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    Matt Graham Photography - Landscapes and other interesting shots from Alberta, Canada and around North America

    Monday
    Sep062010

    Giraffe in Solitude

    We visited the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium on the weekend to check it out. I liked going to the Calgary Zoo, but with all the bad PR they are getting and $5 dollar parking, I was really looking forward to the one in Pittsburgh.  Well the parking is free and plentiful here, lots of different animals and there is an aquarium!  Here is my favorite one of the day that did not show much evidence of the countless children and crowds on a great day at the zoo!

    Friday
    Aug062010

    Wind Turbines on Armenia Mountain

     Right along our wellsites, there is an extensive wind farm on top of Armenia Mountain in Northern Pennsylvania.  I watched for hours during our frac jobs how these turbines seems to have a life of their own.  If there was no wind in one direction, they would rotate towards the wind.  Such majestic creations of engineering. Converted to B+W with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

     

    Thursday
    Aug052010

    Triple Threat

    After a heavy rain storm the night before, the well site I was working on was full of puddles.  During a down time I looked for some interesting reflections after seeing what Eli Reinholdtsen's e-book demonstrated.  Her book is called Chasing Reflections and its a new e-book from David DuChemin's Craft & Vision site.

    This shot I got the wind turbine, the sun and the water all in one frame.  I call it Triple Threat as it shows three of the renewable energy sources in one frame.  Now I cannot see wind, solar or hydro really overtaking fossil fuels any time soon, I am interested in what the next 5, 10 or 20 years will bring.

     

    Tuesday
    Aug032010

    Summer Sunset in Troy, PA

    The Pennsylvanian landscape is awesome.  Tons of hills and greenery all around.  Here is a shot I took after a long day of fraccing.  Don't call me a nut, I always carry my camera around with me during my trips to the field. I was lucky to get this shot before it started storming. If you look close on the left hill or mountain the locals call it, there are wind turbines.  Several of them are up there and will be popping up on here soon.

     

    Saturday
    Jul312010

    Its newt you, its me...

    Hey folks. its been so long since another blog post but I am back from the Marcellus shale gas fields of Pennslyvania and I have some time to post some shots. I really want to post new stuff but I'm so busy!!

    Anyway, here is an Eastern Newt that I saw around one of the well site leases I worked on.  I noticed these orange things crawling around and I took a closer look.  I took this shot with my Canon Powershot G11 in macro mode.  Amazingly I got to with in 3 inches of the newt with the lens.

     

    Wednesday
    Jul072010

    Stars on the "moon"

    After our wedding, Tina and I went to Las Vegas to go on a "mini-moon".  Yeah not a honeymoon...a mini-moon.  You see, we did not have enough time between our wedding and our move to PA to really enjoy two weeks on a warm beach in the Caribbean.  So we spent 4 nights in Sin City.  I really wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and we booked a trip with Grand Adventures.  They are a small group (8 people/tour) operator that really know how give a 13 hour tour to the Grand Canyon.  Over the next couple days, I will post some pictures from the trip.

    The first one, was not even from the grand vistas of the Canyon.  We stopped in Seligman, which was one of the towns on Route 66 that turned into a ghost town after the Interstate 40 bypassed the town.  HMMMM....Sound familiar? Well according to the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, the story of Cars is loosely based on the history of Seligman.

    I loved all the old relics from the 50s, but this photo of the Texaco sign was pretty lucky.  I set my aperture to F20 to get a crazy looking star pattern from the sun, while the red star on the sign provides a similar subject.

     

    ©Matt Graham 2010 - Two Stars

    Tuesday
    Jul062010

    New surroundings, new camera!

    Hey all, it has been over a month since I posted on my blog.  Our move to Mars, Pennsylvania has gone well and we are finally settled in.  I could not help but pounce on a great deal The Camera Store had on Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras.  Ever since I got hooked on photography, and especially landscapes, I lusted for a full frame camera body.  I am not a fan on paying an "early adopter" tax that comes with the hype of a new piece of technology and after nearly 2 years on the market, I bought this camera.

    Lots of people laugh when I say I am from Mars, PA.  It is lovely town north of Pittsburgh that is surrounded in lush green vegitation and forests.  I can't wait to take autumn photos with the amazing colors of the season. Anyway, I hope to get back on the photo a day train again!  Here is the UFO of Mars, PA with the new camera resting on it.  I applied a black and white treatment using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro

    ©Matt Graham 2010 - The 5D Mk II has landed!

    Thursday
    Jun032010

    Goodbye Calgary......

    Well today marks a new chapter for the lives of my wife and I as we embark on our new adventure in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.  For the last week we have been living out of a hotel in downtown Calgary and have seen some crappy May snowfalls that I will not miss at all.  Here is a panorama HDR shot from my hotel room.

    ©Matt Graham 2010 - Goodbye Calgary