When it gets thick enough, ice fog can eliminate any evidence of a horizon as it did on this day. I drove quite extensively around Red Deer County in the fog, which I find very enjoyable! Everything becomes very isolated and a feeling of loneliness pervades. Sounds become muted and whenever I stopped to have a look around or take a picture, I am sure to turn of the vehicle to enjoy the silence. Usually I’ll here a magpie, raven or maybe a distant farm dog barking. One day while out I heard a rather loud gunshot! I couldn’t see who was responsible and I’m certain whomever it was couldn’t see me, so I hightailed it out of there pretty quick!
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This past Monday morning I dropped Laura off at her office downtown and headed into Red Deer County through a thick ice fog that had enveloped Red Deer and the surrounding area. I didn’t get far before I started to see the potential for some pictures. I slowed down along one of the range roads heading south as the fog was very thick, but when I get on backroads it’s what I tend to do anyway. As soon as I saw these trees I slammed on the brakes. They reminded me of Ray McSavaney’s pictures of the “Walking Tree” that he made in Yosemite National Park in the 80’s. I set up and waited until the fog drifted off a bit so I could see the front trees a bit better. It took a few minutes but I did’t mind. There was almost no wind and the fog was absorbing most of the sounds from around me. The quietness was very enjoyable!
Ray McSavaney is one of my favourite photographers and his book “Explorations” should not be missed and better yet, be in your library! I believe it was Ray McSavaney that first found the tree he photographed in Yosemite, but John Sexton photographed the “Fallen Branch” beautifully as well. Speaking of books, you should likely round up copies of John Sexton’s “Listen to the Trees” and “Recollections”!
12″ x 10.3″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (open edition) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/175
24″ x 20.6″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/500
40″ x 34.3″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/1000
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“It’s dead, Spalpeen,” Brian’s father said gently.
“Why?”
“It happens to things,” his father said.
“Why does it happen to things?” He turned up his face to his father, cheeks stained with drying tears.
“That’s the way they end up.”
W.O Mitchell – Who Has Seen the Wind (Toronto and Boston, 1947) Macmillan of Canada
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I have sorrowfully neglected my blog for far too long. No excuses really, just lazy! I have made many many pictures since I last posted and will start with some of the latest and slowly work backwards amongst new pictures as I go. For anyone who follows me on Instagram (collinjorthner) you will have seen most of the pictures I present here, but even today’s post has something different. One of these pictures on Instagram was shown in B&W, and here you get to see it in colour. 🙂
Autumn colours this year were quite beautiful, even though I didn’t capture a tonne (ton for those that still follow the imperial method of weighing things) of pictures. This one was made just as the woods made a last ditch attempt to impress those fortunate enough to walk the trails through them. It was a fairly windy afternoon and it was necessary to wait patiently for a spell of calm. I didn’t mind in the least, as it was still quite warm and looking around me wasn’t a bad way of spending some time. I spent a few hours slowly wandering around searching out the last few areas that were showing off.
We have had more than our share of windstorms this year in central Alberta and as such thousands of trees have been lost. Maybe lost is the wrong term? They are now becoming part of the forest’s nutrition plan for the future! I have tried to find a way of showing the damage, but in a way that is still aesthetically pleasing. It can be hard to walk through Bower Woods and still appreciate them for all their beauty with so many toppled trees.
