Skating in Crescent Heights.

Conor and I went skating this afternoon.. we drove around a bit looking for a skating rink we passed one in Renfrew and ended up in Crescent Heights.. There was a sign on the gate that said no non-members allowed but there was no one on the ice and the shack was closed up so we geared up and did some skating.

Conor goin for a goal..

Foggy city.

The city has been under a lot of fog and low lying clouds the last few days, lots of hoar frost gathering on the trees. I went out side late at night and froze my fingers taking a few shots at the otherworldly light. This is one that I like.

Olympic torch in Banff

After the hysteria of Monday at Olympic Plaza and the arrival of the Olympic torch in Calgary on Wednesday we drove out to Banff to see the torch there.

Karen Percy-Lowe carries the Olympic torch through the streets of downtown Banff

We left Calgary just after 4:30pm from the McDonalds by Calgary Olympic Park and drove to the town of Banff. The torch was suppose to start making its way down the streets of Banff starting at 6:15pm and to be presented at the end of main street in the park at 7:00pm.

Olympic Torch comes to Calgary !!

On Monday, the Olympic torch came to Calgary and there was a big celebration down at the Olympic plaza. Way back in 1988 Calgary hosted the winter Olympic games and everyone was excited to see the torch make it's way through the city again. For Clare and Conor, this may be the only chance that they'll have to witness this kind of event. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't realize the significance of 1988 at the time that it was all going on.. but such is the curse of being an introvert like me.

Jen brought the kids downtown after school and I was going to meet them on Stephen Avenue after work. Walking down 9th Avenue, I saw that the flame atop the Calgary Tower was lit so I stopped a few times to take some shots before heading over to Olympic Plaza to meet them.

The flame on the Calgary Tower

Tigers at the Zoo.

Was called into work around noon today and on the way home I thought I'd stop at the zoo and see how the botanical gardens are shaping up since they re-built them. I was there about a month ago and they had the one main room open and the other dressed up with nothing but poinsettia plants for Christmas. The Christmas room is being re-done and was closed today.

Other than that all I looked at today was the tigers. While I was watching them the sun broke down below the chinook arc and I was getting some nice low winter light.

I watched the tigers pacing the cages for quite a while. I wanted to get a nice dramatic shot using the bright sunlight. I love the warm orange colours on the tigers. After watching them for a while I'm a little bit in awe at how powerful and majestic these animals are. This is one shot that I like..

I was looking for some kind of activity that would give me some unique shots. When I was walking away I looked back and saw that one of them was lying in his hammock with his head thrown back yawning. I guess I wasn't patient enough ;-) I have a few shots to review and any others the I post will be found here.

Thanks for looking
brad.

Ice bulb

Went for a walk at Heart Creek and found this leaf with a bit of ice around the edge stem just sitting near the edge of the creek. This was my favorite picture from our walk.

I positioned the leaf on various rocks and tried shooting from a few different angles - trying to find something that looked good. After taking several photos I thought the images I was getting were rather flat so I brought out my flash and tried to add some texture by creating some shadows and highlights. I held the flash on the side at a low angle, shooting down into the ice to create the image that you see here. In post processing I spent about fifteen minutes cloning out bits of dirt and sand in the surrounding ice. Overall, I`m pleased with how it turned out.

As I post more pic`s from the walk, you`ll be able to find them here.

Thanks for reading,
brad.

Banff Over-nighter

I went to Banff on Saturday (boxing day) for an overnight stay at the Douglas Fir resort with Clare and Conor. It was a last minute idea and although I was a bit tentative about going I'm glad that I was able do it. We packed our tobaggons, skates, warm winter clothing and our swimsuits because the hotel has a water slide and a swimming pool. Of course I brought my camera with me.

Last year - after hiking around Grotto Canyon we'd gone into Banff for dinner and I remember stopping at Vermillion lakes to see if there was any photo opportunities and I saw a bunch of people skating on the lake.  The memory stuck and I had this vision that we would go out there and skate on Vermillion lakes. A couple of summers ago we kayaked on the lakes and I was excited to see it in the winter on skates.

No skating here !.. keep trying.

We left Calgary just after 11 o'clock.  I drove the new ring road from our place round to the TransCanada on the other side of the city. It took about 25 minutes to get from here to there. Normally I'd go McKnight to John Laurie and down Stoney to the TransCanada which could take anywhere from 45min to an hour. I think the ring road will work out well for scooting around the city. There are still some traffic lights on the NorthWest side though, and I hit all the red lights. Another thing to consider is that there isn`t anywhere to stop and get coffee when going this way. I'll have to remember to get coffee before leaving the NorthEast.

An hour into the drive we were almost at Lac-Des-Arcs which I thought was pretty good. We do a bit of hiking there at Heart Creek, and to get there in an hour will be cool. As I approached Canmore it was close to lunch time and I was thinking that if we stopped to eat we could be at Vermillion lakes by two, a couple of hours of skating, some nice sunset pics of Mt Rundle before checking in to the hotel by four. Sunset at this time of year is around 4:30pm, but I figured that any light would be gone earlier because of the mountains.