RH Speirs | Photographer - Late Spring-Early Summer, 2022, Various

Tree branch bloom, Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - May 28th

House Sparrow (male), Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - May 30th

Whatever feeding tactics this Robin (below) is using seem to be working out very well.

American Robin (male), Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - May 31st

Will have to try this again sometime..not happy with how this image (below) turned out at all.

Milky Way over the Okotoks Erratic, near Okotoks, AB - May 31st

House Sparrow (male), Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - June 3rd

House Sparrow (female), Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - June 4th

House Sparrow (male), Bridlewood, Calgary, AB - June 4th

My photography plans got cut short on the evening of June 12th due to being attacked by a man that didn't know me. Usually, I'm much more aware of my surroundings than I was at the time all this went down. Just being so focused on trying something new, and watching for a specific action, lightning in this case, had me caught with my guard down..won't be happening again. The plan was to set up my camera on the Valleyview ridge, facing West, and wait for lightning, to the West, from a passing storm moving Northward, to appear in the background of my cityscape shot of the downtown skyline, and try to capture it. After getting all set up, and while watching the sky intently, this very aggressive, extremely racist man crept up behind me, and screamed at me. I didn't flinch at his attempt to scare me, just turned around slowly to address him, and I believe this made him very angry..it's like I was supposed to fear him. I could see in his eyes just how much he despised me, not even knowing a thing about me, but only because my skin didn't match that of his. Oh, the things he said, and the way he conducted himself was truly unbelievable. Lost count of how many times he threatened my life, going on and on about how he, and his kind, will kill me, and all of my kind (whatever that means), and what they'll do to our remains afterward..just sickening stuff to say the least. He ended up yanking hard on the remote trigger chord, that was plugged into my camera, that was atop my tripod, trying to pull the whole rig over crashing to the ground. I reached out and grabbed the tripod before it did hit the ground, while doing so the remote chord got ripped out of the plug that goes into the socket, leaving the plug behind, still intact on the camera. I tucked the rig under my one arm, and grabbed my heavy backpack, which was on the ground, with my other hand, and just swiftly left the area before the physical assault came, ignoring his racist death threats and insults. Thank goodness everything was all packed/zipped up and ready to go..often I have equipment unpacked and laid out on the ground. Who knows how much damage would have been done had that not been the case? The remote trigger chord was destroyed (never did find where he threw it over the ridge, $100 cost to replace), and my (several hundred dollar) tripod head got damaged, but it is still usable. I felt pretty vulnerable out there by myself, defenseless, and with all that fairly delicate, costly, equipment to worry about protecting. I certainly hope it doesn't, but should an encounter with this individual present itself again, I'll be better prepared next time.

Anyway, this a test shot (below) from when I was getting set up to capture the planned image.

16x9 Cityscape of the downtown skyline, from near Valleyview Park, Calgary, AB - June 12th

White-tailed Deer with a fawn, Marshall Springs, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - June 25th

4x5 Cityscape of the downtown skyline, from Southview Off Leash Dog Park, Calgary, AB - June 30th

16x9 Cityscape of the downtown skyline at Sunset, from Southview Off Leash Dog Park, Calgary, AB - June 30th

4x5 Cityscape of the Calgary Tower and setting Waxing Crescent Moon, from Southview Off Leash Dog Park, Calgary, AB - June 30th

16x9 Cityscape of the Calgary Tower and setting Waxing Crescent Moon, from Southview Off Leash Dog Park, Calgary, AB - June 30th

Late Spring-Early Summer, 2022, Various - Alberta

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