Alberta Badlands

[materialsguy]

I had the chance to sneak off work for a couple of days and promptly headed south to the Alberta Badlands. It is somewhat "off season" w/r to tourists  , so I had the place to myself.  Here are a couple of B&W's from that trip.  I shot these images with B&W intent.

All are 645D images with a Lee CP. The road image was captured with the P645 35mm EDIF, and the trees/valley image was captured with the venerable P67 55-100 zoom.  

My comments (forgive me for being long winded):

When I was setting up the road image, I got out my vehicle and just listened to the dead silence for about 5 minutes.  There was no sound except for a bit of wind in the roadside grass and field stubble.  There were only one or two buildings in sight, which I subsequently determined to be an abandoned farm (for sale) about 1/2 mile west.  This was a perfect spot for capturing the feeling of the place.

The trees/valley image grabbed me as I was headed back down to the Red Deer river valley from the surrounding tablelands.  I caught a glimpse of the light reflecting off the bark of the poplars and I had to stop.  The scene was mesmerizing in that the tree trunks had an almost metallic glint due to the low angle of the sun we get at this time of year.   The low sun angle gives these incredible shadows and depth to the image, I think.

Shaun M

[davidhampshire]

nice black and white images.  lotta clarity to them.    dave

[Pacerr]

Shaun, if you follow that road about 1000 miles to the south you'll finally discover a populated region. Maybe even a phone so you can call home. 

Always nice to see B&W landscapes.

[Mike Pearson]

Very nice images Shaun and Pacerr 

Mike

[Ron Kruger]

Very nice, Shawn, especially the scene with the populars. I never heard of the Canadian "Badlands."

[materialsguy]

Hi Ron,

Don't know if it is a "localism" or not; we have talked about the Alberta or Drumheller Badlands in my family since I was a young lad.  The photographic opportunities are amazing in terms of natural beauty (landforms) and man made artifacts from mining and railway building in the first half of the 20th century. 

Shaun M

[StanW]

Beautiful work, especially the monochrome.