Collin Orthner - Photographer

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:10:00 +0000

I have started a new blog on WordPress as it gives me more flexibility and I can now upload sound and video clips. All the content from this blog is on the new one. You can find me now by clicking here. See you there.

Venetian

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:16:00 +0000

The $1.5 billion Venetian Hotel. Absolutely mind boggling 5013 rooms! The Grand Canal Shoppes is an extensive 500,000-square-foot themed, indoor retail mall. The area features cobbled walkways, a reproduction of Venice's Grand Canal complete with real gondolas and a replica of St. Mark's Square. The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, the 65000 square foot Canyon Ranch SpaClub, and 19 remarkable restaurants, all waiting to make your visit a great one. Seems a bit over the top to me. Even if you aren't staying there you must at least go see it.
[Panasonic LX3]

Grand Canal Shoppes -

Valley of Fire Moonrise

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:50:00 +0000

Another image made in Nevada's Valley of Fire recently. I had to quickly scramble over rocks to get to where I could line up the moon just how I wanted. It was only after getting back to the car that I remembered I'm not in Alberta anymore. Things like big spiders and scorpions could easily be hiding in those same rocks. So needless to say I was quite a bit more cautious from that point on.
[Canon 5dMKII, 24-105mmL ]

Rogers Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:12:00 +0000

Rogers Spring is one of several natural springs that occur near Lake Mead in Nevada. It is a hot spring caused by geothermal activity deep within the ground at the base of the hills nearby. A small stream flows from the spring towards Lake Mead watering a few palm trees and undoubtedly some wildlife along the way.
[Canon 5dMKII, 24-105mmL]

Valley of Fire State Park

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:51:00 +0000

Looking back east towards the entrance of Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, I remember the completely exhilarating and yet panicked feeling I had because it was all so beautiful and foreign to me. I had no idea what to expect and wanted to see it all. The problem was I had only maybe 20 minutes of sunlight left. Where does one pull over to make an image? Maybe if I was to just go around one more bend just ahead, maybe that's where the most spectacular part of the park is!! Maybe I'm already looking at the best part and should just stay put. It does get better than this image shows, in fact the further we drove into the park heading into the sunset, the more spectacular the scenery became! We headed up one of the roads in the park well after the sunset, where my exposures were getting into the 10 seconds at 500ISO range when the ranger put his lights on and told us the park closed at sunset and we would have to turn around. If you get anywhere close to Las Vegas and can afford the afternoon to take a short drive(1 hour each way), do stop in to see this place. It really is special!
[Canon 5dMkII, 24-105mmL]

MGM Grand Hotel

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:10:00 +0000

After returning home on Sunday from Las Vegas, I haven't had much time to process my images. This is one of the first few done. There is definitely no shortage of the "WOW" factor in that town! One's sense of scale is completely out of tune with your mind most of the time. Everything is done on a grand (pardon the pun) scale.
[Panasonic LX3]

Turdus migratorius - not!

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:27:00 +0000

We just returned from spending New Years with my brother's family in Calgary. I, of course, took a couple hours off from visiting to walk along the Bow River in Carburn Park. I cannot visit my brother and not go for a walk through this beautiful park which stretches for about a kilometer or so along the Bow River. You are virtually guaranteed to see a lot of wildlife, including deer, numerous species of ducks, Bald Eagles, and Canada Geese. You might even see an owl or porcupine if you look real hard. Well this afternoon I even saw two robins who, not living up to there scientific name, have decided to brave an Alberta winter! They let me approach quite close and you can see it's puffed itself up for insulation.
[Canon 5DmkII, 100-400mmL]

Light Pillars

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:37:00 +0000

We had a beautiful display of light pillars this evening. It was about -21C and virtually clear out when these crystals formed. They only lasted maybe 45 minutes or so and I managed to get an image with the crescent moon along with both Jupiter(the brightest "star") and Venus(down from Jupiter). The two planets and our moon were best viewed on December 1st as they were then closest together. Unfortunately that night Red Deer was clouded over.
[Canon 5DmkII, 24-105mmL]

Christmas Lights

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:33:00 +0000

We spent Christmas day at my in-laws near Spruce Grove this year and they had lit up a few trees along their driveway.
[Canon 5DmkII, 24-105mmL]

Bower Woods

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:39:00 +0000

After getting my new 5D MkII camera I have had precious little time to be out shooting. Monday I forced the issue and played quite a bit with the HD video capabilities, which I am very impressed with. Of course I have no idea if I'll ever figure out how to post a sample video to my blog(maybe somebody can help me with that!) and so far, and I doubt ever, Adobe is not supporting this camera for RAW conversions in CS3 and so have used the medium size jpegs to process these images. They were both made in the Bower Woods along Piper Creek here in Red Deer. We have only had a very tiny amount of snow so far this winter, just enough that the coyote tracks are visible in the snow covered ice.
[Canon 5d MkII, Nikkor 55mm f1.2]

Liquid Silver

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:47:00 +0000

Water has a special place in my heart. I just can't get enough time to sit and admire the infinite possibilities that reflections of light play on the tiny waves of a creek!! The smallest change in your viewing angle can make for a completely different mood and feel to the water. How often we zoom past these tiny marvels of creation without a second thought as to the processes and unbelievable beauty that surrounds us!
[Canon G9]

