One doesn’t have to travel far to enjoy a bit of winter photography. Go for a walk in one of the neighborhood parks or even just around your own home and I am sure you will find something to take a picture of.
Aurora in the City
We all love watching northern lights. Even when they are week, we will strain our eyes and stare at the night sky to see them. The best viewing is, of course, outside the city, where there is no light pollution and the sky is dark. Cities are, generally, not the best places to watch them. However, there are nights, when the lights are very bright and quite easily viewable even inside Edmonton.
From Hoodoos to Urban Architecture - Two Different Worlds
Sky Is The Limit!
One of the most wonderful things about Alberta, to me anyway, is the sky. It's huge and always changing and I love watching it and photographing it. The sunsets, sunrises, middle-of-the-days and, of course the storm clouds have been fascinating me for a very long time. At night, you can see million stars, different phases of the moon, Milky Way and, if you're lucky, amazing aurora. Over the last several years I must have taken more than a thousand pictures of the clouds which, to me, are a huge part of the landscape, sometimes, the most interesting one (I do live surrounded by flat prairies after all ;D).
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
Celebrating Canada Day
It's a tradition in our family, if the weather cooperates, to invite some friends and go and watch fireworks display on Canada Day evening. We tend to go early to find a good spot for pictures and spend as much time enjoying outdoors as possible. This year was no different. Mind you, the day started with a downpour and a storm and, for a while, we were not sure there would be fireworks at all. But, as usual, our luck held and the sky cleared out so we packed our picnic supplies and went out to a spot that gave us a wonderful view of the Edmonton downtown. There was not many people there when we arrived and we have had plenty of room to set up our stuff. The sun was shining, the sky was great and mosquitoes were not bothering us too much ;)
As you can see we've had plenty of time to experiment and enjoy ourselves ;D.. As time went by and the sky was getting darker more and more people started to show up and eventually a crowd has gathered to watch the spectacle:
We were very lucky this year, because Nature decided to compete with human display and the lightning started to highlight the sky behind the downtown adding to the awesome display! Soo cool!!! Eventually, when the fireworks display was over, we were the only people left on the hill, watching Mother Nature's show as well as a cool effect that smoke from fireworks and city lights have created.
Cool stuff, I tell you! Hope you have spent your evening as pleasantly as we did!
Kasia
Industrial Dawn - Part 2
Photographers often go out of the city in search of a perfect sunrise, just like we did some time ago when we have found an abandoned farm. Sometimes however, one cannot leave for one reason or another. But even in the industrial part of the city we can find something interesting. The morning light highlights the details and allows us to see that industrial dawn can be as interesting as the rural one. I hope you agree! Kasia
The world behind - Frozen Land
Smoking..
Industrial sky
Moring fields
Highlights
Downtown at Sunset
This is from a little trip I took with the whole family to Edmonton River Valley. Took my Fuji X100 for a little test run, to see how it performs. I have to say, that it performed quite admirably. It's really a great camera. Yes there are some quirks that one has to get used to, but I think that's the process of learning new gear, and how it works. It was a beautiful day, with the sun setting behind the Edmonton skyline. Enjoy!
Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 3
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Well.... a part 3 to the fish eye post. I guess I liked so many of the photos from the little downtown trip, that I just can't help myself. I guess it's the thrill of a new thing, a new curved perspective on the world. Yes I like the fish eye lens. I like the way the world looks through it. It puts a smile on my face. So here are the last shots from my downtown Edmonton trip. Enjoy!
Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 2
Continuing from yesterday, here are more images from Edmonton downtown fish eye trip. The more I use the lens, the more I'm liking it. The effects it creates are unique and interesting, at least to me. Enjoy!
Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 1
One lens, one camera, one city.... sounds like a intro for a challenge, but it really isn't when you take a fish eye lens, to the streets of downtown. Fish eye and architecture, don't mix well, specially for purists. I'm not a purist, and I really like when a building is bending in a weird and interesting way in an image. That was the main goal that day. See how many interesting photos can I take just walking around downtown Edmonton with a little fish eye lens. Enjoy the results!
