Flathead770's Photography

Flathead770 · **Reply #20 on:** April 20, 2020, 07:13:03 PM

Alright, all of these next ones I cropped to 16:9 because I thought that they could possibly make for a good wallpaper (and some I did end up using for a while).

First up some flowers. Both of these were taken in Southern Alberta in the Badlands.

A cactus is a flower right?

Alright, back to Upper Kananaskis Lake

This was from a different hike when I went with a friend to Banff to check out Johnston Canyon and the Inkpots. This was the opening at the end of the hike.

This last one is a bit different. It was near a small town in the prairies as we were driving down to Banff and I wanted to take the opportunity to finally get a good sunset photo. This was my favourite of the bunch. You will notice a bit of "ghosting" with the clouds, especially near the edges as this is actually a combination of 3 different shots at varying exposure levels.

Flathead770 · **Reply #21 on:** May 04, 2020, 11:57:35 PM

So I mentioned a while back that I got a new prime lens as well as some macro extension tubes so I figured I should show some pictures that I've taken with them. I've never been one to just go out in the city to take pictures, mostly because I find cityscapes to be boring. I need to find some reason to get out of the house though haha.

Here we find a shopping cart in it's natural habitat, small parks in the city

A random goose footprint

OK here are some interesting ones now in my opinion. Since quarantine has been in effect and schools closed, all the playgrounds have been caution taped off. I noticed this on a walk one day and decided on coming back to the park at night. The result is a creepy horror look. (Also a good way to flex the prime lens a bit with its nice and large f/1.8 aperture)

The last 2 are just testing out some macrophotography with the extension tubes.

As you might have noticed, there's some pesky particles on my lens near the top right that I needed to clean off haha. I'll attach a picture to this post afterwards from my phone to give you a better idea of what I was taking a picture of with these macro shots.

jassy · **Reply #22 on:** May 05, 2020, 03:37:00 AM

I’ve already seen a good number of these but I’ll share my thoughts on them again cause why not

these are some really good shots! Great job on capturing the creepiness of the taped off park at night, you would not catch me around there after dark

Flathead770 · **Reply #23 on:** May 05, 2020, 03:45:44 PM

Thanks Jassy! Yeah that park was a little scary to be in at night haha. Don't forget about your photos as well!

Flathead770 · **Reply #24 on:** July 27, 2020, 07:16:01 PM

Been awhile since I've last posted anything here, though that doesn't mean I haven't taken any pictures. I've stayed somewhat constant, taking pictures of birds or something while stuck in the city but have also gone out and did a couple hikes in the mountains in Banff National Park as well. Though for now I'm going to post some pictures that I took more recently when I visited another National Park that's just outside my city. I did share most of these on Discord already but figured I should maybe put them up here as well.

So the goal of this little trip was to see if I could spot comet NEOWISE, so I arrived right before sunset to also snag a few photos of that.

The second shot was taken at a slower shutter speed, which helped softened the shadows/highlights in the ripples ever so slightly. Didn't actually have much luck with the comet as the clouds rolled in after the sunset. I came back again a few days later when the weather seemed like it would cooperate a bit more, again around sunset. This time there was very little wind so I was able to get a nice symmetric shot with this neat sky/cloud pattern

By this point the mosquitos were swarming me so I had to wait in my car for it to get dark. I couldn't see the comet with my eyes so I just started taking pictures of the Big Dipper as I knew it was almost directly below it. With a few attempts I got it framed with my 50mm lens.

I didn't know until after I got home, but you can see the comet on the bottom right, which was an exciting find.

After that I wanted to use my wide angle lens to take a picture of the lake with the stars above. Also to my surprise, the comet is visible in this one as well, despite being only at 16mm focal length.

This last photo is what I would call my money shot of both trips. It has the Big Dipper, the comet, the cool colours created by my city's light pollution along with the clouds and reflection off the lake. Also did a bit of light painting so the sand in the foreground is a little more visible as well.

Sneak · **Reply #25 on:** July 28, 2020, 04:45:38 AM

BEautiful! Sunset, more clear night sky and wow, it is indeed a comet, as I thought!!! :O

Flathead770 · **Reply #26 on:** July 28, 2020, 12:26:35 PM

Thanks Sneak! I haven't had much good opportunities for sunsets and astrophotography so it was really satisfying to get good shots of both!

Mumbling · **Reply #27 on:** July 28, 2020, 01:28:23 PM

That last shot is truly amazing! Great job

I wanted to see the comet, but didn't get so lucky here due to light pollution. Really can't see any stars at all

You should give me a tutorial on DSLRs sometime

Flathead770 · **Reply #28 on:** July 28, 2020, 06:16:33 PM

Thanks Iris! Aww that's a bummer. I'm honestly surprised there was a spot so close to my city the was easily accessible to view the stars and the comet. I figured the light pollution from the city would be too much.

I would be happy to anytime!

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #29 on:** July 29, 2020, 08:16:31 PM

Whoa, I've been missing a lot of good stuff here! A lot of those Badlands photos look like they could be an IRL version of LBT! And that playground at night has some seriously spooky vibes, yikes.
Most of all, though, I've gotta thank you for sharing your pics of the night sky and that comet! They're breathtaking!!

What an experience that must've been!

Flathead770 · **Reply #30 on:** July 29, 2020, 10:47:50 PM

Funny you mention that Rainbow as the badlands is a major spot for finding dinosaur fossils! It's also home to a nice dinosaur museum that I've visited a couple times now.

I assure you that the experience in person was very underwhelming. I couldn't even see it

That's why I was so happy to find out that my camera ended up seeing it at least!

Glad you liked them though!

