Since (as you know since you read my previous post) my macro lens broke, I am severely limited in focal length choices. My current longest lens is 40mm. This is slightly painful to me and Curtis was kind enough to lend me his macro lens for a few days, which gave me a bit of telephoto as well. I very much appreciate it, as it allowed me to get a few macro-scapes.
(if the pictures are too tall to see on your monitor, click on them – they will get sized correctly for your screen)
There has been a lot of rain this summer, and the rivers are higher than normal. This makes for some interesting photos as the water is rushing through the forest.
These were taken in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba. Anna and I were out there for a family camping trip with my side of the family, and we really enjoyed it. We only got to see a small part of the park so we’ll definitely have to go back sometime.
Wednesday night as I was driving home from a day of hiking an owl decided to sit in the middle of a dark road — in front of my car. I braked and swerved, as anyone would who likes owls at all. Despite my efforts there were two casualties. The first is obvious (the owl didn’t make it), but the second is a little more strange. When I got home, I opened the door of the car to grab my camera from where it had been sitting in the back seat. I got the camera, but strangely there was no lens attached. Or more accurately, there was part of a lens attached. My Sigma 150 macro had broken in two. The lens is held together in the middle by three small screws in plastic. After seeing this, I’m not sure how it stays together at all. So here is the last photo taken with this lens for now.
That is the meaning of “Ya Ha Tinda”, Parks Canada’s ranch where they raise and train all the horses they use for backcountry travel. Besides a relatively small fenced area, the ranch is open to the public and there is a free campground which is usually filled with horses, horse trailers, and a few people. This is a beautiful area of open grassland spotted with trees, full of wildlife, and surrounded by mountains. There is a spectacular waterfall a short walk from the campground where the river cuts through the prairie creating a canyon.
While my photo compositions and perspectives change slowly over time, lens changes transform my pictures overnight. I recently switched over to a camera system with a larger sensor, and currently only have money for prime lenses. This has taken a bit of getting used to, and limits my photography in some ways, but it has also provided opportunities I’ve never had before. Cue the shallow depth of field landscapes!
Editing photos right after a trip has always been a challenge for me. I find it hard to judge whether my photos are good or not because I’m usually judging my memory of the place rather than the photo. After a few months I find I can be more objective. But a few months is a long time to wait for photos. Sometimes whole trips get forgotten.
So here’s me trying to do quick edits. I still gave myself a few days, but I wanted to get these up before I leave on my next trip (actually in a few hours) and this last one is forgotten. These are from just east of Jasper National Park.
Anna in Ogre Canyon near Brule
Icicles hanging from a cutaway
Spruce trees near Cadomin
Evening light on the river
An old abandoned railway
Mornings are generally not for me. I’d rather sleep in, drink coffee while wearing slippers, and generally ease into the day. But when I’m out camping, something magical happens in the morning. It’s a time when the world is refreshed. This was taken this last weekend near Hinton. It was cold and it was windy and it was 6 in the morning. But it was also an amazing start to the day.
Elk Island is packed with wildlife. Most of it is pretty skittish. The whitetail deer bound off before you notice them so all you see is a their tail waving at you. The wood buffalo keep a wary eye on you and stay far away (unless you’re driving of course). The moose though are a different story. The moose are calm, cool, and collected. They’re like “S’up? I’m busy eating. You want me to pose? Sure. How ’bout I turn this way? Mmmm, tasty twigs on this side.”
Today’s post is dedicated to the life on the prairies: pictures of an old seed cleaning plant, the interior of a wooden grain elevator, some gears from a threshing machine, an abandoned town, and an old radar dome which is a relic from the cold war.
A road trip with Jason is a departure from my normal weekend hike, and brings with it photos I wouldn’t otherwise have taken. It was a great trip through some of my favorite landscapes (eastern Alberta is much more hilly than one would think). But rather than exploring the landscape, we went to all the places between the landscapes – the ghost towns. I’d never been inside an elevator before, not to mention an abandoned radar station. Some people think I’m crazy for hiking alone, but exploring structurally questionable buildings seems much more dangerous to me. It was pretty fascinating though.
Seed cleaning plant:
Threshing machine gears:
An old car on the prairies:
House: destroyed but still standing
Grain elevator interior:
Hah, I snuck in a landscape anyway.
Rusty razor wire – how friendly
The radar dome at Alsask:
A couple days ago I was cleaning up my library of photos and came across a couple photos that I haven’t seen in a long time. For some reason I had originally rated them quite low and they were lost in the depths of my computer until I stumbled on them again today.
The first is from my Yellowstone trip of 2007. There seems to be some sort of interesting complimentary / reflective thing going on here. The yellow reeds are almost exactly mirroring the trees and mountain, and the water contrasts the sky – the tones are almost reversed while the colors are complimentary. Anyway, it caught my eye, and after staring at it for a while I do believe I like it.
The second is just from last year in Jasper, but it got lost in the shuffle of more bold and colorful pictures (or maybe dark and brooding, I occasionally gravitate towards that). This one has a more quiet feel but still has a lot going on.
