Selection of Summer Favourites

Today’s post consists of some favourite pictures from the past summer that didn’t make it into an earlier blog. These are photographs that I enjoyed, taking them and developing them. There is no theme to this particular selection, other than “I like them”. I hope you’ll enjoy.

My first photo for today was taken near Field, B.C.  at a location know as Natural Bridge. Over a very long period of time, the rushing waters of the Kicking Horse River have eroded a hole through an obstruction of solid rock across the river. Here, the river is plunging into that opening and passing beneath the barrier of rock, the natural bridge. It was early in the summer and the water flow was still high. It was fun taking this picture. I chose to use a very fast shutter speed (1/2000th sec.) to “freeze the motion” and capture the detail of the turbulence as the water surged into the opening.

The next picture is a little unusual for me. It’s an abstract portrayal of some of the canoes available for rental at Lake Louise. This picture was created by over-exposing the image when I took it and subsequently applying a “glow” filter to it when I developed it.

 

Photography was not easy during a period when we were blanketed with smoke from forest fires burning in British Columbia, Oregon and California. It occurred to me that the smoke might act as a natural “warming” filter so I went up to Spray Lake, located just south of Canmore. I captured this image just as the sun rose across Grotto Mountain on the opposite side of the Bow Valley. The orange and yellow tones did occur quite naturally with very little help from me. The “starburst” effect on the sun’s ray are created by using a small aperture to take the picture, in this case f/22.

It’s peculiar what catches your attention sometimes. While enjoying brunch at the Banff Springs as part of Rolande’s birthday festivities in August, my attention was drawn to these rows of colourful bottles, backlit by light through the window.

I recently spent an afternoon in Calgary with friend and photographer, Bill McAdam taking pictures of urban scenes along the Bow River. I quite like this one of the many bridges crossing the Bow. The bridge’s architecture is appealing and I like the background of varied styles of condominium high-rises that populate the city’s shoreline. Despite the overcast skies we’ve had recently, it was a pleasant day to be out enjoying the scenery.

The contrast between darks and lights in this scene made it difficult to capture its entire dynamic range in a single photograph. To get around it, I made three exposures, stacked them in Photoshop and blended them to create this final image. The effect of the blending is most evident in the sky which was taken from the darkest exposure. The remainder of the picture was created by combining the lightest and middle range exposures.