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The best solar storm of the year so far occurred on Saturday night and Sunday morning the 7th and 8th of May. The auroras were easily visible from inside the city limits which means they are very bright, so around 11pm I grabbed my camera gear and headed south of town. It was a very clear night, so I didn’t need to travel too far for nice dark skies. After travelling about 15 or 20 kilometres south I found a nice high spot with no power lines to intrude in the picture. Man I hate it when I don’t notice power lines until I review my images later. It can easily happen as I work rather quick when taking aurora pictures as they don’t necessarily last very long. Typically you see the pale green aurora that are not very dramatic, sometimes for hours, and then all of a sudden the auroral storm intensifies for maybe 10 minutes. That’s when I jump into action, usually with a very wide-angle lens like the Rokinon 14mm or 24mm. On this night I took a few pictures with these two lenses but the auroral display was across the whole sky and I decided to use my 12mm full frame fish-eye lens. These fish-eye lenses cover 180º, which is a lot of sky! Remember those power lines I mentioned, yeah sometimes they creep into the edge or corners of images which drives me crazy. So this first site, being clear of power lines and offering up a beautiful view looking south, was fabulous. You can see the lights from Calgary glowing on the horizon. I de-fisheyed the picture in photoshop. For the first time, for me, I managed to capture a blue streak of aurora in the upper right edge of the picture. The blue is caused by ionized nitrogen in the atmosphere and usually appear at the lowest level of the curtains and at the highest levels of solar activity. This picture may be a view of almost 600km of sky from one edge to the next and the auroras were pulsating the whole time I was out, which is always very dramatic to view!
The next picture shows one of the gravel roads in Red Deer County looking south. Fun thing is the Big Dipper is in the picture just above centre right and the North Star is right at the top edge, which simply shows how much sky a fish-eye lens sees! Can you find the Dipper?? The red glow is from my car’s tail lights.
The last picture is from a spot high up on the hills south of Red Deer which allows me to see the city’s lights quite nicely. I kept shooting as the shapes kept changing very quickly. In this picture the aurora looks like a bird flying over Red Deer! The show on this night didn’t last only 10 minutes, but instead I was treated to nearly an hour of gorgeous auroras!!
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“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”
– Henry David Thoreau
This lone tree was possibly being protected by the farmer due to it’s beautiful shape or perhaps this used to be the site of an old homestead and he wanted to preserve something of the heritage of his farm. Of course there were other trees around, but in Kneehill County there are not near as many as in the parkland biome of Alberta. Mostly the tree are planted as windbreaks around farmyards, but every now and again you’ll find nice pockets of protected trees especially in the northern parts of the county. The further south you travel, the more sparse the trees become. I quite liked how the cloud patterns resemble the snow patterns on the stubble field and the vehicle tracks on the right are mirrored in the clouds as well.
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Leaning to the east, this small granary in Kneehill County near Trochu, has been buffeted by strong chinook winds from the west for many years and on this day it was about to get hit again. All the dark brooding clouds were just behind the leading edge of this new chinook which warmed the air to a balmy 17ºC. The warm wind made fairly quick work of the last remaining snow and all the small creeks were running strong with meltwater for the next few days as the water, following the law of gravity, rushed on the quickest route downhill towards the Red Deer River.
“Snow Eater” the Blackfoot call you.
Born of the sea,
Flowing inland
To warm the land,
Climb a mountain
And bestow
A benediction of rain
On the forest below.
Chill and dry
At the top.
Nearly touching the sky.
Warmed by the speed
Of your descent,
You blow through
The Clouds,
Carving an arch
High in the sky.
Your signature.
Then march
Across the foothills
Raising the temperature,
Melting ice and snow
As you go.
It feels like springtime in Alberta and the sloughs are filling up with meltwater again, even though it technically is still winter for a couple more weeks. The only sound here was that of water running in the ditch and the wind blowing through the fence wires and the grass. I was travelling with my friend Michael Chesworth on our way towards Drumheller when we came across this beautiful scene in Kneehill County. We travel with no agenda and no major goals in mind, simply enjoying our time together and the scenery along as many gravel backroads as we can find. Of course gravel roads allow us to travel slowly if we want to, and we do, and stop often without the worry of traffic, so it generally takes us a long time to get anywhere! But that is exactly how I like it!
