Solstice Sunrise in the Rockies - Landscape Photography

  It is truly a wonderful experience to welcome a new day in the mountains. We were lucky to be able to do just that during our recent trip to Banff National Park just before Christmas. The changing colors of the sky, reflected in little pools of open water at Vermilion Lakes made it all seem like the most exotic place, even though we have visited it so many times before.. Met a few photographers who, having the same idea, were already positioned in various places along the lakes capturing all those colors of a beautiful solstice morning.  Experiencing such natural splendor makes landscape photography even more enjoyable. Even though you are spending long time outside, in the cold, you are rewarded with such wonderful views that it is all worth it! I have managed to shoot a few close ups, too (can't really help myself, you know ;D) I have also been finally able to play with Sony NEX-6 and NEX-7 during this trip enjoying not having to drag my heave Canons along and must say, I do like the results. I hope you do, too ;D.

Kasia

Welcoming new day

Sharing the moment

Cold morning

A colony on ice

Lovely beginning

Colors of the morning

Welcome to the shortest day of the year

Rising sun

Marked by love

Far away..

Morning at Vermilion Lakes

First Sunset with the Sony 10-18mm lens.

The days are getting longer, and after work I have a little bit of time to actually catch a sunset.  This year's winter weather, is rather strange.  Most of the time it's overcast and gray, only seldom the sun comes out.  This was the day the sun was out, and I had my 10-18mm Sony lens with my Nex-7 camera.  I finally have my landscape lens.  I love big skies, and Alberta landscape lends itself well to the big sky phenomenon :)  This new Sony lens is just perfect for that.  It's sharp all the way through, and at 10mm (15mm full frame equivalent) it's very very wide. Most of my landscape right now, are shot for HDR.  I also have been following the blog of a really inspiring Alberta Landscape photographer, Dan Jurak.  I always admired his landscapes, so when he posted his settings for processing HDR in Photomatix, I had to try it.  So here are are some images from that evening.  Enjoy!

Elk Island Sunset - Landscape Photography

I have a confession to make... I love Elk Island National Park.  I love going there and getting lost in the silence of nature.  It's a perfect place for landscape photography, lifestyle, family photography, and of course wildlife photography.  It's not far from where I live, and makes a great trip if you want to just get away for a few hours. Of course sunsets at the Astotin Lake are always quite a sight.  Each is different, and each offers unique opportunities for really great images.  I have a lot of these in my library, and I never get bored looking at them.  Since our cold and white Canadian winter is in full swing, I thought adding a little color might brighten up the day.  So here is yet another sunset, at Elk Island.  Enjoy!

A walk in the forest – Lifestyle Portrait Photography Part 2

Continuing from the previous lifestyle portrait photography session, here is another part of the walk.  It was a beautiful day, and fall colors were spectacular.  It was hard not to take a bad picture.  Then again using my two favorite cameras, namely the Fuji X-Pro1 and the Sony NEX-7, makes taking images great fun.  Not much can be said about this part of the walk, so please enjoy the images!

Macro Nature in the Morning

I've been really testing myself lately with manual lenses, and small cameras.  For manual lenses I really prefer using my Sony NEX-7 over the Fuji X-Pro1.  Why?  There is only one reason... and the reason is focus peaking.  Sony has this function of showing, the photographer, what is in focus by highlighting the edges of the object in focus.  This makes manual focusing so much quicker and easier.  The other day, my wife and me, decided to visit a local garden in the morning.  Of course this was before the current cold and snowy weather we are experiencing.  I took with me the Sony NEX-7 and my Vivitar Series 1 70-210 lens.  What is really cool about that lens, it's a macro lens as well.  A little button press, and it switches from a regular telephoto zoom, to a macro.  I really wanted to test how well the macro feature will work with the focus peaking function of the Sony camera.  I was pleasantly impressed.  A little bit of practice, anticipation where your subject may be, and all worked out quite beautifully.  Here are some shots from that morning.  I hope they at least brighten your November day.  Enjoy! Mac

Getting lost... The Bowden SunMaze - part 2

Like I mentioned in previous post, we did not want to leave the Bowden SunMaze, untill we caught the sunset.  We had few hours to go, so we spent that time just playing around and watching the surrounding landscape, as it changed colors.  It was a beautiful sunset, and it was a wonderful experience to be there.  We will definitely come back to Bowden SunMaze, and I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to visit.  It's a great place with great Alberta landscapes. Enjoy! Mac

Getting lost... The Bowden SunMaze - part 1

During one of those late August weekends, when the weather is gorgeous, and the Alberta prairies are getting ready to be harvested, we went on a trip.  There are a few corn mazes close to home, but there is only one sunflower maze.  It's a bit of a drive from Edmonton, but it's very much worth it.  My wife already posted her images from that trip to the Bowden SunMaze, so I figured I'll be next :).  It's a wonderful place, with very friendly owners, and lots of activities for the whole family.  We actually managed to get completely lost in the maze, as my wife and I were concentrating on taking photos, and not really were we were going.  As a result, our kids got a little scared at one point, but I think it was more to do with me mumbling about sun flower monsters and people who never returned from the maze.... which did not win me any points with the rest of the family.  Yes, I'm a wonderful father :) Since it was a bit far from home, we decided to stay a little longer and catch the sunset, but that will be another post.  If you want to visit the Bowden SunMaze here is the link: Bowden SunMaze.  All my images are with Fuji X-Pro1 and Sony NEX-7, as these are the only cameras I use now.  Perfect little cameras for a perfect day! Enjoy! Mac

Alberta Storm in B&W

So the other day, I decided to try out my Sony NEX-7 with a canon ef lens adapter and the Canon 8-15 fisheye lens.  There was a nice storm passing on the outskirts of Edmonton, and I figured it would be a great model for the wide angle fisheye.  I like the Sony camera just as much as I like the Fuji X-Pro1.  The view finder in the Sony is absolute necessity, since in normal sunny environment you can't see anything on the back LCD screen, essentially you would be shooting completely blind.  Here are some shots I took that day.  I had to correct them a little in Lightroom, and decided that the storm would look a little better in B&W.  Enjoy! Mac