Red Barn at Twilight, Southern Alberta

This is an old barn east of High River, Alberta that I photographed on New Year's Eve in 2014. I was pleased to see that I had a sale of this image last month, and wanted to let people know that Fine Art prints are available for purchase at Pictorem:

https://www.pictorem.com/2409340/barn-at-twilight/

I think this image would look great as a Chromaluxe Metal Print!

Red Barn at Twilight

"Flying E" Tree, Alberta Foothills

One of the benefits of living in Okotoks was the ability to hop in the car and take a drive to explore the Rocky Mountain Foothills area south of Calgary.  One of my favourite spots was the "Flying E" tree, named after a local ranch.  This image is from a series of lens tests I did, comparing various older manual-focus lenses on my then-new Sony A7R mirrorless camera.  This image is from a sequence taken with the remarkable little Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm f3.5 MC lens.

"Flying E" Tree, Alberta Foothills

The following image was captured a few months earlier, using a Zeiss Contax 21mm f2.8 Distagon lens on the Sony A7R.

"Flying E" Tree, Alberta Foothills

More photos of the foothills region and other parts of Alberta can be found on my web site. at www.imageswest.ca.

McDougall Memorial Church, Morley, Alberta

I was saddened to learn that the historic McDougall Memorial United Church near Morley, Alberta was destroyed in a fire this past weekend.  During the time I lived in the Calgary area, I spent many early mornings at this site attempting to photograph the church.

McDougall Memorial Church, Morley, Alberta

The McDougall Memorial United Church was a one-storey building located on the north bank of the Bow River, roughly two kilometres east of Morley. The church was constructed in 1875 in the Carpenter's Gothic style and features pointed arch windows and front door, shingled front-gabled roof, and a central steeple crowned by a pinnacle. The designation also includes the archaeological remains of mission structures at the site.  

The heritage value of the McDougall Memorial United Church lies in its association with early missionary efforts and pioneering settlement in southern Alberta at the Morleyville Mission, its association with the famed McDougall family, and its architectural significance as the first Carpenter's Gothic building still standing in Alberta on its original site.

Links:

McDougall Stoney Mission Society

Canada's Historic Places Registry

Crag & Canyon News Article

Stormy Evening at the Majorville Medicine Wheel

A stormy fall evening at the Majorville Medicine Wheel in southern Alberta.  I took this photo many years ago, using a Pentax 645 medium-format camera with a 45mm lens and Fuji Velvia transparency film.  The wind was blowing so hard, I literally had to hold down my tripod with both hands so it would not blow over in the wind.  Even though this was not a really long exposure, the grass in the foreground was still blurred.  

The thing that really makes this photo stand out is the intense, vivid colours in the sky as the sun was setting below the edge of a chinook arch.  I've been back to the medicine wheel site many times over the years, but I have never seen conditions like repeated - definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This image was recently selected by Ducks Unlimited Canada to accompany an article on the great conservation work they have been doing in the area of the Majorville Medicine Wheel.

Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta

Red Rock Coulee, Alberta

Living on Gabriola is great, and there are a lot of new landscapes for a photographer to explore here on the west coast, but one thing I do miss from living in Alberta was the ability to get up and go somewhere without having to catch a ferry...

Here's a photo from the archives, circa 2005, taken at the Red Rock Coulee Natural Area in southern Alberta.  We had camped there overnight, so we could take advantage of the great light at sunset and again the following morning.  Thinking about this makes me wish we still had our VW Westfalia camper...

Red Rock Coulee at Sunset

Summer Solstice at the Majorville Medicine Wheel

Time for another "better late than never" blog post, with one of my favourite subjects... the Majorville Medicine Wheel, this time at the summer solstice.  Trust me, it's much easier getting to this location in the summertime.

Majorville Medicine Wheel, June 2015

The weather was fairly cooperative this year, with no clouds to obstruct our view of the sunset (although I was hoping for a slightly more interesting sky but I guess you can't have it both ways...)

Sunset on the Summer Solstice, Majorville Medicine Wheel

There were a number of other visitors to the site this year, most of who said they had heard about the site thanks to the article in the August 2012 edition of Alberta Views magazine, which featured a number of my photos.  In years past, we'e always had this hilltop all to ourselves.

Watching the Sunset, Majorville Medicine Wheel

These images were captured with the remarkable new Canon EOS 5DsR, the world's highest-resolution 35mm DSLR camera.  Although it's not apparent in these heavily-compressed and downsized web images, the amount of detail this camera captures is simply staggering.  Here's a crop from the last image above:

(cropped from image above)