there’s something rather strange and still
about a warm winter afternoon
when the sun has dipped until
there is only a subtle peach haze on the
clouds
and a silver sparkle on the trees
the snow is soft
with endless rills and rolls
and tracks
birds hush
for a change, and listen
animals smile with their gentle eyes
and people
people
look and look
and take off their mitts
and adjust their hats
and breathe deeply
trying to grasp it
I wonder if warm winter afternoons
mean this much everywhere
or just here
Marilyn Cay – “Strange and Still”
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Late in the fall we had a very cold night with high humidity which gave us a nice foggy morning. I enjoy the tranquility of walking in through the woods in the fog, but I don’t much enjoy driving in it unless I’m on a backroad where I can move along slowly. Bower Woods is only a few minutes from my home and becomes my default many days when I feel like walking and thinking. Not only do I feel calm when surrounded by the fog, but sounds and colours are all muted as well.
Bower Woods, Red Deer, AB
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“Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue and refers to the impacts of pollution that impair one’s ability to enjoy a vista or view.” Wikipedia
During my lunch breaks at work, I like to go for a walk around downtown Red Deer to get some fresh air and feel the sun and wind on my face. It refreshes me, but not comparing even remotely to the kind of refreshment I get when I first breath in clean, fresh, cool mountain air when I travel into the Rocky Mountains, but it is certainly refreshing compared to the air in my office! The visual stimuli leave a lot to be desired in the downtown core. Visual pollution runs rampant and can almost be called embarrassing to think that after a hundred plus years of being incorporated as a town and city, that this is all the City of Red Deer could accomplish! It is, however, an interesting challenge to myself to find “beauty” amongst it all, a composition that exhibits balance and harmony or a complete lack of it. Maybe it’s the lighting and atmospheric conditions that help the situation. Whatever it is, I like to try and find it.
These two photographs were taken only a day or two apart from each other from virtually the same spot just down the back alley from work. You can see the same post on the left of the first photo and again on the far right of the second photo.
I suppose with almost no drilling for oil in these parts right now, an alternative might well be drilling for fish! Gull Lake in south central Alberta has it’s fair share of winter sportsmen who enjoy hanging out on the ice waiting for a fleeting glimpse of a fish. I for one don’t care for the sport, oh I’ve done it, but likely won’t ever again. Fly fishing – you bet, ice fishing – not so much. However, being that I enjoy photography so much, who is to say I can’t make a few photos of those that are still exploring the sport?
I have most Mondays off work(I usually work Saturdays, so please don’t get too excited thinking I get three day weekends!) and I have been waiting for a Monday that shows up with a nice cover of high clouds to enable the photo I am after for quite awhile. Sometimes my Mondays get rather full of things I need to get done, but this past week, I had a few hours available to go photographing and the conditions were ideal! I set off after driving my wife to work and enjoying a coffee with her.
It is a fairly short drive from Red Deer around a half hour or so. The day use area of Aspen Provincial Park is gated for the winter so a short half a kilometre walk got me to the beach area and just off shore were some of the fishing huts I was after.
I attempted this image last year, but the one time I made it out, the windchill was hovering around -30ºC, and I only took the time to make a photograph on 35mm film, which unfortunately was very far outdated 400ISO, so the resulting image was lacking shall we say!
As I was walking down the beach I noticed the one hut on the far right of the above image looking a bit lonely at the edge of the herd and I decided to isolate it with a telephoto lens to really give it the feeling of being lonely out there.
Then just before I was about to leave the beach and head back to my car one of the sportsmen decided to drill a new hole far from all the others. He had walked quite a distance with his ice auger and started drilling. I slang into action hoping to get set up in time to get at least one image before he finished the chore. I don’t know if he trouble starting the machine, but he seemed a bit delayed allowing me the few extra seconds to get my tripod set up and ready. I like this image the best from the time I spent at Gull Lake and would like to try printing it large with a white wood frame.
6.7″ x 10″ – Open Edition Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/45
20″ x 30″ – Edition of 9 + 1 AP Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/385
30″ x 45″ – Edition of 4 +1 AP Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/825
40″x 60″ – Edition of 4 +1 AP Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/1650
Collin J Örthner - Photographer 
