OK, I have to post some more from the trip to Abraham Lake. The ice is too cool to keep to myself.
Drawn Back To Ice
More Highlight Experimentation
Which do YOU like better? I’ve been going back to some of my older photos and trying this blowing-out-the-highlights thing. It’s a little different, and I’m still not completely sure what I think about it. So today I’m going to post two photos—from the same place, same time, and slightly different compositions.
Here’s the new one that I’m still getting used to:
Here’s the old one—this is the way things are usually done for landscape photography. I actually put my camera on my tripod, fully extended the tripod, and held it up as high as I could to get some perspective in this shot.
What do you think?
Pendant Preview
Anna mentioned making pendants in a comment on the last blog post I made. This is something we’ve been working on together for a little while, and a few lucky people already own them. This is the first time they’ve been seen online. We’re still working on getting the product photography to a state we’re happy with, but it’s getting close. These pendants have a bit of a glow to them in certain light, and that’s something that’s a little hard to reproduce in a product photo.
In a couple weeks we’re hoping to have a bunch up on our artfire.com store – Boreal Designs.
Reflections in Modeste Creek
Somewhat Abstract Reflections
My mind is whirling with weird scientific names and terms for animal-related phenomena. Who thought Haliaeetus leucocephalus would roll off the tongue nicely? And since when is plastron the bottom of a turtle and not a superhero name? So I’m going to take a quiet moment and post a couple photos.
Both photos are peaceful reflections in Horseshoe Lake, taken a few minutes apart.
Small Mountain Pond
I really wish I could have taken this photo from higher up. Maybe some day I’ll go back with a stepladder or something. But I still kind of like the photo.
Not sure if there will be photos tomorrow or the day after – my Wildlife Biodiversity and Ecology midterm is coming up quick, and lots of memorization is involved.
A small pond in Jasper National Park.
The Mixing of the Waters
This is where glacial melt-water was flowing into a spring-fed pond in Jasper National Park.
Ethereal Landscapes
Often in landscapes I try to get all the details visible – lots of contrast, but with the blacks never going totally black and the whites never getting so bright they lose detail. Sometimes though, it pays to blow out the highlights. This is one of those things that’s irreversible in an image, and can look bad, so you have to be sure about it. But when it works it can add a mood to a photo that won’t be there otherwise. This is something I’ve seen done in lomo photography, wedding photography and some fashion photography for a long time, but I’ve never really tried it for landscapes. Curtis Round, another photographer who I’ve often had the pleasure of shooting with, has inspired me over the last few years. He often does this kind of thing in his wedding and engagement shoots, and it looks great.
Taken in Johnston Canyon, Banff.
Dirty Snow
The wind picks up soil from the windward side of this hill, and deposits it here, on the leeward side. It also creates these fantastic swirls on the snow here at the edge of the ice. Taken beside Abraham Lake.
Porcupine Dance
Here’s a cute porcupine I spent some time with yesterday in Elk Island National Park. He seemed quite curious about me, and not too worried. He was way up in a tiny little tree where I couldn’t reach him. Although I did hear some coyotes that sounded awfully close. It did look like someone tried to get him pretty recently though. He had a big patch on his rear where all the quills were missing. That must have been painful for some hungry coyote.
