Happy Holidays!!

From my family to yours I wish you all the best and a happy and healthy holiday season!!

Recent Goings on...

Ohhh man, I knew puppies were a lot of work, especially when you first get them, trying to get a schedule and routine down and all that. But man am I tired!! The first few nights he slept like a charm and I though "man, this is gonna be easy". Until the past two nights he's been up at 3 and 4 am, although I think I woke him last night when I got up for a drink. So that's why my "Returned with Puppy" post has taken so long to get up. What a day we had last Thursday too!! Drove from Jasper to Calgary via Hwy 93, which I'm surprised we even made it, there was so much snow. So instead of risking an accident on the way back, we drove Hwy 2 from Calgary to Edmonton, then Hwy 16 from Edmonton back to Jasper. What a day...7am to 12:30am. Needless to say I was a bit tired at work Friday. My wife got to spend the first few days with him....his name is Indie...and I'm on duty today and yesterday. Fun times for sure, he's playful and I'm sure in the long run he'll be great for our health, as he seems to be an active little fella. So here's a few pics of the new family addition, and because I was so amazed how much we drove on Thursday, pretty much all over Central Alberta, I added a little map for anyone who doesn't know exactly how much driving that is. And last, I added a little mountain photo for good measure. The beauty of driving the parkway in the early hours was that we got to catch a little bit of a sunrise! I had to pull over to relieve myself and took the opportunity to grab a quick photo. Enjoy!!

On the road again...

So with any luck, if you're reading this today, I'm on the road again. This time to the airport to pick up our newest family member, Indie, our new Kooikerhondje puppy. It's been a bit of a wait for us, as we've had to wait for good weather to send him on the plane, but, none the less we are super excited and can't wait to have another little buddy around here to take on photo walks and hikes in the park. So as we're on the road, I decided to post a HDR photo of the Petro-Canada outside of Calgary, because I'll be passing it once again. Coming back from Barbados I took a few minutes to shoot a couple frames there, and I like this one. The cool feeling and the sky make me want to go for a winter walk, especially now that it is not -30 anymore!! It's only -3 right now, and that seems like a summer day compared to what we had a few days ago! And on another note, I have now put up my Barbados gallery on the web, and FINALLY finished the "About Me" page. That was the hardest page by far, I'm too shy to ask someone to write it for me, and had a heck of a time trying not to talk myself up "too" much, oh well, it's done now, leave some suggestions if you like, I'm sure it'll change a few times.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Coming soon...

Been working at getting through all the photos from Barbados the past few days. I've got a few final edits to do and I think I'll be all done pretty soon. Instead of just posting all of the good shots here, I think I'll have enough to add a new gallery to my website, which you can all check out in a few days. So check back in a few days for that, as I'm sure once that is done I'll have my hands full with a new family member!! Hopefully our puppy will get flown up to us this week as long as the cold weather breaks, currently it is -36 Celsius as I write this, which is much too cold send a puppy on a plane! I wouldn't even go outside right now!! So more photos to come soon!


Photos: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR

So Proud...

Two days ago I posted as to why I was in Barbados, not just to relax, but to support my wife in her fight against arthritis and to cheer her on while she ran to support such a great cause. In total the 64 competitors here have raised well over $300,000 and more than 1/2 a million this year alone!! This alone is no easy feat, and yet they all came down to Barbados to run in a race to show their support for this cause. Not all competitors are arthritis sufferers, but they all know someone who is. My wife was diagnosed with arthritis about 4 years ago and since then she has experienced many of the ups and downs of this disease, all of which I have experienced through her. Yesterday was a very proud and emotional moment for me to watch her come down the final stretch of the course with all the Joints in Motion Cheer Team cheering her on. I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of her, she trained hard all summer and has gone through a lot of pain to get where she is today. This post is for you sweety!! No pretty pictures today, just a shot of an amazing woman who I am proud to call my wife and someone I will love and cherish for the rest of my life!! Thank you for sharing this experience with me Steph!!...And for those who care the last photo is of the guy who won the whole marathon, notice the time.... he ran over 40 kms in 2 and 1/2 hours!! WOW!! Congrats to that guy too!

