Station Flats - November 2, 2012

The weather has been heavily overcast and foggy for the past week or so. On Friday afternoon I was out at Bragg Creek for a walk around the Diamond T loop at Station Flats. Given the conditions, I was hoping to get some shots of trees receding into the heavy fog. As it turned out the fog wasn't thick and clinging to the trail the way that I'd hoped. The walk was still nice and it gave me a chance to try out my new boots.

Towards the end of the trail I noticed that there appeared to be some blue sky forming then some of the clouds actually parted and the sun started to break through. All of a sudden there was some beautiful light.

I liked the contrast of the bright trees standing against a darker background.

A little further on down the road the light was streaming in from the side, the colours are subdued.



Soon the sun was down and the light was gone for another day. Driving back towards Calgary the sky was still overcast and foggy. It seems I had been lucky enough to find a hole in the clouds and see some sunshine which can be a welcome sight after weeks of cloud cover.

Thanks for looking
Brad.

Churchill Polar Bears - Oct 28, 2012

I must say, I'm humbled and proud to be a Canadian after my experience on Sunday. It was amazing to have the opportunity to see, first hand, a small sample of the vast and varied landscape that my home country has to offer.

On Sunday I got up at 4:30am. Went to the airport and climbed aboard a plane and flew two and a half hours to Churchill Manitoba to go on a one day Canadian Safari to see wild polar bears as they gather and wait for the sea ice to form so that they can start their winter hunt of ringed seals. Thanks to my family for supporting my photographic passion and giving me the opportunity to make this trip.

On the Safari I was lucky enough to have incredibly good weather and see all kinds of wildlife. We saw at least 10 polar bears, flocks of willow ptarmigan, a curious red fox, a flock of snow buntings, a gyrfalcon and a snowy owl. The day ended with a spectacular sunset that everyone said was completely rare for Churchill. While I wasn't able to photograph all of those things, I feel fortunate that I was able to get as many shots as I did.

Above is one of the first Polar bears we saw. As the Tundra buggy drove by he popped up out of the willows where he was resting and started moving away from us. I have many photo's to share and have created a special gallery here to hold them. Over the next week or so I'll keep adding photo's to this gallery so check back often.

Check out a live webcam feed of the Polar bears as they wait for the ice to form from Explore.Org

The Calgary Herald also had a good article on the trip.

Thanks for looking,
brad.

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.

Pawn Shop - October 15, 2012

Hello. It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog (last post was July 11th). I guess this happens sometimes, you get busy and don't post anything. What I'd like to do is back post entries until I'm all caught up. I've taken a bunch of pictures since July and even thought you could go look at them, there isn't any context. I'm hoping to rectify that.

I took this picture over lunch hour after walking around aimlessly for 30 minutes. I was intrigued by the way the sunlight was reflecting on the buildings across the street. At first I felt a little funny taking my camera out on the street with people around but after I put the viewfinder to my eye I was able to block it all out and concentrate on the photo I was trying to make. I hope you like it. I used the tilt-shift lens to try and isolate part of the street.

Thanks for looking.
Brad

Bow River Kayakers - July 11, 2012

On my way to pickup Clare from the Stampede on Wednesday night I was a little early so I decided to park at Pearce Estate Park in Calgary near the Bow river. The city rebuilt the weir a year or so ago and by doing so introduced a new recreational area for water sports.

I initially walked through the park thinking I was going to shot some macro or landscape shots but I came across these two kayakers in the water and there was a nice low sunset light so I started shooting.

I got a few shots of them from upstream then moved downstream for more rim and side lighting. The fellow in the Blue helmet was racing back and forth across the waves and the fellow in the Red helmet was doing summersaults in the rapids by diving face-first into the river.

After making a few shots I was able to talk to them and give them a contact card so they could reach out and find their pictures. If your interested you can see the rest of the shots by clicking here

Thanks for looking.
Brad.

Glenbow Ranch Wildflowers - July 8, 2012

This is a short post to show off some wildflowers I'd found after making a quick trip out to Glenbow Ranch just east of Cochrane on the 1A.

I was pressed for time and only had about an hour or so before I had to head back to Calgary. Walking along the Tiger lily loop I found these lovely blue wildflowers. I think their forget-me-not because that's what the flower looks like. My experience has been with the alpine variety which are shorter, hairier and stubbier so I'm not 100% sure :-)

What I liked about this particular plant is that the flowers spiral around the top giving it a nice shape.

On the rest of the walk I saw a downy woodpecker, a pair of American Gold Finches, Cedar Waxwing's, some old crows and many other wildflowers. I could have spent hours out there. I wish I had more time to wander but I am grateful for the time I did have, perhaps as the summer slows down (!?) I'll be able to find some time.

Thanks for looking.
Brad

Elbow Lake - June 29th, 2012

After work on Friday I drove out to the Kananaskis for some photo time. It really feels like the month of June just whipped by and in a flash it was gone. I'm not really sure where it went. I remember lots of rain, heavy clouds flat light, I must not have been out much.

I`m a little disappointed as our spring and summer is fleeting. It feels like time was lost. We`ve already passed the first day of summer and the days are starting to getting shorter as we head straight into the darkness of winter!

As I drove down Highway 40 I figured I would go to Elbow lake and take a look around. I "discovered" the lake last year and I think there are still lots of photo opportunities to be realized. It's a pretty short walk far from the parking lot but you still get the feeling your deep in the mountains. There is a backcountry campground at the head of the lake I think I'd like to try staying there overnight. I'm sure Conor would come up with me.

The three times I've been here the clouds have always been moving past at a high rate of speed. It must get windy up there in the sky but in the valley where I was it was pretty calm. I wanted to smooth out the water so I used the dark filter to increase the shutter time to 30 seconds. This also caused the clouds to blur across the top of the frame. What I like about it is that the clouds were moving directly away and the motion helps highlight the center of the picture. This is a two shot panorama cropped to square dimensions.

There was a herd of mountain sheep on the highway and some glacier lilly's alongside the trail that I also took pictures of. As of this writing, I've not posted them to the portfolio yet, but when I do, you'll be able to find them and any other shots from today here.

Thanks for looking.
Brad