White background

A few photos from the past month with a common white background.

Photo Randy Vanderveen
Lake Saskatoon, Alberta, Canada
Heavy hoarfrost forms a delicate backdrop as a curious horse checks out the photographer near Saskatoon Island Provincial Park Monday morning. The frost will last either as long as the temperatures remain cold or until the first brisk wind.

Photo Randy Vanderveen Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada A small Canada flag and the red mailbox flag provide a splash of colour to anotherwise monochromatic landscape in the Lake Saskatoon area Monday morning.Photo Randy Vanderveen Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada A ruffed grouse hen watches the photographer carefully before taking wing and flying off to safety.Photo Randy Vanderveen Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada A raven appears to be enjoying a morning of teasing, tormenting and harassing a coyote west of Whispering Ridge Monday. Every time the coyote would move the large black bird would chase it from the air and then land when the coyote stopped. The bird was smart enough to keep its distance.

A taste of winter

Photo Randy Vanderveen Snow blankets the berries and leaves on a mountain ash tree following a pre-Halloween snow storm in the Peace Country late last week.

Well we had a taste of winter this past weekend as a snow storm descended on the Peace Country Thursday and Friday last week, Oct. 29-30.

The wet snow made a mess of the roads but provided a fresh blanket of white over the already dead grass. The leaves on many of the trees in the Peace are still hanging on meaning the fall task of raking will have to be done in the spring.

However, that is relatively minor compared to some unfortunate farmers who still have their canola crops swathed and laying in the field. Not a great end to a year where the economy was already in the toilet.

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An interesting note about the photo above. Those who are friends with my wife Cheryl on Facebook probably saw her take on the scene already. I shot the photo earlier in the afternoon  and held onto it until I could post it on the blog, while she took a similar one early in the evening and posted immediately.

The same scene grabbed both our attention, shot in different styles but with the immediacy of the internet, my wait means my photo is dated even though it was taken first.

That is a lesson for any would be photojournalists out there with news photos. Make sure if you want to licence a news photo to a paper or television station that you contact them immediately to ensure your photo is timely. By licensing I also don't mean giving your work away. If you have a photo the media wants, they should be willing to pay you for one time use. The more exclusive the photo and the bigger the story the more you should be paid.