Out on the quad doing quality control today. The deep woods, always in shadow, were still cold, just like winter, but riding out into sparsely treed areas meant gentle blasts of warm air on the face. A little disconcerting in January - double-digit temperatures above 0 - but pleasant just the same.
I saw this cow moose (now cropped and doctored with Lightroom) and a few ice crystals.
Where you find gnarled and stunted tamarack and black spruce, you are likely standing on a patch of muskeg. (The Canadian Encyclopedia) As the linked website explains, muskeg is not singularly defined. In the bottom picture we see a thicker, more robust forest growing on muskeg ground. Picture two below shows the spongecake-like quality of a frozen piece broken loose by the tractor's blade.
Muskeg is a boggy wetland in summer months and even on very cold winter days water can seep to the surface when the top layer of snow and frost is removed. This can be seen in picture three below. The temperature was below -30C that day.
Share with me, O Reader, the photographic frustration of tracking elusive woodland creatures. This Lynx canadensis kept his back to me as I struggled to catch up on my quad. Then it hopped the snowbank and disappeared into the forest. Quelle surprise!
The picture above is a small crop of a long telephoto image (200mm on a fourthirds sensor). The one below is an even tinier detail. Thought you might like to see one of this cat's oversized paws.
The Great Grey Owl (strix nebulosa). When we plow the snow off an old cutline to make an access trail, the small rodents who live and travel underneath are disturbed. Our friend here has figured this out and will sit up above watching for activity, waiting to swoop down on the next meal.
I like how the feathers are arranged to cover its claws. Is this for warmth or for camouflage?
And to give an idea of its habitat: a shot of the Rocky Mountain foothills with a pipeline running down the middle.
As close as I could get. Every day, all over these woods, we find wolf tracks in the snow, but one rarely gets to see the mysterious canines. These four were wandering along the old cutline in front of me briefly before disappearing into the bush.
The images below are heavily cropped details.
The year is new. Bright blue Alberta skies and wickedly low temperatures - threatening exposed skin and machined steel both.
Update. I had some doubts about this photo (that bare tree in the middle of the frame is annoying) but it was the best of the day, so I'm leaving it. The rest were rather generic 'nice' scenery shots - this one at least has some tension. What good is a photoblog if you can't post an occasional flawed image? Please discuss.
As I'm working a real job during daylight hours, I will rarely have time to do the scouting, testing, composing and re-composing that proper photography requires. These pictures are taken on the fly - let's hope for the best.
I drive to the field each and every morning past this hotel. The weather continues cold as we head to our Christmas break. I'm posting a few other pix here just to clear up the backlog.
Apologetic Note: If the colour of these recent photos seems a little off, or if they seem a little lacking in punch and crispness, it's because I'm required for the moment to use an unfamiliar raw developer with limited utility. The job leaves me only a little time at night to play with photos and the internet connection here is sketchy. Still, I wanted to keep a narrative going. Along with excuses, I give you slightly rough images. The latest update of Lightroom will now recognize this camera so things should get better in the new year.
Update, Dec 29: I've taken the opportunity over Christmas break to rework some of my December images using my home computer. A proper display with Lightroom and Photoshop is a marked improvement over a laptop with Silkypix.