Summerland Ornamental Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:05:00 +0000

Each year in fall we try to visit the beautiful garden at the Agriculture Canada Research Center in Summerland B.C. A slow leisurely walk among the towering ponderosa pines and along the edge of the canyon makes for a wonderful time and I always come away wishing I had more time to spend there. [Canon G9]

Precarious

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:45:00 +0000

It would only take a tiny bit of a breeze to topple this tree! Beavers have been working feverishly to knock it down, and maybe were scared away by our approach as there was frost on most of the leaves surrounding the tree but not on the wood chips. I was out for a walk with my sister and brother-in-law a week ago and found the tree along the edge of the Red Deer River downstream from Red Deer.
[Canon 5D, 16-35mmL ]

Fringe of Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:27:00 +0000

You shall ask
What good are dead leaves
And I will tell you
they nourish the sore earth
You shall ask
What reason is there for winter
And I will tell you
To bring about new leaves
You shall ask
Why are the leaves so green
And I will tell you
Because they are rich with life
You shall ask
Why must summer end
And I will tell you
So that the leaves can die

Nancy Wood
from Many Waters

[Canon 5D, 24-105mmL]

Icyness

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:08:00 +0000

My sister Marlene and her husband Dave were up from Lethbridge this past weekend and we managed to get out for a few walks, on one of which we found a great little stream that hasn't frozen over completely yet. I could spend hours following along streams like this listening to the sound of the bubbling water and photographing the wonderful shapes and textures! These images felt better as square images and as black and whites.
[Canon 5D, 24-105mmL]

Pilot Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Pilot Mountain is a mountain in the Bow River valley of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located southeast of Redearth Creek and directly west of the Trans-Canada Highway. The mountain was named in 1884 by George M. Dawson, for its location is where the Bow Valley changes direction, thus affording distant views of the mountain all along the valley. Pilot Mountain can be scrambled on the northwest face by someone with good routefinding skills.(Wikipedia) This image was made looking south from Moose Meadows along Highway 1A.
[Canon 5D, 16-35mmL]

Storm Remnants

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:30:00 +0000

I made this image in August at Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta. A very large, and threatening looking, thunderstorm sprung up on the western horizon early in the afternoon, but by the time it got to us it gave us some light rain for about an hour and moved on to the east. I rushed back out into the badlands, careful not to fall on the now very slippery bentonite clays, to catch the sunset as it illuminated the last remnants of the storm.
[Canon G9]

CP Rail - Red Deer Sub

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:57:00 +0000

I waited a good half hour to catch this train which travels right beside the Queen Elizabeth II Highway (Hi-way 2) as it travels to the west of Red Deer. I had a one in two chance of getting it coming towards me and wouldn't you know he came from the north instead!! The light was really nice just before the train showed up at sunset (second image), but unfortunately the sun had dipped just below the horizon as the train passed by during this long exposure, which blurred the train as it went by. [Canon 5D, 80-400mm OS Sigma]

Medicine River

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:02:00 +0000

I made this image a couple of evenings ago looking north along the Medicine River in Red Deer County. It is composed of three separate images stitched together for an incredibly wide-angle view.
[Canon 5D, 24-105mmL]

Dim your Headlights

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:26:00 +0000

I've already dimmed mine, but how often does it happen that the oncoming vehicle has to blast you with their high beams just as they top the rise before they decide it's time to dim them. It's usually rather obvious that there is an oncoming vehicle especially if it's foggy or dusty. Just my little rant - sorry.
[Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f2.8+2x]

John Deere 568 Round Baler

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:33:00 +0000

Another image from the other night in Red Deer County. I'm not sure which model of tractor it is.
[Canon 5D, 70-200mm f2.8L]

Alberta Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:05:00 +0000

This image was made last evening while touring around Red Deer County. It looks like a small rig, but I have no idea if it is a service rig or one going for the gold.
[Canon 5d, Tamron 300mm f2.8]

Nightfall - Red Deer County

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:44:00 +0000

Another image from last night. This time a bit on the interpretive side. I simply pointed the headlights of my car across the field and made a two minute exposure. Simple as that. I really like the way the cloud shapes echo the swaths. A little bit of fog moved in as well.
[Canon 5D, 24-105mm f/4L]

Autumn - Red Deer County

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:41:00 +0000

Autumn is definitely upon us, as the warm hues of the harvested field attests to. I was out photographing in Red Deer County tonight and captured a murmuration of starlings(I think) passing near this farm. No joke, that is what a group of starlings is called!
[Canon 5D, 70-200mm f2.8L]

Harvest time

noreply@blogger.com (Collin Orthner) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Yes, it has been too long of a break between posts. I've been real busy shooting stock images again for Lacombe County and of course harvest is going in full swing. Then, of course, there is all the editing work to be done and some more city images as well. Oh yeah, I am still working full time and putting in a few hours of volunteer time too. Whew!! Can't wait for indoor soccer season to kick off then I can add in some chauffeur time as well.

Enough complaining already - it's all good!!!

Doesn't this image just make you start feeling itchy. The amount of dust is just amazing. I turned the fan in our car on today on the way back from work and all the dust that got into the car last night came flying out the vents. Laura was none too pleased with me!!
[Canon 5D, 70-200mm/2.8L]