Withstanding the Prairie Extremes

Since I do alot of driving at work, I see alot of Alberta, and I've realized for some reason I really like old, weathered farm buildings and barns. Probably never maintained, they do withstand all the elements Alberta has to offer: The intense heat of July, The extreme cold of January, Blizzards, Thunderstorms, and Windy days are just a few examples. I often wonder how old they are, who built them and what they were used for. Either way, I think they are awesome to photograph, they show alot of character and one cant think of Alberta without an old, ragged barn and an isolated farm builing alone on the prairie.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-6.3
Shutter: 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 10mm

September 22nd, 2008. I found this building almost fully collapsed on the 5th Meridian road, just south of TWP 394 aka the Aspelund road, near the Blindman river. I actually trespassed onto a Primewest oilfield lease to get this shot! I really dig the blue sky-golden crop-tall green grass contrast, with the old, beaten up building not ready to give up yet.


Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-7.1
Shutter: 1/160
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 16mm

September 24th, 2008. I was working when I spotted this well built looking farm building in a hay crop on the Homeglen road, north of Gull Lake, Ab. I think the grey/rustic look is what appeals to me the most.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-7.1
Shutter: 1/125
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 22mm

October 1st, 2008. I was also working when I spotted this building tucked away in the trees on Range road 264 near Pipestone, Ab, east of Pigeon Lake. I thought the tall green weedy grass, the fall colours and the red piece of farm machinery made for a nice photo.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: 7.1
Shutter: 1/250
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 19mm

October 19th, 2008. Fallon and I decided to take a sunday drive out east of Red Deer, when we noticed what looked to be an abandoned farmstead along Sec595. I started to set up the tripod in front of the barn when Fallon noticed this angle, which was way better! The natural weathered colours of the wooded barn, the overgrown weeds, the deep blue sky made for a wicked photo, in my opinion. It's starting to show early signs that it wants to weaken, but it sure has alot more years left standing.

Note: These photos were taken with my new Canon EF-S 10-22mm wide angle lens, which has a night and day difference in terms of image quality against the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the XTi. These photos went through barely any Raw processing and went through minor Lightroom editing.

Storms of 2008

Overall, I was disapointed with the storms I was able to chase this year. Every storm seemed to be the shelfy-outflow dominate type, with no classic Supercell structure. One storm in the beginning of July, on the other hand, took on Supercell characteristics as it moved east off the foothills just south of Rocky Mountain House which eventually wrapped up tight near the Markerville area, and spun nicely for a brief period. Visually, it looked like it was going to at least drop a funnel, but precip for another storms forward flank killed any chance the storm had shortly thereafter. I'm obviously no meteorologist, but from looking at the models all summer, here in Central Alberta our shear was almost always directional, and we struggled to get any deep decent moisture that Saskatchewan and Manitoba always seem to receive! The storm of the year, in my opinion judging from photos, was in southeastern Saskatchewan on July 10th where the shear and deep moisture was present! Hopefully next summer will be better. Nonetheless, the storms I managed to photograph this year were photogenic, and I had alot of fun taking them. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any decent lightning photos, since the best opportunities came late at night when I was sleeping. Work sucks! Anyways, here are some storm photos with camera information and a brief description:

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-8

Shutter: 1/160

ISO:200

Focal Length: 18mm

This is the July 4th Supercell I mentioned above, where it tightened up nice and began to spin for brief time. Looking on the radar archive later on, a Carvel scan showed this storm with a hook around the same time this photo was taken. This is definetly the nicest updraft base I observed this summer.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-8

Shutter: 1/15

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

The July 9th, 2008 Rimbey, Ab hailer! Sitting at home watching Carvel, this storm popped off the northwestern foothills and moved towards Rimbey. I got to the storm at the intersection of Hwy53 and Sec766 and noticed a huge hail core that I didnt want to be in! I stayed in front of it, and managed to get the tripod out to take this photo of it dumping hail near Rimbey. Photo taken just southeast of Rimbey.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-10
Shutter: 1/13

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-10

Shutter: 1/6

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

July 13th, 2008. After chasing and abandoning an earlier storm that gusted out and became hugely outflow dominate, I found myself at the intersection of Sec587 and Sec791 looking at Carvel on the blackberry and seen new storm development in the foothills northwest of Sundre. I met this nice shelf on range road 10, south of Hwy27, east of the QE2 and purposely shot these with the canola field in the background to obtain great contrast. I let the storm pass over, and never found hail bigger than a nickel in this location.

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-5.6

Shutter: 1/30

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

July 26th, 2008.

This storm took on HP Supercell status after crossing the QE2 right at the Olds overpass, after being quite a shelfy, outflow dominate mess comming off the foothills. This is probably my favourite storm photo of 2008, the storm looks absolutely insane! Taken west of Sunnyslope, Ab on Sec582.

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-7.1

Shutter: 1/30

ISO:100

Focal Length: 18mm

August 9th, 2008. A very nice Shelf with laminar striations. I was up at my parents acreage in Poplar Ridge for a BBQ knowing a cold front was comming from the northwest, so I kept looking west, and finally seen this comming in. Hopped in the truck, went east on Hwy11A towards Red Deer, turned north on range road 281, set up the tripod adjacent to a canola field and managed to capture this shot.

Note: I'm not a big fan of post image editing since I believe in obtaining the best exposure possible out of the camera, but one cant deny the results you can get with minor editing! These photos have been in Adobe Lightroom, and honestly, not much was done to them. These are fairly close to what came out of the camera. Hope you like them.