Day 30 / 365

Last night, I stopped in at the Square G Cabin lodging at Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park. The cabins were built as part of a ranch in the 1930s, and are built of logs. They are quite cute, with a desk, a night table, and a bed. At around 3:30am, I woke up with the distinct feeling that something was crawling on my skin. I turned the light on, and discovered 3 bugs about the size of my pinky finger nail, and also pulled one out of my hair. Trying not to let it affect me, I told myself that I probably picked them up while hiking yesterday. I examined the bed sheet and the rest of the lodge, and wasn't able to detect any other creepy crawlies. So, I tried to go back to sleep. Not even half an hour later, I again had the crawling feeling, and discovered yet another bug. At that time, I had had enough and decided to pack up and leave. The sunrise was at 5:43am anyways, and my sunrise spot was a half hour's drive away too. Needless to say, I made it to my sunrise spot with time to spare, but at least it gave me ample of time to set up. I had chosen the Snake River Overview as my sunrise spot - the very spot where the all time great landscape photographer Ansel Adams stood 68 years earlier and captured one of his most famous photographs. It was auctioned off recently for $350K!

What didn't initially look like it was going to be a spectacular sunrise certainly turned out to be one. The clouds turned slightly yellow/pink and the peaks lit up one by one. It was quite magical, except for one of the other photographers there who kept on feeling the need to dispense annoying comments.

Grand Tetons at Snake River Overlook with alpenglow on the peaks.

By this time, the alpenglow had disappeared. Alpenglow is the most beautiful part of a mountain sunrise, but it also comes and goes quite quickly.

As the Golden Hours of photography are sunrise + right after, and sunset + right before, I went to several more spots to shoot photos. Once I start to shoot, I never notice how tired I am, because getting nice shots is quite a thrill and keeps you going.

If you are ever driving into a sunrise or an unbelievably beautiful landscape, you MUST listen to William Joseph's CDs "Beyond" and "Within". It completely intensifies the experience :)

 

For some reason, the Grand Tetons are much less visited than Yellowstone, even though Grand Tetons is directly south of Yellowstone. It is a much smaller park, but is captivating and very beautiful. What I also found unusual is how the Tetons rise directly out of the plains, with no foothills of any kind.

Schwabacher Landing is an area of completely still water due to a beaver damn. It results in gorgeous reflections of the Grand Tetons.

The groups of old farm buildings known as Mormon Row have withstood the elements for more than a century, since the farmland here was first homesteaded by the predominantly Mormon settlers in the early 1900s. One can easily see why they chose this magnificent location.

After visiting the barns at Mormon Row, the sun was getting to be too high for good photos, and also the sky started to cloud over. I went back to the Square G cabin and took a shower, since I had not felt up to the task when I had left at 4am. With the weather at Grand Tetons starting to take a turn for the rainy and the weather forecast not looking much more promising, I decided to start the drive into Idaho.

On my way out of the park, I stopped at Cunningham Cabin. The cabin was built as a homestead in Jackson Hole and represents an adaptation of an Appalachian building form to the West. The cabin was built by John Pierce Cunningham, who arrived in Jackson Hole in 1885 and subsisted as a trapper until he established the small ranch in 1888. A small fortification was erected in 1895 during unrest involving the Bannack Indians. Traces of foundations survive. The cabin was the scene of a shootout in 1899 between a posse and two horse thieves, who were killed at the scene.

This is a view of the Tetons looking out from inside of the Cabin.

My first impression of Idaho is that it is not all that spectacular, at least not the Snake River Valley. There is a lot of potato farming and irrigation, but most else is prairie/desert with sage brush as the predominant vegetation. However, the sky was spectacular today - the clouds were fluffy and billowy, and the sky a perfect blue. If there were such a thing as cloud 9, this is what I imagine that it would look like:

The sunset was one of the most colourful I had ever seen, it was as if the sky was on fire.

Day 29 / 365

Even though I arrived at the Yellowstone north entrance by around 7am, and spent the next few hours driving from one camground to the next, I was not able to find a place to stay for tonight. Needless to say, it was quite frustrating and felt like time wasted. Around 11am, I just gave up and decided to sleep in my car, worst case. Considering it's Yellowstone, I suppose the visitor volumes are not crazy yet, but there were still crowds of people everywhere. It got on my nerve a bit, and I decided to just cover the south of the park today and then move on to Grand Teton National Park tonight. A severe lightning storm moved in during the late afternoon, so that ended the ability to take photos anyways. The drive out the south exit of Yellowstone is overlooking the river canyon, it's quite pretty.

