FortWhyte Alive was the host nature park for the EcoAdventure 2012 and Earth Day 2012, on Sunday April 22.  Both events attracted approx. 4,000 earthlings.  Organizers of both events were ecstatic about the event and program that was put on.

At the end of the day, when the visitors, staff and countless volunteers left.  There were signs that once again FortWhyte Alive rose to the occasion and put on two first rate events.

THANK-YOU FortWhyte Alive for being there for us.

Take Care and Be Safe

Chris

The late evening and early morning of April 24th/25th, 2012.  Turned out to be a great night to be outside and photographing the Auroras.     Almost every imaginable form of Auroras were presented in a vast array of colours.

The picture above is a typical Aurora photograph.   It has an interesting fore ground.  a effective middle ground and of course the star or subject the Aurora display itself.

The picture below was made with a 14mm lens mounted on a full frame DSLR.    The camera was pointed directly overhead and into the centre of the Aurora Corona.

Take Care and Be Safe

Our family (my wifes clan) celebrates our annual family gathering at Easter time.  There are about 38 of us so it is usually a very busy time.   Especially with the new crop of Great Grand Children.     Anyway on Saturday and Sunday morning we divide into several special interest groups.    I really enjoy this cause I am the only one that is into photography.    Since spring has come early to that part of Saskatchewan I went in search of something with a spring or Easter theme.

After two days I came up with this photograph of “Christmas Granaries”     These wooden and painted granaries predate the all metal ones that have been in use since the mid 1960′s

Hope the title does not need any further explanation.

Take Care and Be Safe

In the southern part of Manitoba, you have two chances to see Tundra Swans, the early spring is the better of the two times.   The chances of seeing them are far greater than being able to photograph them.  That is why I rely on all the “birders” over at Manitobabirds.    Their email notice list is a great source of reliable sighting information.  It is however hours or days old and migration time is all about movement.    This past weekend contained emails about unusually large flocks of these Northern Nights.

So Dave Benson, one of my photo buddies and I decided we would go on a fishing trip early this morning to see if we could find some of these birds that were not on a bee line for the arctic.

This morning was not the best,  very low and thick cloud cover, BUT…….after about 30 minutes of driving the roads in the area of the last sighting and scanning the skies, we got a strike.  We needed our long lens cause these swans are to say the least a little skidish.

Here is one of the resulting photographs I made of the Tundra Swans

Take Care and Be Safe

Yesterday, I spent a few hours at a local duck pond.  With me I had my new Nikon D4 and my Nikkor 600mm f4 AF-s.      In addition to hoping to get some out of the ordinary spring mating shoots.   I wanted to try the new and improved AF on the D4.

The two thinks I notice immediately was how fast the AF responded and locked in.   Along with who it focused under the cloudy conditions at up to or should I say down to f8.  Sure looks like Nikon has a winner with this new flagship.

Will my old setup this shoot would have been very difficult to get.   With the D4 it was almost like second nature.

So the improved AF and the focusing under low light both get a gold star from me.

Take Care and Be Safe

Chris

My new Nikon D4 has arrived.

Right on time. Thanks Nikon Canada. I received a call this afternoon saying my camera has arrived in Winnipeg and I could pick it up anytime.

The battery is now being charged. Only trouble with a new body design is I do not have a ballhead mounting plate that with match up with the body. The new L bracket for it is still on backorder. So it will be used handheld for the net period of time.

One nice surprise was that inside the box was a Sony XQD 16GB memory card and the Sony card reader. Thank You Sony and Nikon.

I will post my first thoughts on the camera in a few day.

Well, my Red Rock, Snow and Critters Journey is now in the history books.  Soon it will be in my photograph library.  I hope it will be soon.   I have a huge file of photographs to process or at least mark for processing.  The last couple of days have been spent  deleting all my no goes.

Here are the statistics on the Red Rock, Snow and Critters Journey:

23     Total days on the road.

7,649     Total activations on the Nikon D3 and Nikon 700

8,957     Total kilometers driven in the 4Runner

1     Canadian province visited

10     USA states visited

12   Separate locations photographed

Countless new friends were made during the journey

I will let you know when the photographs go up on the site.

There are still lots of new horizons,   at this time just not sure, which one it will be or when.  But it will be a journey.

Take Care and Be Safe

Chris

In the morning I will be taking off in the 4Runner with my Nikon gear on my “Red Rock, Snow and Critters Journey”.  Will be gone from February 11th to March 5th.
Scheduled stops on the Journey:

• Badlands National Park, South Dakota
• Arches National Park, Utah
• Canyonlands National Park, Utah
• Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah
• Horseshoe Bend, Arizona
• Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
• Wupatki National Monument, Arizona
• Joshua Tree National Park, California
• Zion National Park, Utah
• Animals of Montana, Montana
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park,  North Dakota

Everyone Take Care and Be Safe,
Will share the journey with you when I get back.

Just wonderful.  This is the fourth morning we have awoken to a winter wonderland covered in Hoar Frost.     Local photographers are making lots of pictures with this phenomenon.    This is not a rare occurrence here.  But for four days in a row at the beginning of February.   It certainly is a gift from Mother Nature.

I made this photograph in 2008 while flying above the Sossusvlei dunes in Namibia.   Micro-light is a whole different way to see the dunes.   Especially in the early morning.

I have been gone back several years and revisited several photographs.   I have gone to the original .NEF file and reprocessed them in my current software workflow.    This one, I also changed the crop on it.

Take Care and Be Safe