I'm home after a brief swing through southern Alberta. In May I photographed birds almost exclusively, so I enjoyed shooting landscapes one evening at Red Rock Coulee, near Medicine Hat.
The distant, billowing clouds caught my eye as I hiked toward the crest of this hill, strewn with huge sandstone concretions. I didn't think of a pano crop until I assessed the image in processing. It was a good choice, as there was nothing but blue above and green below, and I think this shot is about the horizon line and what may lie just beyond.
This was my eleventh visit to RRC since 1999, and I spent some time just sitting and looking. What can I possibly do here that I haven't already done...? It was the challenge of familiarity.
There will be birds... but first, a few more from this location.
Photographed at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, near Medicine Hat, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape panorama pano ridge hills clouds horizon billowing cumulus sky concretions wild prairie Red Rock Coulee Natural Area Alberta Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2023
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This may be my favourite prairie wildflower. It also goes by other common names, eg. Three-flowered Avens and Old Man's Whiskers (as an old man with a beard, I resent the latter - I mean, come on! "whiskers"???).
Of course, smoke may not be the first association either, until you see it in seed, with its wispy seed plumes waving in the wind; and no, they still don't look like whiskers. In the flowering stage, seen here, the plant appears delicate and graceful. I found this patch in the evening at Red Rock Coulee. The sun was in and out of clouds that day, and when it disappeared I put my wide angle lenses aside and got out the macro to see what I could do. It isn't the best Prairie Smoke shot I've ever made, but I find it pleasing enough.
The location is southwest of Medicine Hat. Photographed at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: Prairie Smoke Geum triflorum Three-flowered Avens plant flower wildflower red green vertical macro close up beauty beautiful nature wild prairie Red Rock Coulee Natural Area Alberta Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2023
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The large (up to 2.5 metres in diameter) sandstone boulders at Red Rock Coulee are concretions - formed undersea, in this case the shallow "Bearpaw Sea" that covered much of the North American interior when the dinosaurs still roamed. Eighty million years old, give or take, they now sit on the Alberta prairie like gigantic, misshapen cow pies.
I wondered what I could do with a fish eye lens here, so when the sun emerged from a cloud bank very late in the evening, I got out the Rokinon 8mm. Keeping the camera level produces a straight horizon; any tilt and there is a pronounced curve. The limitation lies in its extraordinary 180° field of view: if I shifted to the right, the sun would be in my frame; to the left and I have to deal with my own shadow. And the photo op turned out to be brief; I had time for half a dozen shots and then the light faded.
Photographed at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape concretions sky clouds evening light strange beauty wild prairie Red Rock Coulee Natural Area Alberta Canada fish eye Rokinon 8mm copyrighted James R. Page 2023
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A large concretion eroding on a hill top at Red Rock Coulee, southwest of Medicine Hat, Alberta. You can see more in the background. These things are huge, up to 2 m (6 ft) diameter. I spent the first evening on my recent, brief trip to the Rockies revisiting this location - a good way to kick start the creative juices.
Photographed at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, Alberta. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2016 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape concretion rock wild prairie unusual eroding erosion sandstone beautiful Red Rock Coulee Natural Area nature Alberta Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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These large concretions - up to 2 metres (6 ft) in diameter - lie scattered across the Alberta prairie at Red Rock Coulee. They were formed in an ancient, shallow seabed, when material began to adhere to a bit of shell or bone, rolling along the bottom, pushed by tidal action or other turbulence. Eventually the "mudballs" were compressed into stone.
Conditions were sublime for this visit: the prairie was lush with recent rain and wildflowers were popping up everywhere.
Photographed at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, south of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2016 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape wild prairie concretion sandstone stone rock beautiful sublime wow lush flowers wildflowers beauty green warm light nature Red Rock Coulee Natural Area Alberta Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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