I find that visually seeing groups of flowers together always seems to catch my eye when looking for something to take pictures of. They always seem to have a story to tell, some are fresh and new, some are really mature at their peaks, and some have started to whither, but they are all together as one. They will spread and grow with the help of insects like the bee I captured here and have many more tales to tell provided the conditions stay right and humans help and don't override what nature is already doing a great job at maintaining.

Grasshoppers are some of the sneakiest little insects I've encountered. Now you see them, now you don't; it really takes a patient approach to get pictures of them. They will all of a sudden appear, and if I don't have my lens pointed in the right direction, they will hop away the moment I take my eye off of them. Fortunately, on a hot summer day, they seem to be out in abundance, so there are many more attempts to be made.

These breath-taking landscapes dotted with sandy hills have caught my eye since I was a child. Being able to go and do some photography was a big item on my bucket list, and I would say there is so much to see that it will take a few more trips to really check this item off my list. The textures of these hills and valleys really stand out in monochrome and I find in some ways they remind me of the old west and states like Arizona or Nevada. Alberta, Canada, is further north, but we do have some desert here and many features that are similar to these western US states.

Getting close up to Seagulls requires some more consideration in how you move. If you go in to quickly, they will move away and take flight. If you can causally move in without making sudden movements, then they won't mind, and you can get some great close-ups. I think they are very neat-looking birds, and from one to another you can notice little subtle differences in their feather patterns. I find in parks if there is grass they will like to hang out and lounge around with each other just enjoying the day.

The Elbow River winds through the landscape before it feeds into the much larger Glenmore reservoir on the western edge of Calgary. Its an amazing area to visit, and it's also not hard to spot the work of the resident beavers with many fallen trees and beaver lodges along the river. It is so scenic, and the waters are fairly calm, so it looks like a great place to float along the water and I am sure there are many places that you can only really access by canoe or kayak.

The remains of 114 fish dating back 370 million years ago from the Devonian period. The pond dried, leaving them with no place to go and they are now a snapshot into an era of time we are just scratching the surface of. It is finds like this that have helped shed a bit of light on what earth was like hundreds of millions of years ago. The patterns and textures really pop more in monochrome, and even then I still find this all has a very mysterious look and feel to it.