The snow is mostly gone, here on the prairies, but it will be some weeks before we see greenery and flowers blooming. I can’t wait! It has been a long winter and I sure could use a bit of color. Late spring or early summer images are great for it because all is fresh and green is bright and not dimmed by dust of late summer days.
We are lucky here in Alberta, because some nights are full of light show. We had a couple of gorgeous Aurora showing last fall and I have managed to capture some shots without leaving the city.
I know, I know it is winter and everybody posts winter photography, but I am not ready for it yet. I see it outside my window every day, so I want to see something warm, colorful and pretty. Hope you are in need of this as well.
It has been a while since I’ve posted anything about Elk Island National Park. So, I think, it is time for some lovely sunset from the beginning of summer, when all was green, flowers were blooming and days were warm and long.
Regrettably, I did not have a chance recently to go and photograph snowflakes, despite of it’s snowing on and off quite often.. It is not as simple as one would think. It takes a good macro lens, a steady hand, good shooting conditions and a goodly amount of warm clothing, so that you don’t freeze, being stationary for long time in -20oC weather
One of my favorite things to do, after a fresh snowfall, is to go out and look for nice snowflakes to photograph. Snowflakes are quite fascinating and so lovely to look at. It needs to be rather cold for perfect snowflakes to form and stay that way for a bit. If it's too windy, they will be blown away or, simply, be destroyed (not mentioning impossibility to focus one's lens on them). If it's sunny they will melt..
When I heard that there was a walkabout being organized in Calgary, I quickly jumped on the occasion. Not everyday you get to meet The Fuji Guys in person.
So we are supposed to be in this season called Spring. Well possibly in normal parts of the northern hemisphere, but not in our little city of Edmonton. We received a nice dump of snow at about 7 cm thick. After the first initial shock we decided that we are not going to take this wintery stuff laying down. So we took egg decorating to the outside. The snow was perfect for this, so we created 3 dinosaur size eggs and decorated them for Easter.
When I finally got this lens, I had my doubts that it might not be wide enough for landscapes. I like to shoot landscapes at least at 17mm on full frame camera. and this 14mm translates to roughly 21mm, when factoring the crop of Fuji X cameras. I decided to give it a try. I was really impressed with the results. I think 21mm is wide enough for me, although I'm still looking forward to the new 10-24 f4 Fuji lens. Best of all, all this equipment is light, easily transportable, which makes shooting with it so much more fun.
It was a perfect day. The morning was beautiful and we found a few photographers already positioned at Vermillion lakes waiting for the sunrise. The weather conditions were quite perfect for a great sunrise shoot. After the sunrise, we traveled to Lake Louise. Another great iconic location for landscapes. A day of beautiful light, beautiful mountains, and great time shooting it all.
I have shown you some of the pictures from our December trip to the Rockies in my post Beautiful Lake Louise. Today, I would like to share what I saw (along with landscapes, I could not help but take some close up shots, yet again..) when we took a gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain in Banff. Such gorgeous winter views! It was relatively warm up there and the light was lovely. We were able to stay long enough to see the sunset and the night taking over the world. Unfortunately we had to get off the mountain (gondola closing time) in order to shoot Milky Way. Landscape photography is so easy when you have such wonderful vista to work with! :D So here it is, some more of winter beauty! Enjoy! Kasia
One of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in Canadian Rockies is Lake Louise in Banff National Park. I am drawn to it over and over again regardless of the season. It is simply picturesque and one cannot blame me, really, for taking lots of pictures while I am there.. We have visited it again, during our December trip to the mountains. I have already shared some of the pictures from this trip in my post Solstice Sunrise in the Rockies and, with a great pleasure, I'd like to show you some more. Hope you find them pleasing. Winter really can be beautiful and since we are stuck with it here for months on end I'd rather concentrate on it's better aspects.. And if you can add to it a little bit of travel that's even better. Travel photography is a beautiful thing! ;D Have a wonderful weekend everybody! Kasia
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
It supposed to be spring. My wife posted a few landscape images from this time last year. What a difference. No snow, warm days, beautiful sunsets. This year, Ms. Spring is a little late. Which still allows for wonderful winter sunrise images. Another foggy morning at the end of March, and very cold. I think the temperatures in the park dipped down to -24C. We were both frozen, but very happy. The world looked absolutely spectacular. Kasia posted some of her images from that day, really great landscape images. I took a little longer to process my images from that day, but I think it was worth it. Enjoy!
