Longing for spring - part 2

Well, since my post about saying goodbye to winter, sort of blew up in my face yesterday, when we received about 4cm of nice fresh snow.  Theoretically  it's spring, but practically it is still winter here in Alberta.  So since Kasia posted some really wonderful flowers last time. I thought that the images of our apple trees from last year would be fitting.  I guess our apple trees will be that way again very soon, but for me it just can't be soon enough. Mac

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Winter Reflections

Blue dreams

The snow is melting again and though I know it isn't spring yet it makes me very happy!  It also allows me to enjoy a bit more some of the winter images because the hope of flowers and colours is there.  I really love macros. The details that we usually miss, being in a rush all the time, come out beautifully.  The close ups make me want to stop and enjoy the view. These pictures were taken at different times during this winter. Different light, temperature, humidity (you have seen some of the results of humid winter air in my previous posts such as the series Foggy World)  all these influence how our world looks like. Stop and take a moment to look at those beauties. They are here everywhere, but how often do you have time to look at them? Hope you enjoy! Kasia

Touch of a frost..

On the trail at sunrise 4

Weeds

Foggy World - Part 3

So.. I'm still stuck on the fog... I can't seem to leave it be.. It's just that the light is too fascinating and the colours too pretty to abandon that splendour. The menacing fog, rolling around (mind you, as I've mentioned before - with the sun it wasn't that scary .. but it could be..) results in quite dramatic scenery, when processed as black and white. When you leave the colour on, the golds and oranges of sunrise paint the world beautifully.  I really hope that you still enjoy the imagery... Kasia

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.  :)

Filtering Elk Island

It was a promising day, for a very nice sunset.  As everyone know sunsets are my weakness.  So I gathered the family, and off we went to Elk Island National Park.  This time I decided to change it up a little.  A while back I have gotten myself a set of Cokin filters. We were discussing them at length with a fellow photographer (whom I admire very much).  The main thing is that they are really hard to come by.  I think the company went bankrupt, and completely disappeared.  I haven't been able to find any pertinent news on the web at all about Cokin filters.  So as a little reminder I took them along, and here are the results.  Enjoy.

Celebrating Spring

I decided to post this photo in celebration of spring.  It's an old one.  This was shot for a challenge called "Grass".  I could not think of anything to make grass interesting subject, and then this idea popped into my head.  Even though this was taken almost 2 years ago, I still remember it vividly, and not for the reasons you might think :).  We were in the public park where we figured the grass would be nicest.  The camera was placed on the ground with some rice bags for support.  I had my wife lay down, and I set the focus, composition and set the 10sec automatic timer.  When I pressed the shutter, I had to run into position with my beautiful yellow jokey shorts around my ankles.  Just so  you know we were fully clothed, twisted we might be, but we are not exhibitionists :).  Still people were giving us confused and dirty looks. Luckily no one called the police.  So here it is, the fruit of our labour.  A beautiful picture, perfect for celebrating spring.

Where are the Eagles?

A coworker gave a great tip where I could find some bald eagles.  It's an old gravel pit, which right now is a little lake.  He showed me some pictures that he was able to take with his little point and shoot camera, and there were 5 0r 6 bald eagles just sitting calmly in the trees.  So I decide to go on a hunt myself.  I did see one young eagle, but it was too far away.  Even with my 400mm zoom it would make a good shot.  Maybe it was beacause there were a few people around, and they got scared away.  I'm planning to visit that spot again to see if maybe I can get a couple of good shots. Since I couldn't get a shot of an eagle, I didn't want to leave empty handed.  Here are some random shots I too while there.  Enjoy.