Flathead770 · **Reply #31 on:** August 17, 2020, 07:57:42 PM

I suppose it's about time I posted some pictures from my trip. For those who may not remember, at the start of August I did a camping trip with some friends in Jasper National Park, Alberta for 4 nights. Was a really nice trip and got to go on some nifty hikes. Here's a few pictures from the first two days:

First we stopped to take a look at Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Rocky Mountains (at least for the Canadian side) at around 3,954m, though you wouldn't be able to tell with the clouds in the way

Next we drove down to the Icefields to check out the Athabasca Glacier. I've seen it twice the last two times I've visited but it was always cloudy and I would always go in late October when there's snow everywhere anyways

This time it was much more visible (as you will see in just a little bit). This is the view of Mount Athabasca from where the bus dropped us off to check out a glass bridge overlooking the valley (seen on the left)

I shared this picture from my phone on Discord after I walked on the bridge, but here it is again for those who are curious

Far in the background you might be able to notice a bit of an ice shelf on top of the mountain. Here's a nice close up of it with my telephoto lens (I believe I heard that the ice is about 100m or so high)

After that we went hiking up along the ridge in front of the glacier. While we didn't end up climbing the whole mountain, the trail did end right at the end of the cliff viewing the glacier.

Mount Athabasca is the snowy mountain to the left and the glacier is just to the right of it. It's actually been receding over the years and they have several markers placed at certain years. For example, back in 1890 the glacier was all the way down to near the green building at the bottom center of the picture.

Here's a closer shot of the glacier

Another glacier just to the right of the last one.

No idea what mountain this is but I like it

Finally ended the night with some astro shots since there were very little clouds that night.

Sneak · **Reply #32 on:** August 18, 2020, 03:51:46 AM

Yay! More snowy mountains and clear night skies! ^^

OwlsCantRead · **Reply #33 on:** August 18, 2020, 10:58:53 AM

Looks great Flathead! Lots of vast skylines in this batch. Overall, clear and crisp ~~and also snowy~~!

Mumbling · **Reply #34 on:** August 18, 2020, 12:20:05 PM

So many stars

Amazing photos, as always, Flathead. Really hoping I can go back there someday.

Flathead770 · **Reply #35 on:** August 19, 2020, 06:32:58 PM

Thanks guys! Yeah that day was very nice with almost no clouds in sight for the whole day. Very rare (in my experience) to see in the mountains. While I didn't have a very good star watching spot with a nice silhouette of a mountain or something it was still very nice to get a nice shot of so many stars.

Quote from: Mumbling on August 18, 2020, 12:20:05 PM

So many stars

Amazing photos, as always, Flathead. Really hoping I can go back there someday.

You're more then welcome to come visit anytime

Alright, I'll get a few more pictures put up now.

We were a little sore the day after the hike so we took it a little easy the following day. The weather also seemed liked it wanted us as well because it was around 30°C with no wind so even this small 1km/50m elevation hike we did was not too fun haha. It lead to a neat little lake that formed from the run-off of a glacier. There was a much longer hike we could've done but I suppose that will have to wait for another time.

The hike back had a very nice view as well.

Spent most of the day in the shade after that, but in the evening we did go check out Athabasca Falls that's nearby. It's a spot I've visited a couple times now but with the water so high it was nice to see again.

Took another picture at the end of the waterfall at the shoreline.

The following day we were heading down to Maligne Lake (pronounced Ma-leen) and on the way we checked out another series of smaller waterfalls.

Along the drive we stopped at Medicine Lake and the water happened to be very high that day. The lake itself feeds off of the water from Maligne lake but due to the limestone base the water can often drain out to underground rivers that flow into the canyon where the previous image was taken.

Once we arrived at Maligne Lake, we took a boat cruise over to Spirit Island. I took quite a few shots of this place in the 15 minutes that we hand, but for the sake of not spamming I'll only share the one.

That's it for now I think. I'll get around to posting the last little bit of them some other time.

OwlsCantRead · **Reply #36 on:** August 21, 2020, 06:53:57 AM

Yikes, that falls picture looks specularly. Nice job capturing the majesty of it.

Flathead770 · **Reply #37 on:** August 21, 2020, 03:16:18 PM

Thanks Owls! That was the first time I've seen the water level that high on the falls so it was nice to see!

Alright, I suppose I should finish this spam of pictures now

After doing the boat tour we did another hike that was pretty brutal in it's ascent. Easily over an hour of it. Along the way we stopped and chatted with some other hikers that were coming down the trail and they spotted a doe and two fawns on the trail behind us. They dived into the woods but I did manage to get a shot, even if it is a little blurry.

Along the trail there were a decent number of flowers as well as a little break in the trees with a nice meadow.

Once we got near the top it opened up to this nice huge open view. If you wanted, you could add more time to the hike to climb up to a lookout, but we decided not to do that.

At the top we ran across another hiker enjoying the views

Thankfully the grizzly was far away and off the trail as well as the fact that there were five of us. Still, this marks the first time that I've gotten my bear spray ready for potential use.

While we did get the good view of Maligne Lake, we did have a pretty cool view on the way down.

When back in the parking lot and getting ready to drive back, a cow moose came out of the forest to do some grazing.

The final morning we did another hike that I've already done last time I was in the area (you can check them out on my Jasper topic) so I mainly just goofed around taking candid shots of my friends. I did end up taking this picture of these leaves because of how the water was resting in it.

And that's basically it for the trip! Was a fun time. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of something other then mountains next time for some more variety.

Sneak · **Reply #38 on:** August 21, 2020, 05:30:26 PM

:O
Photos of animals are osom!

Anagnos · **Reply #39 on:** August 22, 2020, 04:20:03 AM

Nice pictures, Flathead! Keep them coming!