These are some of the impressions from today. CLICK ON ANY IMAGE for a larger view.

Day 28 / 365

Was off to a late start, but the border crossing was a refreshingly pleasant experience. Maybe Sweet Grass has its name for a reason :) They performed the usual fingerprinting, but I now at least understand that it's an ID verification method that is employed on all international visitors. And there wasn't any of the usual rude questioning, only how he is quite sure that "Grizzly bears like to eat little girls travelling on their own."

The roads were pretty empty, so I am hoping that the tourist volume will still be on the low side. I always notice this when I travel to the States - the people here seem nicer and more approachable than they do in Calgary. I stopped at an outdoor gear store in Great Falls and inquired about a camera store, and the guy rooted through a phone book, located a store 2 hours away, and wrote it down for me. Then at the motel I am staying at, the lady pulled out various maps to give me travel tips. She also advised me that there have been a lot of bear sightings in the park, good thing I brought a bear scare. Oh and the swarms of mosquitoes here are crazy, Montana should be called "Ginormous Mosquito Swarm Country"!

Somewhere along Highway 89, I came across these 3 barns in a field, standing next to each other in various states of disarray.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE for a larger view.

Day 27 / 365

I am off to a week long scenic photography road trip, so today was packing day. And no, this is not a narcissistic post - self portraiture is actually a legitimate photography technique.

Light posterization effect applied in Photoshop CS4

Day 26 / 365

I did not have the chance to take a photo today either :( This photo was taken last weekend, when I was photographing Jack and the chicks (which made it into National Geographic's Daily Dozen!). It is my favourite one I took of the chicks.

1/200 @ f/90 ISO 200, using a Nikkor 55-200mm lens

Day 25 / 365

I have to admit that I did not take a photo today. Fridays are especially hard to stick to when you go out right after work. This is a photo I took of a duck mothers with ducklings at Osoyoos 3 weeks ago. What I like about this image are the reflections of the grass in the rippled water and how the face of the mother duck looks like she is smiling.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE for a larger view.

digital darkroom vignetting applied

Day 24 / 365

The most dramatic storm clouds I had ever seen formed near Lacombe this evening. These were the clouds as the storm moved in over Gull Lake. The clouds constantly and rapidly changed, so they actually looked much more dramatic shortly after. I even saw what I thought was the formation of a funnel cloud!

Day 23 / 365

Central Memorial Park at night. The fountains are beautiful and change colours like the rainbow. So pretty!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE for a larger view.

Day 22 / 365

Dicentra formosa with ボケ. Shooting macros with a landscape lens is a really limiting attempt at what I actually wanted to capture. I desperately need to invest in a telephoto zoom lens. Excessive cropping resulted in the noise in the green space, but I think it adds character in this case.

1/100s @ f/5.6 ISO 200

Day 21 / 365

Bokeh progressively zoomed in with several stops over the duration of the exposure.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to view a larger version.

5s @ f/4.5 ISO 200

Day 20 / 365

One week ago, the chicks at my parents' acreage hatched. Also, the two week old bunnies just opened their eyes. An overly excited Jack was introduced to two chicks and a bunny.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to see a larger version.

** chosen by National Geographic's Daily Dozen on June 24, 2010**

1/100s @ f/13.0 ISO 200 using a 55-200mm Nikkor Lens

Day 19 / 365

This evening I was working on a photo book for my nephew as a memory keepsake of their vacation in Canada. Here is what the cover looks like.

Day 18 / 365

Centennial Place at night. The colour spots on the columns are light reflections from the parkade across the street.

3.0s @ f/13.0 ISO 200

Day 17 / 365

I know I know! It's only day 17 and already I am resorting to boring old flower photos. I have to say all of the rain for most of project 365 so far has been rather uninspiring. Not only does it make it difficult to find things to photograph, but I also cannot photograph anything outdoors while it is pouring, since I don't have a raincoat for my camera. I have wrapped it in a plastic bag when I am walking outside, but I don't think a photo of the inside of a plastic bag would interest anyone. With today's photo, I played around with some editing settings to at try to inject at least some sort of interesting perspective. I do like the juxtaposition of the blooming bush branch against the old rough square brick wall.

