Summer’s End.
Coal Harbour Fountain. All images in this blog entry (unless otherwise stated): © Tyler A.W. Burke. 2024.
It’s been a fun end to summer - in the final few weeks I shot photos on trips to British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This is in addition to an earlier trip to southern Alberta and a couple of photowalks at home in Calgary. The collection below includes street photos, bird photos, and some rural and natural landscapes.
First up, on my way to and from some commercial interior shoots downtown late in August, I captured some street scenes in Calgary:
Next up was a short trip to my friend’s ranch in southern Alberta - kicking off September - for a concert and a night of camping:
We stopped by one of my favourite places on our way home the next day: the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale. I made use of the light but mighty Fujinon XF 70-300mm lens on my X-T3 for these bird photos (the first is of a Swainson’s Hawk that the centre released back to the wild after a successful rehabilitation; the second is a burrowing owl, part of the Centre’s breeding program - an effort to save the species from extinction; the third is of a permanent Centre resident Jefferson, a bald eagle, during a flight show):
I had time for another quick Calgary photowalk before our next road trip. I explored some new scenes/architecture, but mostly struck out.
Our next trip took us east, to visit family in Saskatchewan. We stopped so I could finally photograph a crumbling house in Parkbeg, Saskatchewan that I had made note of on previous trips. A wonderful coincidence unfolded: we immediately met a local as we pulled over and started to investigate the house - she shared some of the history behind the house and allowed me to document the relevant pages in a historical accounting of the village (see the second photo below).
We didn’t stay in Saskatchewan long, crossing over into Manitoba the next day for a short but fantastic camping trip at Childs Lake:
We returned back to Calgary for a couple of days which I mostly spent catching up on client work and laundry. We caught a short flight west to Vancouver for a one-night stay to see one of my favourite bands play (King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard). Arriving early in the morning, I spent most of the day walking around downtown with my X100V. I experimented with a weird sense of scale - using the wide lens (23mm / ~35mm FF) to investigate some unusual compositions (see the photo immediately below). A lot of these ideas simply didn’t work, but I enjoyed the process of trying something different.
All in all, the day of street photography in Vancouver felt like a real creative boon. I dove into shadows and pockets of light, shooting moody, high-contrast, mostly landscape-orientation photos:
And that about brings us up to the present.
A quick bit of news before wrapping up: I have been confirmed as a vendor at the upcoming Market Collective Holiday Series this December: I will be selling prints, postcards, and perhaps even some new printed goods and pieces. I’m really excited to be returning for both weekends again this year and have a few fun things to announce in conjunction with my participation in the coming weeks and months. If you find yourself in Calgary either of those weekends in December, come by and say hello!
Until next time,
