If he had just hesitated a second or two longer, Bill Allen would have missed this spectacular shot of a Taurid meteor streaking through the sky above Saskatchewan.
For the 53-year-old oil patch worker, photography is just a hobby. Born and raised in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Allen's been treated to a lifetime of the province's endless skies.
"It’s spectacular," he said. "We’re the land of living skies."
"You go to the city and you look up at any given time and there’s nothing. You look up in Saskatchewan and it’s 180 degrees of sky and land."
"Growing up here I’ve come to appreciate the subtlety of just the clouded sky, the sky with a little bit of color."
Much of his work focuses on the spectacular sunsets, storms, and auroras that light up the prairies.
But he also goes searching for wildlife, often with his three dogs by his side.
His favourite shot, in fact, isn't a colourful aurora or fiery sunset, but this hawk he found sitting on a bale of hay.
"I turned the corner and that hawk was sitting on the bale and me and him just had a little conversation," said Allen. "Finally, when he flew off, it’s like he meant to say 'shoot this.'"
As for advice, Allen quoted the man he calls his mentor, famed storm chaser Greg Johnson.
"If you want to take better pictures, stand in front of better stuff."
And when the scenery is this beautiful, that's not hard to do.
