Winter Has Come to Elk Island - Landscape Photography and more..

Yes, we got snow! It seems it's been a regular occurrence at the beginning of November for the past few years.. Well, can't do much about it but try and enjoy the event, so we have taken a trip to Elk Island with a group of photographic friends and went exploring. Here is a few shots from that outing.  Must say, the world looks quite beautiful in a fresh layer of white! Hope you enjoy :D Kasia

Hunting for Bison at Elk Island

As I have mentioned before, in my post Night Skies at Elk Island - Catching a Comet, we have visited Elk Island National Park a few times recently.  It is a great pleasure to be able to visit a wild place without having to drive for hours on end.. Escaping the civilization is a wonderful way to relax and if you are lucky enough, you not only see some gorgeous skies, but get a glimpse of some animals as well.  We have been lucky this time to catch a few shots of bison.  We have started our search for animals with Bison Loop, alas there was no bison there. We did manage to capture a couple of lovely sunset pictures, though  (some of them shared by Mac in his post Two Sunsets – Alberta Landscape Photography) but we had to move a little bit deeper into the park before we saw any animals.  The world looked beautiful covered in the golden glow of setting sun. The shadows were long and the light just great and it was a pleasure to spend some time in a peaceful place... Here is a few shots I was able to take.  No blood was spilled during our hunt, and that's the way I like it! ;D Kasia

Bison of Elk Island

Over the last few weeks I traveled to Elk Island numerous times.  It was either for the purpose of photographing a sunset, or sunrise, or stars.  One animal that you cannot miss at Elk Island National Park, is the bison.  They are found almost everywhere.  I can never escape taking at least a few shots of them.  It never gets boring.  They are magnificent creatures, that at times seem docile and slow, but trust me, you don't want to find yourself facing a charging one.  So when visiting Elk Island National Park, and you happen on a bison, slow down, stop, roll down your windows, and enjoy!

Stormy Elk Island

Weather forecast was predicting rain, and the low hanging clouds were promising just that.  Even though, I've decided to take a little trip to Elk Island.  Took my cameras of course, because you never know what you gonna get.  It is so peaceful there.  Here are some images from the trip.  Enjoy!

Nature in the wild - Part 1

When I decided to try to shoot my star trails I came out to the Elk Island park, a little early.  I really wanted to try out my friends 24mm tilt-shift lens.  I have to say, that it is going to be really hard to give that lens back.  Really hard.  I had to try it out on landscape photographs, and what better place for that than Elk Island National Park. Arrived at the park, just before the sunset, and here is the first part of what I captured.  Enjoy.

First Elk Island Sunset

It is long overdue, but yesterday I had my first chance to photograph at Elk Island again.  It was a lot of fun, to use my wide angle again.  Enjoy!

New toy and Elk Island

So a couple of days ago, a package arrived at my door.... post marked from Australia.  I almost cut myself opening it.  My hands were trembling a little when I dug into the styrofoam.  What I uncovered was a beautiful black Canon 1D.  Yep no other designations, no Mark this or Mark that... none of that nonsense :) .  This is an original Canon 1D and right now I could easily call it Classic.  The camera is in perfect condition, apart from little scuffs on the top.  Works great too.  Yes it's only 4.5Mpx, but the megapixel race is over, and this is a 10 year old camera, so I'm not concerned.  I charged the batteries the same day, and decided to take it out for a spin in Elk Island.

I took both of my Classics, the 5D and the 1D.  I put a 70-200mm plus 2x extender on the 1D, and a wide angle 17-40mm on my 5D.  I mainly  concentrated on the animals with the 1D.  Luckily they were very photogenic that evening.

Also our canadian beavers were out in full force building their new house.  There were 5 of them and they really didn't pay any attention to me.  I was standing at the edge of the pond maybe 8-10ft from them.

The pictures have minimal editing on them.  White balance adjustment, levels, and a little sharpness.  I have to say that the 1D passed with flying colors.  More pictures from the trip, on the next post.

Of snow and animals

This weekend was a perfect time to visit my favorite park. Those of you who have been reading this blog, know that this is Elk Island National Park.  I left home early, around 7am.  I was hoping to get there before the sunrise.  Fresh few centimeters of snow fell during the night, and the park was silent and it seemed deserted.  I was slowly moving along the park road, when I spotted this owl perched on a tree.  Quickly I grabbed my long 200mm +2x extender, and as quietly as I could got out of the car.  The moment I did that he spread his wings and it seemed I have lost a great opportunity.  Lucky for me he just got bored of one tree and decided to try another one few feet away.  Slowly I started creeping after him.  He just sat there spinning his head.  First shots I realized to my horror that there wasn't enough light. At 1/15 shutter speed with out a tripod it is really hard to stay still.  So I immediately upped my ISO.  I got maybe 5-6 frames before the owl got bored, and flew away for good.  At this moment I realized that I was in about 4ft of snow.  I was a little cold, but happy.

After the owl incident I finally got to the largest lake in the park.  The scenery was spectacular, and absolutely no people.  It's a stark contrast with summer time, where this area is teaming with people.   While I was admiring the silence, I noticed a little spec moving across the frozen lake.  Once I trained my lens on him, it became apparent that it was a coyote.  I was following him, when there was a yelp from across the lake.  The coyote stopped, and seconds later he started running at full speed in the direction of the yelp.

I missed these guys crossing the road by few minutes.  Once I got to a good spot, they already crossed and were running away.  I managed to get a couple of shots of this hear, but they were already pretty far away.  Maybe next time I'll be able to get a little closer :)