Posts Tagged ‘canada’
Panorama of Mount Cheam in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia
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This is a panorama of Mount Cheam, a familiar sight to anyone living or often traveling through the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. I made this photo by the banks of the Fraser River in Agassiz just after sunset in January. The time right after sunset is often referred to as “Blue hour” and you can see why. I often like to photograph city buildings in Vancouver at this time as you can still see the outlines of the buildings against the sky (unlike when the sky is darker). I find this is also a great time to photograph mountains – so it is worth hanging around after any potential sunset light or alpenglow has faded. Always wait until the light is gone!
Tags: agassiz, blue hour, british columbia, canada, evening, fraser valley, mount cheam, mountains, mt. cheam, panorama, panoramic, peaks, snow, sunset, winter
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License Plates
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This is certainly not my usual photographic subject – but getting outside of your comfort zone is often a good thing. This wall of license plates was in Vancouver’s Chinatown on the wall outside of a store. Funny that in Vancouver there would only be one Canadian plate here, most of the rest are from American States. Perhaps it appeals to the tourists from the US more that way, not sure. Maybe the Canadian plates are comparatively boring? I posted this photo earlier on Google Plus and one suggestion was that people collecting something like this would find more interest in plates from far away. The plates found locally and in surrounding jurisdictions are comparatively boring because they are often seen. Thats as good an explanation as any!
Tags: british columbia, canada, chinatown, license plates, street photography, vancouver
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Vine Maple and Pacific Bleeding
Heart in Campbell Valley Park
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Today I have two photos from Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia. One of the things I have been working on with my photography is to improve the photos I make of scenes inside the forest. There can often be so many competing elements all heading in different directions that a pleasing, non cluttered composition can be difficult. So I decided to work on that, and am getting results that I think are an improvement and more compelling than previous efforts. This photo (left) of a Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) with a bed of Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) growing below it is one example.
Walking path in Campbell
Valley Park
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I’ve recently been editing and keywording all the photos I’ve made in Campbell Valley Park over the last few years. Many were already processed, but there was still a lot of work to be done. I’ll place them all in their own gallery on my website soon – right now they are scattered over a few different categories. Campbell Valley Park is only about a 15 minute drive for me, so I will likely be spending even more time there as a lot of the park I have yet to explore.
Tags: acer circinatum, bleeding heart, british columbia, campbell valley park, campbell valley regional park, canada, dicentra formosa, forests, langley, maples, pacific bleeding heart, trees, vine maples, wildflowers
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Mount Baker from Pitt Meadows
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Growing up in the area around Vancouver, British Columbia, especially out in the Fraser Valley, Mount Baker is a constant presence on the Eastern horizon. Many roads seem to point straight towards Baker or sometimes Mount Shuksan. While I am most familiar with the view of Baker from Langley, it can be seen all the way from Stanley Park in Vancouver, the Southernmost point of the area in Tsawwassen, and from North of the Fraser River – here in Pitt Meadows. I made this photograph from the edge of one of the many Cranberry fields on the road to Pitt Lake. As Baker is such a constant for anyone living out here, it was quite a surprise for me as a kid to realize that it was not a Canadian mountain – it actually is in Washington State. I was young enough that I am not sure I believed that right away.
Tags: british columbia, canada, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, colfax peak, cranberries, lincoln peak, mount baker, mount kulshan, mountains, pitt meadows, sunset
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Great Blue Heron
(
Ardea herodias)
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A few weeks ago I visited the Pitt-Addington Marsh Wildlife Management Area near Pitt Lake. Shot a lot of landscapes, but this area is always a good place to spot a lot of birds and general wildlife. I walked along the dike for a while, then down into the marsh. What I should have done was look at the marsh before I came down off the dike into it – as there was a Great Blue Heron standing about 5 feet in front of me looking a bit startled. He took off immediately and landed at a distance just near enough for me to see him and just far enough away that my longest lens wasn’t quite going to cut it.
I must not have looked like too much of a threat because once I got the wide angle lens back on and started shooting the landscape he flew close again. Not as close as our original encounter but close enough for me to be happy with the photographic opportunity. Was hoping for some hunting shots like I had at Stanley Park but today this one seemed much more intent on cleaning and preening itself. So much so that I actually shot a short video of it which you can see on Vimeo. I have not shot much video on the 7D yet – it is definitely a separate skill from photography.
