My week of wandering continues today with a nice afternoon outing to the beautiful banks of upper kananaskis lake. Cecil and I decided to head out for a few km's wandering with the camera, though the light was poor today we found some nice images among the rocks. En route we picked up a young couple hitchhiking and delivered them to a campground on the lower lake before going about our day.
On arrival at the lake we had lunch with a golden mantled ground squirrel and found a northern mockingbird nesting by the trail. It was a nice enjoyable day in good company and I'm already looking forward to our wanderings next week. The main image today shows a stunning red tree which has died over winter yet hung on to its needles into the spring making for a beautiful splash of colour. The gallery below has captions so click the first image and follow us along the banks of this wonderful venue.
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It's always nice to take a fixed focal length lens and shoot for the day without the benefit of the modern zoom lens. It makes you think about composition and framing in a very different way. One of my favourite things is to take the 180mm macro lens and go to the local forest making landscapes practically impossible. I don't take a tripod as I don't like to be encumbered when I'm out walking, the result is a hand held 180mm macro lens presenting more than a few challenges. Low light in the forest, very shallow depth of field and wind movement of the chosen subject are just a few of the hurdles made worse by the lack of a tripod.
Having said all of that, I really do love it, the macro makes me look at the smaller things, they are things I always notice but generally walk past without an image because of the limitations of other lenses in comparison. Nothing captures detail like a macro lens and today I made a lovely shot of some wild Virginia Bluebells on the forest floor (main image). I also added a small gallery of other macro shots from West Bragg Creek this afternoon including an ant dragging a huge dead beetle through the grass, the gallery has captions with relevant plant and insect names. I went for a short 5km hike around the elbow valley this afternoon, it was intended to be much longer but construction work closed off the access point. I walked by the Elbow River and through a forested section replete with deadfall and 'stumble lumps'. I passed Forget-me-not pond too, before dropping into a wet swamp area where I found a small family group of wild horses.
I was crossing a stream on a fallen log when I first saw the group, a stallion, mare and yearling on the bank downstream. I intentionally let them see me and then began a slow meander toward their position. As I was on the opposite side of the stream they weren't concerned by my presence and I was able to sit and spend a moment or two with them as a short spring storm blew through. Tomorrow I'll make another local hike before heading to kananaskis on wednesday for a more interesting wander. The reason for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks will become obvious once you see this one. We have had a fantastic two weeks with Mark, Hayley and our not so little grandson Ethan. The weather played along for the most part so lake swimming was in order (it was so cold you wouldn't believe it) We successfully hunted geodes in the mountains (see main image) and made our first ever visit to Calaway Park which significantly exceeded our expectations.
A day in Banff as usual, and a visit to the zoo to see the new panda exhibit along with lunch in the tower downtown filled more days, any gaps in time were claimed by Ethan for football in the back garden and before we knew it the visit was over. The time really did go so fast on this visit but it made the perfect antidote to the miserable winter. It also reminded us just how far away we are from home and family and how big the house is without them. |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
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