1/25s @ f/5.0 ISO 200

Day 16 / 365

One of the things I wanted to try during Project 365 is out of bounds (OOB) photography. What I like about this type of editing technique is that the subject pops out of the frame and thus appears to be in 3D, even though the 3D effect is just optically created through erasing part of the image and adding a white frame that has perspective to it. The photo I chose for this is one of my all time favourites of my beagle Jack - I took it last fall while he was sitting on a hay bale and the wind was blowing in his ears as if he was flying.

Edited with Photoshop CS4 to create out-of-bounds effect.

Day 15 / 365

The leafs of this Oregon Grape plant are so waxy and shiny, which is best highlighted with water droplets. I was also drawn to the variety of colour in the leafs.

Day 14 / 365

Calgary Skyline framed by a tree taken from the SAIT campus.

1/13s @ f/9.0 ISO 200

Day 13 / 365

Pine tree bloom.

1/30s @ f/5.6 ISO 200

Day 12 / 365

For today's post I am taking the liberty of posting an image from a few weeks ago, shortly before the start of project 365. The reason for this "cheat" is that even though I took a photo today, it is of my family BBQing in the Elbow River Valley, which I am assuming is not of great interest to any blog followers.

One of the techniques I am working on is the photography of children. They move quickly, and just as quickly change their moods. You have to buzz about, snap like mad, and kind of hope for the best. I am sure there is more finesse to it than that, but I have not discovered it yet in the past month. This is my niece P. in the bleachers of the High River Rodeo.

1/120s @ f/8.0 ISO 200

Day 11 / 365

From the information sign at the trail head to Hidden Lake in Kikomun Creek Provincial Park: " Western Painted Turtles: When hot weather sends most marsh dwellers into hiding, painted turtles come out to sunbathe. Turtles take full advantage of the sun to remain active throughout the summer. They survive the winter in pond-bottom ooze where little oxygen exists.

Female turtles reach maturity after 9 to 10 years. In June, they dig nests in open ground and lay 6 to 18 leathery eggs, which they promptly cover with gravel. Those eggs not lost to predators hatch in early September and the young remain in gravel until spring, enduring winter temperatures. These remarkable hatchlings survive despite being partially frozen with their heartbeat and breathing stopped.

Kikomun Creek Park is home to the most concentrated population of turtles in BC. Smaller numbers are only protected in two smaller provincial parks. Despite their ability to adapt to their surroundings, western painted turtles are threatened. "

Today, the turtles came out to sunbathe in droves by laying on logs in shallow water. They are not even all that shy and you can get quite close to them without scaring more than one or two away. I was waiting for over half an hour for the sun to go behind a cloud so that the belly of the turtle would not be in the shade, but the sky was nearly cloudless. Thus, I fired a flash as fill light, which worked beautifully.

1/250s @ f/9.0 ISO 200

Day 10 / 365

Before we strolled down to Surveyor Lake, we walked to another small lake in Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, called Hidden Lake. It is a protected lake in which all activity is forbidden to protect the hundreds of painted turtles that call the lake their home. As we reached the trail head that leads all around the lake, there was a sign from the rangers that read "Caution, cougar in the area". Sure enough, we found a skull, bones, and fur scattered in this one area down by the lake. Once we had completed the trail and reached the trail head again, the rangers had just attached a sign that now read "Trail Closed: Due to Cougar in the area", and then headed down to the lake with a garbage bag - perhaps to clean up the remains we had found?

We set up camp at the provincial campground, but the sun was not able to make a breakthrough that day. Looking at this photo you probably would not suspect that it was taken in a slight but constant drizzle.  If you don't plan to take shots where you include the sky, overcast or slightly rainy days make for excellent photography days. The colours are vibrant and not washed out from sunlight, the contrasts are natural, and the lighting even. We spent the day playing around Surveyor Lake, and the kids had a great time tossing rocks from the dock into the water. My Dad likes to fish to relax, and I caught him in this unobserved moment just before he noticed that I had directed the lens at him. When it comes to photos of people, I find ones where the subject is unaware of the lens turn out the best, because you capture the person in their own moment in their own space. Once there is awareness of the lens, the moment and the space changes, and so does the feel of the photo.

