You’re right, I didn’t really see this in Calgary, but Starland County is just 90 minutes north east of the city, near Drumheller. It’s already one of my favorite places to take a daytrip with my sons, and now it’s a favorite place to go at night too.

I discovered the magic of the area this weekend when I took a photo seminar with Neil Zeller.

We went through the basics of shutter speed and aperture, we went through Lightroom to manage our images, and we had lots of time for hands on practice.

After the weekend, we all piled in to a couple of vans and went hunting for aurora. First we stopped at Horseshoe Canyon, just southwest of Drumheller.

We didn’t see the Northern Lights, but we saw stars. The Milky Way, Jupiter, Orion, and countless other constellations lingering above a glowing horizon.

Then we went another 20 minutes up the road to Starland County. We stopped at the Starland Recreation Park, on the edge of the Red Deer River. Starland County gets its name because, well, you tell me.

The region is north east of Calgary, so when you’re chasing aurora, it’s a wonderful place to go because all the bright lights are at your back. Everywhere you look you see nothing but a field of stars.

It was a wonderful weekend and a perfect way to break in my new Canon EOS T5 that I won from Dove Men+Care at the Dad 2.0 Summit.

Thanks to Neil for inviting me along for the ride. I’m looking forward to hitching on to another one of his seminars or photo walks this summer.

Buzz

Dad. Broadcaster. Writer.
Three time Guinness World Record Holder.

I run the world for Team Diabetes.