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.
Photographing the Aurora, is relatively easy. Tripod, wide angle lens, possibly a remote shutter cord, and patience.
Having beautiful weather is not always good for landscape photography. The clear blue skies, are great for camping and general merriment of being outside.
Going to the mountains is always associated with a risk of having rain, cold, and not a very pleasant day for photography. Specially when you have to drive about 4 hours. Yes there are weather forecasts, but as more weather "forecasting" becomes almost common place (all you have to look is your smart phone and there are hundreds of apps trying to tell you what the weather is going to be like), the quality of said forecasts diminishes exponentially.
This year wasn't very good for sunsets. Huge forest fires in the NWT were at fault, bringing smoke and haze. So far there were only a couple good days, and most of the time the beautiful fluffy clouds would burn away by sunset, leaving empty blue skies. This is was one of those days. The canola fields in Alberta, creating wonderful contrasts with the big blue skies, it's always a great sight.....
I was debating with myself, if I should post these, as unfortunately it's a perfect illustration of a mistake. One big mistake, of being lazy. Almost every year we venture into the Edmonton downtown to view the spectacular fireworks display on Canada Day. This year, we figured we are going to try a different venue. So we got there a few hours before the show, and were greeted with huge masses of people....
Early morning. Hordes of mosquitoes, tall wet grass, and me, frolicking with my Fuji X-Pro1 camera and a Fuji 10-24mm lens, trying to get a good angle on a beautiful Alberta sunrise. I stopped on the highway near the back of Villeneuve airport, trying the catch the Boing 737 parked there in the middle of a canola field. I really like the juxtaposition of a big passenger jet just sitting there in a farmer's field.
Our little evening outing culminated at the Hastings Lake. We have never been there before, so a perfect ending to a great drive through unknown Alberta roads :) The first thing we have noticed were hoards of flying insects.
After the trip to Regensburg, the day was promising a good sunset. So I convinced my good friend from Hooked on Europe, that we should go out to a field somewhere, not too far. Well, Großgründlach or Grossgrundlach, is not that far away from Nuremberg,
There are times when in landscape photography, a wide angle lens is just simply too wide. When the sky has nothing to offer, but it's color, and when the ground has nothing to offer either. It's not easy sometimes to photograph the mood of a landscape, when the sky is blue, and the ground is flat and feature less. Yet there is a certain mood in the air, like that morning on the beach. There was a mist coming from the ocean, and hanging low on the beach, but the sky was featureless and I had to work hard to find something interesting on the ground.
This is a perfect time, when the big zooms come out to play in landscape photography. This is a perfect time to focus on something far away, instead of up close, and that's what I did. The mist coming out of the ocean, created this incredible mood. The people walking along the beach became ghosts, appearing and disappearing. With a long zoom, you can capture a beautiful mood, and add a completely genuine human element to the landscape. Here are some shots from that beautiful morning. Enjoy!
Mac
