Prairie Landscape: Red light over the fields
The sunrises have been incredible for the past week – beautiful light, textured clouds and great colors both in the sky and in the land as the summer gives way to autumn. This morning was no exception. In this image I put my back to the rising sun and photographed the land as the early red glow lit up the fields in Springbank, west of Calgary, Alberta.
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Waiting in Gastown
A photograph made in Gastown in Vancouver, British Columbia. The restaurant is the Water St. Cafe and I love how the subject of the image, the waiter, is separated from the street scene by these large panes . I photographed this image a couple of years ago with my old Canon XT and converted it into black and white immediately back then. I had not looked at it much since then but it was stored in one of the image portfolios on my phone. This afternoon I was playing with an app (TiltShift) on my iPhone which applies tilt and shift effects to any accessible image. So, with adjustment of the point of focus and then selecting the amount of blur, I came up with a new version of this archived photo that I quite like.
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Bel Air Wreck on the Prairie
This beaten down shell is on a salt pan in the middle of a barren stretch of prairie near Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. The country roads that connect all parts of the Canadian prairie hold many long forgotten photographic treasures like this car, farmsteads and weathered buildings. I love finding these great locations and try to re-visit them whenever I can. I have visited this car and a neighboring broken down farm several times over the past five years.
With a little down time so far this holiday, I have been working with some different software to test them out. Here, I’m using Topaz Adjust 4 to process the photos for a saturated, over the top look. The software integrates seamlessly into Adobe’s Lightroom (my main developing and cataloging software) and is reasonably priced at $50. I am usually less garish in my post processing but it is nice to try some different looks.
In these images I have started with the Topaz Spicify preset as a starting point, then adjusted some of the levels to my taste within each picture and then re-imported into Lightroom to adjust some of the color channels and the edge smoothness.
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Autumn on the Saskatchewan Prairie
Fall came later to the Prairies of eastern Alberta and Saskatchewan than it did around Bragg Creek. We drove out through Medicine Hat and on to Gull Lake a couple of weekends ago to visit my wife’s grandparents. It was nice to fit in a bit more fall photography along the way.
Small hills break up the prairie fields near the Saskatchewan – Alberta border.
Motel sign at a truck stop along Highway 1, the Trans Canadian Highway, at the Highway 21 intersection in Saskatchewan near Maple Creek.
The prairie landscape blurs by from my view in the passenger’s seat near Gull Lake.
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Autumn is coming to a close soon
The white branches are starting to poke out as the leaves are falling to the ground.
Around Bragg Creek and on the prairies towards Calgary, there are still some nice autumn scenes but they are starting to go fast.
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Mule deer in the backyard
A young doe sauntered out of the forest and into our backyard this morning. She was in no hurry to pass through as she found a few flowers around our deck that were still available.
We have a small herd of mule deer that stay close to the community year round. It’s always great to see one of the family come around for a visit – even if they always dine and dash.
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Fall morning along the Elbow River
I was out for a walk with the hound this morning a little after the sun had crested the hill east of our home in Redwood Meadows. I just kept the long lens on the camera and looked for interesting details in the autumn landscape.
We went over to the banks of the Elbow River that run parallel to the road through Redwood Meadows. This yielded some interesting patterns and creative opportunities. We are nearing late fall here in Bragg Creek now. There are many trees with few leaves left to shed. Still a lot of beauty yet to be found before the season draws to a close.
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Warm Autumn Light
I was in Calgary this morning and took a little time to shoot in the warm light as the sun came up over the horizon.
As I’ve written before, amazing colours this autumn.
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Autumn Sunrise
A really spectacular sunrise pulled me off the road on the way into Calgary this morning.
These photographs were made east of Bragg Creek along Highway 8 in Springbank, Alberta.
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Autumn morning in Springbank
On my way into work every morning, I drive through almost 30 km of prairie.
With some interesting light, there is the opportunity to make some special images.
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Leanne and Dane’s Engagement Shoot
Leanne and Dane invited me to photograph their wedding next summer which I am really looking forward to. On Friday, we went to the ranch of a friend of Leanne’s family to shoot their engagement photographs.
Over the evening, I had all manner of skies and light to work with and Leanne and Dane were having fun playing around with me.
Good people and a very cute couple. Can’t wait for their big day.
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Autumn Faith
We drove along the Bow Valley Trail between Cochrane and Canmore enjoying the autumn colours that are really incredible this year.
Between Ghost Lake and Morley is the McDougall Unite Church which is 135 years old. It is a prairie icon in Alberta and served its role as a contrast to the yellows and a point of focus admirably in this image.
I posted an image of this same church earlier this year in June.
I hope to post more fall images showing how special this year in particular is.
