Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Free Desktop Wallpaper for September 2011

This months background wallpaper image comes from the Little Elbow Provincial Recreation Area in the Elbow Valley. This is the southernmost region of Kananaskis Country, accessed via Highway 22x through Bragg Creek rather than by Highway 40. It's a wonderful area of the park, yet quite quiet compared to many other places. It seems that in this area many of the tourists stop at the major attractions (Elbow Falls, Bill Allen Pond, Forget-Me-Not Pond, etc.) and don't get off the track so much. We did a wonderful hike up to Nihahi Ridge on Saturday and we saw very few people. It was fantastic weather and it was great to be in such a beautiful part of the province! The image was taken from our camp site at the Little Elbow Equestrian campground. I was relaxing in my chair and noticed the beautiful circular frame made by the trees around the cloudy blue sky above. I wasn't sure if I could fit the whole thing in with the camera and lens I had with me, but I had to try. And it worked! Sometimes in photography you just don't know what you're going to get until you try. That's part of the beauty of being in a creative profession!! Download To install the image as your desktop background, simply click on the link below that corresponds to the file resolution you would like to use. When the larger image appears in your browser window right-click on the picture and select “Set as Desktop Background...”. For some browsers (Google Chrome for sure) you may have to choose "Save As..." to copy the image to your desktop first. You can then right-click on the file on your desktop [...]

2011-08-30T02:09:03-06:00By |Wallpaper|

Charity & Bruce | Wedding Sneak Peek

The Wedding of Charity Derksen and Bruce Potter on August 20, 2011 I first met Charity this past winter a very cold day at River Park Dog Park. She brought her dog Lola to a pet portrait mini-session that I had arranged in partnership with Pawsitively Natural Dog Daycare. Although her session was pretty short (because we were all freezing), it was a beautiful day and the conditions for photography were great. I was excited by all of the images that I made for her. There was one shot in particular where everything came together with this incredibly soft and beautiful light and I knew that I had nailed it! I remember saying to myself "Oh... this could be good!" Fast forward a few months to the summer... I was checking my email one day when up pops a note from Charity asking for some pricing for photography for her upcoming wedding. I was instantly excited and very happy that she would consider using me for such an important day! I immediately thought back to that lovely winter day... We got together a couple of weeks ago for an engagement session. I love doing this kind of session because they are much more relaxed than the wedding day and it gives me and the couple a chance to get to know each other a little better before the big day. I love their engagement photos so much and it gave me some extra confidence that their wedding day was going to be perfect too! Thanks so much to both Charity and Butch, and to all of your family members, for allowing me to participate in this celebration. Your love for each other is easy to [...]

2011-08-26T01:49:47-06:00By |Wedding|

Canadian Ultimate Championships 2011

I recently had the good fortune to compete at the 2011 Canadian Ultimate Championships (CUC) in Ottawa, Ontario. I went as a member of Epic, which is one of 2 Alberta Masters teams that competed in the tournament. I've been playing the sport of Ultimate for almost 20 years and this is the 3rd time I've been able to play at the CUC. Although my team and I didn't do so well in the tournament this time around, playing at a National Championship event is truly an amazing experience and I will always be proud that I was able to go. We had a great time and it was definitely worth the effort we put in to get there. Although playing in the tournament kept me very busy, I did manage to photograph some of my teammates in action. I was also able to catch some parts of a few of the other games played by Calgary teams at the tournament. Unfortunately the majority of the Calgary teams were scheduled to play in all the same time slots and therefore I really wasn't able to see as many of their games as I would have liked to watch... Here are a few of my favorite images from the tournament, including players from Epic (Masters), FigJam vs. Glum (Masters), Wild Rose vs. Salty (Women's), and CUJO (Juniors).

2011-08-16T23:32:40-06:00By |Sports Photography|

Canvas Gallery Wrap Mock-Ups

Canvas Print Mockup I have many clients that are interested in Canvas prints but who hesitate because they aren't sure what they final image will look like. I now have a tool that allows me to prepare a mock-up of a canvas print using actual images from your session. So if you're curious about what a Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print of one of your images might look like, please feel free to ask and I will put together a mock-up for you. It's a great way to get a good feel for what the canvas will look like after being installed on your wall! This particular image is of Amy, who was a participant in the recent Calendar sessions that I did for my friend Lor-Ann at Pawsitive Dawgs Training. If you have a friend or family member that might need a little bit of coaching about how to work with their dog I can highly recommend Lori. She is great with the dogs, and teaches their people really well too!

2013-12-21T14:48:25-07:00By |Product|

Derksen Potter Engagement Sessions

I had a beautiful engagement session with Charity and Bruce (and their dog Lola) at the Ranche recently. They are such a beautiful couple and the Ranche is one of my favorite places for photography. The place has so much going on that there ends up being a really wide variety of stuff to use as a backdrop for portraits. My two favorites are the walls of the red barn and the long grasses in the nearby fields. Charity and Bruce were both great sports and they were willing to try anything I asked for, which always makes my job easier! It was great to be able to spend a few minutes with the couple in a more relaxed setting before their upcoming wedding. Even though this event will be relatively small, weddings are always pressure packed and it's much nicer to get to know each other in a different atmosphere before the wedding. Thanks to Charity and Bruce for including me in their big day! I'm really looking forward to it!

2011-08-11T19:49:24-06:00By |Engagement|