Prairie Creek - October 7, 2011

On Friday afternoon I drove out to Powderface and walked along Prairie Creek. It has been cool and raining all week and I was hopeful that the leaves in the forest were still on the trees and hadn't all been blown off by the wind. There was a light rain when I got to the parking lot. The sky was grey and overcast with almost no wind. I love walking through the forest when it's like this. It's so calm and peaceful.

I`m intrigued when water droplets form on flowers and leaves like little spherical jewels. I really love it when the leaves have turned yellow and are edged in a nice deep red colour. I was fortunate to be standing in a forest with an infinite number of opportunities because everything was wet and yellow and red and orange.

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.

Fall Colours - October 2nd 2011

Took a short drive on Sunday afternoon to try and capture some fall colours before they disappear. I was hoping to get back to Highway 40 because the trees all looked pretty spectacular on Saturday when Conor and I drove out to King Creek Ridge. I left Calgary and drove west on the 1A towards the mountains.

Without any real destination, I decided to stop at Mt. Yamnuska. I wanted to find a place where there were lots of deciduous trees and at Yamnuska the trail winds through a nice aspen forest before it starts to climb. I kind of thought I would spend a bit of time there then hop on over to Highway 40 and see what else I could find.

This first shot is a bit busy, but I think it works in terms of showing off the colours. I like the reds and browns in this photo.

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.

Some birds - June 23rd, 2011

It started out, driving on the roads east of Calgary it was pretty windy out but I found this Brewer's blackbird. The sun had just dipped behind a cloud and I waited and waited for it to come back out. The bird was kind enough to sit on the post with a mouthful of grubs and pose for me. I like the tiny bit of rim light here that gives definition to his black feathers. He's standing against a field where the plants are young and green. The long lens blurs the background nicely.

Dewitt's Pond, June 22nd, 2011

Conor and I made our way out to Dewitt's pond for some evening fishing. The kids got me a fishing rod for fathers day and this would be my first chance to try it out. The pond is pretty close to our house so it's easy to make a quick trip out there.

Conor and I had planned to to head out on Sunday but he had fallen off some playground equipment and his wrist was hurt so we ended up spending a few hours at the clinic instead.

The evening was beautiful.. the second day of summer was living up to expectations. We didn't end up catching anything but the guy beside us landed one and some of the other guys caught a couple. The fish were definitely there as they were jumping all over the place. Conor used a spinner, and I started with a spinner but tried a bobber later on.

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.

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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.