Our city has several parks of all different sizes and with many different purposes.

My favourite is River Park. It’s the largest, the most diverse in terms of scenery, and because it’s located alongside the river, there are many opportunities to see waterfowl and other creatures.

River Park also houses our campgrounds and is the access point for the Signal Hill Trail and Nature Habitat.

Now that everything is finally starting to turn green, and the wildflowers are starting to bloom, I find myself drawn in this direction for my morning power walks.

My feature photo was a bit of a challenge. I wanted to show one of the entry paths to River Park, the railing of the entry, and the river all in one shot. My goal was to have the composition set to feature all three in a balanced manner and to have the leading lines of the path be seen as an inviting entry to the park. This resulted in the question of where to set my focus for the shot. Because this was at the end of my power walk, I could take my time to try to figure things out. I tried several angles and focus settings and took numerous shots. This one was the best, even though not exactly what I was looking for. I’ll definitely return on another cool down walk and try again.

In post processing, I tweaked the white balance a bit and did some minor image tuning in Snapseed. I also used the curves tool to add a bit more of a soft contrast.

“I like to take walks in the park by myself, where no one can bother me and I can think.”

Magic Johnson