 Tracks along drying channel Recently, Dan Jurak, one of my favourite Edmonton-area photographers and blogger, published an image on his photo blog that reminded me so strongly of this photograph of mine taken this past summer, that at first I thought they could have been taken at the same place. It turns out it’s not the same location, but similar compositions and similar subject matter—Alberta’s lakeshores are turning to mudflats (and our mudflats are turning to grasslands). I took this photo at the Ministik Game Bird Sanctuary, near the location of the photo in another recent entry of mine, it’s a different lake, but the same trend. I like the moodiness of this photo, with the somewhat threatening sky and the animal footprints receding towards the remnant lake.
 Receding Ministik shoreline This photograph is not brand new (it’s from earlier this winter), but I have been working with it recently, and would like to share it here. It had been a while since I’d had the time to hike in to this lake in the Ministik Game Bird Sanctuary, and it was a shock to see how far the water had receded since I’d last seen it. Not that I was terribly surprised–every lake at Ministik (and in most of Alberta) is showing the effect of the dry years we’ve had. What did surprise me was the colour of the mudflats–the pinkish-reddish hue in the photo is an accurate depiction (as much as is possible–but that’s another debate). The grey sky complemented the mudflats and dried grass, giving a very subtle, subdued pallette.
 Altocumulus sunrise and willow Here’s another photo that I’ve prepared for the Goldbar craft sale (see previous post for details). I made this exposure in the summer of 2008 while working banding birds at the Beaverhill Bird Observatory near Tofield, AB. I saw many beautiful sunrises that summer, although I didn’t always get the chance to capture them in a photograph.
 Fiery altostratus sunset This afternoon I went out for a walk at the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area. I spent several hours happily walking the Lost Lake/Islet Lake trails in unseasonably warm weather, but with a flat, grey layer of drab altostratus cloud overhead. That is to say, there weren’t many good photographic opportunities. As I was driving home, however, the sun snuck through a gap in the cloud just above the horizon–with stunning effect. I had to pull over to watch the–all too brief–colours spread across nearly the whole sky, and of course, take some photographs. I find this type of sky can be very hard to get a good exposure, where it’s not too dark but the highlights (especially the yellows) aren’t blown out or over-saturated, leaving detail-less areas within the wispy strands of cloud. I think this one turned out quite well, and I really like how the pattern of the cloud could be easily mistaken for fire, which is just what the sky looked like for a few minutes–aflame. I hope you enjoy it too.
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(Click photos to enlarge)
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