John Fujimagari’s Best Of Twenty Eleven

Looking back on 2011, it was an odd year for me. It was the first year since I got a DSLR that I didn’t make a major trip or take in a workshop. Also, I did not make any major equipment purchases in the year. I did work on improving my post-processing and shoot more in my local area. The above image is a good representation of my work close to home. On a –20C afternoon, I didn’t venture far from our vehicle.

Another quick drive in the countryside, we found this lone spruce tree in the middle of a wind swept snow covered field. By placing the sun behind the tree, I was able to cut down the light somewhat in this backlit image.

We were out for a walk in the springtime weather and met one of our neighbours, out for a walk with her border collie. It was a beautiful dog and was totally attentive to it’s owner. This was my favorite from the encounter.

Winter passed into a very wet spring. I was able to get this amazing sunset less than ten minutes from my house. I took advantage of the shallow waters to reflect the warm colors of the sunset. Later in the year, the water had receded and the farmer was able to plant his regular grain crop.

On another day trip, we were south of Calgary, Alberta and wanted to get to Cochrane, which is northwest of Calgary. I decided to cross to the west on Highway 7 south of Okotoks and head north on Highway 22 to Cochrane. One of the landmarks on the route is the Big Rock.  It is the largest of the Foothills Erratic Train. The Big Rock originated in the Tonquin Valley near Jasper, Alberta and was moved here by the last Ice Age. Again our wet spring flooded the area in front of the rocks. You can gauge by the people on and near the rock to estimate the size of these geological features.

The spring rains led to an abundance of flowers this year. My wife’s daisies filled our front yard this year. On a windy day I was out with my tripod, shooting the daisies with a slow shutter speed.

One of my favorite trips was one to Banff National Park with my wife and a couple of my friends in the summer. We stopped at a few locations in the Bow Valley for some landscape shots, Castle Junction we photographed Ospreys on the Bow River, then lunch at Baker Creek Bistro. What could be better? After lunch, Moraine Lake was our destination. As we climbed the hill out of Lake Louise, it started raining. It got heavier by the time we stopped at Moraine Lake parking lot, the rain was coming down in a deluge. We decided to wait it out a few minutes and were rewarded by the rain letting up. We left the vehicle as the last drops were falling. It was a very productive shoot. I was torn between images from my “Rain Or Shine” post, this one from my “Bride In The Rain” post or our encounter with a mother grizzly and her two cub in “Aware Of The Bear” and my wife’s encounter with an unthinking tourist.

After a great afternoon at Moraine Lake, our intended sunset photo shoot at Vermillion Lakes didn’t happen because we arrived too late. I did grab this great Blue Hour shot. It’s a 20 second exposure of Mount Rundle reflected in Vermillion Lakes 2, about 20 minutes after the sun had gone down.

After the last trip to Banff, I had a autofocus problem with my D300s. The Camera Store sent it to Nikon for me. Due to the earthquake/tsunami in Japan and flooding in Thailand, there was a parts shortage, and the day after I got it back we headed to Banff, again, to celebrate. So this image of Mount Lougheed was taken nearly 3 months after the above image. The light was fantastic on this day. The only thing I would have liked, would be to have more of the Wind Tower exposed.

The author of the The Cellist of Sarajevo was doing a reading at the Calgary Public Library and my friend Mike Fitton had an exhibit of  prints from his trip to Sarajevo, which were featured at the reception. After parking my car, I happened upon this scene. I pulled my Nikon P6000 from my pocket and snapped this image. It is my only point and shoot image included this year!

After the reading at the library, Mike and I went out on a night shoot in the city. I made this great image of the Langevin Bridge, the Bow River and downtown Calgary.

Bonus Image

Early in December, my wife and I made a short trip to Cochrane. After a late lunch of Thai food with Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou, Sherri and I went to the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. I witnessed an amazing sunset. It would have been hard to capture in a single image, so I made made 9 vertical images of 3 exposure each and processed them into a tone mapped panorama.

So that was my year in a nutshell.

In the best light…