Blog Archives

My “Superseries” - A Change of Perspective.

11/15/2016

We have been living in Edmonton for almost two years now and our time here is coming to an end soon, but before we leave this beautiful city and the amazing province of Alberta, I wanted to get a new perspective of my favourite place in Edmonton: The River Valley.

Downtown Edmonton in Golden morning light, while the River and the High Level Bridge are covered in fog. Used a slightly longer exposure here of 10sec. to show the dynamic of the rolling fog.

One way to do it would have been to use a drone to get a bird’s eye of the North Saskatschewan River cutting its way through the city of Edmonton. I had already explored all my favourite spots in the River Valley and shot them in different light situations. So I guided my way through different offices, received safety training and eventually came up access to a spot on the campus of the University of Alberta, allowing me to get a unique perspective of downtown Edmonton, the iconic Highlevel Bridge and the River.

My first time at the viewpoint during a warm and colorful fall day. Used a circular polarizer to get more contrasty sky.

My first time on that vantage point, it was a golden fall day in the middle of September and the valley was glowing golden from the foliage under a blue sky. Next I went before going to the office in the morning and witnessed an insane display of fog rolling through the valley creating some special light, and lately I have been documenting various brilliant sunrises, with each having its own character. So even though it is one perspective, the colours and mood always differ, making this an appealing series for me and a goal of mine to capture more beauty in the next three months, when winter will be slowly taking over.

By far the most vibrant sunrise I witnessed from up there so far, the color progression that morning was intense and everything was casted in shades of red.

Let me just quickly add some thoughts for the composition. When I am up there I shoot with my 24-85 standard zoom lens on my Nikon D750, and I usually bring my ND-Filters as well, which will allow me to balance the sky using a Grad ND0.9. My general thought process for this scene is that I try to place the horizon on a line of thirds (black lines in the sketch), while I also find that the river with its flow and the Bridge help to guide the viewer (arrows). As you may see I also try to place downtown on the intersection of the thirds (at least roughly), this creates more interest. With the wider angle shots I will have more sky and when use a zoomed in view I will focus more on the river, this will be the case when the sky does not light up well.

Sketching out my compositional thoughts for this slightly zoomed in view. Read the details above.

As usual I would like to here from you what you think about this project and if there is a shot you would like to see in particular. I have three or four more situations envisioned that I can hopefully bring to life. Here are some more that I have captured so far. Thanks for reading.

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My Camera Bag

11/7/2016

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Photography has brought me closer to nature, but when I first started it was more about the gear for me: I always wanted to upgrade, thought I really need this or that. Why not buy this awesome lens, it will help me to get better images. But I soon realized that I needed to just adapt the gear to what I shot, and that was mostly basketball in badly lit arenas. I ended up with a Nikon D700 in late 2010 and shot with that for four years. It worked great in every situation I shot, but when the Nikon D750 was announced I moved to that, as it had considerably better low-light capability, which would help me in those indoor fast-shutterspeed situations. After moving to Canada in 2015 I was even happier to have the D750, as night-photography became my new obsession. I upgraded some of my lenses and here is an overview about the gear that I use to get the images I regularly share with you:

1) Manfrotto X190Pro with a 3-Way Cullmann Head
2) Promaster Tripod with a 3D ball-head
3) Nikkor AF-S 85/1.8 g
4) Nikkor AF-S 50/1.8 g
5) Nikkor AF-S 201.8 g ED
6) Tamron 70-300/4.5-5.6 USM VC
7) Nikkor AF-S 24-85/3.5-4.5 VR
8) Rokinon 14/2.8 IF ED UMC
9) Rapid Chargers Spare batteries
10) Nikon EN-EL15 (third Party)
11) Nikon D750
12) Haida Adapter Rings for ND-Holder
13) Promaster Air Blower
14) Ansmann Headlamp
15) Promaster Nikon Cable Release
16) Sony A7 Mark II
17) Fotodiox Pro Lens Mount Adapter Nikon to Sony
18) Sony SEL2870 FE 28-70/3.5-5.6 OSS
19) No-Name Spare Batteries for Sony
20) Haida ND3.0, 1000x 100x100mm
21) Haida ND1.8, 64x 100x100mm
22) Haida ND0.9, 9x 100x100mm
23) Haida Polarization Filter Haida ND
24) Filter Holder
25) Formatt Hitech Graduated ND, Grad ND0.9

All of that fits beautifully into my Lowepro Whistler AW350 backpack.

