Alberta Bound - I

Alberta was our home for 15 years, and we recently returned for the first time in 10 years. After paying a surprise visit to very good and now newly-retired friends, we set out for a few days of R & R in the Rocky Mountains. It was déjà vu all over again.

I used to tell our children on our Sunday drive to church in Calgary that many people traveled thousands of miles to view such spectacular scenery as we were seeing - they shrugged it off with a "yeah, yeah". And now here we were doing just that.

Sit back, relax, and let Gord Lightfoot provide some musical accompaniment (click the link below the photos) while you join me. I'll take you further along into the mountains in subsequent posts.

the prairies just east of Calgary

wildflowers in the foothills near Bragg Creek

another 'Alberta Day' in the foothills

through the foothills toward the mountains

first mountains near Exshaw with the Bow River in the foreground

Iconic

A little over a month ago, I found myself atop the 'Rock Pile' taking in a scene that has awed and inspired thousands. Should you have the chance to visit the Canadian Rockies, a trip to Moraine Lake comes highly recommended.

See for yourself:

Hand-eye co-ordination

I recently read a post at Digital Photography School which provided 10 tips on improving your landscape photography. For the most part these were useful, however, a few of them were not practical when the photographer is pressed for time.

On a visit to Niagara Falls State Park last week I happened to notice this pattern while doing my best to keep up and at the same time unobtrusively capture a few shots. A momentary pause, split-second composition, and a flick of the finger resulted in the shot below. ABC allowed opportunity to meet preparation.

'Twixt storm and sunset

The weather today was a mixed bag of alternating blue sky with puffy (a very scientific term) white clouds drifting by and dark angry clouds which threatened but didn't deliver a deluge. As time came for the sun to close out another day the question was which would prevail.

Turns out we had both - to the northwest the sun put on another spectacle after storm clouds, illuminated by the setting sun, moved gradually to the southwest. Luckily for yours truly the storm stayed to the west so I could capture both events.

I'll save the sunset shots for another time; here are some of the storm. [while there were no winds I could see blowing the storm south, you can listen to Neil Young sing about it by clicking on the link below the last photo]

Safe in mama's wake

It already seems a long time ago that we were able to get together with family for a week of building memories. I'll share a few snippets as time permits.

Spotted one day was this raft of ducks (yep, it's called a 'raft' - I looked it up), led my mama. The babies had not yet learned fear of people as the readily paddled over to us and waddled on the shoreline, much to the delight of our grandchildren (well, actually all of us).

They had learned though that paddling was a little easier in mama's wake.