Dear Reader (2021-10-25),
April relished the idea of not thinking about food for 2 or 3 days. I relished the idea of a seeing a part of Alberta that we had not driven through since some time in the 90s. I had also been inspired by some recent images from photography friends. At this time of year, it is the off season and only 3 businesses are open. There is a liquor store and each of the two open hotels has a restaurant. For anything else, the nearest corner store is 20 minutes away. Groceries are an hour away, but my understanding is that residents shop infrequently about 90 minutes away.
It was liberating and delicious to be able to walk down a street at any time of day or night, set up my tripod in the middle of the street, and not worry about vehicles. My favourite mental image of the trip was when I stood in the middle of the main street at 9:00 pm photographing a building. As I tripped the shutter 4 young teenagers, who were also on the main street, wove their way along the road’s centre line on skateboards.
It was incredible to see how close the fire of 2017 was to burning down buildings. In places the fire was stopped only 20/30 metre from some vacation homes. We both loved the drive to and from this new favourite secret location (which is not really very secret at all), and I look forward to the next drive (maybe even this year shortly after the snow flies and before the roads get too dangerous).
Housekeeping
I continue to make minor changes to this web site. During the week of October 18, I added 2 new monographs (see Books and Monographs), “Sentinels” and “Thin Line”. There were originally presented as a pair of series. They have both been updated and re-presented in digital monograph form.
Photographs
• “Shadow Line” Rather than using Lightroom I did all my edits in Photoshop, as I couldn’t achieve the image I envisaged in Lightroom.
• 01 – 11 were captured in-town.
• 12 – 13 are of Cameron Lake and Falls.
• 14 – 16 were captured along Red Rock Parkway. Not only is Red Rock Canyon at the end of the Parkway, Blakiston Falls (17-18) is an easy walk away (2k or so return). Parks Canada has done an amazing job installing very solid and sturdy walkways and viewing platforms to help protect the fragile area around Blakiston Falls.
You are welcome to share a link to this page with others.
As always, all comments are welcome and sought.
Cheers, Sean
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All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2020-2024
I was in Waterton Park late August and of course the park was swarming with people. There was a winter trip with Neil Z in Jan 2017 and it was empty. I like it when empty. Empty but not abandoned. Empty, with the promise of a return at some future time. It must be an interesting experience putting a building to sleep for the winter. I’m just guessing there is a checklist, unique to each building.
The lake panorama is nice, with the scoop of the forest and the ripples in the water framing the mountain.
The in town falls that everyone photographs is well done as are the Red Rock Canyon. At least this time of year it’s easy to get the shot without jostling elbows with the hoi polloi.
I’ve never seen Blakiston Falls, but I have to saw I’m almost more interested in the rocks around the falls, than the water itself.
I admit to some curiosity to what about Shadow Line that couldn’t be done in Lightroom. But that shadow line and the clouds make the shot.
Keith, Thank you for visiting and commenting. In answer to your implied question regarding Shadow Line. The editing of this image was also a learning opportunity, and therefore it took me well over half a day to get the result I wanted. As you know, Photoshop is a beast, and the first half dozen times I do anything new in it, it takes me ages to figure things out.
The drama is accentuated by sliding the dehaze to the right, but that turned the sky too cool (blue) and the rest of the image too weird. Using Photoshop I established a mask for the sky and the inverse mask for everything else. So the sky and everything else could be treated separately. Just to be clear this was not a sky replacement. I just wanted to treat the sky and ground separately.
Sky – dehaze slid right, saturation slid left
Everything else – spot increase on highlights, spot sharpening, slight warming, minor vibrancy, contrast, and exposure adjustments – all done using blendif tool / technique and layer masking
Cheers