For this first post, we go back a couple of years ago, when I went on one of my first photo walks during a warm day in the middle of winter. At that point, I was just getting started in photography armed with a Canon Rebel XTi (aka 400D) and its kit lenses. I probably took several dozen shots that day, but I decided to only pick out a few of my better ones.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Forgotten Toque

Pine Cones

Frozen Leaf

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One of the things I've decided to join this year is the 2012 Project 52 happening over on Google+. This is a group of 450+ photographers of all levels from around the world committing to taking and posting at least one photo a week based on a weekly theme. It sounded like a fun challenge, and certainly a lot more doable than a 366 Project, so I thought I would give it a try. It also gives me a good excuse to get out and shoot a lot more. In addition to this, I'll be continuing with our weekly post from our own archives, so hopefully I'll be able to effectively pull off a Project 104. *fingers crossed*

So to kick of 2012, here's my first shot for the Google+ Project 52. The first theme last week was "New Years Eve/Day". I made a post-new-years dinner yesterday which was a bacon-wrapped roast turkey (along with a bunch of sides, but the turkey was the star). It actually turned out really well and was a great hit with the family!

Turbacon IMG_3995

Turbacon IMG_4011

Happy New Year!

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Now, I've limited the choices to my non-sports photos to keep the selection small and relatively manageable (I might review my sports photos in a future post). Even then, it was still tough to trim it down to only 11. Anyway, in no particular order, here are my favourite photos from 2011.. Enjoy!

(1) We begin with this view of the Rocky Mountains silhouetted against a sunset, which kicked off my efforts to do a weekly photo blog post.

Mountain Sunset IMG_5297

(2) Next is this shot of my two-year-old chasing after a soccer ball on the field where my son was getting ready for a game:

First to the Ball IMG_0864

(3) This one is from a sunrise during a chinook in Calgary where we often get some great photogenic clouds:

Cotton Candy Sky IMG_9265

(4) I was playing around with depth of field when I took this shot on a well-maintained outdoor soccer pitch:

Boundary IMG_4342

(5) In a rare occurance, I was able to make it to the Calgary Stampede this year where I took this one from below one of the ferris wheels on the grounds:

Stampede Ferris Wheel IMG_9364

(6) We took a trip out to Kelowna last summer where we spent a bit of time at one of the beaches there. Here is a relaxing view of a boat floating on Lake Okanagan:

Floating IMG_7768

(7) On our return from Kelowna, I was able to take a number of photos as we drove back through the mountains. Here's my favourite among them:

Back to Alberta IMG_8586

(8) Another one of my favourite sunrise shots was taken from the office building where I work. We have some balconies we can go out on and I couldn't resist when I saw this view toward downtown Calgary:

Office Sunrise IMG_3132

(9) We took the kids to the Calgary Zoo and I took a number of photos while we were there. I especially enjoyed trying to get a number of closeups of flowers in the conservatory, such as this one of some orchids:

Orchids IMG_8732

(10) It's always fun when you find a neat image in your archives like this one of a playground bench at our local community centre. I wasn't really trying for the bokeh, but I like how it turned out:

Bench Bokeh IMG_9943a

(11) And finally, we round out this selection of photos with this autumn view of the Rockies from the great vantage point at my office:

Distant Rockies IMG_3180

Looking back on 2011, this year had me branching out more into other genres, learn a lot of new techniques, and just simply experimented a lot with my photography. I hope you enjoyed my little jaunt through some of my photos from this past year. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how 2012 will shape up!

Happy New Year, everyone!

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When I got back to my part of the city, I headed for the biking/walking trails that are nearby as I've taken many photos from there facing west. Lesson number one for night photography – bring a flashlight. I had a heckuva time finding the actual pathways since they've been covered in snow. After stumbling around a bit, I did eventually find the paths and settled in to take some shots. Lesson number two – bring a tripod. I ended up taking around a 100 or so shots, all the while experimenting with the camera settings to see what would work. I went through and processed the photos this afternoon and I've found that the vast majority of what I shot has noticeable blur and aren't really useable. Here are the two that I found to be among the better ones from this morning.

Lunar Eclipse IMG_3864

Lunar Eclipse IMG_3904

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