Bad Weather, No Problem
A little fog and rain and snow never hurt anyone, and it can improve your photography.
Last Light At Vermillion
At the end of the day, Dave Brosha both wanted to stay and leave. You can never tell what’s going to happen to the light, but he was flying out of Edmonton and had to drive there that night, and he was my ride back to Cochrane. Well, we stayed until after the sun set. This was one of the last of my frames from the day. Looking west across Vermillion Lakes 3, with the backlighting on the clouds.
This photo is the last that I’m planning to post, of the ones that were taken as part of the Persistent Vision weekend Field Shoot put on by oopoomoo.com at Vermillion Lakes in Banff National Park with guest instructor David DuChemin.
Looking back, it was just over a month ago and still fairly fresh in my mind. The experience of a photographic event of this sort should not be minimized. There was a massive amount of learning going on everyday. Even the social events were educational. I met a number of new friends and got together with others, many whom I hadn’t seen in a while. I really want to thank my friends Darwin Wiggett, Samantha Chrysanthou and Catherine Byram from oopoomoo.com for organizing such a fantastic event. I’m hoping we’ll see more like this in the future.
In the best light…
Near Bow Falls
This is one of my favorite images from my morning in Banff National Park with Dave Brosha and Stephen DesRoches.
On A Wintry Morn
An overcast sunrise is harder to shoot than a spectacular one. A blazing sky filled with vivid colors is easy pickings. On a grey day you have to be more thoughtful about your shots.
Trees And Snow
I was riding with Dave Brosha in Banff National Park, and he saw a tree! Seriously, he saw some trees that he wanted to photograph so we stopped on the side of the road.
Snow Sculpture
Simplicity is the hallmark of this image. I wanted to show the gentle curves and undulations in this pasture. The late afternoon sun provided the shadows that expose the details in the snow.
In the best light…
Hill Shadows
I love that there are days that I can leave the house, drive a few miles and see the mountains. The slanting afternoon light is just skimming the edge of the hills. I don’t know if I’m 100% sure that I like this image. There seems to be a lot going on in the frame. The fence line moves your eye across the picture, but the cross fence also grabs your attention. I like the mountain silhouette, it might be anchored by the small grove of trees mid-frame. Do you think that this image holds together?
In the best light…
One Leaf
The recent warm weather at the Calgary Zoo had snow melting in places. The layers of deposits in this unused enclosure were melting at different rates, exposing the strata. A leaf that had been frozen in the snow was being freed by the heat of the sun.
In the best light…
Bow Valley In Black And White
Bad weather makes for more interesting images. The first image is looking west, up the Bow Valley with the Lafarge cement plant’s plume of smoke rising in the fairly calm air. (calm air, how unusual)
Snow On The Mountains
These aren’t so much mountains but hills along the South Thompson River. The actual mountains are not that far away.
Cloud Peaks
In this image, I was going for some simplicity. I wanted to create a bit of a sombre mood. It’s a bit of an anonymous location, so mood is important. With the warm light accenting the deep shadows on the mountains and the mottled dark grey of the clouds hanging overhead. Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4’s Tonal Contrast were called to duty for this image to bring out more detail in the clouds.
In the best light…
Sunset Barn
Well, we have no shortage of prairie winter scenes in this area, it’s just a matter of bundling up and getting out to shoot! This image is a bit of a twofer, I managed to get a little strip of the front range of the Rocky Mountains in at the horizon. This started as a 4 frame HDR image. I dropped the +2 of the 5 frame bracket because there was no detail left in the image. After HDR Efex Pro 2, it went into Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 for further massaging. The point of all of the post processing was to create an image that resembled what I saw in my mind’s eye when I shot the original images. This is what Ansel Adams used to call “previsualization”. I wanted to keep some light on the side of the building to show some detail, leaving the front to go darker.
