Trip Report - Barrier Lake Lookout

I wanted to take a moment to comment on the terrorist attack in Edmonton last night, but really don't have anything to say other than: Be vigilant, friends. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful country, yet a select few manage to make it such a scary and ugly place. Let not those who would incite hatred and fear change the way we conduct ourselves, and interact with each other. With respect, with dignity, with love.

Yesterday morning, the weather forecast called for drizzle/ showers in the mountains by noon. And Anita was groggily waking up like a tranquilized sloth, so we debated staying in bed. But the 'Seize the day' part of me thought the fall colours may be gone by next weekend, so I dragged her out to Barrier Lake for a short hike up to the viewpoint and fire lookout. Turned out to be the right decision, as it only drizzled on us for a few minutes, and we got to see all the golds and reds of autumn in the mountains, on an otherwise perfect day.


Beautiful golden coloured foliage


This was an interesting large depression in the landscape, dipping down dozens of meters, but with incredible fall coloured trees erupting from it.














Not my favourite beer. I dumped some out so I wouldn't have to drink it all, and even a mountain ground squirrel that ventured up for a taste didn't like it.

#BendOverAndTakeItFromTheGhostofSteveJobs

Poor iPhone 6+ owners are getting all #bentoutofshape (ha!) over this Bendy Mcbend phone controversy (OMG - who knew that thin metal would bend when my fat ass sat on it?!). Good thing I'm not an early adopter. But even if I was, I wouldn't be able to fit a phone that big comfortably into my pocket anyways, so #bendgate, #bendghazi, #willitbend, #BendOverAndTakeItFromTheGhostofSteveJobs probably wouldn't apply to me.

Anyways… it's that beautiful fall colour time of the year in YYC. Put away your bent phone and go soak in the sights of the golden foliage before it's gone in a couple weeks. Then you can resume complaining about your #BendItLikeBeckam phone.

A Splash of Fall Colour

As we approach the 'official' end of summer, it's easy to get depressed knowing that the fall season is about to usher in months of stuff to complain about: colder weather, annoying teenagers listening to their iPods way too loud on the bus, daylight savings time, CBC running daily NHL lockout updates when there's actually nothing to update ("Gary Bettman seen at JC Penny", or "Donald Fehr takes a shit in KFC"), etc. Ugggh...

However, I do also find the next couple weeks of the year to be the most interesting, colour wise, in Calgary. The neighbourhoods are awash in a splendour of golds, ambers, reds, and even a bit of orange foliage. Coupled with the bright blue skies and beautiful late afternoon sunlight, it's hard not to be impressed by the beauty of nature soaking in the last rays before the snows come. If you're one of my little students in my DSLR class, Professor Mach commands you to go out and shoot some of these late summer/early fall scenes.

MOONCAKES!!!

It's almost time for mid-autumn festival, that Chinese holiday marking the fall equinox (on the lunar calendar) and the full moon. Realistically, being raised in Canada means that I don't actually know anything about the significance of this holiday other than the fact that it coincides with the few week period in which I get to fatten myself up with mooncakes!!! Mmm...

I couldn't resist buying this mooncake from T&T, simply because it came in an awesome little tin (which also happens to perfectly fit 3 rolls of 120 film). The tiny pastry was totally not worth 4 bucks, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for stupid little collectible stuff.

Images of Autumn - Swaying in the wind

The last of 3 posts related to autumn images. These ones are all fairly soft, mostly due to my inability to properly focus on the foliage as it blew around in the wind - nothing would stay still for even the slightest moment. Stupid nature.

















Have a great weekend dudes!
-G

Images of Autumn - Foliage

As promised, here are more images from Friday's Fish Creek Park adventure with the Voigtlander Nokton lens. One more post of images to follow.















Happy Remembrance Day folks. Remember to give a moment's silence to honour those that fought for the way of life we enjoy now...

Images of Autumn

I went out for an adventure yesterday on my day off down to Fish Creek Park in SE Calgary. I spent about 2 hours getting whipped in the face by gusting winds, but barely got past the parking lot - I stumbled into a field, and hit the jackpot for photo details. Like I said in a previous post, I love autumn for all the colours and textures of the foliage. Leaves get crunchy, grasses get straw-like, and everything is ablaze in oranges, reds and golds. Here's the first of what will probably be 3 posts of photos. I found a few of these plants by the parking lot and loved their colour. I really like how these turned out - the Nokton f/1.4 has such an extremely shallow depth of field that all the background details are blurred out, giving these shots such a painterly look and feel. Click to enlarge, there are a lot of details not seen in the smaller versions.