Mac here... I have been a little silent on the blog lately, as a week ago, we got a new addition to the family. He's a rescue german shepherd, lab cross puppy. He's almost 3 months now, and for the last week or so, has been taking practically all of my attention. As you know, we have rescued 2 little kittens about a year ago, and now with the puppy it a full house. It took the cats about a week to figure out the dog, they are still cautious, but I think they figured out who is the king. So today I took my camera for the first time in a week, shot some playtime in the yard. I have to say, the dog is persistent :)
It was bloody freezing this morning in the park, where we went to shoot a foggy sunrise. The temperatures dropped to -22 degrees Celsius and the fog made it feel even colder. But the sky was blue and the sun was rising so we went for a very long walk and took a lot of pictures. By the time we've gotten back into our vehicle I could barely feel some of my fingers and toes, not mentioning my frozen face.. Oh, well.. I think, it was still worth it! ;D Here is a few of the shots I took this morning and, though, it is not spring yet, for which I am terribly sorry, the world is looking mighty wonderful today! :D Kasia
As I have mentioned in my previous post: Ice and Light - Lake Louise in Winter, we haven't had much luck with the weather, during our latest foray into the mountains. We've glimpsed a bit of a blue sky for a moment - I did managed to snap a shot of it :D (see below) - but mostly the sky was heavy with clouds and the snow, along with rain were falling heavily obscuring the views... That, however, has not stopped us from taking pictures ;D. They are just totally different than what we usually come back with, because it forced us to chose different ways of showcasing the mountains. And the heavy snow added a bit of a Chrismasy feel to some of the pictures.. I hope I was able to capture the atmosphere and the feel of the world of winter Rockies.. Enjoy! Kasia
I've never been to Lake Louise in winter before and was looking forward to seeing this beautiful place all covered in snow. When we arrived there the sky was already clouding up, but there was still enough light and colour to make things look interesting and it gave me the opportunity to take a few pictures of some of the great ice sculptures scattered all over the place, before they were damaged by rain and snow that came the next day. Mac has shared his images from this trip in his posts: A mix of color in winter - Alberta Landscape Photography, Winter in the Rockies – Alberta Landscape Photography and People in the Mountains – Candid Photography and now it is my turn to show mine, hoping you are not too bored yet ;D Kasia
On our recent trip to Lake Louise and Banff National Park, we had only one day when it wasn't overcast and snowing. Even though the rest of the time we did not get the special light, that you get from a setting or rising sun, the world still look beautiful. The big clumps of snow covering the spruce trees, is absolutely magical, and the constant heavy falling snow, just add to the cozy winter feel. Shooting in such conditions brings out it's own challenges. The falling snow melts quickly when it touches your camera, and as we know electronics and water do not mix very well. If you have a rain cover for your gear, use it, but even a hat or a normal plastic shopping bag will do. It doesn't look pretty, but it will save your gear from getting wet. So the first day I was able to capture some color in the world, but after that the world turned black & white, and that was that. Here is another set from our trip. Enjoy!
Last week, we spent a wonderful quiet couple of days in the Rockies, specifically in Lake Louise. I don't think we ever been there during winter. During summer, Lake Louise is a very busy place, and very picturesque. This time however, the tourists were mostly gone, and one could say we had the place to ourselves. My wife and I, prepared ourselves with tripods, ready for night photography, sunsets, and sunrises. Unfortunately the weatherman was completely off with the forecasts, and all we really got is snow, snow and more snow. We had to forgo our dreams of spectacular rocky mountain sunsets, and take advantage of what mother nature gave us. Most of my images are processed in B&W, just because with all the snow falling, there was almost no color to be seen. The world was black, gray, and white. Here is the first batch of images I want to show you. There will be a few more after this post :) Enjoy!
You know? There is really no escaping the fact, that no matter what my wishes are, the winter is really not ready to depart just yet.. In this case lets enjoy it!These were taken on a rare sunny morning with blue sky and mists enveloping the River Valley and Rundle Park here in Edmonton. It was rather cold that morning as well, and the snow was just so very fresh covering earth in a pristine blanket of white. So, so beautiful!!! Well, if you can't get rid of it, embrace it!! ;D
Kasia
It has been mostly a gloomy winter around here, but now and again we are treated to some wonderful skies in the morning. Even though I can't go anywhere out I can still enjoying them through my window. I can't seem to stop myself from grabbing my camera and taking pictures of them either. ;D It gives me a great pleasure to share these with you. For me, there is nothing better than to wake up to a view as gorgeous as these! Hope they make your day as well! Kasia
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Day 3:
The days are getting longer, and after work I have a little bit of time to actually catch a sunset. This year's winter weather, is rather strange. Most of the time it's overcast and gray, only seldom the sun comes out. This was the day the sun was out, and I had my 10-18mm Sony lens with my Nex-7 camera. I finally have my landscape lens. I love big skies, and Alberta landscape lends itself well to the big sky phenomenon :) This new Sony lens is just perfect for that. It's sharp all the way through, and at 10mm (15mm full frame equivalent) it's very very wide. Most of my landscape right now, are shot for HDR. I also have been following the blog of a really inspiring Alberta Landscape photographer, Dan Jurak. I always admired his landscapes, so when he posted his settings for processing HDR in Photomatix, I had to try it. So here are are some images from that evening. Enjoy!
In our series of Winter Wonderland we've already managed to show you some of the beauty of Canadian winter. It is hard not to photograph the surrounding world when it is so beautiful. I hope you don't mind me sharing some more of it. Whether it is a park or a country road it all looks so great in the morning light! So here it is - a little more of winter beauty as I saw it.. Kasia