1/160s @ f/7.1 ISO 200

Day 9 / 365

This morning we left Osoyoos and drove to Norbury Lake near Creston, BC. There is a viewpoint at the top of the road up the pass on the east side of the lake where you have a great panoramic view over the entire lake and area. Unfortunately, there has been a large mud slide in this very area yesterday (June 13th), which resulted in this road up the bass being covered in 4 feet of mud and several homes being destroyed.

The image below is a panorama comprised of 7 images stitched together in Photoshop. What is interesting about stitching multiple images together is that the megapixels are additive. The panorama below is 46 megapixels, even though my camera is a 12.3 megapixel camera.

The US border line is about 1/3 from the left border of the image. The Haynes Point Campground is on that small peninsula about 1/3 from the right border of the image.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to see a full-screen view of the panorama!

1/160s @ f/11.0 ISO 200

Day 8 / 365

You cannot go to British Columbia and come home without a photo of orchards or vineyards. It being early June, there are unfortunately no ripe inviting fruit dangling from any branches. With the sun rising so early these days, I tend to wake up before 6am, which is the perfect time to go exploring with my camera since the light is just perfect. It also allows you to explore in the stillness of the morning, when most people are still in bed and nature is just awakening. During this early morning light, everything seems so crisp and beautiful, and all you can hear are the sounds of the birds and waves. I find this time of day increadibly relaxing and calming, and taking the time to enjoy these moments leads to a very satisfying start to any day.

This morning, I took a stroll out of the Haynes Point Provincial Campground at Osoyoos Lake and snooped around the vineyard that is just up the hill. The clouds were slight and scattered, the vine leafs in a refreshing green colour (the way only brand new leafs are) - you could just tell it was going to be a beautiful day. I wanted to capture the grittiness of the vine bark, the beautiful bright sky, and the sense of endlessness you get when you look down the rows of vines. Hopefully you get that sense from the image below.

1/100s @ f/18.0 ISO 200

This morning I also stumbled upon freshly hatched Button Quails! Quails are small pheasants (4.5")  and the males are quite beautiful with their head dress feathers. The quail chicklets (Quailets? :) were only about the size of a bumble bee and zoomed around in the grass just as quickly as bees buzz about. They were bright yellow with brown stripes and just about the cutests little birds I have ever seen. Some moments cannot be caught on camera because they surprise you and happen so quickly, and this was one of them, but it was a really precious moment.

Day 7 / 365

Bokeh is the blur in the out-of-focus area of an image, thus bokeh occurs in the area of the image that lies outside of the depth of field. The shape of the bokeh is determined by the shape of the aperture ring, which in my case is round. When I first stumbled upon the technique of bokeh, I went back into my older photos and noticed that some photos did have nice bokeh, but it's not something I ever consciously tried to create in an image. Clever use of bokeh can create some immensely creative images, and at the least it can add some interesting background effects when applying a shallow depth of field.

Usually, aperture rings are round. One can purchase lenses that are specifically designed for creating bokeh effects that have an interchangeable aperture, which is of different shapes. The aperture ring is what opens and closes to let in more or less light for exposure of the image. A wide open aperture lets in the most light but also creates the most shallow depth-of-field (often used in macro and portrait photography), while in landscape photography one usually uses an aperture setting of f/11.0 or lower to obtain sharp detail throughout the entire image. To get back to the shape of the aperture ring - the shape of the bokeh is the shape of the aperture opening. So if you have a heart shaped aperture opening, the bokeh will be heart shaped. In other words, the bokeh can take on any shape as long as you can dream it up and create yourself a lens attachment for it. Supposedly one can even create a card-board cutout and attach it to the front of the lens (large enough to not restrict the field of view of the lens) as a means of changing the shape of the bokeh. I have not yet tried this out myself, but it's something I will definitely do sometime soon.

What I noticed when I took the shot below is that creating bokeh can be harder than you would imagine - it is not just an accidental effect or even one that shows up anytime you use a shallow depth of field. Through trial and error I found that out-of-focus bright light reflections create great bokeh, such as that of direct sunlight on moving water or leafs slightly blowing in the wind. In fact, bokeh is better during the day when the sun is high, providing a technique which to employ outside of the golden hours of photography.

For my first intentional use of bokeh I am quite pleased with the result. However, what I would critique on this shot is the loss of bokeh toward the top left of the image and the lack of bokeh along the bottom of the image. The way this flower was situated, I was not able to create perfect bokeh all throughout the background range, but I think it is a good start.

