First snowfall, Assiniboine Park

A very creepy snowman from the weekend’s first significant snowfall, Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg.  My personal favourite time of year to shoot.

 

Ice storm, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada during the recent springtime ice storm.  As tough as the weather conditions can be, I love the images available in adverse conditions.  Here are a few from my recent road trip.  Above is a fat bike rider braving the elements.

Ice covered tree branches during the height of the freezing rain.

Chain link fencing covered in ice.

Fergus enjoying a post storm hike after much of the ice had melted.

A macro of Pussy Willows with the Canon 5D Mark IV and 100L IS.

A final image of a slightly confused seagull in Dryden, Ontario wondering what happened to the springtime weather.

Fergus enjoying a late winter snowfall, Winnipeg

 

Fergus the Great Pyrenees enjoying a late season snowfall, age about 1 1/2 years.

For a fun comparison, here he is a year earlier at about 5 months of age.

Running beside his buddy Angus

Ice fog, Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg

Ice fog in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park, normally it burns off by mid morning, but on this day it lingered the entire day.

Dog in a windstorm

Winter played an ugly trick on us in Winnipeg.  After a period of warm and sunny spring weather, we woke up to snow and very gusty winds.  Angus was a little irritated by it all, but it didn’t last long and warm temperatures are returning.

Waiting for the ice breakup on Lake Winnipeg

Angus and his mom watching the ice breakup on Lake Winnipeg, Victoria Beach, Manitoba.

Artistic freedom in Landscape Photography, Vermillion Lakes, Banff

The beauty of digital landscape photography is you as the photographer have a great deal of artistic freedom.  Here is an image of the Vermillion Lakes in Banff National Park.  With a little tweaking it becomes a much more dramatic composition.  I was going for a similar look that in the film days would have required a tobacco filter.  This was a blend of two RAW files one exposed for the foreground the other for the sky.

The topic of artistic freedom and image manipulation will always be an ongoing debate.  With High Dynamic Range photography and Photoshop manipulated images all over the web.  My personnel view is to create images that could have been accomplished with multiple exposures and filters used in the days of film.  But, by no means do I have any great problem with photographers who manipulate images with HDR software such as Photomatix.  To each there own, I must admit though, there are some horrid examples of over manipulated, cartoon like images all over the internet.  Definitely not my cup of tea.

It’s been a long winter, start the warm up already!

Finally a break in the chilly winter weather, the spring melt has finally arrived.  I love the clean simplicity of winter photography, but there just comes a point when you’ve had enough and long for the sound of birds and running water.  It will even be nice to feel the pavement and grass on your feet once again.

 

Angus did get a lot of use out of his winter coat, but now has a case of cabin fever.

Children’s Garden, Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg

The entrance to the newly constructed Children’s Garden at Assiniboine Park.  A playground set to open this spring, looks great from the outside, and was long overdue.

I frequent the park often and am glad to see that many changes are in the works.  This image was blended from multiple raw files to extend the dynamic range, sort of a pseudo or manual high dynamic range.  But still maintaining a more traditional looking image.

Esplanade Riel Bridge on a scenic winter morning, Winnipeg, Canada

Winnipeg’s iconic Esplanade Riel Bridge and frost covered tree branches.