In the best light…
Sunset At Wapta Lake
The early winter sunsets put me in different places for the changing light. Normally I’m through this area during the day but leaving late this day had me at this location at an opportune time. Very little was done to this image after changing it to a square crop. I wanted to keep the deep shadow to emphasize the rich colors in the sky.
In the best light…
Prairie Storm
I’ve dug into the archive for this image. I shot it in 2008 south west of Enchant, Alberta on the morning of April Fools Day. I was wondering if I was the fool for being out there driving in the snow. I didn’t remember the last fact until I started the post processing in Adobe Lightroom. As I examined the image, I was thinking that my sensor must have been really dirty, because I kept seeing spots all over the place and was thinking that it would take me forever to try and remove them, until I remembered that I had been snowing. It was snowing lightly but they were big flakes. So the closer ones showed up in the picture. If you look closely you can see the flakes, they show up better against the darker field.
In the best light…
McGregor Lake Ice
In another image that I have brought out of the archives, I’m using new post processing programs and techniques on images that have languished on my hard drives for a quite a while.
This image from the shores of Lake McGregor east of Vulcan, Alberta was made when the water was frozen over. I’m not sure that I like the way the little promontory kind of cuts the image in half. I might have changed the angle a little more or shot wider to make a clean line with the shore in hindsight. It goes to show you that sometimes you stop shooting too soon. Always try different angles and views.
In the best light…
Shoot What’s There
Well you know that I’m probably not going to be shooting white sand beaches with palm trees in Canada in January. So, I shoot the white snow fields of the Alberta prairies where I live. We left the warmth of our house on New Year’s Day to do my first outing of the brand new year. We returned to a location that I’ve recorded images from before, where we had permission from the farmer to photograph on his property.
I used 4 frames of a 5 frame bracket. I thought the +2.0 exposure had so little detail that it would be not much use. After processing the frames in HDR Efex Pro 2, I left Adobe Lightroom again to adjust the foreground in Nik Viveza 2.
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-70mm, @24mm, f/11.0, ISO 200.
In the best light…
Where To Go For Great Pictures
For the cheapest photo trip try your back yard. If you live in an apartment, check out the grounds and nearby parks.
Prairie Winter Sunset
For my last blog post of the year I thought I’d present to you the view from about 2 miles from my door. My wife Sherri and I headed out before sunset to see what would develop. It turned out to be not as dramatic as I had hoped but never the less, fairly spectacular.
I shot this with 2 frames from my Nikkor 12-24mm using a Singh-Ray 3 stop hard graduated neutral density filter. I actually shot two 3 frame brackets but liked the density of the meter 0 exposure. Then I converted the RAW files into TIFFs and stitched the two with Panorama Maker. Final finishing touches were done in Adobe Lightroom, keeping the overall blue tone of the image while trying to keep the snow whitish.
Wishing you another year of great shooting!
In the best light…
Castle And Bow Winter
Sometime the light is just sweet and all you have to do is frame the image and press the shutter. I rarely post right out of the camera and I used Tonal Contrast from Nik Color Efex Pro 4 but little else was done to the file. Enjoy !
In the best light…
Winter Trees
Another of my images that look black and white, but were not converted to monochrome. The snow was lightly falling and covered the branches of all of the trees in a dusting of flakes. I lightened the exposure in Color Efex Pro 4 using High Key. I wanted to make the snow look whiter, rather than the mid grey the exposure meter suggested.
In the best light…
Distant Castle
This time the light was in the distance, on Castle Mountain. The foreground and middle ground are both in the shadows. The dark V shape created by the trees in the shadow, along with the road lead you into the well lit mountain in the background. The clouds also help draw your eye down to the warmly lit peak.
In the best light…
Yak Peak
Climbing the Coquihalla Highway up from the lower mainland, you can see this imposing sight near the summit of the Coquihalla. Again with the limited light on the mountain face. I shot 2/3 stop underexposed to keep the white snow from blowing out. Regular snow slides keep the rock face clear of vegetation, which has a hard time rooting on the bare rock.
In the best light…
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