Spur Valley Adventure

Very last minute, yesterday, I decided to head up to a place where, according to my photog friend, Phil, there are salmon running and bald eagles feasting: Below Spur Valley, beside the railway tracks.

HDR of the creek where the salmon are running.

Click on photo to enlarge image.

Of course, it wasn't the ideal time of day ... I went in the early afternoon, instead of at first light ... but where there's enthusiasm, there's hope, right?  ;-)

So I drove about 40 minutes from home, turned off the main road and followed the unfinished, but only slightly corrugated, side road onto a farm.

Through three gates - always leave gates the way you found them - and onto what can only be described as a track.

My trusty Subaru Baja had no trouble negotiating the backroads, but it doesn't have the clearance of the bigger 4x4's so I have to watch that I don't get high sided.

At the end of the track, I turned the truck around, got my gear out, and went fish and bird hunting.

Although I did see a couple of bald eagles, up close, I wasn't ready to shoot. And once I was ready, they were gone. Typical.

I did, however, get the opportunity to try out my new (surprise delivery by my lovely hubby) waterproof p&s camera, a Fujifilm XP10.

This is the best of the underwater shots - 

going to need to practice with this thing! 

Click photo to enlarge image.

Shortly after it started to rain and I had started driving away, I thought the car sounded a bit strange. So, once I'd got off the single-track (couldn't stop there because if someone else had some along, they'd not have been able to pass), I stopped to take a look. Sure enough, I had a flat. Must've pinched the tyre somewhere along the way, bouncing around the ruts. No problem ... I've changed tyres before.

Huh! Not a Baja tyre!

So I resorted to doing what any woman would do - I read the manual!

As I worked through it step by step, slowly but surely, two kind gents from Spur Valley Golf Course stopped to give me a hand. Chivalry is not dead! Thank you to Brandon and his boss for the help!

PS: They had to consult the manual, too!

Early Fall

Click Image To Enlarge

creativeLIVE - Free Online Learning

For those of you who haven't yet discovered the joys of online learning, here's a fantastic resource that I've been taking full advantage of!

creativeLIVE

Their brilliant business model is that they broadcast, over the internet, various creative courses. Worldwide. For FREE.

Photography     Filmmaking     Design     Technology     Web Design     Fine Arts

Taken Last Week at the Lovely Canyon Campground 

in Radium Hot Springs

Even if you're in a low bandwidth area where watching streaming video is a challenge, they've got a version that you'll be able to watch.

Yes, if you watch LIVE, it's free!

If you don't want to commit to that time, or just can't, you can purchase the course.

If you purchase the course before/during the live broadcast, the price is heavily discounted. For example, the current course will cost U$149 from Monday ... but if you buy before Monday, it costs U$99!

So, there are no more excuses for not upgrading your skills.

I've watched several courses on various aspects of photography - both shooting skills and the business of photography. I've learnt a great deal from these programs, and have been lucky enough to have been able to watch them live.

What I need the most help with, is post processing. I've bought the recent Lesa Snider four-day intensive Photoshop CS5 course - and I watched it live, too, so know it's going to be worth the re-watch.

Right now I'm watching the David Nightingale "dramatic post processing" course. I've bought this course, too, because I'm going to miss some of it due to work commitments.

Do yourself a favour, register with creativeLIVE for email updates ... they're adding courses all the time ... and seriously consider actually sitting in on a live session and PURCHASE those that are most beneficial to your skill set!

Fall Colours & Swimming Deer

Went down to the banks for the Kootenay River, just below the Athalmer Bridge, where the river exits Lake Windermere, at sun-up this morning.

That is, about 9.30am! Can believe the sun's so tardy already ...

Anyway, I got my tripod set up, waiting for a few minutes for the last of the shadows to move off the fall colours in the trees, and for the sun to light up the houseboat that nosed up to the riverbank ...

When this happened:

Doe & Fawn Swimming The Kootenay River

Who knew that deer swam with such ease?! Mum just waded in without hesitation. The fawn dithered a little, then leapt in with a huge splash - totally unexpected - I missed it, of course!

Not much later, the light conditions were what I wanted, so I shot my hdr of the scene of fall colours, lonely houseboat, and reflections on the quite river.

