Pictures From The Homeland 2: Nefoundland and Nova Scotia 2010

And continuing the digital journey, here are a few more from our summer trip.  These were all taken with the D90 and the kit lens.

This first one is taken from the "Brigus Mountain" (coming from Alberta it was really more of a hill...maybe even a grassy knoll).  It shows the harbor and center of Brigus, NFLD, Julia's grandmothers hometown.  I really enjoy this picture because it shows the sleepy little Newfie towns that I have always found fascinating.

I snapped this picture of Julia and her grandmother when we were leaving the cemetery where we visited her grandfathers burial site.  I love this photo because of the twisted fence.  One of the things that makes little fishing villages so great is that everything (streets, fences, even houses) just seem askew somehow and I think that makes for great photo ops.

Finally, this photo is in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.  For those of you who don't know these are the "3 churches" and are historic sites in Mahone Bay.  The one on the far right also happens to be where Juls and I were wed, and is really the reason I like this picture.

Pictures From The Homeland 1: Nefoundland 2010

I want to keep going with my photo posts so I am looking back at some of my old trip photos to throw them up on the site.

These next few are from our trip to Nefoundland last summer.

Thought I would start it off with something simple.  I am not great at taking pictures of objects, however, to me this photo is a simple but effective representation of life by the sea and that's why I like it.  It was taken at Port De Grave (pronounced "pardagraeve" in Newfenease) with the Nikon D90.

These next two are two of my favorite photos of Julia.  The first because I think she looks great and the beautiful background of the Saint John harbor/Fort Amherst (Thanks Todd) just adds to that.  The second because it is one of the most funny and expressive photos I have ever taken of her.  I just love how the path is behind her and goes on forever in the background and of course, her facial expression is priceless.

PHOTO CONTEST #1: Your Favorite Picture

So...lots of people have photo blogs and they put their pics up and it's good fun, blah blah blah...I wanted to do something a bit different with mine, so I thought I would include some themed contests.  I should point out that they are not really contests in that you can't actually win anything, I am just calling them contests so people will read this post.

Basically, the challenges is this, send me your favorite picture that you have taken with a write-up (keep it short) of why you like it.  I will post a new submission every week and we can all look at each others favorite photos. 

These photos don't have to be high quality and don't have to be of anything in particular, they just have to be your favorite.  I will stipulate that they do have to be taken by either you, or a family member though.

I look forward to seeing your entries, send them to me in a message on my facebook account.

Alberta Catch-Up 5

And the last 3...for now.

Like I said, lakes with mountains in the background are a dime a dozen in the Rockies.  Even so, they still make great photos.  Here is yet another example from our trip to Jasper.  I really like the colors here.

This was a result of Julia and I trying to see who could get the best water picture at this fountain in Heritage Park and truthfully, I think it's mine...but I'm not sure. For those who don't know the frozen water affect was achieved by increasing the shutter speed.

Saving what may be the best for last, this photo actually won Julia a photo of the month contest at Total!  This was taken at Pyoto Lake on the way to Jasper.  We had stopped to try this hike and it was raining pretty hard but we figured what the hell.  Luckily for us, the rain cleared up just as we reached the top of the viewpoint and this rainbow appeared.  Since taking this photo we have seen this exact photo on countless travel ads in Alberta, but never one with a rainbow...we should try and sell it!

Alberta Catch-Up 4

You guessed it, more Alberta pics.

There are simply tons of opportunities in the mountains for photos of lakes with mountains in the background but I wanted to include these two specifically.  To top one is of Forget-me-not Pond in Bragg Creek, Alberta. Juls and I both loved this pond and the surrounding park and went for tons of hikes there, it was a great place.  Taken with the same Nikon setup, I just really love the deep color of the water, apparently it's that green because it is a man made pond and has an unusually large amount of algae and sediment.

I love the second pic because it is the payoff for hiking to the Lake Louise Tea House in...you guessed it...Lake Louise, Alberta.  It was about 1.5hrs to get to this point and then another hour to get to the top of the big beehive (the peak climbing up on the left of the picture).  It was totally worthwhile and probably my favorite hike we did in Alberta.

This picture is probably my favorite of all the ones I have taken since we bought the DSLR.  I love the depth, color and composition.  It's taken from the steps of Chateau Lake Louise looking out over the lake.  We woke up early(ish) and decided to take a short hike and found the lake was super calm and looked a different (darker) shade of green than it normally does.

Alberta Catch-Up 3

And 3 more.

This is another photo taken at Heritage Park in Calgary.  I really like this one because of the lighting.  Taken with the D90, 35-120 F4.8, this was an experiment for me and I actually played with different white balances to see what each would give me.  In the end, I liked the warmth of the white balance in the photo here, and so it is the one I kept.

Both of these photos were taken in Drumheller, AB with the D90 (same lens as above...it was the only one we owned for quite some time).  I took the top photo and really like it, but have gotten comments that it would be better if the bush in the foreground were more prominent.  I am starting to agree and may do some additional editing to see if I can punch up the colors a bit.  The second photo was actually taken by Juls.  It is the ground in the Badlands and is just a really cool macro shot...oh yeah, the 35-120 has a macro feature, which is the only reason we still have it.

Alberta Catch-Up 2

Here are 3 more.

Both of these pics were taken at the Athabasca Glacier on our trip to Jasper on Labor Day weekend 2010.  They were both taken with the D90 again with the 35-120 F4.8.  I really like the top one because it almost looks like it has been taken with an ultra-wide or even fish-eye lens, but it hasn't.  As for the second one, the reason I like it is actually because of the people you can see on the glacier in the upper right hand corner.

This one I added because it is one of my favorite pictures of Juls (she hates it by the way).  We were on the paddle boat at Heritage Park in Calgary when I snapped this one and I just like how raw and imperfect it is.  It was taken with the same setup as the two above.

Alberta Catch-Up 1

I'm going to try and get 3 pics per post here to make things simpler...here's the first 3 in no particular order...well, they are in some particular order...in a bit of an order I guess.

Both of these were taken at the Calgary Zoo shortly after we bought our Nikon D90.  The lens is actually an old lens that Juls had on her Nikon Film camera (F70 I think).  It is a 35-120, F 4.8 kit lens...so in other words its not a great lens, but it did work well here.

This is actually a photo that I didn't take, but did edit.  I was driving the car as we were leaving Rolleau, Saskatchewan (The home of "Dog River") when we saw this little guy on the side of the road. Shawn took the photo with ICOMs D700, and I think he had the 70-200 f1.8 lens on.  It was originally a little bland and the fox was not prominent enough so I increased the blacks and contrast and cropped in a bit.

That's the first three.

A Canadian in Paris, the Photo Blog

I figured that since I am putting actual effort into my other blog (www.ericinparis2011.blogspot.com), I should also make a place to put our photos.  Julia and I have both gotten into photography lately and I am really looking forward to practicing further in some of the most beautiful locations on the planet. 

In keeping with other photo blogs I have seen I will try and explain exactly what I did, what gear I used etc. when showing pictures, I am both lazy and forgetful though so it could just be made up...no promises.  Also, if I can every figure out how to, I will be linking my two blogs together to make it easier to go between them...

Look for the first photos soon, I plan to start by looking back at my favorite photos from our time in Alberta.