Announcing: Rural landscape photography project
Growing up in a south Indian village, I enjoyed paddy fields, massive trees, ponds, and water streams. If you go a couple of kilometers further, you reach the gigantic Indian Ocean. I remember working in the fields (not voluntarily - if I may add) with the other workers during my summer vacation. Most of the farm life changed when my father passed away in my early teens, and we moved to a nearby town.
After college, I moved to Abu Dhabi for work and lived for more than 18 years before migrating to Canada in 2018. During this time, I completely lost touch with rural life and almost became an Urban dweller. However, I enjoyed rural life at every slight opportunity I got in between. When I was set to migrate to Canada, knowing the landscape very well (I visited a couple of times and have heard a lot from my colleagues in the office), I had the idea to spend five years photographing rural landscapes.
Landing in Alberta and driving in the prairies is a fantastic experience — occasionally rekindling the desire to commit to the project. Being a father of three young kids, doing Cyber consulting as day time job, and pursuing an idea for a photography platform consumes most of my daily time.
Hence, I kept postponing the idea — except for flirting with them occasionally when I traveled through the rural lands. Finally, in the late summer of 2022 (August), I decided to commit to the project and spend considerable photography time photographing rural landscapes and small towns.
These are the four photographs that finally made me commit to the goal of photographing rural landscapes for the next five years.
Serenity: Click image to enlarge
After visiting Drumheller with my family, I captured the above photograph while returning to Edmonton. The sunset was epic, and I immediately parked the car on the side (it had a spot for safe parking) and took a few pictures. Then, returning to my car, I noticed the extremely pink color and three plants. I knew it would be an excellent composition and photographed those
Oil fields in action: Click image to enlage
I photographed the above in Leduc after a solo trip from Jasper to Banff through the Icefield Parkway highway.
Lone tree: Click image to enlarge
I spotted this tree on my way to Edmonton from Calgary with my family for a split second. That weekend, I drove for an hour to that spot, photographed it, and followed it with another one (below) a couple of minutes from the previous location.
Basking at the sunlight: Click image to enlarge
Finally, the photography below made me commit to my vision since I know I can find interesting compositions in rural areas that tell a story. I noticed this church many times on my way to Calgary, but I never stopped to photograph it. Eventually, I spent three visits - each spanning more than an hour at sunrise and captured the following one. I even printed it as a panorama which hangs on my wall (get in touch with me to place print orders in Canada).
The barns, bale, and the church: Click image to enlarge
Now I am fully committed to the long-term project of capturing Prarie’s beauty. I aim to capture at least four compelling images each year in different seasons with the stories — bringing the rural landscape experience to my audience.
These are some of the gears I plan to use for this project:
Fujifilm GFX 100s — Primary camera
Fujifilm GFX 50s — Backup camera
Fujifilm GF 45-100mm lens — Primary lens
Fujifilm GF 100-200mm lens — Secondary lens
Manfrotto 055 Tripod with the ball head from the same — Since most of these places are accessible by car, I can afford to use this rock-solid piece of equipment
Lee 100mm system with three filters — I plan to use the circular polarizer, possibly the 0.6 Graduated ND Filter, and the 0.9 Graduated ND Filter.
Really Right Stuff Long Nodal Slide With Integral Clamp | Mpr-Cl-Ii — For capturing panorama like the last picture
Heat3 System liner and the shell — To protect my fingers and hand in Albertan winter.
Note that all these gears are owned by me (and not sponsored by any of these companies).
Watch this space as I share my journey and unique photographs of the Albertan Prairies.