Sunshine...

Ahhhh....that was the feeling I had getting off the plane yesterday afternoon upon my arrival in Barbados. Yeah, some of you hate me right now, but you'll get over it, and in the blink of an eye I'll be back in The Great White North with the rest of y'all freezing my butt off in the -25 weather!! I am hear for a reason though...other than a bit of relaxation... my wife is running in a 1/2 Marathon tomorrow for the Arthritis Society. She raised over $6000 for this event over the past few months and now we're here and her big day is quickly approaching. So this will be a very quick post as we have to get to bed before the 2:30am wake-up call. The race starts at 4:30am, which is pretty freakin' early if you ask me, but I'm sure the runners will be thankful they don't have to run in the mid-day heat. It's almost 10pm right now and it's still 23 degrees!! Awesome!! Anywho, we got to take in a nice beach sunset today, I've posted one frame here, but not too sure if it's too my liking as I was shooting in a hurry and to add to that the color on my slow laptop is terrible! So I apologize for a photo that may or may not look so great, but trust me, it was a nice sunset to watch!! Especially because I got to watch/shoot it in my bear feet and shorts!! Stay tuned for some race shots tomorrow!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Feeling the Mood

Been spending a fair amount of time in the Snaring area lately....I got out there early last week and got a few shots I like and thought it would be great to get out there for a sunrise shoot. Well, I made it out there with a friend on this past Friday. We made it out there well before the sun peaked into the mountains, but we arrived to some heavy cloud cover on the mountains we wanted to shoot. Like I always do when I go out, I'll shoot no matter what the weather or if the sunrise will be nice or not. Turns out one of the first shots I took is one of my faves from the day. I knew when I took the shot it would not be a color photo in the end, and that there would be some sort or mono or duo tone processing done to it. I knew I wanted some sort of Black and White-ish shot, but I really wanted to convey the mood of the scene, so that just by looking at the image people would think it was a cold winter morning and almost feel as if they were there standing on the lake alone in the winter breeze. I think I got pretty close to getting that feeling through to the viewer this time. It was also helpful that when we arrived the wind had blown away the light snow from the previous days, leaving the ice bare and making a great foreground for that picture.


So after a few minutes and making a few shots like the one above, we realized that we might not be seeing a brilliant sunrise that day, so we started to explore the rest of the ice and shoreline to see if there was anything interesting to shoot, but there was not much that interested us. Then on our way back to the van the clouds cleared and gave us a great little show of soft winter morning light that we took a few moments to shoot. I had already packed up my gear so I just pulled out the camera and tripod and fired off a few quick HDR shots, and luckily I walked away with a few that I liked, and this was one of them. After all of that, I'd still like to try to get a nice sunrise out there...but you know I'll keep trying!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Couple more...

Here are a couple more photos from yesterday's outing. I always make sure to bracket frames when I'm out shooting, then try to put together some HDR photos when I get back to my computer. So the sunrise is only two photos. My metered exposure, and another at +2. I used Photomatix Pro to put them together, but did very little work in the Tone Mapping section of the program and ended up with what I think is a much more realistic result, that I'm quite pleased with. Second we have a view of the edge of the river, the water couldn't have been more that a foot deep there, but the ice wasn't too thick either, so I didn't bother to go in for the tight Macro shot, I opted for this view instead of risking an early morning swim. Next time I'll bring out the longer lens!!



Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Slow time...

Ohhh man!! Almost two weeks with not a thing to post! There really hasn't been much going on here, and the weather the past few weeks has been rather "winter" like. There is a boat load of snow in the mountains and the temps are getting pretty cold in town. I have either been too lazy to get up in the morning, or woke up and it has been snowing. However much I wanted to go shoot, I just didn't get out. Alas, today was a new day, I got up quite early, knew where I wanted to go and I think I came out with some shots I really like. Caught this great sunrise just south of town, which I'm pretty happy about. I got a number of shots of the sunrise that I really like, but the others still need a bit of work, this is the only one that is pretty much done.



