Cold coyote crossing
One of the many short blizzards that have been part of this spring’s personality caught this coyote’s passage through this field. She didn’t look particularly excited about the chilly wind or the snow that it carried down from the mountains. I appreciated how beautiful this animal was framed in the layers of this scene. For her part, a brief, disapproving glance was her only acknowledgement of our shared moment. After a few seconds, she sauntered into bushes ahead of her. I hoped she had a den to shelter in nearby.
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Trees taking a stand at sunset
My lady and I went out for a drive at dusk a couple of nights ago. After a drab, overcast day, the clouds cleared before the sun fell behind the mountains. The sunlight felt warm and made everything it touched glow. We drove over the rolling hills that are split by Lower Springbank Road west of Calgary and watched night soak in to the east after the sunset behind us. Short of the city we turned around and retraced our path. This stand of trees on one of the hills traced its silhouette against the clouds and the sky behind.
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Aurora and a traffic lit skeleton tree
From this late August Aurora Borealis storm, I leveraged the lighting spillover from late night traffic into the fields along Highway 8. Here, this weathered tree stood out from its neighbors due to the headlights passing by. The Northern Lights stayed low along the northern horizon and played a supporting role in many of the images I shot that night.
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A winter scene
The hoar frost encrusted the fields across Springbank over the past few days. I like the serenity of these scenes.
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Photography in silhouette
I spend a lot of time photographing on the edges of the day. On this morning, as the winter sun cleared the horizon, I found my shadow watching me from the side of a hay bale.
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Rural traffic lights
Vehicle lights stretch across the scene during a two second long exposure. I set up across the road from this farmstead and the sign. I took a few photographs of the passing traffic. I liked this one as I thought it had beautiful tone and good luck with the interesting light trails. A photograph an hour after sunset from west of Calgary near the Springbank Airport taken on December 15th.
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Ice fog nightscapes
During a cold night in November where ice fog spread low around the Springbank Airport west of Calgary, I photographed around the area for a couple of hours. I started capturing light trails from traffic going through the intersection where the Springbank United Church stands. Most of these exposures were close to 20 seconds to allow the vehicles to pull their lights through the scene. Later I moved towards farm fields nearby and caught the moon as it rose out of clouds and shone over the mist. The intensity of the nearly full moon allowed for shorter exposure times which suited me well – my hands were chilly by then and I was ready to pack it in soon after.
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Harvest ravens
Late October provided a window of warm weather that gave farmers the opportunity to finish their harvesting. Driving near the Springbank Airport, I saw the dust plume generated by a combine on one field and went to have a look. Often, birds and coyotes can be drawn in looking for any dazed or dead rodents resulting from the harvester passing over their burrows. These ravens were four of a much larger group that were following behind the tractor. I watched these ones as they hopped and flapped around, cawing at one another while searching for food.
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A sunrise in Springbank
The sun climbed over Springbank hill while I was heading into the city a couple of weeks ago. I stopped at this stand of aspen with its blend of broken trunks, spidery branches and open canopy which I thought would provide an interesting frame for the sunrise.
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Signs of spring – mountain bluebirds
A pair of mountain bluebirds were flitting around a bird house west of Calgary a few days ago. They caught my eye when I was driving past the farmland on the way to my daughter’s dance studio. I stopped for a few minutes, watching as they appeared to be moving into their summer home.
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Sunset over Springbank fields
Sunset over a field in Springbank west of Calgary.
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An old bull’s stare down
I found this Highland bull on a fold west of the Springbank airport. He was scratching an itch along the broken planks in the corral when I stopped. He raised the horns, huffed and stared at me from under his dishevelled mop. Seemed like he was the master of his domain and he wasn’t particularly interested in my intrusion into it. A good character to photograph and then part ways with.
