With the smoke of the forest fires in British Columbia being held to the west I was finally able to get back to the mountains for some landscape work today. It was great to be back out there instructing and grabbing a few shots along the way. 

The image below of Mt Indefatigable speckled by sunlight through heavy cloud was one of my favourites from the afternoon.  Shot from the east shore of the lake with a 200mm lens on the 5D iv it captured the afternoon nicely.

Let's hope that the clear air stays around long enough for me to get back to the mountains with the usual frequency as autumn moves in.  Fall workshops and tuition sessions are fantastic in the rockies at this time of year and I need a few more fall shots to select from for the 2019 calendar.          

I've added another section to my short series page today, this time it's the majestic Aurora Borealis.  It is getting toward that time of year again when the aurora fills the sky frequently and our home on the hill overlooking Cochrane provides a fantastic north facing position to maximise the experience. You can see my short series (5 images in each category) directly by clicking here or by visiting the tips & more section of this site.

I've spent a couple of hours today writing up some image analysis of 6 of my own shots to demonstrate the use of my basic composition elements. The analysis looks at differing images and shows a breakdown of the elements used in each one. This helps demonstrate both the element itself and its overall contribution to the image. 

You will find a permanent link to the 6 images and their analysis on my composition page or alternatively click here to go directly to the analysis page which begins with a smoke filled sunset framed by foreground trees.    

Staying in the small town of Medicine Hat for 3 nights meant I just had to try and shoot the 'Worlds Tallest Teepee' at sunset. Sitting high on a bluff overlooking the town from the east it is an icon on the prairies.  On my first evening the sunset was looking good when a huge storm cloud came over and killed it entirely. On my second evening the sunset was poor and cloud finished off what little remained. 

​On the third evening I made the trip with some skepticism, sunset predictors showed heavy cloud at low levels which is not good for sunset photography. I considered writing off the evening but I chose to try one last time whilst I was in the area, after all It was only 10km from my hotel. 

I set out again, more in hope than anything else, but as you can see from the images below, the clouds cleared sufficiently to allow a sequence of sunset images. I shot repeatedly as the light changed from yellow to red and into the blue hour where artificial illumination made the structure pop against the dark skies, leaving me a nice choice of images for my 2018 Canada Calendar.  

It just goes to show how easily I might have missed this shot but that little perseverance made the difference. You can click this link to learn more about shooting sunsets  from a previous entry in the Tips & More section of this site.