November 8/2009 Abraham Lake Photos

My wife Fallon, Eddie and myself took a drive 2 hours west yesterday to Abraham Lake. This was my second time being there, and its becoming one of my favorite places to go. Even though it was windy, it made for good movement of the water for photos. Some waves at times were at least 3 feet tall! We got there around 1:00 in the afternoon and thought that the harsh mid day sunlight would cause problems, but it helped bring out the beautiful turquoise color of the lake, and bring out color in the rocks along the shore. We stayed until sunset to get nice colors in the sky and to take advantage of the best lighting of the day. All photos were shot using: Canon Rebel T1i, EF-S 10-22mm lens, manual mode, manual focus, a very narrow aperture, mirror lockup, remote shutter release, a polarizing filter, and a 3 stop soft graduated neutral density filter.

November 5/2009 Niobe (Innisfail) Grain Elevator at Sunset

I took a drive late this afternoon to try to get some sunset photos of the Niobe Grain Elevator. A polarizing filter and a 3 stop soft neutral density filter were used to pop the colors of the sky. Sharpening was the only post processing done in photoshop. I initially wanted to shoot with the railroad tracks in the composition, but a train ruined that idea! And it decides to roll through right as the sky was showing the best colors! I included a photo with the train going by which makes the photo a little bit different. Combining 2 filters, and using a very narrow aperture of f-22 (to ensure full depth of field), obviously slowed my shutter speed down, hence the blur of the train. With more practice using these filters, I hope to get more 'colorful' photos.

October 18/2009 New Lens Test Drive at Heritage Park

I bought a new ''Walkaround'' lens recently to replace the 18-55mm IS kit lens that came with my camera. I went with the Canon EF 24-105 F4 IS L Series lens. There were other makes of lenses with the focal range I was wanting, and maybe some were cheaper, but I wanted to stick with Canon. We went for a walk at Heritage Park after supper tonight, so I thought I would try it out. I am very happy with the results as I was shooting handheld in some low light conditions with ISO speeds of 400-800.

More September 28/2009 Nordegg area Photos

Just a few more photos from my day out near Nordegg last week. Also, I added a photo of the fall color in the hills near the Battle River near Alliance, Alberta. So far its the best color I've seen this fall anywhere around here. No saturation was done to that photo, the sun did all the work for me. Just levels and sharpening adjustments in CS3 were done to these photos. I am thinking about heading out on another photography day this weekend, but it all depends on what the weather is going to do. Were currently under a brisk northerly flow bringing cold air down from the Arctic, so taking photos in -15C windchills in the beginning of October doesn't sound like much fun! Perhaps on Monday, which is looking like the warmest day. It's definitely winter in the mountains, as I've been working in Shell's Limestone sour gas field recently. The view to the west from our jobsite up there is absolutely incredible, so when I go back up there, I'm going to try to get a few shots. The jobsite is a busy place, so far its prevented me the oppertunity. I'm also is desperate need of a good, quality walk around lens in the focal length range of 20-100mm, so I'm hoping to pick one up here soon. I'm taking my time, since there is alot of good options out there.
A colorful hillside near Alliance, Alberta. A variety of shrubs and trees make alot more color.

September 28, 2009 Nordegg area Photos

I wanted to make the most of my days off this weekend, so I decided to wake up early this morning and drive west to the Ram River Falls/Nordegg area. I hit the road at 4:30am and drove to Ram River Provincial Park to photograph the falls at dawn/sunrise. I must say walking down the trial to the viewpoint was pretty cool, because I didn't expect the view to be this good! I hopped over the viewing area's guardrail and carefully set up my tripod near this ledge to get some good compositions in. After that I made a HUGE mistake by deciding to go all the way DOWN to the river/falls! I carefully made my way down the steep embankment which took less than 5 minutes, but going back up was another story. This is why it was a bad idea. It literally took me a half hour to climb back up to the top, with my camera gear, tripod and oilfield rubber boots on, while stopping every 5 steps up to catch my breath, with both legs starting to cramp, and it seemed like I would never make it up! It was WAY steeper going up than going down. Once I made it to the top, it took me another 15 minutes for my heart to stop pounding out of my chest, and to recouperate since I was close to passing out and puking my guts out! It was intense! But the shots I managed to get from down in the canyon made up for it. I left the Ram River Falls and headed towards Nordegg when I observed a herd of female Bighorn Sheep with some young having a snack just off the Trunk road. After a few photos, I was on my way again when I spotted a nice sized Bull moose and a Cow laying in a clearing, just off the Trunk again. I definetly startled them, since they took off into the bush before I had a chance to get the camera. I finally got to HWY 11 and headed west to Abraham Lake, but harsh sunlight and thick smoke prevented me from taking any photos. A total bummer since that lake with the mountain scenary would have been awesome to photograph. I then headed back east through Nordegg concentrating on finding some decent fall color since it looks like the color hasn't reached its peak yet. There is still alot of green out there. I found and photographed a nice Aspen grove and found some ok color in there as well. After being up since 4:00am and exhausted from my pathetic out of shape climb up the Ram River Falls canyon, I headed east back into gale force winds going home to Red Deer. I have more photos, but here is a few for now. A pretty cool day.
If you look at these top 2 photos, you can see where I made it down to. Exhausting, but worth it!