Down near the Snaring Rd., I revisited the water and mountains down there. Only now the water is frozen, which was pretty cool. I'll probably head back that way soon for a sunset/sunrise shoot. The black and white shot is similar to one I posted here, but the clouds were better today, so I shot it again. Then I just played around with the Fisheye a bunch and got some results I'm pretty impressed with. I've had this lens for a couple years now, but I am only now realizing the power and usefulness it truly has. I'll post more shots from today when they're done, as I also found a nice group of Bighorn Sheep that I got a few nice shots of. More later....

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8

Frozen...

Amongst all the snowfall the past few days, I did get out to shoot a bit. I headed East towards Talbot Lake, and my hopes seemed to fade as I drove into a wall of snow and cloud. When I arrived at the lake I decided to shoot anyway, and I lucked out as the clouds cleared away within 20 minutes and I ended up with at least one shot I'm happy with. What I was really pleased with was my new Cokin Slim Filter holder. I've been using the Cokin system for quite a while now, and it works well, but my only complaint was that I could never use my 17-55mm lens at it's widest focal length, 17mm. I could only go to about 20mm and then you could see the filter in the frame. (Keep in mind I shoot on a D90, which has a cropped sensor, therefore if you have a "Full Frame" camera you may not be able to shoot as wide). So yesterday I made sure to bring the Slim Holder and it worked out well. This shot was at 17mm and I was able to compose the scene how I wanted with out having to get further away to get as wide as I wanted. Needless to say this is a piece of gear that will not leave my camera bag!! And I'd just like to give a quick thanks to whoever left that canoe out so late in the season. This shot would be a lot more boring if it was not still sitting on the dock!! Thanks!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Beauty Creek

I have been trying to get some decent shots from this area for a while now. During the summer I would work to late and not be able to get down the highway in time. I'd love to get down there for sunrise, but I seem to be rather lazy of late. So today we decided to take a bit of a drive down to see if I could get a sunset shot. As the sun went down most of the coulds disappeared, but I did happen to get a nice black and white shot of an old tree with Mt. Kitchener in the background. I would really like to shoot a sunrise here soon, as the first light of the day lights up that peak.


I have been looking for a way to get a bit more creative with blog posts lately, so I decided to download the onOne Photo Frame program and try out the 30 day trial. The second shot here is an HDR I did a few weeks ago at Tekarra Lodge. There is a "grunge" frame, as well as a "instant picture" frame that I put together in Photo Frame 4. I'm sure I'll play around with this more in the future and I'll be sure to post the results here!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Old Man Winter

Today is the first morning in two days I have gotten out of bed and it is NOT snowing..Thank God!! I guess it's not that bad really, but it did make for some hazardous biking conditions to get to work the past couple days!! It literally snowed all day Thursday,and half of Friday, very odd for this time of year. We normally do get a bit of snow throughout October, but that much in such a short time is pretty odd I think. Anyhow, just a quick post today to show what I saw when I left the apartment yesterday morning. Enjoy!


For those of you wondering, that is not my bicycle...it's my wife's sweet ride that I got her as a wedding gift. My bike is not quite as photogenic as hers. As you can see, it's probably time to put it away for the winter!

Photos: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8 (top), 50mm f/1.4 (bottom)

Autumn afternoon, in Black and White

Although I seem to keep missing out on some of the fall sunrise shots, I have been enjoying how nice the light is getting so early in the afternoon. I got out the other day and headed towards the Snaring River area, east of the Jasper townsite. I headed out there to try and shoot a panorama, which I did, but I'll add that to my website as they seem to look a bit better there. While there the colors were nice and vibrant, but the light also made for a nice Black and White conversion in the digital darkroom. It was a simple two minute setup..import, add contrast, convert to Black and White with Silver Efex Pro, and DONE!! Pretty quick and painless and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Fun with Bokeh...

