Canadian Rockies

I know I've been neglecting this blog, as usual. But I figured I'd update it a little with my best photos from this past year. In July I finally got to see the Canadian Rockies. I flew to Edmonton to be the photographer for a friends wedding, then spent about a week camping in Jasper National Park. I also took the amazing drive down the Ice Fields Parkway to Banff. 

*note. Some photos seem over saturated or grainy. I don't know why, something to do with Bloggers upload. Just wanted to clarify that's not how they are intended to look, but I dont know how to fix that on this page. 

Shooting the sunset over the Tonquin Valley in Jasper. 

This is just to the left of the previous photo. Sorrow Peak next to Mt. Edith Cavell.

The Sunrise at Jasper Lake. 5:03am

Leech Lake with Mt Edith Cavell in the distance. 

I shot this while driving slowly through the wildfires in Banff National Park. 

Mt Rundle at sunset. Banff. 

Icefields Parkway

Mount Chephren. Banff.

Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Mountain. Jasper. 

Mount Edith Cavell. Jasper. 

Athabasca Falls and Mt. Kerkeslin. Jasper. 

Mt Kerkeslin from the gorge at the bottom of the falls. 

Rocks along the shore of  Athabasca River at the bottom of the falls.

I'll try to keep this blog more up to date, especially if I see more traffic or get some feedback. But if you want to see more of my work check out my website at www.calebest.com.

You can also follow my tumblr page seebest.tumblr.com or my instagram at  http://www.instagram.com/calebestphotography

Tobermory Sunset

I tend not to shoot much in the winter months. It's a combination of a hatred of the cold and low levels of interest in snowy landscapes. This winter has been especially bad. So in these dreary months I find myself looking back through my folders of photos from the previous summer. 

Recently I went back to the photos from a trip to Tobermory in June. The photos below are from the best sunset I got to shoot in all of 2013. I had already edited and posted these photos when I got home from that trip. But something was lacking. I liked them, but they're weren't great. I didn't spend much time on them at the time because I had a week's worth of beautiful photos from one of my favourite places in Ontario. 

So the other day I revisited these two photos and gave them the attention they deserved from the start. Not only was this my favourite sunset of the year, I think these two photos are the highlight of my photography in 2013. 

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #41

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #31

I'm a day late again. Not good reason, I was just busy yesterday and kind of forgot it was Monday. Anyway, I have something a little different this week. I recently bought a cheap IR (Infrared) filter last week so I've been trying to figure that out. I'm still struggling to get good results with it as it requires insanely long exposure time.

This photo was about 2 minutes long in the sunlight, and it still came out a little dark. I had to lighten it a lot and apply quite a bit of noise reduction in Lightroom. I also toned down the saturation a lot because everything comes out very red.

Check out Todd's Photo(s) of the week.

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #26

Click to Enlarge

Last week I did a little storm chasing but never got lucky. I'm still waiting to catch a good lightning photo. I came across this spot that I've shot before, and while there wasn't any lightning there was plenty of good light.

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Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #26

This weeks photo is one of the last ones I shot in Tobermory. I shot many of our dock on Lake Huron. This was quite late in the sunset, and I used a small flashlight to light up the foreground.

One day during our time in Tobermory, Laura and I did a little exploring to some abandoned places on the Peninsula that I found on the internet. This is the stairs at a tiny old schoolhouse.


A typical night for us at the cottage, drinks by the fire until the howl of coyotes in the bushes at midnight sends us back indoors. Me on the right, Laura on the left. My sister and Rob behind Laura.


Anyone who's been to the area is no stranger to bratty Red Squirrels.

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #25

So, I'm a week late but I have a good reason. I spent the last week in Tobermory gathering photos (1245 to be specific). I spent a good hour last monday trying to post these photos from my girlfriend's iPhone but I couldn't get it to work and decided to give up and enjoy the campfire on the lake.

The first photo is from one of my nightly sunset photo sessions along the water behind the cottage we rented. We didn't get any really stunning sunsets but they were decent at least.



This is a photo of our cottage from the view of our campfire on the lake with the full moon rising. I had already brought my camera gear back to the cottage for some reason and rather then walk a few feet to retrieve it, I used my girlfriend Laura's Camera. I also lit the trees up with a hefty flashlight.


I also have a couple panoramas from Bruce Peninsula National Park. This first is from my favourite little overhang tucked in the trees away from the rest of the tourists that I like to hide in for some peace. This is the same location as my cliche feet-hanging-over-the-edge photo that I've shot on a few separate occasions.


Finally, here is a panorama of the outside of the grotto. Surprisingly there was no one else here at the time. Usually this time of year its packed with at least a class worth of kids on a school trip. Stay tuned later for THIS weeks post. I just need to make a few last edits.

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #16

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Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #13

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I went out many times to shoot photos this week with minimal success. This is the only one I've taken in about 2 weeks that I like. I was out to shoot the "supermoon" rise but it turned out pretty boring. I shot this at sunset just before the moon rise.

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Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #11

Last week I finally did something I've been meaning to do for a while, shoot from the top of a parking garage in downtown Windsor. One of the things I hate about this city is how flat it is. I always want to shoot photos from a higher vantage point. This weeks main photo is another panorama looking west towards the Ambassador Bridge.

