Elk Island Sunset - Landscape Photography

I have a confession to make... I love Elk Island National Park.  I love going there and getting lost in the silence of nature.  It's a perfect place for landscape photography, lifestyle, family photography, and of course wildlife photography.  It's not far from where I live, and makes a great trip if you want to just get away for a few hours. Of course sunsets at the Astotin Lake are always quite a sight.  Each is different, and each offers unique opportunities for really great images.  I have a lot of these in my library, and I never get bored looking at them.  Since our cold and white Canadian winter is in full swing, I thought adding a little color might brighten up the day.  So here is yet another sunset, at Elk Island.  Enjoy!

A Summer Sunset at Elk Island

It seems Elk Island National Park is one of those handy spots to escape the city and enjoy a bit of nature at it's finest.  Close enough that the trip can happen spontaneously, far enough to be able to enjoy quiet and peace and one or two of amazing sunsets.  Mac has recently shared some of his images from one of our trips in his post Nature walk with the Fuji X-Pro1 and here are some shots from our most recent trip there.  It was one of those spur of the moment escapades that paid of with a gorgeous light and a wonderful colour of the sky beautifully reflected in the quiet waters of Astotin Lake..

And after the sun has finally set the view has changed yet again and granted us yet another set of wonderful colours:

There just isn't anything more peaceful than watching a beautiful sunset surrounded by nature.. Even the hoards of mosquitoes were not able to keep us away from the view for a long time. ;D

Kasia

An Old Evening at Elk Island

Yup. I'm still going through my old photos from 2011, and finding more goodies that were lost in the shuffle.  Here is a nice quiet evening at Astotin Lake in Elk Island National Park.  There were a few families trying out their canoes on the lake.  I was there playing with my fish eye lens, which is great for situations like these.  People do not notice that you are taking their photo, because you are not pointing your camera at them.  Sneaky! :)  Enjoy! Mac

Lights in the Sky

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University of Alberta has a website that monitors geomagnetic activity in the  Edmonton area, called Aurora Watch.  There you can sign up for free email alerts, when aurora borealis or northern lights have a chance of occurring.  I received a red alert a few weeks ago, and decided to take my oldest son with me to Elk Island Park for a "capture the lights in the sky" mission.  Unfortunately at the site, Konrad realized that his little point and shoot camera did not have the settings necessary to record the northern lights.  I setup both of my cameras, one with fish eye lens, the other with wide angle, on the beach of Astotin Lake.  Since Konrad wasn't able to take any photos, I let him operate one of the cameras.  It was a great time, just being there, chatting, counting down exposure time, and watching the amazing light show in the skies above us.  Great great time.  Enjoy!

Here fishy fishy fishy

Playing around a little more with the fish eye lens.  What better place to test it out than a lovely Elk Island sunset.  So here is another Elk Island sunset, but this time with the huge distortion of a fish eye lens.  Personally I'm really liking the effect this lens produces.  Makes me wonder if fish really see the world that way :) Enjoy!

Golden Lake

Sometimes I like to challenge myself.  I know I'm going to, lets say, Elk Island National Park, in the evening.  That usually means a sunset photo session.  Now I only take one or two lenses, and none are wide angle.  I challenge myself to take a good image of the sunset, with a 90mm or a 400mm for example.  It's not easy having only a Canon 5D full frame with a 90mm tilt-shift lens, and a Panasonic G1, with a M42 ring adapter and a 400mm old Minolta lens. Yes the tilt-shift is a little easier to use, since it can quite easily create dreamy, partly focused images.  Still the focus length at 90mm is not really designed for landscape.  I would say the 400mm is more of a landscape lens than the 90mm.  Of course the having the big 400mm on a G1 micro 4/3 camera is not an easy thing to work with either.  The lens is manual focus only, and the Panasonic camera only a digital view finder to look through (or it's little screen), but when pointing the lens at the sun, everything becomes washed out.  Thus the challenge of it all.  Learning to work with the gear that you have.  Is it frustrating?  A little.  Many times I was wishing I brought my wide angle, but then I just narrowed my view, and captured what was available.  Enjoy.

Night at the Lake

Last night I noticed that the sky was clearing up nicely, so immediately decided to go down to Elk Island National Park, for some night photography.  I called and texted a couple of friends, but none had the time to go.... so I had to go alone.  When it finally started to get dark around 11pm, I setup my tripod, programmed the remote for the 35 picture sequence, and settled in for a long wait.  Unfortunately there were a lot of activity at that spot.  At 1am couple of cyclists went through one frame, then a car showed up and drove around the parking lot.  The best thing happened when the sequence finally finished at around 1:45am.  Right behind me there was a spectacular display of norther lights.  Here are some fruits of hanging around at night at the lake.  Enjoy.

Elk Island Sunset

Here is the sunset me and my friend went out to capture, at Elk Island National Park. Enjoy!

Brian and his dog

A few weeks ago, and good friend of mine and a vet went out to Elk Island National Park, to see if we can catch the sunset.  We arrived at our favourite spot by Astotin Lake.  I've photographed a lot of sunsets on that lake, and they are always different.  Every one.  One always meets some interesting people either watching the sunsets, or like us trying to capture it.  This time we met Brian.  Very interesting character. On the first glance you would not say he enjoyed sunsets.  It was not the case.  Here are some pictures of Brian, and his little puppy. Enjoy!