Had some free time today (a little too much actually), so I did what I usually do on slow days.... browse the internet for all kinds of photo stuff to inspire me and hopefully get my off my @$$! So I was browsing the Strobist Flickr Group and did a search for Bokeh. If you're not sure what that means...go here. It's a really cool effect, when you actually figure out what it means and how to use it!! It works best with high end, fast glass, like the Nikon 50mm f/1.4, which I just so happen to have. By the way, this is probably one of my fav lenses, it's super, super sharp and produces some awesome color and contrast. So I went ahead and set up a little candle studio in my hallway, and went to work. It took a couple tries to get the flash power right, but after two test shots I had it down. It was then time to set up everything properly, once that was done I just shot a bunch of frames and called it a night. The photo above has been slightly tweaked in post, I added a few Hue/Saturation layers and changed the color of a few of the candles.


Here you see the original shot, still pretty cool (I think), but the color adds a bit more fun and creativity to the picture. Tech stuff...SB-900 @ 1/128 power on tripod camera left about 35 degrees to candle. Put a green gel on it to add a slight green highlight on the candle. Camera was in Manual focus so I had a complete control over focus. I'll most likely play with this more in the future, check back for some updates!

Photo: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4

Here comes winter!!

Just as I was getting excited for and soaking up some nice fall weather...SNOW!! Blam, just like that, it's over, winter is here, 8 long months until the sun does anything more than light up the earth! Okay, so maybe that's slightly dramatic, but I'm not a huge fan of cold weather. It has made for a few interesting photos, so I'll take that, but winter is long around these parts of Canada. I think I'll have to embrace it a little more this year and keep my creativity flowing and hopefully grab a few new photos to add to the constantly growing collection. The photo here is from my wildlife adventure I had this past Monday at Maligne Lake, I took this before seeing the moose. I waited around the shoreline for a little while to see if the clouds would clear, but no luck. I first processed the shot in Photomatix Pro, it was my usual three frame bracketed exposure of -2/0/+2 EV. I didn't like the color version, so I went with Black and White so concentrate a little more on the smaller details of the photo.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

My new routine??

So last week I got out to shoot on Monday morning only to find myself uninspired by landscapes and very draw to wildlife photography. So who would have thougth the same thing could happen again one week later? Not me, but that's exactly what happened. I left the house at 7am yesterday, ready for what looked to be a hopefull sunrise. The coulds were clearing East of town so that's where I planned to head, until my plans were dashed by an accident which closed the road for a few hours. So instead I headed to Maligne Lake again to see if I could catch a nice sunrise with the new snow on the mountains. It has been close to -18 degrees celcius here the past few nights, so there has been a fair but of snow falling up high. As I got closer to the lake the clouds set in and I didn't get a sunrise at all. I took a few shots of the boat house which is now closed, then decided to walk a little up the lake to try and find something cool, which wasn't too hard, within minutes I almost literally ran into three Moose!! I was playing with my camera and walking and looked up too see this moose staring at me from about 100ft away!! AWESOME!!


I shot with these guys for about 45 minutes then went down the road and shot a few frames of the fresh snow on Medicine Lake. Like I said last time, my wildlife photography needs work, but it's definitely something I want to work on for the future. I find I'm like a tourist again, driving around waiting on the side of the road for Elk, Bighorn Sheep and other animals...funny how that happens.


The moose photos were pretty simple, I usually keep my camera in Aperture Priority, and let it choose the shutter. Due to the low light I was shooting almost wide open on the 70-200 here, around f/4.0 I think. The landscape was really easy, three frame HDR to get all the detail in the trees and add a bit more contrast that usual. Shot this one at f/22 to get maximum DOF, shot bracketed frames at -2/0/+2 EV. I did the same shot in a single frame with a Graduated Neutral Density filter and I'm undecided which one I like more. Maybe in the next few days I'll post both so people can see the differences between the two shots and you can decide which you like more. More to come later....