Check out Todd's Photo(s) of the week

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #10

I managed to get a nice sunset last week. When I set out the sky was dull but I was patient and it paid off. I couldn't find a whole lot for the foreground but this old gate provided some interest. The first shot is a panorama and the bonus photo below is a closer single shot. Thanks for looking.

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Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #9

I spent many hours this week driving around looking for interesting photos. This place was the only thing remotely interesting that I found. I wasn't happy with the sunset as there were no clouds. I hate cloudless sunsets. But its better than complete cloud cover like it's been most of the time lately.


Check out Todd's photo(s) of the week.

Area 53 - 2011 - Photo #7

I only managed one successful photo exploration this week. It seems like we got more snow this week than we have in the last few years. This photo was on a random dirt road somewhere near Woodslee, Ontario. It was unbearably cold and windy, causing the snow to drift continuously accross the road. I thought the drifting looked cool but I wasn't really able to capture it. But believe me it is happening all through the frame in this photo. Also, this image is a 5-photo HDR, I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Check out Todd's Photo(s) of the week.

Week 44

Another abandoned house, and another quick post this week. Seems like Mondays are always busy. I shot this on an overnight trip around the Sarnia area. It was quite a ways away from the road, with a long driveway. It looked abandoned but I wasn't sure until I got close, after about a hundred feet of weeds scraping along the underside of my car.

This photo is a very light HDR. I'm still not crazy about hdr's and I only do them if I can make them look realistic. I was going to post a non-hdr, but I just don't have the time to edit any right now. I still really like this one.

Check out Todd's Photo(s)

The Farm

A few weeks ago I went out to St. Joachim, about 20 minutes out of the city. My friend's band was practicing at the drummers dad's old farm house. While I was shooting photos of them I noticed the sun setting outside. I had purposely planned to shoot some sunset photos while I was out there that night.

I grabbed my tripod and slipped out the back door for a few minutes. I headed towards the back of the property and by the time I found a place to start shooting from I could no longer hear the music pumping out of the house.

I tried shooting these the honest way, with a graduated ND filter but the angles were too much and the sunset was too bright for it to really have an effect. So I started shooting everything twice, first exposing for the sunset, then again exposing for the foreground. It took me awhile to get it right in photoshop putting them together but I finally got this one to turn out decent.

I'm still not 100% happy with it, which is why I'm posting it here and not saving it for a greater use. I have others from this shoot that I'm holding on to for the time being.


After looking through all these photos and working on them in photoshop I really got the desire to shoot more photos in the county. But first I need a car to explore in.

A simple sunset shot today. The mosquito's have been terrible around here this month. It's hard to set up shots with 40 of them buzzing in your ears while you're trying to focus. They also enjoy my knuckles, seems I always have bites there. Every time I go out I think "I should have put on some bug spray" but I haven't remembered yet. I caught myself sounding like a crazy person last night while trying to set up shots and fighting off mosquito's and muttering profanities.

Sunsets and Black Flies

Sunday - June 14

The weather forecasts weren't great heading into the week, but as usual, they were way off the mark, thankfully. Instead of 60's and a chance of rain we enjoyed 80's everyday and only a little rain late Friday night. Here's my favourite from out first night at the cottage.

(Click the photos to enlarge)


Monday - June 15

I enjoy solitude but once the sun goes down its nice to have some company. We were pretty much the only people in the area. Almost all of the cottages in the area were empty so we had the whole beach to ourselves. Well more of a coastline than a beach, it was all rock, no sand. But it was beautiful still. This photo is taken from the water, looking towards our cottage. Perfect clouds for a Circular Polarizer.


Tuesday - June 16

I shot this same photo a couple of years ago the last time I was here, but it was cheap film and there was an ugly line through it, so I tried it again. I tried to capture the vastness of the water and maybe even the calm and silence. It's about at least a forty foot drop to the water...but its not quite as dangerous as it looks. However it IS a little tricky with a backpack, camera bag and a big camera hanging off you. This is along the Bruce Trail, near The Grotto, not far from Cyprus Lake Campground (where I usually stay when I'm up there).


Wednesday - June 17

We picked up a giant bag of peanuts at the store in town, probably around five pounds worth. By the end of the week they were gone, thanks to this Red Squirrel, a couple of Chipmunks and a Cardinal.


Thursday - June 18

Our campfire on Lake Huron. This was a massive day. Up at sunrise to catch the ferry to Manitoulin Island, about 12 hours later we got back into Tobermory and headed to the Beer Store, 6:01 and all we picked up was disappointment and a little panic. Luckily we had enough to last...but we had to go easy.


Friday - June 19

I shot a lot of photos along the water near the cottage. Whenever the colours were dull I'd switch to black and white. I usually just shoot all colour photos then convert some to black and white after. But this time I shot a lot of black and white only.


Saturday - June 20

I finally got some nice scenery to shoot sunsets. I try sometimes in Windsor, but its hard to find interesting settings that don't have power lines or buildings in the shot. So every night when the sun started going down I'd grab a beer and my camera bag and head down to the water to spend some time with the Geese and Sandpipers. This is one of my favourite sunset shots from the last night there. Most of the sunsets were rather boring but this final one was quite interesting, plus the rain from the night before filled all the craters in the rock and gave me plenty of reflection opportunities.


Sunday - June 21

This is the very last photo I shot on the trip, Sunday morning before we headed back to Windsor and all its unpleasantness. From left to right: Me, my sister Lisa, her husband Rob, and his brother David who was visiting from England.