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Archive: ‘the outdoors’

frozen in time | Calgary photographer

Friday, March 25th, 2011

We seem to be forever frozen in winter this year. Normally I am a fan of snow. I start to get incredibly anxious if there is no snow around Christmas time. To the point I drive everyone around me crazy. I love how new and fresh everything looks covered in a thick layer of snow. I could do without it once it gets grey and slushy though

Every once in awhile… you just know there is going to be a super thick awesome layer of hoar frost. It is so pretty, and I love being out in it. Last night driving home from Okotoks I warned the kids to be prepared for a photo taking trip outside today, as I just KNEW we were going to have it!

Unfortunately for me that means what you think… I had to take the kids. It was a treat filled, gas station stopping, happy then complaining trip. And once I finally found this gorgeous spot to stop – I had to drive past it as I couldn’t take the “I wanna go HOME’ anymore

I did manage to get a few that I love, and it was really nice just getting out and driving around with the kids. Until I discovered I had turned myself around and was driving TOWARDS Crowsnest Pass instead of Calgary. The kids were NOT impressed. So the end was a little long.

Now… I have ALL the snow shots I need this year. Come on SPRING!!!! Ready for some flower and bug shots already! We saw tons of Canadian Geese last night flying around 22x and let me tell you we all shouted ‘SPRING IS COMING, THE BIRDS ARE BACK!!!!’ It does have to come right?

Hard to see through the fog for any good landscape shots

Barbed wire…..

She keeps dressing like its summer. She tried leaving the house in her croc sandals. And came out of the car like this to tell me she wanted to read a different story. CRAZY kid!

Tags: hoar frost, landscape, pictures, snow
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365 day 127 a drive in the country | Calgary photographer

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Today Kade asked to go for a drive while Ro was in school. We don’t do that as often as we used to… preschool really cuts into our long drive time!!
So out we went. And WOW….. so glad we did! We found some pretty fun fog, an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, a bison/antelope (or something like that I forget.. maybe cariboo… something) some gorgeous fields… bring on summer

Kade is such a good little car person… I love driving with her. So I slacked on my new special project today… and took some pics of the fog!!!

Seriously… no clue what kind of tree this is! Super cool though… these things were all over it.

It was soooo foggy! And this road was very hilly… It was like you were driving into a cloud! Too bad there were no shoulders at the top of the hills I totally would have taken pics up at the tops!

Posted in blog365, the outdoors | 2 Comments »

365 day 108. boring you with frost and fog!!! | Calgary photographer

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

WOW. We have had so much frost and fog lately it’s unreal!!! I don’t know if this is normal for this time of year, or if I am just noticing it more because I want a macro lens sooooooo bad I get totally frustrated looking outside!!!!!
I just love pictures of heavy frost. They are soooo pretty!!!

Today we packed up once the fog lifted a little and went to Strathmore to visit grandma. It was pretty foggy in patches on the way there, but nothing major. Once we got there, I quickly ditched the kids and went out to take some pictures. So be warned… I may bore you for a while!!! It’s not often I get to take pics without worrying about someone crying, someone hitting someone else, some having to pee…. the list is endless.
It was fun to go out for just a bit… and I got some pretty cool shots.

On the way home the fog was pretty intense most of the way home. After almost getting sideswiped I was going to turn back and just tell grandma she was having an overnight I decided to continue on. I did snap one pic on the side of the road. The for here was not so bad…. I was actually afraid to pull over anywhere in many spots… afraid of accidents. It was really foggy out!!!

Enjoy…. I think these pics are just gorgeous!

Posted in blog365, the outdoors | 3 Comments »

365 day 104 | Calgary photographer

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Today we went out. Oh yes we went out. Everyone is healthy (Kade is still coughing… but that’s ok) so we left our house for some fun. Of course now that we are healthy the friend we were going to go out with’s daughter has the cold So we packed up and went out to Grandma’s.
It was an interesting drive…. she told me it was foggy out, but it was just this weird fog. It would be all clear, then you’d see these clouds zoom over you, then the thick grey clouds. And then you COULD NOT SEE.
Totally random, happened the whole way all along the drive.

But we got there and had fun. FYI I kid you not…. Strathmore is like 10 degrees colder and the wind MUST be at least 5 km/hr faster than in Calgary. It is always colder there! On our walk today we were in hoodies, scarves, mitts, winter coats. We got home and it was gorgeous! Just so you know. HA.

I have been searching and searching… randomly driving around trying to find a driveway/road completely lined with trees to use for a photoshoot. Especially for fall. Seriously… is that too much to ask for? Sooooooooooooo hard to find here (unless I wanted evergreens lol). I thought this might work and have been dying for a chance to try some pics. Well. SIGH. I did it. And it won’t. The trees are too far from the road.

