A tour of secret places

One of the cool things about hanging around with other photographers is learning interesting stuff. There's always something new to learn even about something you might know well, or even just a different view on it. 

Skyline, for example. For a while I shot a lot of skyline. Part of it was to learn how to use my camera, and all those lines and windows tell you if you've nailed the focus. Calgary has a lovely skyline, and even better, one can view it from all directions. Some are better than others, of course, and some need a judicious choice of lens. But it means that what with the seasons, changing weather especially near sunrise or sunset, and all the different places to shoot from, there's a lot of unique skyline photos.

Neil Zeller's day tour of secret places was mostly a tour of skyline locations. I like looking at skyline shots and trying to figure out where it was taken from. A couple locations we went to, I didn't know were publicly accessible, but I had explored the others or places nearby. We had a great time as we zoomed around throughout the afternoon went, coping with Mrs Google-Maps lying to us which led to a much more thorough tour of Kensington than had been planned, and the sandwich vendor losing our order. A different place serving yummy food was chosen, and all turned out well. Hint, at Flippin Burgers, don't order the large fries unless you're really really hungry, or several of you are splitting it.

The big win for these tours is getting access to places the public doesn't usually get to go. If you look here, you can see photos from the last such tour two years ago. This time it was into a building under renovation. Shooting through the windows was a bit of a problem because of the dust, but such is life. There was lots of interesting stuff inside, and outside made my day!

Here's a selection of photos from the day.

1. From where is left as an exercise for the reader.

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3. Here's where the really secret part of the tour starts. I found it the most interesting part of the tour by far. All these down to 21 are from the same place. Where the perspective is weird, consider I'm using a really wide lens that distorts tall buildings.

4. Who doesn't love reflections in building glass?

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6. I could have hung out there all day watching the light change on the buildings. All the reflections!

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9. Normally panoramas are wide, but there's nothing that says they can't be tall. This would print out about 4 feet high by 2 feet, and could probably go bigger.

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13. Telus Sky is an odd shape that makes it look even more distorted with a wide lens.

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25. I missed the bus zooming by with the downtown backdrop, but several of the other crew got it. Watch for those shots.

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Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Peony

Eagle

Owl

Dragonfly