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I’m sure Art Wolfe, Andy Biggs, and Tom Mangelsen have had their fair share of misfires over the years, maybe not thumb over lens gaffes but the kind of goofy images that when developed they wonder ‘what was I thinking?’.  Most photographer’s mistakes never see the light of day for a good reason; when shots are bad they are ugly bad, this is a creative expression after all. Out of focus, bad exposure, and poor composition can make the best photographers look and feel like a blind man with a pinhole setup.

Earlier this year I wrote about being shut out while photographing local raptors and vowing to make amends.  Well life doesn’t always work out the way we would like.  Such is the case with this image of a young Bald Eagle in Alaska.  While photographing bears making the most of a poor salmon run on Fish Creek the odd Eagle would drift in to scavenge the left overs.  My attempts at capturing an image of these magnificent birds resembles a blooper reel again proving the age old adage never work with children or animals. Funny that limb wasn’t in the viewfinder when I took this image.

To view images that actually look like bears and eagles click here.

We ended last week with a sunset image so I thought we’d do something similar this week. Here’s an image from Costa Rica that should take the chill out of that Frosty Sunset post.

This one’s a relatively straight forward shot of a surfer calling it a day and walking back to Tamarindo; a once sleepy village that catered to surfers and locals. Today Tamarindo is quickly becoming one of Guanacaste’s major tourist destinations. With sunsets over the Pacific like this I can see why.

Nothing beats the feeling of putting on an old pair of jeans or jacket that you have not worn in awhile and finding a ten dollar bill in the pocket.  Well I’ve just experienced the photographic - Adobe Lightroom version of that feeling.  I knew we had images of koalas in the archives, after all my favourite was featured earlier this year. However, going through an old folder I found a number of lost koala images from our trip to Kangaroo Island South Australia that came alive with a little coaxing in Lightroom.

It’s bad enough just contemplating work but as the days shorten going to and coming home from work in the dark is getting seriously depressing.  One of the few bright spots (sorry for the pun) has been the terrific sunsets we’re experiencing.  Moody blah days are giving way to fantastic displays of light as the clouds glow with hues of orange, red, and magenta.  Of course during all this the camera’s no where to be found.  Lesson to be learned - always carry your camera with you.  Consider it therapy!

I’ve gone into the archives for this image to demonstrate what I’m talking about here.  Hope you enjoy.

‘Click’ on the image above or on this link to see more of Alberta in Images.

Today we have a guest photographer on the blog.  Larry from from SI (not that SI the other SI - Smizmar Images) has kindly forwarded this image from his trip out west this past summer. I’ll post up the 411 particulars shortly…