*insert sad smiley here* If anyone knows of one…. please please let me know! This street still is beautiful… just not what I need.

then on to cuddles and loving with grandma…..

GORGEOUS sunset on the way home (same street lol)

Posted in blog365, personal, the outdoors | 3 Comments »

365 day 91 | Calgary photographer

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

I got kicked out of the house today
Besides going to a bday party we haven’t really been out of the house much for A WEEK!!!!!! tell me what you think of being at home for a week being sick and with sick kids is like!!!
My MIL decided it was time for me to get out. So….. what to do when you are out of your house, not feeling too hot and all your friends have kids????
Do something I love. Randomly drive around. And so I did. I randomly drove around HOPING to find some sweet photo spots… but not lol. But it was nice to listen to the radio and just drive.

This was one pic I took. It was gorgeous out today. Wish I went the other way on 22X. And now off to go rescue another crying kid. Grrrrrrrrrr.

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365 day 85 | Calgary children’s photographer

Friday, February 5th, 2010

I am loving all this frost!!!!! As soon as I saw it I had to run out and try out the macro again. Have I mentioned I want one…………….
these are so tricky but so worth it in the end!!!

SERIOUSLY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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365 day 76 | Calgary photographer

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Today we had some heavy fog annd some awesome thick frost.
Soooooo what else is a person just dying for a sweet macro lens to do? Go out and try the poor man’s version again lol. My fingers were freezing by the time I got these – but I am so excited!!! My best ones yet.
It was pretty hard though. It was so gloomy because of the fog so I had to really up the ISO. That plus a fake macro… they are not as sharp as I want – but they’ll do!

When I get that macro I am going to rock it

LOVE THE FROST!!!!!

teeny chain holding our birdfeeder….

one little branch – just the end of it!

dead plant we didn’t take out of the flower beds lol.

Posted in blog365, the outdoors | 2 Comments »

beauty in Drumheller

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

We went on a little trip, my family and I on the hunt for ghostowns. It was pretty fun!
Leaving the house I had completely made up my mind where we were going. I had of course not read the map entirely, but figured I knew where I was going. About halfway to Strathmore Dion looked at the map and said…. ok really? This is going to take until 9 pm. We should have gone towards Lethbridge. Sooooo we went on to pick #2. We toured the Drumheller Valley. Of course we made some stops in Drumheller…. there will be pics of those up soon
I was sooo hoping to find a completely abandoned town… like I envision in my mind. But that was not to be. The first town had quite a few abandoned buildings…. but many more that should have been! There were quite a few people there. The second one was almost completely abandoned… but the mosquitos were eating us alive, so I had no choice but to snap quick and start getting some GRUMPY kids back on the road!!!
I loved every part of that trip – I love get up and go trips. Plus I am really learning alot about Alberta’s history checking out these towns!!!

So here are some pics of the valley…. I promise I will have some of the kids up soon!

The HooDoos…. right outside of Drumheller…. really cool! Kids had fun climbing these! (on the designated paths of course!)

right outside the old coal mine… it was beautiful!

Posted in personal, the outdoors | 2 Comments »

under construction

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

So I’m delving into the world of HTML and trying to customize blogs.

It is very confusing, and time consuming, but hopefully in the end it will be worth it!

I am trying to learn so that I can create a professional blog in the near future…… so this one is my guinea pig!!! This site will be changing alot, so some of the older posts will look a little wonky until I have to to go back and reedit them!

Here are some pictures of the last snowstorm – April 22. Exactly one day after all our snow FINALLY melted and Dion had gone and power raked the yard. That day was so much fun! As you can see by the pics though – snow still brings joy to my child’s eyes!!! I love it too, so I’m not going to complain. It is probably one of my fav things to photograph. Fresh snow. Magical. But…. I would really like summer to come too

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latest and greatest night photography

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Night photography has a certain magical beauty. I love it. I saw some pics and had to try it. So I read up on it, talked to some people in my Flickr groups and learned how to set the settings on my camera. I also learned the ap and shutter speeds good for the lenses I wanted to use for the effects I wanted. My first night out was with my MIL Yvonne. We went to Crescent Heights. Beautiful view of downtown and Center Street Bridge. Will def be going back in the summer for some sunrise/sunset action with the river and the bridge. But when we went it was COLD and WINDY and my tripod had a malfunction. But we survived and it was worth it – I love the photos. I am pretty proud of my first attempts The next night I went out was 2 nights later with Danielle. It was much warmer and not windy so I lasted till midnight…. past my bedtime lol! We went to SAIT and spent alot of time in a parkade getting many weird looks…. they tore out the huge grassy field with the views to put in a parkade!!!!But I got some good motion blur shots. We also went to Scotsman Hill – again great views. We had a blast! Can’t wait to go again!!! take a peek and let me know what you think! comments and suggestions are always welcome here!

Posted in personal, the outdoors | 1 Comment »