowing here.

Again I took a lot of shots that just didn't work out very well. Guess it means I'll have to practice more. I think I'm up to that ;-). If I add more photo's from today's adventure they will be found here



Thanks for looking

brad

Thistle in the snow - January 1, 2011

Happy New Year.

I went for a short drive east of the city and trampled through some snow drifts along a fence line. What was interesting was seeing tracks in the snow. I saw a lot of mouse and (I'm going to guess) coyote tracks that sometimes interacted.

I made a photo of this dried up thistle after kneeling in the deep snow to get up close.

Thanks for looking,

brad

Moose - December 31, 2010

Spent new years eve-day mostly driving around. I had intended to go out to Bragg Creek so I could walk in the trees but got sidetracked. I had left the house before noon and thought that if I was going to go to Bragg Creek that I'd want a head lamp - because two times ago when I was there I had to walk out in the dark, and the last time I was there I turned back on the trail because I didn't want to get caught in the dark again. It's a bit spooky walking in the forest in the dark. I also thought that some gloves that flip open and expose your fingertips would be useful too given my recent events with frozen fingers. Bass Pro is relatively close so I went there.

Problem was, when I left the mall I went towards Airdrie instead of back to Stoney trail. I turned onto Big Hill Springs road and went west thinking that I could go to Cochrane and south  to Bragg Creek. When I got to the four way stop at Cochrane, I surprised myself again by turning right and heading West again on the 1A. While I was driving I got a couple of calls from work, and thought that I might have to stop by the office. This soured my mood a little bit, and the sky looked like it was going to be grey and overcast the closer I got to the mountains. I figured hiking around was probably off the cards for today. When I got to Morley I cut over to the Trans-Canada highway. My intent was to go to highway 40 then turn east at Barrier lake and drive along highway 68 past Sibbald pond and back to the Trans-Canada before coming home.  The whole day felt pretty in-decisive.

The 68 is a pretty wide gravel road with little to no traffic as cuts through the foothills. I was driving fairly slow, scanning the roadsides for any sign of wildlife. I thought I should stop and put my long lens on the camera just in case I came across something - then I'd be ready.  Given the terrain I was hoping that I'd see a moose ( true story ) then as a came around a corner, there was a big brown thing over there in the bushes. I stared hard at it trying to make out what it was. I stopped and got the camera out, put on the long lens and used it like a telescope.  It was a moose! How lucky for me.

Here he is.

Happy new year.

brad

Balzac Sour Gas Plant - December 30, 2010

I`m on my Christmas break from work and I left the house around three o'clock to drive out east towards Conrich to see what there was to look at. It was cold today at -20c. To the north I saw large plumes of moisture coming from the Enmax energy plant and the Balzac sour gas plant. I thought it'd be neat to get behind the clouds and try to shoot some pictures.

I remember reading on some blog or maybe it was a photography forum about how some guy won a contest with a photo of an electrical plant in England. There was this large plume of moisture coming off of it. That picture was at night, and was a long exposure and if I recall it was also a black and white photo. Every time I drive on Stoney trail and pass the two plants I remember the England photo and wonder if I`ll be able to capture a similar image. ( update 02/17/11 - I think I found the picture I was refering to here.. )

Today, after seeing the plumes I decided that I wanted to get behind the plants and see what it would looked like. I made my way along some country roads stopping a couple of times to investigate some interesting trees near a barbed wire fence and later I spent some time looking at some snow banks along the side of the road. After a bit of a round about drive I did eventually end up behind the plant. Lucky for me the sun was pretty low.

This is one of the images I was able to get:

Afterwards, when confirming the location, I found out that their going to disassemble the plant in 2011 - mostly because it`s old, and there isn`t enough production coming out of it to justify the cost of the required upgrades. From what I`ve read, it`s been there for 50 years.

Frozen fingertips - December 29, 2010

Was driving home from work and the parking lot lights at the train station were looking kind of interesting. I've been looking at the area for a while now and think I could get some interesting photos here. Today I stopped to see what it looked like from the pedestrian overpass. A couple of months ago I drove by and thought I could get up on the bridge but it was still under construction.

The car temp sensor said -17deg Celsius, which isn`t too bad, right ?

So I parked the car near the ramp, grabbed my camera and tripod and ran up to the top of the bridge. I snapped a shot directly over the tracks but that wasn't doing it for me. It seemed colder than -17, especially on my exposed skin.

I moved over to the center of the bridge and composed the shot as shown above.  Using the PC-E, I was able to tilt the focal plane so that the focus was on the train. I like how the other parts of the image are blurred and how all the lights become little circles.  While I was taking the pic, my fingers started to get cold. then after a few minutes of fiddling with the focus and what not, my fingers got colder. Soon, I couldn't feel them anymore. I ran back to my car, fished my keys out of my pocket and threw the tripod and the camera inside and tried to warm up my fingertips. I couldn't believe how cold they were, they were almost frozen solid.

Back when I was in university, I walked crossed a largish field in the wintertime without a toque in order to get to the mall. I actually froze my earlobes into ice cubes. When my earlobes thawed, it hurt like h*ll for quite a while. My finger tips were all starting to hurt like that, not quite so bad, but it certainly isn't pleasant. I was surprised at how quickly they went from normal fingers to fingers that stopped working completely.

Even now, as I type this, some of them are a little bit tender.

Anyway, I hope you like the pic. I still have some ideas for this location and I hope to be back sometime.. maybe when it's warmer.

Thanks for looking.

brad

Super Save - December 29, 2010

Drove into work to tweak the budget. On the way in had my camera on my lap hoping for something interesting. I was near the Bow on Center street and took a few shots of the disposal truck as it was sitting there while I waiting for a red light.

I liked how this one turned out and thought I`d share it with you.

Thanks for looking.
brad