Claresholm, here I come

Sarah has a horse riding competition in Claresholm this weekend and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to explore the Southern foothills a bit more. So I am taggin along. People that know me will tell you I love doing research. I'm not lying if I tell you, my trip is fully planned! ;)

I think researching a new location is key to come back with something worth post-processing. That is my opinion at least. I know a lot of photographers will not agree with this. They just 'go with the flow' or 'follow the light'. That is all well, but I'd like to be somewhat prepared and have at least some idea what locations I want to see and when to visit them.

Google Earth/maps is awesome to do that. Not only can you pull up the terrain maps of the area you're looking at. But you can also add images, and see what the place actually looks like. Or why not use StreetView to scout from your desktop?
Another good resource is Flickr or just good plain old Google Images. Get a sense of the place your planning to visit before you jump in that car! I always get inspired by looking at Google Images. And I don't mean that in a 'I need to find out where that shot is taken and take it myself in the exact same spot'-way. No I mean, 'visions' pop into my mind of images I'd like to make. And I just hope I'll come across similar views so I can make them.

This weekend, if it is somewhat possible, I want to visit at least one of these three places:
- Visiting the Wind Farm in Pincher Creek near McBride Lake.
- Checking out the Porcupine Hills.
- Visiting Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.

Of course I might just wander around some Range Roads and 'go with the flow'. Who knows.

I'm leaving you with two pictures I took some time ago but only decide recently to process them. Often I come home from a shoot and I know EXACTLY what the winning image is. In these two cases, I liked what I initially saw but it took a long time to 'process' these images in my mind. I finally decided to do both in black and white and applied some old style darkroom techniques – aka my friend dodge and his friend burn.

Enjoy the weekend!