Photos: Nikon D90, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 (moose), 17-55 f/2.8 (lake)

Not my photographic strength.....

So I wake up to my alarms (yes..."alarms", it's painfully hard for me to get up somedays) at 6:30am this morning to get ready to go out for a sunrise shoot. I got my gear ready, dressed warm, as it was -8 celcius this morning.....yikes!! I raced up to Medicine Lake to watch the sunrise and hope to get another pano crossed off my list, but I got there to find myself extremely un-motivated to shoot. I tried a few compositions, a few HDR's and a pano. I wasn't inspired by anything I got, so shortly after the sun came up...and turned the sky almost white with no detail, I got back in the van and headed back to town. On my way back I was thinking about how this is the life of a photographer, and we can't always go out and be inspired by every little thing we see and you will not always end up with great photos just because you got outside really early in the day. The more I thought about this and how I wasn't motivated, I remembered passing a heard of elk on my way out of town, so I pulled over and put my telephoto lens on my camera and thought if the elk were still there I would try and snap a few shots and see if I could get out of my little morning mood I was in.


Turns out I was lucky enough that the elk were still there and I spent about 25 minutes with them trying to get a few shots. My lens only goes to 200mm so unless I got dangerously close, I wasn't going to make and spectacular shots, but I'm still happy with the few frames I got, plus the experience definitely took me out of my crap mood. I'm learning that motivation can be found in a number of different places, you just have to keep your eyes open and be patient and you'll find it! I know these pics are not the greatest, there are people out there who eat this wildlife photography for breakfast and are waaaayyy better than I, but I still had fun and I think it's something I'd like to pursue a little more in the future.

Photos: Nikon D90, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR

Crazy Clouds

So I've been meaning to post this for a few days now. I came home for lunch one day and on my way back out of the apartment I looked up at the sky, as I always do to see the clouds, and there were the craziest and coolest clouds I've ever seen! I ran back in and got my camera and wide lens and fired off a few frames to try and capture what I was seeing. It was a shame I had to go back to work, the clouds lasted for about another hour after that and would've made for some really interesting landscape shots. I've been starting to get out more and more lately, so I should have more to post soon!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

A few from Vancouver...

So I'm back from Vancouver, back to reality, work and all that fun stuff. Thankfully things are slowing down a little in town, a nice mellow pace for Fall. My eyes are pretty sore from editing photos for the past few days, so this will be quick and easy for y'all. Here are a few shots from the trip, there are a couple HDR's in there, one of the Taxi, and one of the Inukshuk on the beach. The pano is not really the one that I was hoping for, I did shoot a night pano when I was there, but I'm not completely happy with my current result, so it needs work, or just to be redone altogether. The Ferrari shot is just for fun, man that's a sexy car! The sunset shot is not really the best shot on earth, but I really like the color and the clouds in the sky, so I'm throwing that up here to. Then there is just a plain ol' shot of Downtown Vancouver, from the 33rd floor of the Coast Plaza Hotel (from the balcony of our room). Enjoy these, and I'll try to get a few more up in the next couple days.







Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4(pano)

Catch up....

Not too much new to say today, just going through the paces of packing my gear for the trip to Van., getting batteries charged, cords packed, sensor cleaned, nothing really exciting. I did manage to shoot a bit last night, got a few cool HDRs I'll post in a few days, but what I really wanted to post were a couple of shots I've had ready to post for a month now, but I just keep forgetting to do it. I was in a bit of Black and White mode for a few weeks this summer and it's all I could think about when I composed shots. The first one is of Whistler's Mountain, there is a tramway that takes visitors to the top in about 7 minutes, where they are free to roam the top of the mountain and get a different perspective of the town/area. I was about to get on my bike to head to work that day, it was fairly early int he morning, and the clouds hadn't quite lifted of the mountain.


