Red Deer – 2

Another from documenting downtown Red Deer.

[Canon 5dmkII, Zeiss 50mm Makro]

Red Deer – 1

I have been photographing quite a bit over the last few months throughout downtown Red Deer. Every now and again I will post some images from this series. I have made both B&W and colour images, vertical and horizontal images, some panoramas and some images with very shallow depth of field. I am not sure how they will all work together, but none the less it is an enjoyable project. These images are not meant to necessarily look beautiful, but instead simply to use lighting and composition as tools to document our city.

[Canon 5DmkII, Zeiss 50mm Makro)

July 18th, Red Deer County & Lacombe County, Alberta

We had a heavy thunderstorm roll through just north of Red Deer late last night. The first image was made looking SSE at around 10:30pm as some very strong winds followed this cloud front. The lights from the city are showing on the underside of the clouds on the right side and look almost like sunset light. It is a 4 second exposure made using a tripod and shows a bit of cloud movement. The second image was made about 20 minutes later looking straight north through the car window. The winds were extremely hard and I didn’t dare set the camera up on a tripod. The car was being sand blasted by dust from the gravel road. I simply held the camera as steady as I could jamming it between the window and dashboard, holding the shutter open for 15 seconds. It shows some movement as the car was being rocked by the strong winds.The orange colour on the right side is being caused by the lights from the NOVA plant at Joffre in Lacombe County.

[Canon 5DmkII, Zeiss 21mm]

Pavan Park, Lethbridge, Alberta

Pavan Park is the northern-most river valley park in the City of Lethbridge. It was opened in 1987 and is designed to provide a variety of active recreational opportunities. About 82 hectares (203 acres) of the park’s total area of 217 hectares (537 acres), are located on the river floodplain. A substantial portion of the park consists of coulee and prairie environments. Featuring both natural and groomed environments, Pavan Park has equestrian and walking trails, which border Pavan Lake and run alongside the bank of the Oldman River.

The entrance road into Pavan park winds through a narrow coulee with steep slopes and emerges onto a broad floodplain. Across open meadows, a man-made lake is tucked against the cottonwood bluffs bordering the river. Picnic areas, trails and recreation facilities blend naturally into the riverside setting.

The park was named to commemorate the Pavan family, who owned the property prior to its acquisition by the city. At one time, a gravel extraction operation took place on the land and portions of the floodplain were irrigated farmland.

I believe this is a Populus angustifolia (Narrowleaf Poplar), but there are three species of poplar trees native to the Oldman River valley, including Populus deltoides (Eastern Cottonwood) and the Populus balsamifera (Balsam Poplar) and so could be a hybrid species as well.

[Canon 5DmkII, Zeiss 21mm]

Whiskey Gap, Alberta

Whiskey Gap is a ghost town in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located about 80 kilometers south of Lethbridge on Highway 501.

In the 1860s and 1870s American traders crossed into what would become Alberta to trade goods and alcohol for buffalo robes and furs. One of the main routes for this trade, the Riplinger Road, crossed the border just west of Whiskey Gap.

During the Prohibition period in Alberta between 1916-1924 alcohol was smuggled through this area from the United States. Later it flowed in the opposite direction when the Americans declared Prohibition.

The local post office was named Fareham in 1918, and when the railway reached the area a community consisting of 3 grain elevators, a store, and other businesses and houses grew up around this post office. In 1913 the community was officially renamed Whiskey Gap. Although little remains of this once thriving community, its name reflects its long and colorful past and strategic location.

This was my first chance to get out with my new Zeiss 21mm Distagon lens on my Canon 5DmkII camera.