City in the river valley

Indy and I were enjoying a walk a few weeks ago along the pathway over looking Medicine Hat.

Although it was an overcast day, I forgot how beautiful the valley looked from this vantage point.  I had my camera with me, but didn't have my wide lens, so I was wondering how I could capture this scene as I looked down from the hill.

I decided to try a hand held panorama shot.  Setting up my camera in manual, I locked the focus on City Hall with a long focal length and took a couple of readings of the light for an average exposure setting.  Once the camera was set, I took a solid stance using my elbows to lock the camera in a vertical grip.  Slowly I took 18 images ensuring to over lap each shot by at least 25%.  The idea was to stitch the images together in photoshop and hope for the best.

Medicine Hat along the South Saskatchewan river

This image is the result.  Once processed in LightRoom 4 for lens correction and basic tonal adjustments that included a graduated filter for the sky, I exported the images to PS6 as a panorama.  Then sat back and watched the magic.  After 15 minutes of so, and a final crop to clean up the edges, I had a image that was 34,060 x 5,368 pixels...  182mp.  the file size was just over 1gb.  

The full size 98mb jpeg can be downloaded here - 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6TsSYm-nclRUEt0ODhiYzFvTms/view?usp=sharing

Canmore in the mist

It was nice to meet up with my three sons in Canmore a few weeks ago.  We were in town for the wedding of their cousin Michael.  They have always been close to Mike, and it was nice to be invited to his destination wedding at a place he loves, the Canadian Rockies.

Although it had been raining the last few days, by Friday night the rain had stopped.  The clouds hung low in the Rockies which gave a strong overcast to the day.

We took a main street into the centre of town until we found  path along Policemen's creek. A wonderful wooden boardwalk wound through the wetlands along the shallow creek.  It was along this creek the first Police station was constructed in 1893 by the Northwest Mounted Police.  The barracks still stand today thanks a community of volunteers that recently restored the 120 year old building.

Down near the oldest park of town, older buildings crowded together. 

Old homesteads and outbuildings add to the rustic beauty of this tourist town.

Heading back to the highway, we crossed the CPR railway tracks heading East out of town.

After almost 2 hours we made our way back to our hotel, but had to stop and grab a shot of the Hostel Bear...

Cory stands in front of the welcome sign at the Hostel Bear, in Canmore Alberta

Finally on Saturday the sky began to open up and show off that great Alberta blue sky.

South of the Canmore Nordic Centre, Mt Lawrence Grassi and Ha Ling Peak are backlit from the setting sun.

Across the valley to the North, Princess Margaret Mountain is laced with clouds while the sun warms up the sourthern slopes.

All in all it was a great weekend visit with family and friends.  The next time I head to Banff, I'll be sure to take one day and wonder around this great piece of history at the Gateway to the Rockies.

Mike and Julie's wedding day

August 23, 2014 was a special day for my cousin Mike and his beautiful bride, Julie.

High above Canmore, at the world renown Nordic Center, they vowed their love for each other with a small group of friends and family.  Although they hired a wedding photographer, I was honoured to be asked to bring my camera and put together my own set of memories of their special day.  

So with my 5dMK3 and my 24-105 zoom and 50 1.4 prime, I took over 500 shots during the whole day and evening.  The indoor shooting was a challenge, as I have yet to purchase an external flash, so relying on the high ISO capabilities of the MK3, I pumped up the ISO to 1250 and 1600 as needed too try deal with the low light and eliminate the motion blur that resulted.

 

Cypress Rod & Custom Show and Shine 2014

It was a beautiful hot August day when a local car club hosted it's 2014 show and shine.  Cars from all over southern Alberta descended on Medicine Hat to partake in the 28th annual event.

This year the event was held at the Medicine Hat College and here is just a small collection of the over 120 participants.

Twister 1996-2014

August 5th was a bad day around the house.  The last week or so, I knew this day was coming, but I'm sure I was in denial, dreading what I had to do.  You see, my cat Twister was getting old.  18 years ago, I rescued him from a trip to the SPCA because he was the runt of the litter and nobody wanted him.  His owners were getting desperate and didn't want to make that drive, but on the way, one last phone call brought him into my life.  They dropped him off at my house in a cardboard box with a bag of litter and half full bag of food.

How was I to know that that little runt would become such an important part of my life.  At the time, in 1996, my world was starting to crumble around me.  Being recently separated and dealing with a divorce, he was my anchor at home.  He kept my feet grounded. After 12 years of marriage and a family life raising 3 young sons, suddenly, I was alone.  He was my new family, my new responsibility.  He was a kitten with no name.  

Back then I was living in Calgary and would look forward to having my sons come and visit.  It was during one of those visits that summer, we went to the Corral 4 drive in to see the summer blockbuster hit Twister.  Like a bright bulb, that night is when me and the boys decided to name him.  He so fit that name as a kitten.  Chasing the feather, or ball and sock, he was a regular tornado around the house.  Climbing curtains, getting into closets, shredding toilet paper and ripping up my old furniture in our basement suite we called home.