Next up we have a shot of Pyramid Mountain from the Jasper Park Lodge waterfront, near Lac Beauvert. There were some great clouds passing through the sky that day, and I know this shot is not the greatest, but I enjoy the clouds and I had a good day that day, so it's just a little reminder for me!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8.

Heading Out...

So it seems I may get to a better blogging schedule very soon. Hopefully it will be a more frequent thing, as I find it keeps me hungry to make new images instead of always putting up something that I just resurrected in PS..(although, photos do need resurrecting from time to time). I was asked a few days ago to drive some friends up to the trailhead for the Skyline trail, a popular trail here in Jasper. Most people would say "No way!" to this sort of thing, but I thought "Hey, why not? Maligne Lake is right there and I'll be there just before sunrise, sounds like a good time for a sunrise photoshoot." So around 5:30am Sunday we left town and dropped the girls off at the trailhead around 6:20, then waited for the sun to come up. Normaly you get to play the game of "hurry up and wait", but that day we walked down to the shoreline to check out what we had in store, and there was the Boathouse, with all the outside lights on, with a PERFECT reflection in the water, with the most awesome blue twilight behind it. So we ran back to the van to get our kit and starting shooting right away. Turns out they were some of our favorite shots from the morning, and also the shot I opened the blog with today. I also had a great chance to use my Blue/Yellow Polarizer from Cokin too. There doesn't seem to be many times when this filter is the most useful, but then there are times when then light is just right and I think it totally made a difference in the Pano you see here.


I'm heading to Vancouver this week, spending about 4-5 days there. I have a few shots I would like to take while I'm there. I have ideas for a few shots in the downtown part of the city with my 10.5mm, I would really like to get a nice night time pano of the city as well from across the water, I'm gonna have to do some scouting for that one I think, but it'll be worth it for sure. Then I'll just shoot whatever I think is interesting. So until next time all I have left to say is Happy Birthday MOM!! Hope you had a great day!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8.

Start your engines!

I believe that the fall season is upon us, and for most photogs that mean getting out as much as we can to shoot the changing of the seasons. It has alread begun here in Jasper, as I found out in the last couple days. Now that the hours have been cut back at work and I get out at a decent time to still go shooting, I imagine that I'll be getting out early most days and trying to get out after work to catch the last rays of the day. There are two things I absolutely love about fall, first; that the colors are so vibrant and interesting to shoot, two; the sunrises start a bit later!! That's great, now I don't have to get out of bed until 6:30am instead of 5am!! This means great things for me, sleep wise anyway. Yesturday I got to play around with the Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro lens. It's a pretty nice little lens, pretty sharp and produces great color, but methinks I may hold out for the 105mm f/2.8 VR lens, yes it is much more expensive, but it gets a bit more reach that I like in my macro shots. So today I leave you with one of my shots from yesturday from around Cottonwood Slough, just outside of the Jasper Townsite.

Photo: Nikon D90, Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro

All is well!

Things have been busy in my neck of the woods these days, and I mean REAL BUSY!! All of the crazy and stressful planning my wife did for our wedding was all put to the test during the wedding week, and it could not have gone any better. She did an amazing job of keeping both families on track and had lots for everyone to do and see. I give her 100% credit for everything that happened during that week, my job was to be at the ceremony on time and that was it, and to make it more sweet I was actually a few minutes early!! WOW. So after all that fun with the families and lots of activities, everyone was gone as fast as the arrived, and we were left as a newlywed couple ready for our first adventure as husband and wife. And what was our first adventure you may ask? Very simple...GET A VEHICLE!! Man did we need some wheels. So after a few days research we rented a car and drove to Calgary to check out a few vans. We ended up getting the main one we went down to see, a 2002 Chevy Astro. Man am I stoked. We used to own a GMC Safari a few years back and I built a bed/couch in the back so that when we traveled we could sleep in the van at night and didn't have to set up the tent or get a hotel room. It is definitely one of the best ways to road trip and I can't wait to get back on the road to explore some new places to shoot photos and get back out climbing again!