Let me know if you want to hear more about specific equipment that I use!

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Discover Alberta 2017 - The New Calendar !!

11/1/2016

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It is this time of the year again. Another year has passed and 2017 is around the corner, time to go through the image library of the last 12 months and assemble a piece of art of your walls – the second coming of my calendar “Discover Alberta”, a fifty piece limited edition.
Last year I opted to get a simple and unproblematic design from a big Online-Printing company, however, I wasn’t 100% happy with the quality. So this year I wanted to make a truly contagious, high-quality and individual product, and this is what the team at Unicom Banff set up for me:

The calendar has a solid back-and front cover, which features an overview on the backside. Each month comes with a image, that does not carry any text in a size of 12x9” (30x22.5 cm). In the calendar part the week numbers are implemented, as this was a critique in last year’s edition and also as this will ship all over the globe no holidays are included. After December there is an extra page with some bonus images and a short bio followed by a brief 2018 overview.
To get yours just E-Mail me, it is limited to 50 pieces !!!

And now the most important part, the images. I tried to select images that reflect the mood of the respective month and have been taken in that time of the year. So January starts out icy with a favourite of mine from early this year on a beautiful cold winter day along Abraham Lake, when everything was frozen in silence. February is still deep winter but changes occur and open water might be visible again, which is illustrated in this months image, showing the beauty of Yoho Nationalpark, just around the Alberta border. In March with the spring solstice the aurora tends to be particularly strong and it can occur early in the night, displayed in March’s picture with the lights dancing early in the night over Lake Minnewanka. In April the big freeze is over and more melt water runs down the streams such as the Kicking Horse River in Yoho Nationalpark, where the water falls down the Natural Bridge. One of our favourite off-the-beaten track spots this year was Kelley’s Bathtub just outside Hinton, a very peaceful scenery out there, with greens and lakes all over the place. June mornings can still be pretty cold in the mountains and mist will dance over the already warmed up waters of places like Bow Lake, one of the many beautiful lakes to visit along the Icefields Parkway. In July the nights in Alberta are not particularly long, but is there anything more beautiful then seeing the Milky Way reflect in the still waters of the famous Two Jack Lake near Banff? In August this year we hiked along the Five Lakes in Jasper Nationalpark with beautiful reflections of the evergreen forest in the turquoise waters. Fall comes quickly in September and the leaves turn golden, while moody clouds take over the scene here at Wedge Pond in Kananaskis, the not so hidden gem of Alberta. When the calendar turns to October most of the leaves in the River Valley of Edmonton will have turned yellow and started to fall, but they nicely contrast the brilliant colors of the prairie skies. In November the first ice forms along the Bow Valley while winter has already taken over on the highest peaks in Banff Nationalpark, such as Mt. Temple, that fights through the clouds here. Last but not least in December the darkest of the twelve months we are happy about every warm light we can get and here the welcoming sight of a shelter such as the mountain station of the Sulphur Mt. Skytram in Banff is a welcomed change in a dark winter night.

GET YOURS NOW !!

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My “Superseries” - A Change of Perspective.

As usual I would like to here from you what you think about this project and if there is a shot you would like to see in particular. I have three or four more situations envisioned that I can hopefully bring to life. Here are some more that I have captured so far. Thanks for reading.

My Camera Bag

All of that fits beautifully into my Lowepro Whistler AW350 backpack.

Let me know if you want to hear more about specific equipment that I use!

Discover Alberta 2017 - The New Calendar !!

Christian

Archive

Kategorien

My “Superseries” - A Change of Perspective.

As usual I would like to here from you what you think about this project and if there is a shot you would like to see in particular. I have three or four more situations envisioned that I can hopefully bring to life. Here are some more that I have captured so far. Thanks for reading.

My Camera Bag

All of that fits beautifully into my Lowepro Whistler AW350 backpack. Let me know if you want to hear more about specific equipment that I use!

Discover Alberta 2017 - The New Calendar !!

Christian

Archive

Kategorien

All of that fits beautifully into my Lowepro Whistler AW350 backpack.

Let me know if you want to hear more about specific equipment that I use!