I am not quite sure what the deal was with the bumble bee. It was moving only slightly, so I am not certain whether it was intently sucking nectar or got stuck in the bulb. In either case, it made a perfectly still subject, which I have found in the past nearly never happens with bumble bees.

1/125s @ f/10.0 ISO 200

Day 6 / 365

Last night, I took a flight to Kelowna to spend the week camping in BC with my sister's family (who is visiting from Germany) and my parents. As I browse through the photos I took today, I realize that this week the challenge will not be to take a photo every day, but to choose just a SINGLE image to post to my blog.

The reason I chose this shot is for its creative value - if I may be so bold to call myself creative! The bumper on the camper my sister and her husband rented was so big and shiny, it reflected the surroundings quite well. My brother-in-law made fun of my fascination with a car bumper, but I think the result was worth all the teasing.

1/125s @ f/5.6 ISO 200

Ok the rest of the updating of the blog will have to wait until later.

Day 5 / 365

As it turns out, even the most dreary looking clouds and a little hail storm are worse than it seems. With a bit of luck, the only sun hole all around will follow you and a very nice hike can be enjoyed against all odds. This is a photo of the Elbow River Falls, just west of Bragg Creek. It's a great place to hike along the river valley and enjoy the scenic twists and turns of the Elbow. There are also several Day Use Areas along the valley, which are a great place to have a picnick at and relax on a hot day.

1/320s @ f/16 ISO 500

Day 4 / 365

I have these small hanging pots as wall decoration in my apartment. I took a quick shot of a section of them before heading out with friends.

1/60s @ f/4.2 ISO 500

Day 3 / 365

This is the Lougheed House in Calgary's beltline district. "Lougheed House, also known as Beaulieu, was home to Senator James Alexander Lougheed, Lady Isabella Hardisty Lougheed, their six children and staff. This grand sandstone prairie mansion was built in 1891 and enlarged in 1907; the impressive scale and the high quality of the design, materials and interior furnishings of the house reflected the wealth and prestige of the Lougheeds. An article in the Calgary Daily Herald claimed it was one of the finest residences in the Canadian northwest. In their day, when the population of this pioneer town was under 4,000, the Lougheeds were among Calgary's most influential citizens; they would remain so for decades. Their house was a political and social hub of this young and fast-growing prairie center, and received many renowned visitors. Lougheed House received important state visitors on many occasions. In 1912, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and their daughter Princess Patricia stayed at the house. In 1919, the Lougheeds entertained the Prince of Wales at a garden party. Prince Edward visited again in 1923 and 1928. Other notable visitors included Prince George; Governor General Lord and Lady Byng; Prince Erik of Denmark (1928); Lord and Lady Willingdon; and the Right Honourable Stanley Baldwin. James Lougheed was appointed to the Senate in 1889, and worked to grant provincial status to Alberta in 1905. Following the Conservative victory in 1911, he held a number of key portfolios. He was knighted in 1916 for his role in establishing hospitals and services for Canadian veterans after the Great War. Successful in business and property development, Lougheed also supported the arts, building Calgary's Lyric and Grand Theatres." (http://www.lougheedhouse.com/)

I walk past the Lougheed House and its beautifully planted garden on my way to and from work every day. I am always drawn to the texture of the stone walls and the fact that it has a sense of history, which is rare to find in Calgary and I entirely miss quite a bit from Europe. The building with today's perfect photography sky looks quite dramatic as a vertorama (vertically stitched images to allow for more foreground AND more sky) with a 10mm lens, but it is taking me too long tonight to figure out how to fix the distortions. So, here is a less dramatic but also undistorted look. The cloud scattered sky nicely diffused the sunlight, creating a perfect naturally lit scene.

1/100s @ f/10.0 ISO 200

Day 2 / 365

I am not sure what would have made for a more interesting shot - the one below or one of my face after the mosquitoes were done with it. It seems they are out in full force and quite blood thirsty, and my face looks a bit as if I lost the fight.

1/250s @ f/7.1 ISO 200

This week, my aim is to get used to taking a photo every single day.

Day 1 / 365

Today is my start of project 365. It is also a Tuesday, which means that I had cello lesson tonight. My teacher M. is always so wonderfully inspiring, so this first shot was inspired by her.

1/60s @ f/5.0 ISO 100

My aim for this shot was to personify the instrument - with a little imagination you can see a figure who is holding up the strings by its shoulders. The heart shape reflects my feelings for the cello and classical music.