RH Speirs | Photographer - Early Spring, 2022, Various

3x1 Panoramic Cityscape (8 shot) of the downtown skyline and Bow River [pre sunrise, Civil Twilight (sun altitude -5.9 degrees)], from near Max Bell Centre, Calgary, AB - March 21st

3x1 Panoramic Cityscape (8 shot) of the downtown skyline and Bow River [pre sunrise, Civil Twilight (sun altitude -0.4 degrees)], from near Max Bell Centre, Calgary, AB - March 21st

This planned photo didn't work out due to high hazy cloud. You can very faintly see the moon, in the top left corner of the photo, before it disappears completely behind the visible bank of cloud cover. At the time of taking this photo I didn't know the moon was even visible at all. I just figured I'd take the shot at the planned time anyway, and only found out the moon was actually a little bit visible when I looked at the photo on the computer later on.

Cityscape of Condo Buildings and the Moonrise (Waning Crescent, 8.7%), Civil Twilight (sun altitude -2.6 degrees), from Edworthy Park, Calgary, AB - March 29th

3x1 Panoramic Cityscape (8 shot) of the downtown skyline, with Bow River [pre sunrise, Civil Twilight (sun altitude -0.2 degrees)], from Edworthy Park, Calgary, AB - March 29th

Three-toed Woodpecker (female), Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, near Millarville, AB - March 29th

Three-toed Woodpecker (male), Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, near Millarville, AB - March 29th

I would have liked to get a better look at this bird. Just got this quick glimpse of it before it disappeared into the forest.

Unknown bird type, Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, near Millarville, AB - March 29th

Would have liked to get a better look at this bird as well. It's been nearly two years since seeing a Varied Thrush (then was the first, and only other, time for me). Both of the sightings were at a very long range.

Varied Thrush, Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, near Millarville, AB - March 29th

I was fooled by the weather forecast app on this morning upon waking up. Early on, it looked like there was a good chance of some nice color in the sky during the sunrise to come. By the time I got ready to go, and traveled to my shooting destination, the clouds had faded away revealing just a nice plain blue sky.

3x1 Panoramic Cityscape (9 shot) of the downtown skyline, Prince's Island Park, Bow River, Memorial Dr., Center St. Bridge, and Peace Bridge [pre sunrise, Nautical Twilight (sun altitude -7.7 degrees)], from Crescent Heights Lookout Point, Calgary, AB - April 1st

16x9 Cityscape (3 shot) of the Peace Bridge, Bow River, Memorial Dr., a portion of the downtown skyline, and the Rocky Mountains [pre sunrise, Nautical Twilight (sun altitude -7.7 degrees)], from Crescent Heights Lookout Point, Calgary, AB - April 1st

Okay, so, I'd like for you to imagine with me for a minute if you would. Imagine that the sky in following half a dozen images is not all dull and boring, but colorful and vibrant, filled with the breathtaking natural beauty if the Aurora Borealis. For that is what could very well have been happening on the other side of all this cloud cover you are seeing that blanket the sky above the buildings. At least that's what the Aurora app I use was telling me was likely to be going on at the time these images were captured. I was about to turn my personal hand held device off for the night, for overnight charging, when I received an alert from the Aurora app, telling me that there was a good chance of seeing the northern lights in our area if the sky was to be clear. So, I opened the weather app I use to monitor what's currently happening in our area with regard to cloud coverage. It showed a fair amount of clouds within Alberta, but none to the direct north of Calgary, which is where I needed it to be clear. So instead of heading off to bed as planned, I got myself back ready, got my camera gear together, and took off to the destination I had in mind should such an occurrence arise. I had been waiting for months for this specific opportunity, and was getting quite excited to finally capture the Aurora Borealis for the first time. Unfortunately, by the time I got to my destination the clouds had fully engulfed the sky above the majority of central and southern Alberta. And so, my love/hate relationship, of late, with the clouds continues on. I don't regret driving the 36 kilometer round trip, and attempting to capture what I have been envisioning for months now. It was good practice, and I did come away with learning a thing or two for the next time when capturing such a scenario. Heck, it was just so nice to get out and actually make an attempt. I would estimate that 90+% of my specific plans, over the past several months, to capture images involving the Sun, Moon, night/twilight sky, and Milky Way core, get cancelled all together due to clouds not cooperating, or strong winds, or extreme cold temperatures. Oh well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. With persistence, these stand-out images I envision will happen eventually.

3x1 Panoramic Cityscape (8 shot) of the downtown skyline (Night time), from near Roxboro Park, Calgary, AB - April 1st

The next two images are simply 16x9 cropped out portions from the full 3x1 image shown directly above. The two images below those are single shots on their own. Of course all six of these images would be composed slightly differently would there have been more interest in the sky portion.

16x9 Cityscape of a portion of the downtown skyline (Night time), from near Roxboro Park, Calgary, AB - April 1st

16x9 Cityscape of a portion of the downtown skyline (Night time), from near Roxboro Park, Calgary, AB - April 2nd

4x5 Cityscape of a portion of the downtown skyline (Night time), from near Roxboro Park, Calgary, AB - April 2nd

Here's an example of one of my specific plans that was a good learning experience. Though the resulting capture(s) may be somewhat interesting, it's/they're not exactly what I'd call appealing. There's a lot of trial and error involved with these types of captures I'm finding. This one simply involved the moon setting over a condo building I had in mind. I like this particular condo building in a low light scene because of how its pointed roof is lit up. The condo building is called the Montana, and it can be seen within the majority of my panoramic cityscape captures. It's situated out and away a little bit from the big cluster of buildings that make up the downtown skyline of Calgary, so it can be seen on it's own from a variety of different vantage points throughout the city. When I was making up the plan for this image that I had sort of envisioned, involving the Moon with the Montana, there was two nights in a row, within this most recent moon cycle, that the plan could potentially work out. The first night, and the one with the greater potential of the two, got cancelled due to clouds. The second was this one, but it would mean really pushing the limits of shooting the bright moon with such a dark sky background (sun elevation at -16 degrees, approaching the tail end of Astronomical Twilight). Though I've shot many images from near this particular vantage point (within up to a kilometer to both the left and right of it), I haven't ever shot from it specifically. So when I arrived at the spot I was facing a few challenges right away. Firstly, there was atmospheric distortion happening in the air between my camera and my subject. Not much can be done about that, except to come back another time when it's not happening. It just results in very soft images. The Montana (my main subject) was located 5.9 kilometers away, with the top 10 floors being visible, and that was good. Unfortunately, there was a chain link fence 100 feet or so in front of me, about 6 feet tall. I was barely able to overcome this by extending my tripod to its full extent, but it made operating the camera somewhat challenging being up so high. It's already difficult enough operating in the dark, never mind trying to push buttons and turning dials when you're reaching uncomfortably. Also, there was some extremely bright lights entering the bottom of the frame of my intended picture that didn't help. I think they're from the CP Rail Alyth Yard, that I was shooting across and over. Another challenge was three separate towers protruding into the sky (see the last image on this page, reference photo from upon site arrival, well before the moon came into position), but I figured I could probably just remove those with Photoshop, which I did end up doing. Anyways, once again, didn't come away with quite the results I was hoping for, but did learn a couple of things for the next similar occurrence.

Cityscape of Condo Buildings and the Moonset (Waxing Crescent, 3.8%), Astronomical Twilight, from near Valleyview Park, Calgary, AB - April 2nd

Cityscape of the Montana Condo Building and the Moonset (Waxing Crescent, 3.8%), Astronomical Twilight, from near Valleyview Park, Calgary, AB - April 2nd

Reference photo

Early Spring, 2022, Various - Alberta

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