A hockey night in Calgary
I found this ice rink in a park near Marda Loop. There were a few people playing hockey under the night lights. I stopped for a few minutes to play with the patterns of the trees and lights against the rink. I loved the setting and that everyone was out to enjoy this most traditional of Canadian pastimes.
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Crowchild in motion
Canon 5DIII with a 24mm f/1.4 lens: 13 seconds on f/11 at ISO 100
Vehicle lights trace lines along Crowchild Trail on a winter’s night in Calgary.
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De-icing planes at YYC – revisited
I originally published one photograph of the patterns of steam created by workers de-icing planes in January 2014, the day after I took the picture when I arrived in Arizona. I processed the image quite minimally as I believe I was working off of an iPad and had limited time to work on the images. Last year, a more true to life, and to my eye more pleasing, version was recognized in the CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year competition. This version required some processing as RAW files are quite flat and high contrast images can require a bit of work to bring them out.
For a recent competition I entered, I submitted a series of different images from the same time. I liked the abstract quality of the steam created by the patterns and swirls, backlit by the just risen sun. I wanted to share those here – with the break in the freezing temperatures this morning, I thought it was a nice reminder of just how cold winter can be in Alberta!
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A Stormtrooper in YYC
I caught Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday and absolutely loved it. The continuation of the saga is a joyride I have been looking forward to enormously and the movie met my loftiest hopes 🙂
Earlier in the week, my kids and I went downtown for my birthday evening and we saw these Stormtroopers walking near The Bow. Great foreshadowing for us. There was a film crew with them so it was some form of promotional shoot. That didn’t stop the kids and I getting really excited daydreaming about walking into the middle of a real life Star Wars scene.
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The last night at the 2015 Calgary Stampede
July 12th was the final day of the 2015 Calgary Stampede and I had an invitation from good friends to join them for the Chuckwagon Finals and the Grandstand Show Finale that evening. I jumped at the chance and enjoyed a great night down on the grounds.
The Chucks were exciting as usual with the best races coming in the last couple of heats. This year’s champion was Kurt Bensmiller who successfully defended his title from last year in a great race, particularly down the stretch. Bensmiller was riding on the Tsuu T’ina wagon, whose land we live on, so I was happy for them as well! Above is my shot of him closing in on the finish line.
Another great race was heat 5 where Mark Sutherland pulled away from a tight grouping with all four teams and won by just under a second.
Earlier in the evening, we walked down the midway, checking out the rides, the people and the crazy games. I like riding these big swings with my kids and with the sun behind it made for a cool picture.
After the races, the Grandstand Show was up and this year’s edition was called the Canadian Classic. I thought it was great fun. I was sitting above a group visiting from Ohio and, judging by their enthusiasm during and after the performance, it was well received by friends from afar as well.
The fireworks are a signature piece that ends each show. The set on the last day were far and away the largest of the Stampede I was told by a friend who had seen several of them this year. They were huge, loud and beautiful. From our seats on the second deck, we weren’t too far below the average explosion height so they felt all-encompassing which is great when it comes to fireworks in my mind.
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Blurred lines downtown
Fuji X100s – 1/30th of a second, f/2.0 at iso 1250
Last week I was downtown for the day and before leaving the urban cacophony spent a bit of time dragging my shutter among my fellow commuters. It had been quite a long time since I was downtown during the evening rush hour and I enjoyed panning with the C-trains, shooting in the middle of the cross walk and looking for ways to capture the movements of people and their conveyances.
Fuji X100s – 1/15th of a second, f/2.0 at iso 640
Fuji X100s – 1/150th of a second, f/2.0 at iso 1600
Fuji X100s – 1/30th of a second, f/2.0 at iso 1600
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De-icing at YYC
Canon 5D Mark III + 500mm f/4 lens: 1/6400 seconds at f/4 on ISO 320
A member of the ground crew at the Calgary International Airport does the critical work of de-icing the airplane during a cold sunrise well below freezing in Alberta, Canada.
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Calgary commutes: driving out of downtown
Fuji X100s + 23mm lens: 1 second at f/11 on ISO 200
The Plus 15 walkways which are ~5 metres above Calgary’s street level connect the majority of buildings downtown. This allows people to avoid going outside during cold winter days and provides a great vantage point for watching the bright, orderly retreat of workers from their offices to their homes.
Fuji X100s + 23mm lens: 1/4 of a second at f/5.6 on ISO 3200
I played around with longer exposures (wishing I had a way to counter the slight bounce in the skybridge due to my fellow Plus 15 pedestrians) and had a moment to appreciate a benefit of the early sunsets that come with the winter months and daylight savings time.
Fuji X100s + 23mm lens: 4 seconds at f/11 on ISO 200
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A blizzard and a stream
I was walking along a forested stream that runs parallel with the Elbow River where they run under Highway 8 near Discovery Ridge on the western edge of Calgary on Saturday morning. When the snow started to fall, it took very little time for the flakes to grow in both size and frequency.
The trees were soon cloaked in white, leaving the water alone to provide a little colour in the landscape.
It was quiet with only the sound of the snow falling. And a serene walk along this tributary to the Elbow River among the trees that edge its length.
Near the end of the walk, a raven flew overhead – the snow visible between us.
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A Warbler in the Weaselhead
About a half an hour after watching the Goldeneyes on the Elbow River at the Weaselhead delta, I had trekked along a path overhung with very wet branches. I was soaked through but heard some bird chatter in a clearing. And soon caught sight of a pair of Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia) flitting through the trees. The male was reclusive, staying hidden inside the bushes, but the female was a little less so.
She moved fast and often but seemed a little bit curious which afforded a couple of opportunities. It proved to be a challenge to pick her out cleanly against the foliage even with the bright yellow colouring. But I thought she was beautiful so I watched her for another half an hour before continuing onwards to the edge of the Glenmore Reservoir.
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Goldeneyes at Weaselhead
I walked around Calgary’s Weaselhead Natural Environment Park this morning. The park is where the Elbow River spreads out across the flats into a delta threaded with smaller streams that drain into the Glenmore Reservoir. At the first bridge I crossed over, I noticed several female Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) floating around. I watched them flying up to this nesting box gone slightly askew. It seemed they may have enjoyed the view from this spot .
When one would fly away it wouldn’t take long before a new duck stopped in. It seemed like I could hear murmurings about possession being 9/10ths of the law. However determination won a little longer rest on the perch for one of the Goldeneyes. She held her ground, flapped the wings and the would-be usurper flew back down to the river.
These three ladies threw some interesting looks at me, each other and across the river.
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Calgary’s cityscape at dawn
The sky to the east was beautiful this morning. I had a chance to photograph from a good elevation which let me see the horizon towards the east and the downtown cityscape in the other direction. I loved the explosion of color in the clouds preceding the sunrise and those added nice reflections in some of the glass facades of Calgary’s prominent buildings.
