Study of the Melting of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2021

what where when why

I shot this picture from the Freedom Bridge on one exceptionally cold mid-winter day. The scene reminds me of abstract photographic works by Ola Kolehmainen and Jackie Ranken, which I find inspiring. What I love about this picture is its starkness, simplicity and beautiful textures found in ice, water and snow. The photo’s monochromatism helps to tell the picture’s simple story using basic geometry: The river is melting “this way”.

how

I captured the river with my Fujifilm X100F at F/8 at 1/900 of a second at 23 mm focal length and ISO 400 with exposure compensation +0.33ev. Working in my digital darkroom, I upscaled the image to 546 megapixels, which when printed at 16" × 20" yields 1,300 dots-per-inch. The detail and sharpness is surreal.

FormatMedium
Mediumphotographic paper
Size16" width
20" height
Resolution1,306 dpi
546 megapixels
Limited-edition prints remaining17 of 25 total
ShippingShips anywhere in the world
PriceCAD $44 each
FormatLarge
Mediumwhite aluminum
Size44" width
56" height
Resolution475 dpi
546 megapixels
Limited-edition prints remaining12 of 25 total
ShippingDelivery anywhere in greater Calgary area
PriceCAD $2,222 each

Let's zoom in

Zoomed-in view of Study of the Melting of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, CanadaZoomed-in view of Study of the Melting of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, CanadaZoomed-in view of Study of the Melting of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, Canada