Fall Colours On The Kootenay River

Hope you enjoy it!

Worldwide Photowalk 2011 in Invermere

The weatherman certainly didn't know what it was going to do, so we didn't either. We just took a chance.

As I arrived and stepped out of my car at the meeting point, it started to rain.

Big drops.

Happily, it only lasted a few minutes and didn't rain enough that the splash marks on the ground joined up.

Me, Judy, Addy, Karol, Marilyn, Marlene, Achim 

I had four people signed up for the Worldwide Photowalk 2011 in Invermere, besides myself. That's the total after two people withdrew on Sunday morning!

I was delighted when two extra ladies showed up to join the walk ... they hadn't signed up because they'd had difficulty with the WWPW website ... not the first time I've heard that, that's for sure! I'm just pleased that the web challenge didn't dissuade them from coming out!

Thinking of entering this as my best shot of the day* - what do you think? 

I admit that my prep work for the walk could've been better, but I assisted at a 12+ hour wedding on Saturday, and was feeling more than a little punch drunk on Sunday morning!

Nevertheless, the walk went off really well ... at least, everyone seemed happy with the experience at the end of the day.

Thank you to Judy, Marlene, Marilyn, Addy, Karol, and Achim for a great afternoon out!

"Puzzle Pieces" 

Please visit our group page on flickr where I'm hoping everyone will share their images from the walk.

And I hope that those of you who registered will enter your best shot in the WWPW contest!

*Walk leaders can't compete in the "open" competition, but there's a separate comp for the leaders of all 1117 walks around the world! Fun!

Kootenay Krusher 2011 @ Nipika

Yesterday WAS the last day of summer. Today it was definitely fall. It was chilly, windy, cloudy, sunny, rainy ... all in a 3 hour time frame.

Believe it or not, we didn't get rained on by this squall:


The Kootenay Krusher is a 50km cross country mountain bike race, based out of the beautiful Nipika Mountain Resort.

My photography skills took a leap forward today on several levels: For the first time I was totally comfortable adjusting focal length up or down while I was taking photo's using back button focusing, in the 5 seconds or so it took each rider to pass my vantage point. Also, with the constantly changing lighting, I found myself adjusting exposure almost without thinking about it! Woohoo, maybe I'm actually on my way to being a professional photographer!

I'm really tired, so there's just one race photo at this point - this chap was the first past me ... whether he actually won the race, I don't know:


I'll be posting more photo's to the Smugmug gallery this week. I took almost 600 photo's in a two-hour time frame, so I think I caught everyone!

An interesting aside: The best lighting conditions (ie: not in deep, dark forest) on the course were along a ridge beside the river. Or rather, above the river. This is a pretty good view of what I saw when I looked down to my right ... no idea how deep the canyon is, my guess is between 50m and 75m.


Another shot of the canyon, showing the incredible rock formations along the wall of the ravine.


Oh, another thing I learned today: My quick release plate (connects my camera to the tripod) doesn't "bind" to the camera properly. Even when using just the 24-70mm lens, when I tried to take a series of shots for hdr processing, the lens did a slow dive, resulting in unusable images. Just another reason that I need to upgrade my tripod and its accessories!

PS: I forgot to mention: We heard from a couple of bikers "be aware there's a grizzly up there" pointing in the direction we'd come from, where our car was parked. Let me tell you, it is very different having the possibility of a grizzly encounter when one's at least 30 minutes' hike from the vehicle ... than it is from being safely in that vehicle! We never did see what turned out to be a juvenile grizzly that was being a pest ... thank goodness!

Headbanger Trail Challenge 2011

What a great weekend for a last blast of summer action! Bluebird skies, temperatures in the mid- to high-20s Celsius, light breezes ...

Today I went to Radium Hot Springs to watch the Headbanger Trail Challenge ... and 11km cross country trail run, with a lot of steep ups and downs!

There didn't appear to be all that many competitors, perhaps about 100, but what they lacked in numbers they made up in spirit and determination! I stationed myself in Elk Park Ranch, at a point that I believe was just over halfway through the course, so people were starting to feel it by the time they passed me.

Imagine my delight when the first person to run by was a lady (and a cheerful one, at that!):


I have got a bunch of photo's up on my Smugmug gallery - and there will be more coming soon!