 Leah peak in bright winter light Yesterday I printed a very dark, night-time image, so I thought today I’d go the other direction, and print a very bright, winter daylight image. Leah Peak is on the east shore of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, and in my opinion, one of the most subtle yet striking mountain in the area.
I took this photo on a very bright day and it was a bright image straight out-of-camera. In Lightroom I did my best to make the print as bright as possible while retaining good contrast and detail in the highlights. I also tried converting it to black-and-white, but I found that I missed the very slight blue in the shadows and warmer sun light on the shoulders of the ridge.
And, just for the interest of the real photo geeks—here are the histograms from yesterday’s photo and from today’s:
 low-key  high-key
 Marsh grass in mountain lake It has been a long time since I’ve posted much here—my apologies—but it should get better again shortly…
I have decided to try “The Online Photographer” Mike Johnston’s “Specific, Detailed Program for Absolutely, Positively Getting Better as a Digital Printmaker”. In short, this is an exercise to get in the habit of working on my photography daily, for a few minutes at least, and to start practicing making prints of my work. I tend to make a few prints occasionally if I’m really excited about a new batch of photos, and a stack of prints for craft sales, etc. The emphasis of the SDPFAPGBAADP program (nice acronym…) is to just practice processing and making prints in a low pressure kind of way.
I’ll give it a try for a while, hopefully I can find the time most days and really get in the habit. If I have a little extra time, I’ll post the day’s photo here too—it should be an interesting mix of images, and I hope you’ll enjoy seeing them. I just printed the photo above, which I took on a trip to Jasper National Park with the family last fall. I have rarely experienced a more pleasant and photogenic evening than this—the fall colours were in their prime, the temperature cool but the breeze warm, and the family was patient… perfect.
And, as always, I appreciate your feedback—please feel free to leave me a comment with your comments or critiques!
 Sunset under heavy clouds If you’ve signed up for my newsletter you’ll recognize these past few images that I’ve shared—this one is from a trip to Jasper National Park that I took this spring. I was lucky enough to drive into the mountains just as the sun dipped below the clouds for a few minutes before sinking behind the mountain peaks. I don’t recall my camera settings for this particular image, but I was definitely thinking of the golden rule for landscape photography—“f/8 and be there”.
 Spring storm over Devona Flats I recently had the chance to get away for a few days, and had the pleasure of being able to do some photography in Jasper National Park. The day that I took this photograph started out clear and sunny, and as the day went along these large clouds spilled out of the Athabasca River Valley to the west, coming east towards Pochahontas where I was staying. And while the clouds made it less appealing to sit out on the deck in the afternoon, they sure made for much more dramatic photographs later in the evening—well worth the trade-off.
I really like the contrast in this image of the heavy, wet sky and the falling rain streaking down—contrasted with the dry river flats still awaiting the melt of higher elevation snow and the start of spring and summer weather patterns.
 Bright morning light on Whirlpool Mountain Here’s another photograph from my first photo-trip of the year in Jasper National Park. I made this image from along the Icefields Parkway, about 20 minutes south of the town of Jasper. I’m not sure about the name of this peak, but my best guess is that it’s Whirlpool Mountain, just south of Mount Edith Cavell and north of Mount Geraldine (if anybody can confirm/correct this, please leave me a comment).
The deep blue of the sky is due mostly to the use of a polarizing filter which really brought out the contrast between the sky, the shadows on the mountain, and the bright snow-covered faces.
I am really excited that one of the photographs from my “Talbot Burn” portfolio has been chosen to be a part of the “Forest Show” curated by the Alberta Society of Artists. The exhibition is currently mounted in the Hinton Public Library (Jan 5–31), and will be moving to the Edson Library (Feb 2–28), the McMullen Gallery in Edmonton (opening reception on March 24, 7–9 pm), and the Leighton Gallery in Calgary (opening reception June 4, 2–4 pm). My piece was also selected to be one of just a few pieces that will be in a travelling exhibition showing throughout Alberta until 2013. I hope that you can make it to one of these venues, but if not, you can have look at the image in my “Talbot Burn” portfolio (it’s the third image, entitled “Talbot Fire Valley”), or simply click below to view the image full screen.
 Talbot fire valley
 First light on south face of Mount Edith Cavell Happy New Year! After a great trip to the west coast for the holidays, I had the pleasure of spending my first photography trip of the new year in the heart of the Rocky Mountains—Jasper National Park. I could hardly have asked for a better way to start the year than to be out there watching the sun come up over freshly snow-blanketed peaks, and freezing my fingers on my camera. I have a bunch of new photos that I’m excited to share, so check back soon!
|
(Click photos to enlarge)
|
