Night Photography Workshop

Another no mountain weekend due to the weather, because apparently Mother Nature hates me. So instead, check out some shots from a night photography walk I hosted last weekend. We captured some long exposures and panning shots, got heckled by a moron who thought we should've been photographing him instead of the trains, and got startled by a stealthy beaver in the river. Just a regular night in downtown Calgary.


Moments before this shot, I was startled by a beaver lurking in the water... stealthy like a ninja.


"Ludicrous speed!"




Apparently, I own a crystal ball now. Should I start charging $$$ to read people's futures?

Calgary Tower Stair Climb

As we're officially now in spring, I'm doing some spring cleaning. You know how you pack away your winter boots and clothes? Yeah, I'm trying to pack away my winter belly until next year. But it's not going so well. My month long drinking fest known as Febrewery really did a number on my gut, and age related metabolic slowdown means I actually have to work at losing the flab. Boo urns. So when we were presented with a chance to climb the 802 stairs up the Calgary Tower this week, we jumped at the opportunity. It surprisingly only took 10 minutes to do, and probably could have been faster had I known it was only 51 flights of steps. Even so, at this pace, it was the equivalent of scrambling up a mountain in an hour. I hadn't been up the Tower in 20 years, so seeing these views of the city were a different perspective.


The glass floor of the Calgary Tower, looking back down to 9th Ave, nearly 200m below.


A different view of Calgary... this is Centre Street heading north, between the Telus Sky and Bow buildings.




The multi-tiered building on the right is City Hall.


The Saddledome.

The Magical Day in Calgary

The combination of cold weather, hoarfrost from the fog a couple days ago, and the light bit of snow overnight, made for an unbelievably pretty city yesterday... I spent an hour wandering suburbia getting my ass frostbitten, shooting these fleeting scenes that would be gone by the next day. If you were stuck working on Friday (like a sucker!) you missed out on the most magical day in Calgary.

YYC Night Skyline

Oh, Hello Calgary. I almost didn't recognize you, with all the pretty skyline colours and that interesting looking bridge. These shots were taken a few minutes apart, underneath the pedestrian bridge connecting East Village with St. Patrick's Island. It's the bridge that mysteriously cracked this summer, prompting a closure after only being in use for 4 years. It's also the same bridge we run over during our workday runs. Hmmm... perhaps we should rethink our route.

Anyways, the light of the setting sun quickly faded to twilight blue hour, hence the slight shifts in colour in the sky between the 3 photos.


If one didn't know better, one could be fooled into believing the Bow is a mighty flowing river. Looks can be deceiving.







For those that are actually interested in the photo-nerdery: these were taken with a 12mm f/2.0 Rokinon lens on a Fuji X-T1 body. No HDR processing, just single 30 second long exposures, with a 'Velvia' VSCO preset adjustment slapped on in Lightroom for some added oomph to the colours.

Canada 151

Happy 151st Birthday, Canada! You are vast, beautiful, welcoming of others, and polite to a fault (sorry). You have free basic health care, sensible gun policy, and recognize diversity as your strength. In this age of populism and insular rhetoric, I have never been more proud and grateful to call you home.

For those who are interested, these fireworks shots were taken from the hillside of Rotary Park in Calgary, overlooking downtown. All you need is a camera with full manual exposure, and a tripod. The majority of these were 1 - 2 second exposures, at f/8, ISO 2000. But you can play around with your exposure to suit the look you want.














This one makes it look like downtown Calgary is on fire.


Zoom Pull! Zoom in or out while the shutter is open on a long exposure, and this is what you get.

YYC Bike Rave

Look ma! I joined a biker gang last night! Except, by 'biker gang', I really mean a ragtag group of cyclists out for YYC Bike Rave in Crescent Heights. We be terrorizing residential neighbourhoods with our flashing LEDs and glow sticks, and bluetooth speakers pumping out random jams at slightly nuisance volume. #totalboss

I hadn't ridden my bike in 8 years, so discovered a few quirks last night. The front tire had a slow leak that barely held up for the duration of the ride, the derailleur was messed up so I couldn't access my top gears, and my seat hurts my bum. #notsoboss


My ride, a classic Cannondale, posing in Crescent Heights overlooking the skyline.


Kristina holds up my bike for a shot. I need to get a kickstand.








Kristina's bike decked out with 6 dollars worth of glow sticks.






There were a lot of confused looks by drivers on the road as our group rode by.