With the promise of heavy snow to come tomorrow, Cecil and I decide to get out today and make the best of what we could find to photograph. We began in Banff at Cascade Ponds where the wind wiped out any chance of reflections and dead vegetation left little to chase, we moved on.
At Johnson Lake we found the outlet flow, which we had hoped to shoot with long exposures, desperately low on water and movement, the lake surface was again ruffled by wind, we moved on again. At Two Jack Lake we identified only a few shots that we have made before, so we had a bite to eat and moved on again. At Lake Minnewanka we did make a single image (though we have made it before) capturing the boathouse which strikes a lonely figure, dwarfed by Mt Inglismaldie in the background. Finally we made a snow covered run to Canmore and on to Kananaskis via the Smith Dorian Trail. We made no shots at all along the 70 km gravel road and finally stopped at the Peninsula day use area on the lower lake where at last, we found a few images chasing mountain tops through the cloud until it was too cold to continue. It was still a great day out, chewing the fat and roaming around the mountains. We might not always get a bunch of shots but we do consistently find a few out there. All but the boathouse image were shot at the lower lake.
2 Comments
Cecil and I set out to the upper lake at kananaskis this afternoon, with the assurance of the local weatherman that a sunset was all but guaranteed. Our initial thoughts were that he may be right this time.
After wandering beside the lake making shots in poor light to pass the time until sunset, it became apparent that we were deceived once again, as a thick bank of low white cloud rolled across the horizon. Not to be beaten entirely, we moved to a different location on the upper lake in the hope of better things, not realising that the 'better things' would be the whiskey jacks coming to share our snacks. It is always a sign that winter is upon us when the whiskey jacks will come to your hand to feed, in the summer they are far less obliging. Overall it was a great afternoon chatting with Cecil and making a few shots, the whiskey jacks were a lovely bonus and, even better still, as we drove home we saw a skunk beside highway 40, the first Cecil has ever seen, as always, kananaskis delivers. This week, for the first time in quite a while, Sarah and I stood in the rear garden of our home in Canada in anticipation of an approaching solar storm, and it promised to be a good one however, very often the promised aurora can fall flat or not show at all, but as you can see in the images below, not this evening.
This evening as waves of electrified gases raced through space on the solar wind, some of that energy was captured by earths magnetic shield and pulled down magnetic field lines at the poles. Once funnelled into the polar regions these charged particles excite oxygen and nitrogen to produce the incredible phenomena that fills our night skies with otherworldly illumination. The most familiar green light comes from oxygen between 100 to 300 km above the earth, pink and dark red is produced by nitrogen molecules at around 100 km. Very bright red auroras come from oxygen at altitudes above 300 km and the blue and purple come from hydrogen and helium though these are much easier for the camera to catch than for the eye to see. Monday evening was a stunning aurora, bringing to life the usually invisible magnetic field lines with vivid greens, reds and purples that encircled the city of Cochrane below. As always when watching the aurora I thought of those times years ago, when I dreamed of seeing it without ever daring to hope I actually would. Sarah left at 11pm for bed and I crawled in beside her in the early hours, freezing cold and wonderfully happy to have been able to stand beneath such an awe inspiring sight once more. |
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
All
Archives
January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
|