So I leave you with two photos today, one of the Calgary skyline from 15 Ave. We stayed at a friends condo in the downtown area and we had access to the roof, so I shot a few photos before heading to sleep that night. Pretty simple 3 exposure HDR, all exposures were pretty long. Processed it in Photomatix Pro and that's about it. The second photo is not mine! Two great friends of ours shot photos at our wedding, this one is from Jeremy Salisbury who was also a Groomsman as well as the photographer, and when he had to be in a photo his partner Lisa shot photos for us. They both did an amazing job and I couldn't have asked for two better people to do the job, they were awesome!! Thanks guys!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8 (top), Nikon D700, 17-35mm f/2.8 (bottom)

I'm glad my apartment has windows!!

So for the past few months I've been without a car, which in reality isn't that big of a problem in this town. I can bike to work and I'm there within two or three minutes and if I don't bike, I can walk to work and be there in less than ten minutes. So why would I even need a car you may ask? Well, since I do live in a national park it is nice to go explore and see some sights every once in a while, most photogs get to do this on a daily basis, but I've been working in town a lot lately so I haven't been able to get anywhere for sunrise or sunset. The sun is usually setting when I ride home from work, and I usually get to see enough that I wish I hadn't worked so late and had a car, but then I get home and forget about it until the next day. Well today was another one of those days, except today I was at home and had no wheels to get out for sunset as I watched the whole sky turn so pink I think the inside of our apartment lit up as well!! At least I was keen enough to get the camera and point it out the window for a few frames. I like the shot I have here, but it definitely would have been nice to be sitting at Edith Cavell or Medicine Lake this evening too! In the next few weeks our first job is to get a vehicle once we have the wedding put behind us and things calm down a little!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Lots goin' on...

It's been a while, so I've got two photos for y'all. An HDR from June of a shoot I did of and old GMC truck at a local hotel in town. I really wanted to do more car and old vehicle HDR's so I went out and worked this truck a few times one day. Turned out to be a great day and I got a few shots that I really like. It was my usual HDR setup, 3 bracketed shots at 2 EV apart. Shot this one with the 10.5mm f/2.8 aimed slightly up towards the sky, so it sorta looks like the truck is smiling. I think it gives it a bit more character.


Next up is a pretty straight forward 25 shot Mega Pano. This is something I still need lots of work on, as I'd like to perfect it and do a series of panos from around Jasper National Park and hopefully sell them in a number of stores here. I've been working a lot lately, mostly to make up for the time I'll be taking off for the wedding at the end of the month, which is fast approaching!! The excitement is building and I hope to shoot tons of photos that week, so I'll have material to blog for quite some time after that. We've also got a short trip planned to Vancouver in September, can't wait for that either, lots of photo ops to be had in that town!

Photos: Nikon D90, (top) 10.5mm f/2.8, (bottom) 50mm f/1.4

Lights in the sky

We don't get to see the Aurora Borealis that often, only about twice a year if I'm lucky. Sometimes more, but it all depends on weather and solar activity and all that jazz. It does help being in the middle of the mountains with almost no light pollution at all. This was two nights ago, we were walking home from the movies and I saw a faint light in the sky. When I got home I decided to take the car for a quick drive out of town to see if I was really what I thought it was, and sure enough, after a 30 second exposure, my LCD was glowing green and I had the biggest grin on my face! I'm sure if someone saw me, they would be wondering what I was so happy about. I got a few good frames and then they died off and I got freaked out from the dark, so I went home, but at least I got a few shots. I went looking again last night, but it was way to faint to even register on my camera's sensor, oh well. We've got some great weather in the forecast for the next few days, so I'll keep my eyes open and keep checking the web for Aurora forecast and maybe I'll catch them again soon.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8