When Fall Met Summer - Landscape Photography And More..

I think it's time for some color, don't you? It's been so long since we've seen more than whites, blues, blacks and grays, so why not go back to late summer and beginning of fall, when all the world was covered in beautiful colors?  It's seems to me that Mother Nature gives us this opportunity, every year, to soak it all up in preparation for a monochromatic season that lasts too long.. Today, I would like to share photos from two trips of ours that took place just as the seasons were changing.. Last day of summer, first day of fall. Two sunsets in rural Alberta. A little bit of landscape photography, a bit of rural architecture and nature and, of course, a macro shot (one cannot admire the world without looking close at things, don't you think?) and all of it full of beautiful colors, complements of Mother Nature.  I am so very glad to have seen it all and have my memories recorded so that I can look at all this splendor when I'm feeling deprived of color. Hope it is as enjoyable to you as it is to me :D Kasia

Last day of summer 2013 .. 1

Last day of summer 2013 .. 3

Last day of summer 2013 .. 4

Day's end

When summer meets fall

How many layers ?

Last day of summer 2013 .. 5

Summer is leaving..

Another day, another sunset

Fall evening

Peaceful existence

On guard

Moment in time

The day has come to an end..

A day at the farm - Lifestyle Photography

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a very nice morning at an abandoned farm with Miss N.  It was a perfect day to experiment a little.  With three cameras and 85mm f1.8, 50mm f1.2 and 35mm f1.4, I had plenty of options.  I really don't like changing lenses in the field, as this introduces dust into the camera.  Also having a mirror less cameras makes it even worse, because the sensor is fully exposed when the lens is removed. Miss N, was absolutely wonderful to work with.  Full of energy and full of ideas to add to the whole session.  We started off very early in the morning, at 6:30am, just to be able to catch the best light.  Miss N was ready from the start.  It is great when you working with a person like that.  The whole session is a lot more fun and time just flies by.  We got a lot of images that day, and I would like to share with you some I would call lifestyle photography, with a beautiful woman, a beautiful dress and the contrast of an old farm.  Enjoy!

Old Summer - Landscape Photography with Fuji X-Pro1

If you have been listening to my podcast Shutter Time with Sid and Mac, you know how my workflow works.  About this time, I create a new Lightroom catalog, and start cleaning up my previous year catalog, getting it ready for archival.  While I was going through it, to see if maybe I missed something, I found a little stack of images, that I haven't even touched.  They were taken last June, on one of our excursions into the country side.  I have no idea how I missed them, and forgot about them.  Sacrilege! All these were shot with Fuji X-Pro1, and some are HDR as well.  The funny thing is, that I remembered that day very well, and always asked myself about the pictures from that trip.  Knowing my scatter brain, I always quickly forgot to look for them.  I'm glad I found them.

So I took a cue from my boys, and instead of cleaning, I started playing :)  It's a great feeling to be working on landscape photos from the summer, when it's cold and snowy outside.  So here are what I came up with last night.... enjoy!

Yup! Fall is here...

Summer is over. Not only by the calendar but you can see the colours changing almost in front of your eyes out there and turning the recently green world into a myriad of golds, yellows, oranges and reds.  Since the day was wonderfully sunny and warm yesterday we have pretty much spent it all outside on photo shoots.  First we've decided to check Elk Island for morning mists (which have never showed up, BTW), than I took a walk about the neighbourhood with my camera and then, towards the evening, we have taken off to check out the countryside again... Wherever we went the colours were there. In just a couple of weeks everything has changed... Let's start with a sunrise at Elk Island:

And here is a few shots from the city, which is also quickly changing it's colours:

The morning sun has highlighted everything beautifully bringing out the colours and shapes of fall  :).  And , as the day progressed towards the evening and we took a ride in the country, the evening sun has brought out the colours out even more..

Our luck held and we were given a beautiful sunset to enjoy as well, with a big sun on a hazy sky giving the world a beautiful glow..

