Time Up

Another one of those nights that I can't sleep, so at 6:00 AM I decided that I would head out with the camera and see if

 I could find something to shoot.  I grabbed my gear and made my way out of the house as quiet as possible so as not to wake my wife.  Drove to the nearest Tim Hortons picked up a coffee put on some Tom Petty and headed north out of town.

It seems that whenever I head out for an early morning shoot I am always drawn to Giroux and this was no exception.  The condition were great with all the hoar frost and I spent a good hour out there shooting but it was soon time to head home to make my wife breakfast.  As I started back I came across my favourite stand of trees and this fog which was starting to develop around them.  I looked at my watch, not much time but I figured I would go for it.  I trudged through the deep snow and got as close as I could with the time I had and started shooting.  It really was beautiful the fog the hoar frost and those amazing white poplar.  I had to tear myself away, because my time there was up.

Starry Night

I have not done any night shooting in quite sometime, and what inspired it on this night I don't know.  I asked my daughter, Tamera if she was interested in getting a coffee from Tim's and heading out with me to do some photography.  She said yes and we were eastward bound, to La Broquerie.  When we got there the sun was just starting to disappear behind the trees.  We walked to the area I had in mind near the Seine River and I started shooting.  It did not take long to realize that we were not alone out there, you could hear the coyotes howling all along the river.  It was amazing, I had never heard anything like that and I will admit it did freak me out some.  A few times I scanned the forest with my flashlight thinking I would see shining eyes look at us but we never did.

Besides us both being a little scared we were both getting cold and I told her we would leave right away, and it was at this time I looked up and notice the tree tops and the stars beyond.  Composing the shot was not easy, I really could not see much looking through my view finder.  Tamera shone the flashlight at the treetops and that helped at least to focus my camera on the trees.  I wasn't totally sure how much time to give for an exposure but based on my last number of shots I thought that 20 minutes would be enough.  I click my remote the shutter opened up and we headed back to the car to warm up and to finish off the rest of my coffee.  After 17 minutes or so I headed back to find my camera.  My watch timer was set for 20 minutes and as I walked up it starting going off.  I viewed the image on the back of my camera and decided that that was going have to be good enough, I was cold and ready to go home.

The Outlaw Trail

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Saskatchewan?  Well it is possible, since Saskatchewan is just north of Montana and would be a great place to hid out from the US lawmen.  I was sold, if I ever got the chance I was going to Coronach Saskatchewan and to Station No. 1 on The Outlaw Trail.
My chance came when my wife Julie and I were deciding on a holiday, something that we had not done in 6 years.  Julie wanted to visit some relatives in Strasbourg and I wanted to photograph The Big Muddy and in particular Castle Butte area.  With the GPS set, we were headed to Coronach and then north to Strasbourg, on a great adventure together.
That GPS took us down a lot of roads less traveled by and as long as we had plenty of gas I was okay with that.  We stayed at motels and ate on the road, good times.
We got to Coronach late on our second day and spent the night there.  In the morning, after eating at a local restaurant and getting directions to Castle Butte, we headed out.  We were going without a tour or tour guide so the chance of us seeing the actual Jim Kelly Caves (where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid will have stayed when holed up there) was not going to happen, but I was okay with that I just wanted to see the area and Castle Butte.  When we came into The Big Muddy Valley it was like we were in New Mexico, it was beautiful my dream come true.  I love this country and went crazy with my camera.  Julie who had brought along Tamera's (our daughter) point and shoot camera also enjoy getting into the whole photography thing.  I am not sure how long we spent there but eventually the rains came and we packed up and slowly made our way out of the valley. and north to Regina then up to Strasbourg.  I will never forget the day that Julie and I spent in The Big Muddy Valley, and I hope that we can return one day.

Bull!

A country boy I am not!  Born and raised in a town, which has now, sadly, become a city.  Having said that, I love being in the country and always will.  I admit though, there are things about the country I don't know, and that is where this story begins.
We were invited out to my sister-in-law and her husband's for supper and raspberry picking.  My thinking is always that maybe I can get some photography in, and so after the picking was almost done, Heinz and I visited as I found things to photograph on his yard. Heinz then noticed that his cattle were making their way to the watering hole and I saw the most amazing photograph developing in my head.  In the distance, looking straight into the sun, you could see this line of cows walking in our direction, with dust everywhere.  Well I was inspired and since it was a fair distance across the pasture to the fenced in area where the cattle were, it gave me some time to get my camera and tripod all set up.  By the time I got in range to shoot the cattle, I noticed that they were settling around the water hole, and the line idea was not going to happen.  The sun was a lot brighter than I had anticipated and this shot was not turning out how I had envisioned it.  Oh well, I was going to make the best of it anyway, and I got busy shooting. Meanwhile, one of the cows kept on making this weird noise. It didn't take me long to realize that it was not a cow but a bull and that he was not happy with me.  Heinz, making his way towards me, said that we should get out of there. So I grabbed my tripod and camera and we headed back to the gate.  We both kept our eyes on this bull as he slowly kept following us.  Heinz picked up a big branch and hit it on the ground and yelled at the bull.  That sure felt like a very long walk back to the gate and to safety and I was very grateful that Heinz had noticed the bull acting up and had come to my aid.  After we left the pasture that bull kept on complaining for some time. He was pretty ticked that I had come so close to his girls.  In the end, chalk this one up as a learning experience and that's no bull, well actually it was a bull!

Mid-Day Sun

I never go out in mid-day sun to shoot!  So what inspired this image?  Well what brought me out with my camera (Nikon D50) was a trip to St-Pierre-Joly, to see my son Cam.  He was part of a film crew for Travel Manitoba, doing a piece on The Frog Follies.  The Frog Follies are St-Pierre's annual summer festival, where the main attraction is a frog jumping contest.

It was a typical hot, humid summer Manitoba afternoon, and as I drove I kept on noticing the beautiful yellow canola fields going on for miles.  I decided that on the way back from The Frog Follies that I was going to take the slow way home.  That means taking the country roads.  I love driving country roads and this one was especially deserted because it was dirt and probably used mostly by farmers to get to their fields.  The sky was amazing, so blue with these big white puffy clouds everywhere.  I had to stop, get out my tripod and camera and start shooting.  It was all about the colours and I wanted to make it simple and still capture everything I was seeing.  As I got out of the car, the heat and humidity hit me like a brick wall, and the only sounds I could hear, besides the faint sound of  Dave Edmunds playing on my iPod, were the insects and birds.  It was so Beautiful!