Mac Sokulski | MiKS Media Photography

Harvest Sunset – Alberta Landscape photography

by Mac Sokulski | Feb 19, 2015 | Uncategorized

I know, we are still in the grips of winter here in Alberta. I was going through my images taken last year, that were not posted yet (yeah there are a few of them) and decided on this set from a harvest sunset. Let me paint the scene for you. Rural road, silence, apart from occasional bird call, and buzzing of insects. A gentle breeze blowing through ripened fields, and gorgeous colors of the sky, changing like kaleidoscope from one minute to another. How can you say that the prairies are boring, when you are shown sights like these.

Alberta prairie, lakes, and mountains – Landscape Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Feb 10, 2015 | Fuji Landscapes, Fuji X, Landscape

Vacations… bring such wonderful memories. These are the images from our week long trip to the Waterton National Park. There is not much to write that I haven’t wrote before. It’s a beautiful country, where flat prairies turn into high rocky peaks. Where clear streams flow through almost blood red canyon. It’s beauty is unsurpassed, and I just hope I gave it justice with these images.

Enjoy!

Waterton Sunset – Alberta Landscape Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Jan 29, 2015 | Fuji Landscapes, Landscape

Continuing with the theme of previous posts, this also will be a post about Waterton National Park, and our little excursion there last summer. My beautiful wife, Kasia, posted a little about our Southern Alberta trip, and I’m just adding more to the mix. Yes we ended up with a lot of images from that trip, and it was hard, very hard, to select the keepers, and not end up with hundreds of images. We also ended up with similar photographs, as I was following her foot steps 🙂

Weather wise we were pretty lucky, as the rain and heavy clouds gave way to blue skies, beautiful clouds and gorgeous sunset.

Gear wise, we both shoot with mirror less cameras for most of the time. I prefer Fuji, and my wife shoots with Sony, but I believe Kasia does not really care what camera is in her hands. As long as it can do what she wants it to do. Enjoy the sunset!

Family Camping

by Mac Sokulski | Jan 28, 2015 | Families, Fuji Landscapes, Landscape

The trip to southern Alberta was blast. Even though it wasn’t as great weather wise, we still managed to camp out. Since our campground was bordering the Waterton National Park, we were warned about bears, and that sometimes they like to cross over for a visit. Kids got a little scared. Soon we had the tent up, and split up into pairs for van and tent. I got the tent with the oldest, Konrad. Kasia and the youngest, Sebastian got the van. It started to rain. As we were settling into our designated sleeping quarters around 11pm, there was an excited scratching on our tent. At first I thought we were goners, but it was only my excited wife, whispering loudly that the stars were out. Can’t pass up an opportunity like that, even though the thought of bears ripping your skin off is still fresh on your mind. So we got the kids up, grabbed tripods and followed a path through the forest to a little clearing. The views were spectacular. Having a manual focus fisheye lens helps a lot as well. We spent good hour just standing there and staring into the skies. We probably missed a couple of bears that passed through the clearing, we didn’t care.

Next morning I woke up to a delicious smell of bacon, and coffee. The sun was up, birds were chirping, and everyone had their arms and legs intact… meaning no bears. We reluctantly packed our stuff and continued on our journey.

Fog and Snow, Leica and Fuji – Alberta Landscape Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Jan 16, 2015 | Fuji Landscapes, Landscape

Beautiful Day

What a beautiful day for photography. No, it wasn’t sunny, with beautiful rolling clouds, sparkling snow etc. etc. None of that. It was foggy, grey and you could call it depressing. The white fog was so thick in places, I could not see past the hood of the car. I love this type of weather. The landscape around you changes dramatically. Lone trees, that would normally be lost in the background, finally can stand on their own, the fallen in, abandoned houses, take on a new feel of mystery. Everything just feels soft, close, and safe. It’s so quiet. I could spend hours, driving around forgotten Alberta back roads. Specially with the new gear I was playing with

Gear

I had a chance to try out a interesting little lens, the Elmarit 90mm f2.8. Yup, a Leica lens. Old and showing signs of use, but the mechanics and glass are still perfect. Now I’m not surprised why Fuji made only one adapter for third party lenses, the Leica-M to Fuji X. I was always curious that, with so many old Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and tons of others, why Fuji created only one adapter, only a Leica adapter. For some of you it will be obvious, but I didn’t know, until now. You hear about the legendary Leica glass, and yes it’s still expensive. I think it’s worth it. I had so much fun shooting with this lens and my Fuji X-T1. What a combo. With Fuji focus peaking, manual focusing is easy as ABC, or 123 (which ever way you swing). The smooth ring on that very old Elmarit makes it even easier. I saw the light, and it’s bright, sharp, and gorgeous.