Award Winning Photographs

It is winter in Calgary and I have not seen so much snow on the ground at this time of year in the 15 years I have called this my home. The weather has made it somewhat difficult to get out into the countryside to photograph what nature offers. I recently had the opportunity to visit a local garden center that has a Macaw as a permanent resident and with camera in hand managed to photograph these award winning photographs.

Autumn at Edworthy

Each season has its own beauty and autumn is certainly beautiful in its own right. Calgary, Alberta, Canada has many beautiful urban parks, one of them being Edworthy Park. Spending an afternoon in the park provided ample opportunities for stunning photographs that depict our autumn season as the following photographs are a testament to. 

Yellow Petals

These photographs were taken in mid-September at Readers Rock Garden in Calgary, Alberta. Focusing on a yellow theme for tonight's blog post.

Sun Petals

With the arrival of autumn in Calgary, there has been a real lack of sunshine. Even though we have not had our first frost, the garden is taking on more and more of a fall look with each passing day. Because the appearance of the sun has been very rare in the past days my posted photographs today are of petals that resemble those sunny days.

Matured Garden

Capturing summers final hurrah. There is much to be said about a mature garden. My favorite photo in this post is the pink begonia. I like the way my camera captured a pink glow from the sun much the same as the pink color emanating from the begonia.

Berry Summer

The photographs that I have included in this post are of late summer berries. As summer is quickly turning to autumn, these berries will be food for the local winter birds. Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The Glory of Summer

I recently took these photographs of flowers in the garden. As in the previous post, these are some of my best photographs of the season. It is a shame that summer is so short.

Garden Beauties

I photographed these flowers from the garden. These are some of my most prized photographs of garden flowers.

Pinktastic - Exotic Pink Flowers

A collection of pink flowers that I recently photographed

Plain of Six Glaciers Wildflowers

Yesterday I blogged about the lower half of my Plain of Six Glaciers hike in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. It is amazing the variety of wildflowers that grow at such high elevations. Today I post photographs that I took of that vegetation.

Plain of Six Glaciers

My goal for the summer was to hike up to the Plain of Six Glaciers tea house in Lake Louise, Alberta. You gain 400 m in elevation as you hike up to the tea house but it was fairly easy. The tea house itself has no power so everything is made using propane stoves. Supplies are helicoptered in at the beginning of the tourist season and throughout the season a chain of horses are used to replenish supplies. From the tea house you can climb even further to the Abbot Pass Viewpoint which is spectacular. It rained for the most of this hike and there was a definite temperature change as I progressed upward but it was worth every step.

Chateau Lake Louise at the trail head

Lake Louise

Silt deposits just prior to the climb

View about half-way to the tea house

Horses to supply the tea house

Horses to supply the tea house

Moose Loop Trail

Moose Loop, part of the trail system of Wesr Bragg Creek is a great hike with great views. Passing through meadows and densely forested regions makes this trail feel like you are traveling a different trail every few kilometers. The loop itself is only about 6 km but add another 4 km at least to access it. I completed it in about 4 hours. The trail is easier to do counterclockwise. Note that someone has tampered with the signage near the end of the loop near the Tom Snow Trail. I travel about .5 km, taking my shoes off several times to cross creeks, before convincing myself that I was off the trail.