summer – the life of a nature photographer

Memory and Promise

Thursday, February 18th, 2016

The prospect of backpacking this summer has me pretty excited. It’s come up a few different ways in the past few weeks and it has me studying google maps, reading trip descriptions, dreaming, and remembering past trips. It’s not the most immediate thing, but it is a familiar thing I can come back to. In a couple weeks I’m going ski touring and winter camping for a few days, which will be new for me. New things come with both excitement and nervousness. But backpacking will be like climbing into a warm sleeping bag, like curling up with a purring cat. This photo is from quite a while ago in Banff National Park. I was looking through some old photos and reliving some old trips.

Banff National Park
32mm, f6.7 1/180 of a second

Memories of Summer

Camping, Landscape

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

Just a quick snap today from Grasslands National Park this past summer. This storm should have been a clue not to camp here — the roads are impassible after much rain. As it was, we had a blissfully ignorant night in our tent with thunder rumbling us to sleep. In the morning we barely made it out.

Beauty and Endings

Landscape, Prairie

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

Fall is here, and I’m not ready for it. As much as I love fall I feel like I didn’t get enough summer yet. I’ve just started to go running fairly regularly, but the cold air isn’t great for my lungs. I haven’t gone backpacking yet this summer. That is a travesty. On the other hand, I’ve done lots of things to get out of my comfort zone, and they’ve been going well. I started teaching photography classes which have been great! I started doing a lot of studio / model photography and that’s awesome! I’m also doing a bunch of video work. So I can’t complain too much.

But this tree, a single tree standing in for all fall trees, holds a lot of excitement and disappointment, all bundled up in beauty and endings.

Summer Storms

Business, Landscape, Prairie

Monday, July 15th, 2013

We’ve had some spectacular storms here this summer, and I finally got out to enjoy one last week. Fortunately here in Edmonton they haven’t had the devastating effects they’ve had in the south of the province.

These days I’m busy getting ready for Folk Fest, and all my supply orders are starting to trickle in. I just got a shipment of a few hundred prints that I haven’t finished inspecting yet – I need to get the mats, bags, and backing for all of them yet. Pendants, earrings and cufflinks are starting to be assembled on my worktable as I’m waiting for a shipment of fresh resin. Despite a brief lull of activity due to sickness, things at the humble headquarters here are humming along. Looking forward to seeing all of you who can make it to Folk Fest – it’s always a great time!

7mm, f5, 1/640 of a second

Edmonton Folk Fest

Business, Flowers, Forest, Galleries and Shows

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

I’m not doing many shows this summer – in fact only one. I’ve had to narrow them down, but the one I’ve managed to keep is Folk Fest, which I’m super excited about! It’s always a great time, with lots of amazing music and friendly people. And I’ve got lots of new stuff this year. So if you’re one of the lucky ones who managed to get tickets, I’ll see you there!

17mm, f5.6, 1/200 of a second
Taken in Bellis Natural Area

Canoeing on the Kananaskis River

Water

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

More photos from a summer of pushing myself in a different direction. You’ll notice that some of my photos now actually have people in them. It’s been a strange time of not exactly doing what I love, but of expanding horizons around the edges of what I love. Soon I’ll post some of my more normal nature photos, although opportunities for me to focus on photography this summer are few and far between.

Getting ready to go at Canoe Meadows.
17mm, f9, 1/100 of a second.

Surfing an easy wave. You can see that without paddling the wave is keeping them in the same place while the water rushes by.
40mm, f20, 1/20 of a second.

Red Squirrel Moulting

Photo of the Day

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

I’ve never actually seen a Red Squirrel ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus ) moulting into it’s summer pelage before, so I found this pretty interesting. And squirrels are always cute.

Taken in Elk Island National Park.

Glorious Summer Days

Landscape, Photo of the Day, Prairie

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Sometimes it’s great to see what we have to look forward to. As much as snow and ice are interesting, they are cold. So this is a little taste of summer to whet your appetite. This is a photo from a warm summer day at the Ya Ha Tinda ranch near the forestry trunk road in central Alberta. Flowery meadows are my idea of heaven, and the ranch has those in abundance. I can’t wait to get back.

Harebells and Forest Lanscapes

Composition, Editing, Flowers, Forest, Photo of the Day, Plants

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

In the interests of geographical diversity, today’s photo is from Morden, MB. I went for a great hike with my family around Lake Minnewasta this past summer. For those who have not been here, the park is very nice for people who like the resorty villages, but the trail is absolutely beautiful. These are harebells (Campanula rotundifolia — as opposed to the hairy flowers like this which are bluebells) against a lichen covered tree trunk.

As I was getting this photo ready for the post today I kept having problems. I like the photo – the complimentary purple and orange, the contrasting textures, the brightness of the flowers. But something didn’t feel quite right. I kept on going back and trying to edit it differently. I think I finally figured out my problem with it, which can’t be fixed with processing – there’s no clear focal point. The eye has so many places to go, but there’s no clear line to follow, no one point to rest at. I was going to scrap the whole post and start again, but I thought you might be interested in my thoughts and processes on how I reject photos I’ve taken.

And now, in the interests of posting a photo I’m actually happy with, here’s one from the same hike.

No Photos?!!!

Business

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

It has been a very full summer. I was selling photos at the Edmonton Folk Fest last week. There was a last minute scramble to get the 11x14s and 16x20s mounted and bagged. We couldn’t find anyone in the city to sell us print racks, so we had to build our own in the space of a couple days. I’m pretty proud of what we came up with – if you want to see them, I’ll be at Kaliedo from September 10-12. There are a number of other changes I want to make to improve my display, but overall I think it looked pretty good, and I had a really good response. I got to meet and talk with a bunch of great and interesting people.

I have a couple photos in the VAAA Open Photo Juried Exhibition. The opening is tonight (August 12, 6:00 – 8:00pm) in the Kaasa Gallery in the Jubilee Auditorium. It will run until September 23.

So no photos for today. I’m hoping to get away from it all for a bit this week. It seems like the more I get into this business of photography the less time there is for it.