Old Prairie Sunset - Alberta Landscape Photography

It's almost our tradition now, that each summer we go exploring in the back Alberta roads for that perfect sunset location.  I think we already realized that we are never going to find one, as the landscape of this province is very diverse, and our explore radius is not very far from home :)  Still we can almost always find something interesting to photograph.  Today, I'm presenting you with images taken a few months back, when spring was still in the air.  Yes, I do have a pretty big backlog of images that need to be touched. We still have our Vancouver/West Coast to finish up, although Kasia has been going through them and posting them on her Flickr stream.  We have been having issues with uploading images to our blog lately, and I still haven't figured out what exactly is the problem.  Right now it takes 3 times longer to get images on the blog, and it's a bit complicated process.

In any case, back to Alberta Landscape, and exploring.  Our trips are usually on the spur of the moment.  We'll look at the clouds, and judge if it could be an interesting looking sunset. If the answer is yes, then quickly pack up the gear and off we go.  We never know what we are going to get.  Yes over the years that we have been doing this, I have been marking the really nice locations on my GPS, so we can come back easily, and we have on couple of occasions.  There is one location though that still escapes me.  I found this beautiful log shack, that seemed abandoned, but still had a cultivated garden beside it.  I didn't mark it, and it's been over a year and I still can't find it.

Here are some images from that long ago trip around Alberta backroads.

Being... - Art Photography

As you can see from the title, I had a tough time classifying these images.  They could be part of a boudoir set, or part of an lifestyle series studying the human form.  Thus I decided on art, as it is very general :).  I guess the only thing that suffers here is my SEO, I think I can live with that.  I just really like these images, and even though they  don't fall into any theme (I personally called them Yoga), I still wanted to show them to you.  There is something about them that is calming, peaceful.... I let you judge for your self. Enjoy!

Sunflowers and more

The weather continues to be absolutely wonderful and, since summer is not going to last forever (definitely a bummer, the way I see it) one has to use all available opportunities to be outside and soak up all the sun and scenery.  And we're doing just that yesterday while visiting Bowden SunMaze!  It's located about 30 km south of Red Deer, AB and we have arrived there shortly after noon and spend hours getting lost in sunflower maze enjoying wonderful sea of sunflowers, occasional ear of corn and an army of busy bees pollinating all those golden treasures.

We have decided to stay for a sunset, since sunflower fields are not that common around here and we would not be able to come back this year.  The evening sun was painting all the surrounding fields beautiful colours and I was in photographer's heaven :D

It was a great outing!! I have taken lots of pictures and, I am sure, I will share some more, especially when our world turns dull with winter's approach and we all will miss the golden tones of setting sun and bright and gorgeous sunflowers... Until next time!

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!

Sunset on Alberta fields

There was a storm approaching quickly, and the sun was either hiding behind the clouds or was fully visible.  I thought nothing is going to come out of this quick little trip somewhere north of Edmonton.  I was wrong.  Here is the proof.  Enjoy!

Of cowboy hats, sunshine, and romance...

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Different Landscape

I was always skeptical, and thought that a fish-eye lens would be a toy.  Something not to be treated seriously.  Well I will admit I was wrong.  I like the effect it has on a landscape.  I guess some people, might not like the effect this lens can produce, but I always liked it.  I think if used right a fisheye lens has a place in any photographers arsenal.  I have decided to test it on an Alberta landscape.  Since I've never shot with a lens like that I did not know that the photographer can control the amount of distortion.  Also this is a hugely wide angle lens.  I almost get lost in the wideness of the world seen through the lens.  It's quite amazing.  Here are some test shots.  Enjoy.

Alberta in HDR - road trippin'

Normally I do not like HDR images.  Let me clarify that... I do not like overly tone mapped, sharpened HDR images that you see all over the internet.  To me HDR should look like almost indistinguishable from an non-HDR shot.  So I wanted to see if I can attempt it myself.  So I took a little road trip into the unknown little roads north of Edmonton.  I left a little late, and was chasing the sunset, looking for good spots along the road.  So in this set, there are 1 image which is not HDR.... can you guess which?  Enjoy!

Bubble Girl

The story of happy, bubble girl, as she gazed in amazement at the light dancing inside these little bubbles of water.  The delicate sound of pops, as they floated with the breeze with smiles and wonder.  Through the greens of the fields, and high of the trees, she smiled and laughed at their exquisite poetry and chaos of motion. Then she picked up their song, and in the light of the fading sun, she danced, lost in the breeze.

Inspirations

Enjoy! Alberta landscape, somewhere west of Edmonton.  This was taken during one of my little road trips to nowhere.  Just aimlesly driving the less traveled Alberta country roads, in search of little gems like this one.

Or this one.  The most elusive Sid the Moose.  This guy was shot almost at night.  Had to crank my iso setting to 1600, to get this, thus the noise.  Sid the Moose, lives in Elk Island National Park, and he is very hard to spot.  Comes out in the very early mornings or late evenings.  I've been trying to get a good picture of him for a long time, and so far this is as best as it gets.  Now why Sid the Moose?  Well you should ask this great photog.... she may tell you, or she might not.  :)

Looking for spring in analogue b&w.

We are finally enjoying nice warm weather.  A couple weeks back, I took the kids, and my little film camera to look for spring.  It was a wonderful sunny warm day, and we had a blast.  Here are some analogue signs of spring in black and white.  Enjoy.

Wonderland Final Part: Together

This really was an interesting photo shoot.  Location was great, and everyone performed wonderfully.  Can't wait to do this again.  Here is the last part, everyone together.  Enjoy!

Sunset in the fields

I love sunsets.  Each one is so different from the previous one.  This sunset was a spur of a moment, grab the camera and dash out the door.  Few minutes later I was being eaten alive by blood thirsty mosquitos when I crouched in the field to grab these shots.  Enjoy!

Road Trip! - Part 2: Fauna & Flora

One thing you see on the road trip is an abundance of flora, and if you are lucky you will see some fauna as well.

We got lucky, as well.  It was the first time I ever saw a bear in the Banff National Park, and it was a Grizzly.  It looked young from the distance, but still I would not like to be near it :)

More pictures to come soon.

Silence

From the road to Yellowknife

Here are some photos from the trip we took to Yellowknife NWT.  These were taken close to the city of Peace River.  I remembered this shed from a long ago, and always wanted to photograph it.  My chance came.  It was beautiful sunny day, with golden fields and blue skies.  Perfect moment.  The scenery around was just as beautiful.  So not only did I fulfilled my wish, but also added a little bonus to it.  Enjoy!

Gateway to another Dimension

Another quirky photo. Yes this one was taken for a challenge over at DPChallenge. Artur and I went out to his favorite field to shoot for the challenge. Came out with a few interesting shots, but I thought this was the best of the bunch, and worthy of a mention on these pages. I like quirky, abstract photos, and it is a lot of fun taking them. Not a lot of post processing was done to it. Just basic black and white conversion, and added a little noise to whole image. Enjoy!

Canon 5D, ISO 800, 1/250 sec, f/4.5, 24mm

Memory Fields

So this morning I decided to go back to the creek again. Unfortunately the sky became overcast very quickly, and there was a strong wind making wild ripples on the water. There was really nothing to shoot. So I decided to visit my old farm, which I discovered during winter. It was completely different now. The overgrown grass makes the place look almost magical.Thoughts?

Canon 5D, ISO 400, 1/400 sec, f/5, 17mm

Flying Green

Canon PowerShot G9, ISO 200, 1/200sec, f/4.8, 44.4mm

Took this photo while lifting off from Villeneuve airport on a business trip. I didn't have much time to set the camera settings or composition. Thoughts?