I went out at 6:30 in the evening with my good friend Bruce Hendricks, and fellow photographer, member of The Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba.  He was photographing an engagement couple and I was just along for the ride.   We started off at the Steinbach Aquatic Centre and I found some beautiful lilies there!

On the walkway to the bridge and towards AD Penner Park I found this lonely looking leaf.  What struck me was the fabulous shadow created by the setting sun.

The water is smooth as glass and the reflections are superb!

I love shadows and silhouettes!

These people were on the hill by the Picnic Shelter – listening to some music – and according to the local weekly newspaper,  The Carillon… “hundreds of people came to AD Penner Park in Steinbach for some free barbequed handouts courtesy of Vic Toews.  The Conservative MP dished out drinks plus just a little bit of campaign rhetoric on the side.”….

After that we headed out to LA Barkman Park.  The couple informed Bruce that this is where they got engaged!    As a lifelong resident of the area, I had never been to this park.  It is a beautiful little park – has some wonderful walking trails and “Abe’s Hill” is quite awesome (used for tobogganing in winter).

We stopped in the parking lot and saw this awesome fence – this is my angle of the couple Bruce was photographing…

But I was distracted by the beauty of nature surrounding me…   There’s something about the two fence posts that evoke in me feelings of  serenity and peace…

Love the row of trees and the setting sun highlighting each one!

I heard a plane overhead and saw it was a bright red colour, which was emphasized by the sun…

Then Bruce took the couple towards “Abe Hill” and I captured their shadows with strong backlighting…

And THIS is what a Manitoba prairie sunset looks like!!!!  Does it get any better than this???

Then Bruce went up the hill to the couple to do some closer images – I call this one “Photographer at Work“! 

Then we headed back to the parking lot and I saw another angle of the trees and the path – and the last rays of the sun highlighting the birch trees….

I turned around for one final look at the sunset – and saw this image!   I’ve always been fascinated by airplane contrails and when I looked up at the sky the sun was making one contrail stand out – I followed the contrail and saw what it was pointing to!    I hope you can easily see the little puff of cloud – shaped like a heart!!!   And no – this is not done in Photoshop – this is what the sky looked like!

All I can say is that my quest to photograph something – anything – on 09-09-09 ended with the perfect photograph!

Later.