The video:
Tags: addington marsh, ardea herodias, birds, british columbia, canada, fowl, great blue heron, herons, north america, pitt lake, pitt marsh, pitt meadows, pitt poulder, shoreline, video
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Eureka Falls
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This is a close up shot of Eureka Falls just outside Silver Lake Provincial Park near Hope, BC. A bit wider take on the panorama I posted earlier. These falls are pretty easy to get to – they are right on the side of the road. Unfortunately, (as you can see in my shots of this area last year) Silverhope Creek runs between the road and Eureka Falls. At this time of year the river is really roaring (or I presume, as I’ve not seen it any other time of year) and I have not been willing to go down the bank near it. The river is running fast enough, and the rocks large enough, that being swept away would mean I would not be coming back to this spot. I do hope to return later in the Summer or maybe Fall to see if the water levels are lower and the bank more accessible so I can get some different angles on the falls themselves. I am also hoping that Eureka Falls is not a seasonal waterfall and actually exists with lower water levels.
Tags: british columbia, canada, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, closeup, detailed, eureka falls, hope, waterfalls
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Winter at Chilliwack Lake (click for larger version)
Wide angle shot from Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park back in January. Glad I had a few shots I like from this trip as I nearly froze my toes off! I have posted a few shots previously of this location concentrating more on Mount Redoubt and Nodoubt Peaks.
Tags: british columbia, canada, Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM, cascades, chilliwack, chilliwack lake, chilliwack lake provincial park, glacier, lakes, mount edgar, mount redoubt, mountains, national park, nodoubt peak, north cascades national park, provincial parks, reflection, snow, washington, washington state, winter
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Sometimes the shots you think you will like from a trip fall to the bottom of the pile pretty quickly. A few weeks ago I was out near Pitt Lake hoping for some good sunset alpenglow on Mt. Blandshard (aka the ‘Golden Ears’). Burke Mountain ate up a lot of the direct light when the sun went low in the sky, and clouds obscured the top of the Mt. Blandshard peaks. What resulted was a rather bland panorama. Two years ago I would have been happy with it, but now I know it is a throwaway more or less – not bad but nothing special about it.
This was one of those times when suddenly the light just goes away. Turning around I saw the scene above – dark clouds with nice orange colours underneath. Thankfully I have just enough zoom in the 70-200 to show the detail of the treetops which I think adds extra dimension to the shot.
Tags: british columbia, burke mountain, canada, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, clouds, colorful, forest, mountain ridge, pitt meadows, pitt polder, storm, sunset
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Alpenglow on Mount Redoubt and Nodoubt Peak from Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park
(click for larger version)
6 exposures stitched, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM @ 144mm
When I spend time shooting I will normally take a quick overview of the days results immediately. There are often a few shots that will stand out – and those are often processed and sometimes show up here on the blog right away. I have learned that taking a long step back from a series of new photos can be beneficial to me in terms of my objectivity in culling the weaker shots. If I were to go through all the shots immediately I still carry my mental image of what I had planned for a photo. Not everything I try works out of course, and sometimes my initial expectations turn out to be too high. Sorting and processing images a month or two later gives me a lot better perspective of what is a “good” shot or a bad one – as many of my initial expectations have settled down. This has generally worked out so far – and I think I am better at choosing strong images than I used to be in part because of it.
However…
I recently had an experience where the month+ delay in processing a panorama didn’t really seem to help. I processed and stitched this panorama 3-4 times – never quite happy with the colour of the sky. Things got to the point where I was no long able to view the photo at all objectively.
For this particular panorama I stood in the snow next to Chilliwack Lake for over an hour, freezing, taking the odd shot but waiting for the right light. When it came – I shot about 3 panoramas (and many single shots) with a few different compositions. I like the composition of this one the best. The colour of the sky seemed quite purple compared to what my brain was telling me looked “natural”. This could be a case of over analysis – but I try to process images such that they are faithful to what I saw at the time. So I processed the 6 shots that make up this image again in Camera Raw with some PS adjustments to account for the colour. Then I did this again. Still not happy I put the image away for a few more weeks. I should note the purple color is present in the raw file – not as a result of some other colour processing I have done.
Now that I have picked up this panorama again, I am still not sure if this looks natural. I like the colour on the mountain peaks, this is how it looked when I was there – but the sky still bothers me. I have stared at it so long I no longer remember what it looked like in person – perhaps that is the downside in waiting to do post processing? Maybe I just have to drop an image for longer or toss it entirely? I again processed an alternate panorama – taken about 7 minutes before the one posted above – and the sky looks bland and the clouds undefined – the whole image is uninspiring.
So what is the good thing about all this?
During this process I learned a few more Photoshop techniques that I otherwise would not have. Tweaking sky colours using Selective Color in Photoshop, for example. Next time I have a sky colour problem as a result of changing colour temperature etc – I know how to fix it. I have also learned that sometimes I might need to move on from processing an image that just isn’t right – or leave it behind entirely.
Tags: alpenglow, bc, british columbia, canada, cascades, chilliwack, chilliwack lake, chilliwack lake provincial park, mount edgar, mount redoubt, mountains, national park, nodoubt peak, north cascades national park, np, panorama, post-processing, provincial parks, reflection, snow, stitched, washington, washington state, winter
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About Michael Russell Photography
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