A selection of my favourite landscape photographs from 2009

Several of my favourite Alberta landscape photographers have been posting small galleries of their past year’s best landscape photographs, so I decided to do the same. It was fun to look back through a year’s worth of photos, and impossible to decide which were my “favourite”. I decided to pick one favourite photo from each of the locations in Alberta that I regularly make photographs including: Jasper National Park, Waterton National Park, and the Icefields Parkway in the Rocky Mountains; and Ministik Lake Game Bird Sanctuary, Whitemud Ravine, Gold Bar Park, and the Strathcona Science Park closer to my home in Edmonton.

I’ve posted all of the photos below as a group (in chronological order) but I will also create a separate entry for each photo to provide extra details about the image like I usually do—just click on the link below each photo to go to it’s detail page. (It will take me a little while to get them all up)

I hope you enjoy this small collection, and I do always appreciate it if you leave a comment with your thoughts or reaction. Happy New Year, and I wish you many fine photographs in 2010!

Sun, shadow, fresh snow, and thin cloud on Mount Geraldine along the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada

Mountain Geraldine ridge

Along the Icefields Parkway [Click for more details]

A darkening sky on a cold winter day through the bare branches of aspen and poplar trees

Pale winter sky through poplar canopy

Ministik Lake (in the winter)

Delicate white flowers bloom in front of a background of fern

Chickweed blooms and fern

Waterton National Park

Low clouds loom at dusk over a glassy calm boreal lake

Brooding cloud over Ministik Lake

Ministik Lake (in the summer) (I know that’s cheating a little)

Athabasca River island at dusk

Jasper National Park

Several birch trees stand bare in front of subtle fall colour in the North Saskatchewan River valley

Birch stems and early autumn colour

Goldbar Park (North Saskatchewan River Valley)

Frost-covered willow thicket at dawn in the Whitemud Ravine in Edmonton, Alberta

Late autumn willow thicket

Whitemud Ravine [Click for more details]

Heavy frost coats young alders saplings during an extreme cold snap in Edmonton, Alberta

Ice fog frozen on alder saplings

Strathcona Science Park [Click for more details]

Dan Jurak

3 January 2010 at 1:58 PM · Reply

Athabasca River island works for me. Whenever someone can capture a well known landmark in a way that I haven’t seen before, I tip my hat to them.

On second look, I know why I like it best, it has wonderful lines flowing through it. A peaceful, harmonious feeling.

Dan

Jonathan

4 January 2010 at 12:14 AM · Reply

Thanks for the kind words Dan—it is always a challenge to look for unique ways to photograph the rocky mountain parks.

I’ll add more details about this photo soon, but long story short–I was not feeling very peaceful or harmonious. I was driving to a wedding in northern BC and spent the evening photographing in Jasper on my way. I was trying to get to the ridge looking down at this scene before the light disappeared, and wasn’t paying as much attention to where I was going as I should have been–I caught a gnarled spruce branch just below the eye, leaving me looking my finest for the wedding photos the next day (but the photos I got were definitely worth it!)

‘all the best

Top Images for 2009 « Darwin Wiggett

4 January 2010 at 4:26 AM · Reply

[…] Jonathan Martin-DeMoor – Top 8 […]

Royce Howland

5 January 2010 at 1:21 PM · Reply

Good set, Jonathan. Two that really stand out here for me are the bloom at Waterton, and again the Athabasca River scene at JNP.

I’ve done the “stick in the face” trick myself, among others. The irony of that kind of tunnel vision is not lost on me when it happens, so I try to laugh and resolve to pay closer attention. :)

Jonathan

5 January 2010 at 9:34 PM · Reply

Thanks Royce, I appreciate the note. I guess the “stick in the face” trick was better than the “fall off the cliff” trick which I was concentrating on…