 Heavy clouds over Beaverhill Lake I made this photograph back in August of 2008 on a beautiful, calm morning at Beaverhill Lake but which didn’t last long—by mid-morning the clouds had completely rolled in, and I proceeded with getting soaked (all part of the experience).
I printed this photo today, as the first two prints (here and here) in my Daily Print project (explained here) were both highly-detailed, finely textured images with bold colours, so I thought I’d try something different, and a little out of the ordinary for me. It was interesting to see the finished print—the colours turned out great, but let’s say I need to practice printing more soft-textured images… (that’s what this whole exercise is about though, I guess, and I’m having fun doing it too)
 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.
 Strathcona Refineries #307, August 2010 I am very excited to let you all know that I will have a solo show of my photography at this year’s The Works Art & Design Festival here in Edmonton. If you’re not from Edmonton, The Works is a large festival that runs for a couple of weeks in the summer, with artists from all over the world displaying their work in various downtown venues. My show will be displayed at City Hall from the start of the festival on June 23 through to July 5 and there will be a reception for my show from 2–3pm on Saturday the 2nd of July.
As for the work itself, it is much different in content than my usual landscape and nature photography, but I think that my personal photographic style still shows through quite a bit. The exhibition will be twenty large prints of images I made last August when smoke from large forest fires in BC shrouded the refineries just east of Edmonton (and everything else in central Alberta) in a dense, orange haze. I wrote an entry about it at the time (click here), but haven’t shared any of these images since then. I am busy setting up a new website for this collection (it just doesn’t fit on this site), and I’ll post here once it’s up.
*UPDATE* The new website is now live! I invite you to have a look at www.strathcona-refineries.com.
*UPDATE* The exhibition is now up! Thanks to the whole Works crew that did such a great job—it looks terrific. While The Works Festival isn’t “on” yet, if you’re downtown you can drop by City Hall and have a look at the prints on display. I would really appreciate hearing your reactions and comments—either here (by leaving a reply below), by contacting me personally, or in person at the show reception on July 2nd.
*UPDATE* You can read a short interview that I did with Steve Waldner of The Works Festival about the show at http://theworksfest.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/strathcona-refineries-august-2010/
 Great grey owl hunting from thin aspen sapling The photographs from my two previous posts were both taken while I was doing owl surveys and waiting for the sun to set (with camera at the ready, of course). So I thought I’d post an image of what we were out there looking for.
I don’t shoot a lot of wildlife, but I simply could not resist filling up a memory card while watching this owl hunt for rodents under the thick, spring snow. It was amazing to watch him (or her, I’m not sure) listening from the tops of these small aspen trees before swooping down and diving feet-first into the snow after his prey. I had the pleasure of watching from a distance for over an hour before he finally gave up, or got full, and slowly moved off.
 Fiery sunset over snowy horizon I’ve been out conducting nocturnal owl surveys in south-central Alberta for the past few weeks, which has given me the chance to take some great sunset photographs, and to try out photographing at night—lots of fun (but lots to learn too!)
This photo came after a whole day of cloud that finally broke at just the right time to allow the setting sun to peek through. If they cooperate, a sky full of clouds sure makes for more interesting photography than a “perfectly” clear sky.
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(Click photos to enlarge)
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