This is one of the guard houses, or lookouts in the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo.  The accessible areas of the Imperial Gardens aren’t really that spectacular in the winter, but this was one view that seemed to be worthy of a snapshot.

Lighting was a bit tricky on this one, as the sun was just out of frame to the right.  A little localized reduction in exposure and a little post-crop vignetting was done to tame the sun and bright sky.

This shot of Mount Fuji and the skyscrapers of Shinjuku is one of my favourites from my trip to Japan.  Before my trip, I had made a list of quintessential photographs to take while in Japan, and Mt. Fuji with the city in front of it was at the top of my list.  After a fair bit of internet research, I managed to find a “top secret” location in a public building to get this shot.  I was surprised when I eventually got there to find a handful of other photographers with the same shot in mind.  Obviously my secret location was well known.  :)

Those familiar with Tokyo will undoubtedly know that such views of Mt. Fuji are quite rare.  In fact, even on a clear sunny day the chances of being able to see the distant mountains and Mt. Fuji are slim to none due to the typical heavy layer of smog covering the city.  I somehow lucked out on this occasion, as a weather system had rolled in over night.  It was quite windy the night before this shot, which I suspect helped clear out the smog.

I will admit, that when I made my way onto the observation gallery and saw this spectacular view I got quite excited.  This was exactly the view I had pictured in my mind.  Unfortunately, in the rush of it all, plus the lack of coffee (I’m a mess without it) I forgot to switch the ISO on the camera back to 100.  I had been shooting night scenes the night before.  Sadly, all of the shots I took of this view were made at ISO 800 on my Canon 20d, which is quite a shame.  This actually ruined my day when I realized my mistake about an hour after I left the gallery (and by then the smog would have hidden the mountains).  I highly doubt I will ever get this shot again, so this is one of life’s hard lessons I learned.

The old lifesaving station at the tip of Cape Cod, MA.

These are the Fuller Falls, located near St. Martins, N.B. on the Fundy Trail Parkway. The falls are at the bottom of a ravine, accessed via a cable ladder that leads you straight down the steep slope. It’s more like stairs with handrails, but it’s all made out of wire cable and slippery wood rungs. There is a handy observation deck at the bottom, complete with sturdy handrails that I used to rest the camera on for the slow exposure. Without the handrails, this photo would not have turned out.

The overcast skies and fog annoyed me at first, as I thought they would hinder any good landscape shots. But they actually helped out here as the reduced light allowed for longer exposures of the falls. This helps create a nice soft and smooth feel to the water. A circular polarizer was also used.

Located on the Bay of Fundy, the Hopewell Rocks are unique formations that can be explored both by sea kayak or on foot, thanks to the world’s largest tides. I managed to arrive at low tide (or slightly thereafter) and was able to walk around the many “flower pot” formations, such as the one pictured here.

Of all the shots I took today, I think this is my favorite. In general, the lighting was difficult with the sun casting most of the rock formations in silhouette. The masses of tourists also didn’t help, as they were constantly in the shots. The location of this formation allowed it to be lit from the side, providing some detail in the rock. It was also located away from most of the other formations so the tourists didn’t find it (except for me of course!).

As seen from the 54th floor of the TD Centre, the First Canadian Place tower (home to the Bank of Montreal) is Toronto’s tallest.

The white tiles are made of marble and are slowly being replaced as required. One tile fell 60 floors back in 2007 which prompted road closures and periodic investigations. The darker ones are older and the whiter ones are newer, which makes the building look a little worse for wear.

On my way out the door to catch an early flight, I noticed the sun rising over the city. The sky was a brilliant orange-red colour and I just had to capture it. Screw the waiting taxi, I thought. And I grabbed my camera.

Just as luck would have it, a flock of birds flew across the scene, adding some life to the image. I’m really happy with this one!

This image is unaltered, except for being cropped. It was shot through my living room window, in manual mode (which is rare for me to use, but was a lesson learned from my shots of the sun rising over Uluru in Australia). I basically set the aperture and adjusted the metering until the results met my liking. My lesson learned from this shot: I should have used a better lens, like my 70-200L. Oh well, next time…

Fresh snow covers Lambly Lake near Kelowna, B.C.

The tops of plants stick out of fresh snow in a marshy area next to Lambly Lake, outside Kelowna.

More snowy trees (the last of them) and the surrounding mountains around Big White ski resort, near Kelowna, B.C.  We were lucky to get this view as the clouds had been quite low all week.  

Clarity and contrast bumped up a bit in Lightroom.

Big White, near Kelowna B.C., on a typical day of overcast clouds.  The snow-covered mountain and trees tend to blend into the sky making it hard to distinguish between land and sky.  Later on in the winter, the trees will be completely covered in snow and ice and are affectionately named “snow ghosts”.   

Black levels and clarity were bumped up in Lightroom to help bring out some of the details of this high key image.

I found these pine trees covered in fresh snow at the bottom of Big White ski resort, near Kelowna, B.C. 

The shot was taken at night and the lights of the village and gondola lifts combined with the low clouds to create an interesting background behind the trees.  The image was shot hand-held.

Wallaman Falls, known to be the tallest waterfall in Australia with a drop of over 250m.  On our way up to the lookout, we saw a cassowary and four babies cross the road in front of us.  It’s said there are only 1500 cassowaries in Australia (and possibly the world) so we were quite fortunate.  

As for the image itself, I felt the monochrome was a bit more dramatic than the colour version.

Can you see the winking cat in the rock?

Kata Tjuta, Australia

The fine white sand of Hill Inlet and Whitehaven beach in Australia’s Whitsunday Islands.

This spectacular area is the closest I’ve come to paradise, I think.  I’m of the opinion that no photo can adequately capture this absolutely spectacular view.

Another shot of Uluru and the Australian outback.  Shot at 10mm you can really get a feel for how unique Uluru (Ayers Rock) really is in the vast outback.   There is nothing around it for many, many kilometers and the top of Uluru is about 1100 feet high so it really stands out .

This may not be the world’s largest monolith (some claim that Mt. Augustus is bigger–it’s also in Australia) but it certainly is the most impressive.

Kata Tjuta, Australia

This shot looks great in colour as well (you can see it here on Flickr), but I’ve got so many pictures of red and blue Australian outback that I wanted to mix it up a bit.  Maybe it’s the Ansel Adams in me, but I think this scene looks pretty good in monochrome.  Agree/disagree in the comments?

We woke up at 4:45am to drive to a location offering a great view of the rising sun, Uluru, and the Australian outback.  It was worth it, but the magical sunrise only lasted a couple of minutes (literally–all my shots were within a two minute window).

Some minor exposure correction was done in Lightroom to bring out the foreground, and noise reduction was done in Photoshop.

I should mention that this image was taken using my GorillaPod SLR Zoom that I had as a camera support.  A tripod would have been better, but luckily at this location there were sturdy handrails that I could attach the GorillaPod to.  It worked out quite well.

A pair of dead gum trees in front of Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia.

More interesting rock formations near Bondi beach in Sydney.