I awoke early this morning and made the 90 minute drive south to Frank Lake close to the town of High River. I had intended to shoot a sunrise at the lake with the bird hide and associated walkway silhouetted in the foreground. Unfortunately the access to Frank Lake was gated and locked.
This left me 45 minutes before sunrise and no topic to shoot. I immediately turned east along highway 23. I went east because I had come from the west and didn't see any great opportunity along the way. I only drove for about 15 minutes when I came across an area with some roadside parking, a nice long view of a tree lined driveway, some electricity pylons and a number of grain silos. I opted to stop here and shoot rather than continue driving and potentially miss the sunrise altogether, because the best images usually come before sunrise and I needed to set up and frame some shots. I stepped out of the truck and hand held a few shots just to test the framing, there was enough to shoot something so I decided it would be better than a wasted trip. Ultimately the shots came out well, I do wish I was able to get closer to that treeline and that the topics available were stronger or more interesting but at least I got something. I still really enjoyed the morning out in the prairie east of High River, even more so when a snowy owl swooped silently overhead and skimmed across the shadows above the stubble fields. Next time I'll find a topic first then plan a sunrise trip to shoot it!
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A blustery morning today had Cecil and I heading west to Banff National Park seeking shelter from the cold winds in it's mountainous surrounds. We only spent a couple of hours there as some of the usual haunts were unexpectedly closed and the wind spoiled some others.
We did manage to find some nice images including the main shot today showing Mt Rundle with ominous skies overhead. We spent some time watching a small herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep block the route along Lake Minnewanka Scenic drive, they were there for the road salt and not giving it up for anyone. It was a really enjoyable couple of hours with light traffic both ways thanks to the gap between tourist season and ski season. The weather was good throughout (for the time of year) and we explored much more than we shot today. Not the most exciting images overall but we enjoyed it all the same. It's been over a month since Cecil and I made a photo trip around kananaskis together, so we put that right this afternoon. There was a lot of wind spoiling any chance of grabbing those wonderful kananaskis reflections, and the dead vegetation did little to lift our spirits.
We began the day at Barrier Lake on highway 40 and I added the circular polariser to cut through the glare of the surface to the rocks below (main image). We moved on through the usual spots without seeing anything worthy of the effort until reaching highway 742 where we finally found a few images to top us up for the day. The gallery below has captions to accompany us along the route. It was too nice a day to let it go without a photograph of some sort yesterday, so I set out to kananaskis with the hope of a sunset shoot. When I got to my usual spot the wind was howling across the lake and killing off any potential for reflection.
Because of the location it was too late to find another spot so I got the 70-200 mm lens out and shot the mountains without the lake at all. As it turns out the images were quite nice and it was good to try the same location in another way, even if forced to do so. There's a small gallery below with captions showing location, all in all not the most successful trip but better than being indoors I think. This week we had another reminder that winter is just around the corner, again it is expected to clear away before further snowfall compounds the issue. As I sat in the house watching the snow fly I couldn't help but grab a shot of 'Peg Leg' sitting with his back to the wind with his huge tail acting as an umbrella.
I also shot one of our other regular visitors, the Common Redpoll. I just liked the way he sat with the autumnal colours behind him and the snow floating around his ruffled feathers. There are also a few shots of 2 new visitors from the past week, a chipmunk and a coyote. The Merlin is still dropping by as are the regulars. I woke at 04:30 this morning and decided to make the most of the early rise with a trip to the Wedge Pond in Kananaskis. This is a favourite sunrise location for me so it was an easy choice to make.
I packed the kit up and arrived about and hour before sunrise picking my usual spot on the north shore of the lake to start with. It wasn't the best sunrise today but there was some colour and the remnants of autumn leaves remaining provided an additional splash of bright orange and yellow. Sunrise was a shortened affair thanks to a large cloud killing the light after only a few minutes of shooting. Because of this I decided to make a circuit of the pond and shoot all the way around. The main image below was made just 7 minutes after sunrise, the gallery has captions to give direction and timing where relevant. |
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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