As you can see, the signs of fall are everywhere. The gathering of birds that are already flying south, the colours of leaves and ripe fruit on the trees, the general feel of the world are all crying out: Fall is here!!!   I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can hoping, that the frost and winds won't come too early and cause the beautiful leaves to fall and leave the world naked and monochromatic again..

Kasia

Alberta Sunrise

It's been quite a while when I took these images.  I'm just going through my backlog of images that I haven't posted yet.  To my surprise there is quite a lot of them.  I've been too busy lately with weddings, and other client work.  I think it's time to start catching up.  I've been shooting exclusively with my Fuji X-Pro1, and I really really like using that camera.  Also I've been going around and pilfering old Pentax lenses, from around my town.  I have an adapter for the lenses for both my Fuji and my Sony NEX-7.  They are really great lenses.  All manual, but with a bit of practice, they are still very much usable. These images were taken quite a while ago, a few months to be exact.  It was an early morning rise, about 3:30am.  My wife and I, drove up to this little abandoned farm, which is a perfect setting for sunrises.  We spend good couple of hours walking around trying different angles.  It was a great time.  Here are some images from that morning.  Enjoy!

Alberta sunset portrait session

I had a pleasure working with Brittany a few times, and every time she adds something special to the images.  We did a lifestyle photo session, at an abandoned farm, all with just a Fuji X-Pro1.  This is part of that session, or I should say a continuation.  Just different time of day and different wardrobe :)  Shooting with the Fuji X-Pro1 is such a pleasure, easy and relaxing.  Here are some images from that evening, enjoy!

Lifestyle session with Fuji X-Pro1

This was my main test of an actual portrait and lifestyle photography using just the Fuji X-Pro1 camera.  I left my Canon DSLRs at home with all their heavy lenses. The change in shooting is significant.  No more "spray and pray" technique.  Fuji slows things down a notch.  It makes you think about each shot.  It's light to carry with the assortment of lenses.  It's a joy to use.  Lately I've noticed that I make images with the Fuji, more and more.  My Canons have been appropriated by my wife, who's also my partner in the MiKSMedia Photography adventure... and so far I have not missed those big cameras.  Enjoy!

Abandoned Farm Continued..

I don't know if you remember our trip in January to shoot a sunrise. We have found this wonderful abandoned farm in the middle of prairies that has served not only as a great excuse to shoot the world at dawn.  A piece of Alberta's history is slowly falling apart and as sad as it makes me feel I am grateful that they are still here waiting to be photographed and, in some small way, remembered. I thought, I'd share some more shots from that trip with you today. The light was gorgeous, the temperatures not too low :) and the company excellent. What more can a person want?! Kasia

Lonely

Painted by time

Ghost farm at sunrise - Part 2

The beautiful sunrise at the Ghost farm, allowed for a lot of images.  Why did I call it like this?  The farm house had a strange feel to it. I don't know if I would go there by myself at night, even though I would imagine it would be a great location to photograph night skies. I might have to ask some friends very nicely to go out with me.... yes I'm a bit of a scary cat :) Mac

Ghost farm at sunrise

During one of my scouting trips into the Alberta back country, I found this old abandoned farm. At that moment I've decided it would be great to visit this place at sunrise.  It's a bit of a drive from my home to this place, so the whole family woke up early, packed up our prepared photo gear, met our friends Jenn and Dustin, and went out exploring the Alberta back country.  We made it to the farm with a bit time to spare before the sunrise.  A beautiful morning, a little chilly, but then again this was still January.  I only took 2 lenses with me.  My trusty wide angle, and my tilt shift.  Here are the results.  Enjoy! Mac

Lost in Alberta - Part 2

Continuing my scouting trip for the lost and forgotten farms, we stumbled upon few that were in very nice shape.  The rooms were empty, but there was no clutter, no mess.  Particularly in those ones, your imagination goes wild. Here are some more images from the forgotten fields of Alberta.  Enjoy!

