A picture of a park somewhere.

A Park

Yesterday I had a nice day with my sister, we drove around and visited some scenic spots and had some fun taking pictures and walking around. We visited the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park, the Cheltenham Badlands, and stopped at a few other unnamed places that caught our attention.

Here are the pics of this latest photo outing. All were taken with the 30mm f/1.4 lens.

After I’d given up on photography for the day, the sun came out! So I got in a little photo expedition after all. Not too far afield this time as it was a late start, but I went to a local conservation area / park called Loafers Lake. As with the earlier pictures today, these were all taken with the 30mm f/1.4 prime lens. The majority were taken with a moderate aperture, around 5.6 to 8.

Cheers!

To view an image in full-size, just click the thumbnail.

Today I went for a little trip, to go and visit a picturesque spot where I could take some pictures with my digital camera and try to get myself back into the photography thing. (Outcome: I need more practice.) My eyes are out of the habit of framing shots and I found myself fumbling around with lenses and forgetting settings. Still, one has to start somewhere, and I’m not unhappy with the results.

One of the first lessons I learned in my first photography course was to take lots and lots of pictures. The more pictures you take, the better your chances of getting a great shot. And that was in the days of film! With digital, you don’t even have to worry about wasting money for processing. Out of over 70 shots, I have selected eight that I like. And of the eight, only two or three are better than adequate, IMHO.

Tell me which ones you like the best, I’ll be interested to see if people like the same ones I like.

To view an image in full-size, just click the thumbnail.

Almost any kind of camping can be a peaceful experience. (Well, I said almost didn’t I?) When it’s done right… I mean canoeing in, finding somewhere way off the beaten track, where it’s just you, the tent, the water, the trees, and perhaps eleventy-zillion mosquitos.

One kind of camping that I’ve only done a few times (and none of them intentional), however is winter camping. It brings a whole new level of peace and quiet, when it’s too cold for the bugs, there’s nobody else around for a hundred miles (no-one else was dumb enough to go camping in this weather) and the air is still and quiet.

It is almost indescribable, waking up in the morning, and being able to hear snow fall. If the world is quiet enough, you can hear it snowing. It is almost magical.

Of course, the subsequent canoe trek through the blizard was sort of the downside anti-climactic non-magical moment… but even then, it had it’s fun. Like stopping in the middle of the lake to have a snowball fight in a canoe. (Yes, we were young, stupid and insane in those days. We’re older now.)

I don’t know why I thought of this today, in late July. It is just one of those moments, those memories, where Nature revealed some of her magic and beauty, and I feel fortunate to have experienced it.