Well, Twister and I moved around quite a bit, which tends to happen when things aren't very settled in your life.  We moved in with room-mates to help share the cost of living and there he adopted a brother, Simon.  By then Twister was getting older, grown out of the kitten stage and Simon was just a kitty.  So Twister would help him learn to do the things that cats are supposed to do, chew on runners and what ever.

Well, after a few years, we all split up and went our separate ways.  Again, Twister and I loaded up the car and moved to the North end of the city to be closer to the Boys.  It was then that Taylor moved in with us for a bit and brought another kitten in for Twister to train.  Apollo, was a handful for sure, but he fit right in.

So far We've moved twice and Twister's had 4 different cats/kittens to have to live with and he's only 5 years old.  So what else could I throw at him?  Load him into a truck during a June summer rain storm and drive back to Medicine Hat.  I didn't even have a carrier for him, so he laid on my lap the whole drive.  It was dark when we pulled the truck into the garage at my parents house, so when the truck cab opened, he took off like a bat out hell and stayed in the garage the rest of the night.  I'm sure he was pissed at me for a while after that.  

Up until then, he only had other cats to worry about.  Well, now he had to deal with Mom's dog.  Doogie and Twister may have lived in the same house, but they were not the best of friends.  With Doogie upstairs and Twister downstairs, all we had was a saloon style door that was raised about 2 inches off the floor, so they could watch either other.  I can just image the conversations they had through that door when no one was home.

So, Finally in 2003 we get our own place again.  Just me and Twister.  Again, he was king of the castle.  It wasn't a large castle, but it was our castle.  A small one bedroom apartment in a building that I managed close to down-town Medicine Hat.

Twister could look down on his subject on the street from now on.  No more living in the basement.

Being an apartment dweller, I'm sure Twister thought he was pretty safe.  No more dogs or other cats to have to deal with.  "The place was only big enough for us", I'm sure he thought.

Well, see this ride ain't over...  After a couple of years there, we moved on up, to the west side of the city.  No more down-town, right into the trailer park.  True, it had axles, but it was detached...lol.  we had our own yard and everything.  By now Twister is getting up there in years.  He's almost 10 now.  But as you can see, he's fit as a fiddle.  A little on the chunky side, but hey, how do you expect a King to look.  Well, I figured, it was time for Twister to get a little exercise.  Enter his personal Trainer, Indy...

Indy is a Border Collie mix, with Australian Shepherd thrown in, to really help those herding skills.  At first it wasn't too bad, as long as Twister was bigger than Indy.  But once Indy grew taller, Twister moved to higher ground.  Closets, cupboards, top of the fridge.  It got so bad, I had to build him a 'catcave'  so he had all the comforts in his own bedroom.

Eventually, as Indy grew and settled down, these two became true brothers.  Chilling on the couch, morning treats, playing in the yard or just sitting on the deck, they just hung out.

After more than 5 years in the 'Park', we all packed up one last time.  The SW hill has the place to be.  The trees were plentiful and full of birds, the grass was a little greener on this side of the highway.  Summer on the deck and winters in front of the fireplace.  He was 14 years old now, great way to retire, eh Twister.  

Already old for a cat.  Especially for a cat that was through all that I tossed at him.  I guess it made us both stronger. Able to bounce back when we thought we were down and out.  Life was good in retirement.  When Andrew moved down to go to college, we ended up with one more kitten.  By now Twister didn't bother, he had Indy to keep Neko in line.  Sure they played once in awhile, but Twister age was starting to show.  He slept alot, started to lose weight, but still was able to jump up on his favourite couch arm and spend the day looking out the window.  

July 26, 2014

The last few weeks he's been doing a lot of this...  mostly sleeping on the couch or in my bed.  At least he would still get up for his morning treat like he has for the last 18 years.  But he can't eat the hard treats, I have to open a can of soft food for him now.  His teeth aren't what they used to be.  He'd have to try a couple of times, but he would always finish his supper... before heading back to the couch to sleep.

Finally on Monday August 4, he didn't get out of bed for his morning treats.  I didn't bother him because I knew he wasn't feeling good.  So thought I better let him sleep.  He did get up and come out onto the deck for a drink, and to lay in the sun, but didn't stay out long.  When supper time came, I put out their food like so many times before.  Twister tried, but only ate a few bites before heading back to bed.  I knew then I had to make the call.  

Tuesday morning I called vetstogo.com to arrange for Dr Shana to come over to help Twister.  He didn't deserve to go to bed hungry one more time. 18 years buddy, it's been a blast...  Thank you.

Rest in Peace TWISTER, Love you always.

Calgary Zoo

Back on May 23 2014, Mom and I drove to Calgary for a couple days and took advantage of the opportunity to visit the Calgary zoo.  Below is a series of pictures of our visit.

Super Moon

in ,

July 12, 2014 - The Super Moon was set to rise tonight.  Although there has been smoke/haze in the air from all the forest fires in northern Alberta, the Moon finally appeared almost 30 minutes after expected.

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The Moon shines down on the worlds largest teepee located in Medicine Hat.

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