Lost in Alberta - Part 1

A few weeks ago, I grabbed a good friend of mine, also a photographer, and we went scouting around the prairies, and farmlands, north east of Edmonton.  After a tough week at work, those trips bring calm and peace, just like the forgotten and lost farmsteads.  Edmonton is situated in an interesting geographical location.  To the east the land is flat, mostly farmland and prairies.  To the west its hills, lakes and small rivers.  It's interesting that it is still far to the mountains, about 350km.  The easter part is where there one can find a lot of these abandoned buildings.  Many of them are quite accessible, but I would not venture inside.  They are not structurally sound, but they do provide a little glimpse into the history of this province.  If you find the one's that are still in one piece, you can glimpse inside and let your imagination go... enjoy! Mac

Abandoned Farm - Part 2

Since Mac has mentioned his back log of pictures to process I've decided to post some more of my images. There were a few of us, crazy people, shooting and it's not a surprise that some of us made for an interesting subject of a picture as well ;) It's hard to describe how beautiful the world looked that morning. But since a picture is worth a thousands words... Enjoy! Kasia

Falling..

Dedicated Photographers

Painted by time

Where the road leads us..

Still standing

Waiting for the light

Alberta back roads... part 3

After coming back home from our little morning excursion, I decided to take the boys out in the evening.  This time we didn't get lost, but still had a pleasant trip out.  Enjoy!

Alberta back roads... part 2

Getting lost never was so rewarding.  You can easily get lost on the Alberta back roads, specially when you are not really paying attention to where you are going, only to the landscape around you.  Luckly a homing GPS will get you out of most troubles, with which we realized that we traveled over 100km away from home.  Here are more results of getting lost.  Enjoy!

Alberta back roads.... part 1

Driving and ultimately getting lost in the Alberta back roads must be the best pass time for me.  There is nothing better than enjoying good music, great company, beautiful scenery, and picture taking.  This is what happened when me and my lovely wife, took to the Alberta back roads. Initially we wanted to visit Elk Island National park, but I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way.  The rest as they say is history... of images.  Enjoy!

Playing on the farm - Part 2

Continuing on the post from yesterday, here is the rest of the photos from the family photo session.  It was really a wonderful time, even when the kids got bored with all the cameras clicking away.  One thing I found is that as a photographer, I have to really pay attention, because moments go by very quick and I have to be ready to catch them.  Enjoy.

Playing on the farm - Part 1

Families that plays together, stays together as they say.  I had a honor to capture such family recently.  We drove down to Vegreville, as my buddy Randy Pond, knows of a little quiet farm on the outskirts of town that was a perfect location for the photo session.  Since I never like posing portraits, I let the 3 girls run around and just play, then invited the parents to join in the fun.  Here are the results. Enjoy.

Abandoned Alberta in Black and White

These pictures are from one of my trips around the country side.  This is the one I got completely lost.  Took too many turns, and wasn't really paying too much attention where I was going.  You can find a lot of these abandoned buildings and houses all over.  Some are accessible, some are in the middle of a farmer's field, with no access what so ever.  It's quite interesting, and most are great subject for photography.  One particular house, had a very eerie feel to it.  Middle of the day, and I had really bad feeling about it.  Spooky.  I marked that one on the map for a later visit, once the snow melts.  Enjoy.

Landscape in Film

I just had to try out the 40 year old film camera, on a little drive I took over the weekend.  A good friend of mine, a specialist in photographing pets, agreed to go for a little drive in the country, just exploring.  We took the backroads, and after a while, because I was paying more attention to the scenery, then to where I was going... I got lost.  I mean lost, completely utterly lost.  To make matters worse, it was a grey, overcast day, and no sun peeking through at all.  Didn't have a clue if I was driving north, south, west or east.  Luckily my iPhone found the way home.  Here are some shots taken with the film camera.  Again almost no editing, just a little crop here and there.  Enjoy.