Athabasca Falls

My wife and I travelled to Jasper some years ago in January for a weekend of cross-country skiing and sightseeing, including a stop at Athabasca Falls. This image was made in pouring rain which was a bit difficult, but the effort seemed worth it. I have seen these falls many times(OK a few times) previously, but hadn’t seen them with the natural ice bridge. The colour of the water added a beautiful contrast to the ice.
[Pentax 6×7, 105mm, Fuji RDP]

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park is a short drive, to the northeast, from Cochrane, Alberta. The park is located between parkland and foothills natural regions; the main attraction is a series of small waterfalls that flow year-round over rocky terraces covered with a lush growth of shrubs and grasses; the park is also the site of an historic fish hatchery and Alberta’s first commercial creamery. There are many hiking trails leading through this small park making for some great site seeing opportunities. Because of a constant breeze and the need for quite a long exposure it took great patience and the better part of a complete roll of film to get one image where the grass is still.
[Mamiya 7II, 50mm, Fuji Provia]

Remember to click on the images for a larger view.

This second image was made a different visit the fall previous from 5 individual images and stitched together creating a panorama which encompasses close to 180 degrees vertically. My feet are just outside the image at the bottom and you are looking nearly straight up at the top. This was the first digital camera I owned back in 1999, with a whopping 1.3 MP sensor!
[Canon A50]

Trees 6

Staying with the theme of trees – again, I have this image I made back in January in Calgary along the Bow River. Carburn Park is a wonderful place for a hike any time of year and lucky for me, it’s close to my brother’s place, so virtually every time we’re there for a visit, time is taken for a stroll in the park. Our family had been together for New Year’s celebrations this past year in Calgary and my brother-in-law Dave and myself went for a walk and discovered this gorgeous cottonwood growing only a few metres from the river. All I had with me was a little digital point and shoot which actually did a pretty decent job. We did go back down and I hauled the 8×10 camera down and set up a shot, but unfortunately it’s still a bit new to me and I didn’t allow a small enough aperture to cover the depth of field required for the image. next time I’m down there you can bet I’ll be re-shooting this image on a rather large piece of film! I made the image in colour and converted it in Photoshop to a B&W. The quite like the colour image but feel the forms presented work better in B&W.

This second image is another one from the same day which is very representative of Carburn Park and lets you know what you can expect to see there, in winter at least.
[Panasonic LX-2]

Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park

One of my longtime dreams was to photograph using an 8×10 camera with transparencies. I purchased a Wehman 8×10 camera and some boxes of Fuji Velvia 50 film. Using a camera this large requires a concerted effort and takes far longer to set-up than any camera I’ve ever used. This can be good and bad. Good, because it forces me to slow down and really examine the scene in front of me , and it’s worthiness of making an image. Many times I have gone through the ritual of setting the camera up and making all the adjustments necessary, only to discover that the scene doesn’t cut it for me, or the light has disappeared. With a digital, 35mm, or medium format, I would likely make the image anyway, but when looking at the expense involved with 8×10 transparencies and development costs, I sometimes think that pressing the cable release isn’t worth it. The size of the camera can be bad too, as transient light doesn’t wait for me to get set-up, and I miss the image only because I am still fiddling with the camera. Practice is helping me speed my times and I’m sure I will become more proficient with more experience.
[Wehman 8×10, Schneider 240mm G-Claron, Fuji Velvia]

Looking at an 8×10 transparency on my light table is amazing, and the level of detail stunning. The image presented here is a 4×10 crop from an 8×10 and the smaller detail below is what a print would like at 60″. This small detail is taken from the mid left side of the image. Remember, you can click on any photo on this blog to make it larger.

Abstract

Abstract paintings have always grabbed my attention, and I am gradually starting to see this way myself. It is my aim with this type of image to alienate the viewer a bit, almost making them uncomfortable, because they can’t identify immediately what it is they are looking at. Many abstracts grab our eyes simply due to interesting patterns and colours and it doesn’t have to be anything, or it can mean anything we want it to.

Dogrib Creek Burn was a massive forest fire back in 2003 along the Forestry Trunk Road west of Sundre, Alberta. Gerard(good friend) and myself were out exploring as many small forestry roads as we could without getting stuck and after travelling maybe 10km along one particular road happened on a dead-end. We got out and hiked up to the nearest ridge to explore a bit and here was this amazing pattern created from a devastating fire. I zoomed in to eliminate all the surroundings that helped make this an easy interpretation.
[Canon 10D, 100-400mm]