Home on the Range

My parents live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, just South of a small hamlet called Bragg Creek.  And, yes, they live in a log home, what else?  Some people rent cabins in the mountains, so they can sit around a crackling fire to open presents on Christmas day; but that's just another day in our home (minus the presents, unless it's actually Christmas).  So what I'm getting at, is it's a pretty beautiful place to come home to.

I went outside hoping to get a photo that would capture the warmth of this place, but when I got back to Victoria, I just wasn't feeling it.  So that's when I turned to my HDR software.

High Dynamic Range (or HDR) imaging is a process used when a scene has a large range of light intensity.  My favorite example is as follows:  

Say you have a scene in which there is a building with a lot of windows and the lights on, but in the background there is a beautiful sun set, but in the foreground there is a darkened lawn.  If you were to set your shutter speed to expose the interior of the building, you would loose the sunset, and the lawn.  If you were to expose for the lawn, the sunset, and especially the windows would be blown out (so bright you loose any detail).  I think you get where this is going...

So HDR software allows you to take three separate photos of the scene, each one exposed for a different  aspect (windows, sky, foreground), and then combine them to get a single image that includes all of the features you wanted.

In the case of the above photo, I actually used a single exposure.  Some HDR software will allow you to fake it, as I have.

 And on that note, here are some Chickadees.  I put some seeds in my hand, and stood really still and got one to land on my hand.

And here's a... one of these.

I included these because they were taken at my parents house... nothing to do with HDR though.

Labrador Lovin'

Being back in Calgary means that I get to visit some of my favorite Labradors, and enjoy some of the best canine affection you can get.

This little girl is one of my parents' dogs, Quita.  Despite her appearance, she is not a puppy, she's actually two (ish?).  She's around 50 pounds, and built as sturdy as they come.  She's sweet, and mostly quiet, and very fearless, and I don't think there is a single person who could say no to that face.

She also has a very unique marking in her left eye.

Brio, is my parents black lab.  He's big and sucky, and has a head like a cannon ball (which he often likes to cram into your nose when you're not expecting it).  These beautiful pooches are our 4th and 5th labradors from Drobot Labradors (we've just known Cindy THAT long, and love her labradors).

And then, of course, there's Riley, whom I've posted photos of before.  He's enduring the unfathomable torture of having a horse toque on his head, with his usual strength and grace.

I think you can see why these characters all hold a special place in my heart.  Can't wait until the next time I get to see them!

A White Christmas

Back to Alberta for a white Christmas this year!  I went out to walk the dogs with my parents on Christmas day.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and all of the snow had these beautiful ice crystals on top.  This formation is known as Radiation Frost or Hoar Frost, it grows on the snow surface when water vapor moves up through the snow on cold clear nights. 

Once in a lifetime

So, incase you missed it (which I almost did), last night there was a Lunar Eclipse which coincided with the winter solstice.  This is the first time this has happened in over 300 years.  So I went outside in the 33km/h wind and tried to get a good shot of this event.  With a crick in my neck and frozen hands I stood on the porch with my camera pointing strait up on the tripod, and watched the moon get swallowed by the earths shadow. And just as the last sliver of moon was about to disappear... the clouds rolled in and hid the whole thing.  None the less, here is a shot of what I did see.

Merry Christmas!

We got our first tree this year, so I set it up and decorated it on the weekend.  It's smaller and a little modest, but I love it!

I'm dreaming of a plaid Christmas...

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and so did Steve... although he didn't really have a say in it.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy the time with your friends and family!

Feline Friends

I was back in Alberta again last weekend visiting my friends Amanda and Amy, so I of course had to harass her cats with my camera.

These were taken shortly after I relinquished the spare bedroom to them before my departure.  Penny was so excited to be able to sit on "her" bed and peer out the window again.

And Weechee just curled up on the quilt, happy to have the bed back too.

And well, I just couldn't post cats on my blog without including my little man, Steve.  He also loves watching the world outside the window.

 On a completely different note:  I went downtown last week to take some photos at the Vancouver Island Brewery, for an article in The Martlet (<--- check out the shot and the article!!!).  I was leaving right around sunset, and the sky felt very close and heavy like it sometimes does in the fall.  It's hard to describe the feeling, and it was hard to capture it as well.  But I tried anyway!