Posts Tagged: evening

Forest / Night Photography / Photo of the Day / Prairie — No Comments
11
Oct 11

Stand of Aspen on an Elk Filled Fall Evening

fall-black-and-white-landscape

This photo was taken in Cooking Lake Provincial Rec Area. Actually the name is “Cooking Lake – Blackfoot Grazing, Wildlife Provincial Recreation Area”, but that’s a ridiculously long name, and I don’t intend on typing it out every time I mention it. Anyway, this is the area just south of Elk Island National Park. It’s almost exactly the same, except it has a few fields and no bison. And you don’t have to pay to get in. All in all, a great area to go hiking.

This was an overcast day, and a little misty. There were water droplets on the grass and a bit of a breeze rustling the leaves too. It was in this muffled darkening atmosphere that I first noticed the elk. The bull was watching me, with his herd off to the side, behind a copse of apsen.

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herd-elk-fall-field

I crouched down and watched them for a while. A calf was still nursing, and many of the elk were grazing, but the bull kept watching me. As the light faded along with my vision, the herd moved off into the trees. That first photo was taken in the trees where the elk disappeared into, after it had become quite dark.

Night Photography / Photo of the Day / Prairie — 4 Comments
20
Jul 11

Rare Fog in the Prairies

This photo was taken late in the evening on our way back from Grasslands National Park a while back. The thick fog softened everything and let the windbreak fade away into nothing. This look reminds me a bit some lomo or holga photos I’ve seen, but I really like that you can see a lot of the detail here, while still retaining that soft dreamy feeling. Although I suppose a big orange light leak would change the photo quite a bit.

prairie-fence-line-in-fog
Abstract / Photo of the Day / Water — No Comments
17
Jul 11

Birch Tree Beside Bellis Lake

Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) in front of Bellis Lake on a lovely summer evening.

Birch Tree at Bellis Lake

The warm bright sunlight on the bark against the dark blue water caught my attention, and the cloud reflected in the water just topped it off. The hardest part of a photo like this is simplifying — getting rid of all the things that will detract from the feeling I’m trying to capture. There can be so much surrounding a scene like this. There are lots of trees crowding around, I’m standing in a grove of alders and rose bushes, the far side of the lake is just a little above the top of the frame. But I’m capturing what I love, and the surroundings almost fade away — I capture what captures me.

Abstract / Photo of the Day / Water — No Comments
21
Jun 11

Rising Up and Tumbling Down

Reflections in Flowing Water at Bighorn Falls
Evening waves above Bighorn Falls, Alberta.

Its easy to beat yourself up over things. Everyone does it. And feeling bad can be a strong motivation to do or change something. But feeling bad makes it less likely that you’ll stick with it. To actually do something really well and for a long period of time you want the motivation to come from the pure joy of doing it. Wise words from a wise friend.

Abstract / Photo of the Day / Plants — No Comments
12
May 11

The First Grass of Spring

Things are finally turning green and the sun is shining.
New Grass Shoots in the Sunset

Photo of the Day / Water / Wildlife — 2 Comments
29
Apr 11

Beaver Pond

I find wildlife photography difficult — not necessarily the photographing of an animal, but the photographing of an animal artistically. I’ve been watching these beavers (Castor canadensis) doing all sorts of interesting things over the last couple of weeks. I’ve watched them chew through trees, drag them down to the water, talk to each other, slap their tails on the water, and all sorts of beaver behaviour. But photos of these fascinating activities often end up as a standard photo of a beaver. Even in beautiful evening light, a lot of shots seem to be average or only mildly interesting shots.

I’ve been trying to challenge myself to take an artistic wildlife photo. To mix my landscape aesthetic with animal subjects. This is what I’ve come up with so far. This beaver created some beautiful sunset reflections in his pond for me.

Beaver in Reflected Sunset
Abstract / Macro / Water — 2 Comments
29
Oct 10

Freezing Water Drop

Freezing water drops? Yeah, they’re awesome.

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Taken today in Elk Island National Park.