Barn Shooting

Images Alberta Camera Club held what has become our annual Barn Shoot this past weekend in the country-side north of Bon Accord.

Over 20 club photographers covered a route of old farms buildings where we had land owner permission to shoot.

Cameron Falls Trail

 
About 70 km east of Yellowknife Northwest Territoies is a short hiking trail to the spectacular Cameron River Falls.  This shot of one of the smaller offshoot streams of the falls was captured from down in the river valley below a large rock bluff.  Only dappled light made it through and illuminated this birch trunk caught in the maelstorm. 

Scenes from Yellowknife Bay, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Daily commuters, Houseboats and kayaks in the bay.  I wonder how much the parking ticket will be?  Do they tow away?

Edith Cavell Meadows -Jasper National Park

We spent a weekend learning to photograph wild flowers with professional photographer Paul Gilbert earlier this summer at the Waterton Wildflower Festival in  Waterton National Park.  That has created an interest and new skills that have me exploring through the Rockies with a new view.  

Here are a few shots from the Mount Edith Cavell Meadows in Jasper National Park.  Don't be deceived by the term meadows, these are not flat by any means as you will see in some of this pictures. 

Marmots

We took a run out to Jasper National Park for the weekend and one of the spots we explored was Mount Edith Cavell, the Angel Glacier and the Edith Cavell Meadows. While climbing through the boulder jumble to get into the meadows, I came across this group of Marmots. They are about the size and build of a beaver and live in the higher altitudes of the mountains.

Another Early Morning

Staying on the early morning theme, I was once again out with the thermos of coffee in hand to catch this morning's fog. Taken at Hastings Lake just east of Edmonton, I waited in semi darkness with the sound of wings whistling around overhead but out of sight until I had enough light to capture these pelicans on a spit reaching out into the lake. Hastings Lake has a sizable pelican population and they are often seen in their serene glide and wave flight pattern. This group seemed content to sit out the fog.

Why I packed the alarm clock on vacation.

Why would anyone get up before 6am on their vacation? My answer lately has been "To catch the morning light".

When you're just days from the summer solstice, as we were in early June in Waterton National Park, that means getting up and rolling early. The sky just starts to show light about 5:45 and suddenly at 6 the sunlight is streaming across the prairie and straight in to the mountain valley. Luckily my wife shares my early morning obsessions some days and we were up and out chasing the first light.

Thank goodness we had prepared a thermos of coffee the night before!



Many balsamroot plants at the valley level had flowered in late May or early June and were starting to show to look pretty tattered by the time we were there in mid June. We were lucky to find this cluster in good condition and I wanted to shoot them from an angle other than our usual downward looking viewpoint. I was struck by the low angle sunlight striking these and had the advantage of both a mountain ridge and a glorious blue sky as a backdrop.

From Welch's Chocolate Store - Waterton

Many thanks to Welch's for access to the store one evening and to all those great afternoons on the side deck eating fresh pies and drinking great coffee after our photo expeditions. Oh, and did I mention the fudge? This is a MUST DO in Waterton.

Sorry folks, Photobucket has discontinued their musical slide show option. 

Here are a few of the images

Kid's In A Candy Store.

Welch's Candy Store.


Double click to expand and pan this banner.


During a recent trip in to Waterton National Park we discovered a true gems in Waterton village. Welsh's Candy store - a mere block from the town campground - is a wonder that needs to be explored.

A first glance it is a busy little store offering ice cream and shelves of fudge and confections to visitors from all over the world. A short tour of the shelves reveal confections imported from the British isles, Germany, Switzerland competing with fudges and chocolate produced in store for the attention of visiting for sweet tooths.



Here's a first draft of it's glory.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/skinny_skier/waterton%20candy%20store/?action=view¤t=05062324.pbr

Portrait of a Queen

The Edmonton river valley, with it's system of parks and trails, offers many photo opportunities. Over the last year, I have returned to the river just below the downtown to shoot the Edmonton Queen Riverboat.




Riverboats were an important part of Edmonton's history providing both passenger and cargo passage up and down the river. Today, the Edmonton Queen Riverboat provides Edmontonians and visitors a chance to relive a piece of our history with short cruise through a portion of our river valley. The 'Queen' often plays host to weddings and schools and corporate events. It isn't unusual for a Saturaday afternoon to have a wedding booked for both afternoon cruises.



In the early years of the last century, riverboats carried party goers upstream as far as Big Island for an evening of dining and dancing. The river depth doesn't permit the Edmonton Queen as far a range but they still have a evening Buffet dinner and cruise.



These photos were taken over the last year as a photo study of the riverboat. I have just completed a project with the Provincial Archive of Alberta where I worked to recreate an 1896 riverboat photo taken by the prominent Edmonton photographer Ernst Brown. That photo along with some 20 others by members of Images Alberta Camera Club will be part of an exhibit at the Provincial Archives starting October 2009.





I hope to post both the original photo and my own but I am awaiting copywrite approval from the Archives before I post the original photo.