Little Unnoticed Events


As the Saskatchewan River flooded last week it covered this little Verbena flower. For a bit the flower would stand up tall, and then a little wave would catch it and surface tension would hold it down for a little bit. Then as a larger wave would come along, the trough of the wave would be too low to hold it down, and the little flower would pop back up.

Taken with a Canon 5d, Sigma 150 macro at f2.8, 1/200 of a second.

North Saskatchewan River Adventure

Actually, it didn’t turn out to be too adventurous. No one dumped, no one froze, and although we got a fair amount of rain it was pretty nice weather. I went on a four day canoe trip on the North Saskatchewan River with a bunch of awesome people from MEC. We put in at the Forestry Trunk Road Bridge and took out near the Brierlies (some popular rapids) at Rocky Mountain House. We ate amazingly well, had a few campfires (thanks to no fire ban) and paddled through some small rapids (some paddled through larger rapids than others). I’m still going through the photos, but here’s a little preview.


The first day was actually nice and sunny – a great day of paddling!


After the first day it got rainy, but we had loads of fun anyway.


Erin and Chris ran Devil’s Elbow on a cold drizzly day in a Starbust all outfitted with float bags and thigh straps. We were all set up at the bottom of the rapids with a couple throw bags and a rescue boat, but they made it through.

Spring Going On Summer

Today was a beautiful day. The rain was steadily dripping from the leaves with an occasional heavier shower when a gust of wind came along. The loons were laughing and calling and the yellow warblers were busy in the branches overhead. I was out hiking with my camera, getting thoroughly soaked, taking lots of photos, searching for the birds whose calls I didn’t recognize. I went out prepared, with a mug of warm coffee for my morning breaks, and neoprene socks on (for the record – they are amazing. I will never hike in the rain without them again). It was the best morning I’ve had in a long time.

This summer I probably won’t have a lot of time — for hiking or blogging or all my other activities. I’m sad about this, but happy about the trade-offs. I’ll be learning lots and hopefully saving up some money. And I’m hoping to be a bit more free come September. So I’ll post updates as I can, but know that I’m learning things that will hopefully make this blog more interesting and give me a wider range of photo opportunities in the future.

Random Updates


On Saturday in the afternoon (between 2 and 4pm for sure, and probably a little longer) I’ll be at Tix on the Square if you’d like to stop by. I’ll try to bring more cufflinks too (just have to package them up)!

The Daffodil now has my first extra large square pendants which have been requested by a lot of people! I just dropped them off yesterday.

Today I’m going to pick up my new Olympus OM-D! I’m super excited about this camera. It looks like it will have really good image quality, and because it’s light and weather-sealed it should allow me get to more places and take more interesting photos. I’ll report back once I get a feel for it, but I think it will be good. Now I just have to save up for a couple more lenses. Speaking of which, anyone interested in a Panasonic 14-140 or a Canon 50 f3.5 macro? I’ve used both of them very little, and they’re in great condition.

The photo above was taken at Beaverhill Lake with a Canon 5d and 300 f4, at f4 and 1/400 of a second.

Long-Eared Owl

OK, this is much of an art photo, but I just saw my first long-eared owl (Asio otus)! Here it is in all it’s camouflage-ness. There were actually a pair of them, but this is the only one I got a photo of. I could have stalked them and maybe got more photos, but especially in spring when birds are breeding I prefer to leave them alone to do their thing.

Taken with a Canon 5d, 300mm, f5.6 at 1/160 of a second.

Art at Fresh Cafe

I’ve now got some photos up for sale at Fresh Cafe & Espresso Bar, a new coffee shop on 116 Street just south of Jasper (10038 – 116 Street). Go check them out and enjoy a coffee and amazing snacks and sandwiches.

You still have almost a week to see “Water”, my exhibit at the Stanley Milner Library. I’m really happy with it, and hope you all get to see it! If you don’t get a chance to go see the prints, you can see a poor substitute here: http://joelkoop.com/pwater.php

Photo taken with a Canon 5d, 150mm macro, at f2.8, 1.6 seconds. (This isn’t one of the photos up at Fresh, but it’s one I wanted to share at some point. You’ll have to go to Fresh to find out for yourself.)

Gallery at Milner on Saturday

I will be at the Stanley Milner Library this Saturday the 21st, from 2:00 to 4:00pm. I’d love to see you all there. Everything there is for sale (both on the walls and in the display cases), but has to stay up until the end of the month. Looking forward to it!

Drawing in Space

In my design studies at university, we had a fascinating sculpture assignment called “Drawing in Space”. We used strips and small blocks of wood to create a sculpture with interesting lines when viewed from any angle. Both the lines and the negative space they defined were equally important. I really enjoyed framing spaces and cutting into volumes of space, and that is something that I don’t get to do quite as much with photography. But when opportunities present themselves, as they did this last week, I get lost in the creating. I’m not sure how long I spent in this particular treasure trove of grass curls. The shallow depth of field I’ve used here really adds to both the ethereal-ness and the depth of the photo, letting you almost feel the space around the grass.




All taken with my 5d, 150mm macro, f6.3, 1/200 – 1/640 of a second.
Taken on the Beaver Pond Trail in Elk Island National Park.

If you’re still reading and interested, I’ll just write a quick note about composition. In the last two photos I’ve done something that is generally disapproved of in standard compositions – there is a strong line running vertically through the frame (even directly in the middle of the frame! the horror). In these cases I think it works as an unusual visual device to emphasize the depth of the photo. If the grass curls did not wrap around the vertical line it would not work.

Birch Trees In a Spring Snow Storm

I got the chance to head out to Chickakoo Lake a couple weeks ago during a big spring snow storm. There was very little snow around at the beginning of the day, but by the end it was a few inches thick (I think Environment Canada said 10cm). This made for wonderful photo conditions and horrible driving conditions.

Birch (Paper birch around here — Betula papyrifera) trees always catch my attention. They can be so colorful or almost pure white, but they always have great contrast — light trunks and dark branches. They’re a lot less common than poplars around Edmonton, and often a forest will have a birch tree or two in it, but mainly consists of more common trees. At Chickakoo Lake the situation is almost turned around. There are still a lot of poplars around, but the birch trees outnumber them.

Stanley Milner Library Gallery Show

I now have a 14 prints up at the Stanley Milner Library. It’s a solo show and all the photos are in the main foyer between Second Cup and the Library. They will be up for the whole month of April, so I hope you all get a chance to check them out! I just finished hanging them all and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!

More photos will be coming soon, but April is turning out to be really busy for me, so forgive me if the posts here are a little sparse.