It was difficult to find a day this week with any kind of promise on the weather front. Cecil and I opted for Thursday, meeting up in the car park at the upper lake. We had hoped that cold temperatures and vey little snow would provide a few methane bubble shots on the frozen lake.
It was clear on arrival that we would not be so lucky. Fresh snowfall had covered much of the ice and howling winds almost took us off our feet as we made our way along the frozen shore heading southwest. You could be forgiven for thinking that I had made all the images today in black and white, but that is not the case, the absence of light in the winter scene leaves the monochrome finish without my intervention. The main image is only one of two shots today with any kind of colour in them, this one was made by lowering the camera and directing it at the sun to make the most of what little light was available. The chilly gallery below has captions as usual.
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It has been some time since the skies were clear enough to allow a revisit to my favourite sunset location, Lower Kananaskis Lake. today threated to be just such a day (as does tomorrow). I intend to make the trip with Cecil tomorrow but thought I would take a recon mission today.
As it transpires, it's a good job I did. The lakeshores are not conducive to photography right now, warm temperatures have seen off the early ice and water levels are much higher than usual in the main lakes. At Barrier Lake the water is very low ,but this is the first lake available from the highway so it is where all the families go. As a result it is heavily trodden, with tons of sticks and stones scattered all over the ice leaving little for the photographer. I did see a Bald Eagle guarding a road kill deer carcass and he was in no mood for moving as I stopped and got out of the truck to grab a shot of him. I also got the usual sunset and wonderful it was too, I had the place to myself and the anticipated light hit at the anticipated time. I liked the main shot below as this snake of light ascended the summits opposite. The gallery has captions as usual. After 3 months of home renovation in the UK, and 14 days of isolation on my return to Canada, I was ready to get out of the house this morning. I awoke very early, 2 hours before my 05:30 alarm, immediately my head was chasing images around kananaskis. Is the Wedge Pond frozen over, could I go early and shoot some stars before sunrise, will sunrise be blocked out by low cloud, what is the temperature........
There was no point trying to get back to sleep, I was awake and mentally at least, ready to get moving. I think physically I would have rather stayed in bed a few hours more. After making tea, grabbing my camera gear and heading out, I got a couple of kilometers up the highway before reaching for my tea and realising it was at home on the counter top, not a great start, but I had time to turn around and go back for it. Finally I was underway, scooting along the almost empty TransCanada Highway toward exit 118 and highway 40 into the beauty of K Country. I stopped in at Barrier Lake, the stars overhead broke through crystal clear air, so much so that I could make out the Orion Nebula unaided, just a white haze with the human eye but welcome nonetheless. It was -12 at the lake with wind so strong I didn't believe the tripod would stand it to make a shot of the stars, and to be honest I didn't fancy setting up in the freezing temperatures. It was enough to see the lake still liquid and my hopes rose for The Wedge Pond and it's wonderful sunrise reflection, but that wasn't to be. Stopping at Wedge Pond I found the surface frozen over with a covering of snow on top. It didn't matter too much because I have, for some time, been looking for an excuse to go to the Upper lake for sunrise. I've never seen sunrise here but light direction always suggested that it should work. Online searches show very little, perhaps it's just too far for people to travel for sunrise. The heat in my vehicle was enough to convince me to get back in and travel further, besides I still had well over an hour to sunrise. On arrival at my chosen point the wind howled across the water and brought with it every degree of cold from the -19 now reading in the cockpit. Even if the sunset was forthcoming there would be no reflection today, heavy waves and mist rising into the freezing air would see to that. I sat in the truck waiting, engine running, heater on, looking for signs of light on the summits all around me. Generally sunrise can be seen on the summits well before the actual sunrise time, but not today. Today I suffered the agony of seeing the sky behind the summits light up red with no sign of light on the tops. I was worried for a while, but as you can see in the images below, I need not have been. Just a few minutes after 'official' sunrise the summits illuminated, slowly first with deep reds, then orange, and finally yellow, before the white light of day ended my session. I never stopped the truck in all the time I was there, leaving the heater running and hopping in and out to keep warm. It was great to be out, even if it was so cold, and I learned something new about these wonderful mountains. The images are nice, but I can get better with calm water and a slightly different location, I already have one specific shot in mind that should be a stunner, until then you'll have to make do with the shots below. You can click the main image for a larger version, the gallery shows the sequence of sunrise from start to end. Cecil and I met up in Kananaskis today for a walk along the exposed western shore of the lower lake. Water levels have been reduced to 'exceptionally low' in order to allow for snow melt and the usual June rainfall combined. Normally the snow is gone before the June rains, but on occasion it isn't, and this year is one of those years, any prolonged downpour now can seriously jeopardise local communities.
The upside of this situation is the opportunity to explore places that are normally covered with vast quantities of water. We made some nice postcard shots beside the lake, not least of which was the close up view of the deep mud cracks in one of the exposed bays, see todays main shot. Then, as you might expect, we shot stumps, rocks and lakeside views to fill the day. When we returned to the cars and parted ways, I opted to stay a little longer and explore a trail I had noticed earlier, that cut into the forest beside the lake. I haven't noticed this before and was interested in exploring it a little way. After making a blurred shot of a moose in the dark forest, I made one of a great horned owl which was also terribly blurred, finally I shot a mossy forest floor with a different lens and called it a day. On the way home I saw a group of people at the roadside pointing cameras, obviously a bear or moose was nearby, a quick scan revealed a small black bear trying desperately to get away from all the chaos. I made three shots before he was gone only to find they too were blurred. When I finally got home I took off my telephoto lens and found several loose screws which were preventing the focus ring from turning fully. Two minutes with a screwdriver fixed the issue but it spoiled three good opportunities today, not least of which was my fifth bear of the season. It's almost June but the area around the upper lake in Kananaskis is still holding on to it's winter ice. Though little of the ice remains, there's still a good amount of snow on all of the surrounding mountains. As a result, the water levels in the lake have been dropped to historic lows to deal with the risk of flooding should it melt with the June rains.
Cecil and I spent 3 hours or so exploring the north side of the lake, before walking back through the shade of the adjacent forest. It was a beautiful afternoon with warm sunshine and blue skies scattered with clouds. On the way to the venue I stopped and shot a short series on the Rocky Mountain Sheep as they jumped the fence onto the road for some road salt, and after having a lick each, jumped back to the forest. As I reached the turning for the Kananaskis Lakes Trail I came across three bears and made some shots of them too, they'll be in their own post above this one as I think they are worthy of their own space. My main image today shows Mt Sarrail, Mt Lyautey and the Hidden Valley across the lake, the gallery below has captions. After our Elk encounter yesterday Cecil and continued south along highway 742 hoping to find some interesting ice and maybe some methane bubbles on Spray Lakes Reservoir. We called in at Rundle Forebay, Whitemans Pond and Goat Pond along the way to make sure we didn't miss any opportunities.
This was to be our last day shooting together for several months as we'll be moving in opposite directions for a while, so we hoped for a good one. The elk got us off to a great start and we did find some fantastic ice and just a few methane bubbles too. All in all it was a really enjoyable last session, by the time I see Cecil again it will be springtime, the ice will be gone and we'll be chasing storms and reflected sunsets again. Cecil and I were out for our usual photo day yesterday when we came upon a huge herd of Elk just south of Canmore. They were loosely scattered in a small clearing in trees to the south of the town. The bulls grouped together in one part of the open space and the cows grazing in and around the edge of the clearing.
I fully expected them to trot away into the trees when they saw us on the small trail cutting right through the herd, but they didn't. We talked at a good volume to show we weren't trying to sneak up on them, and we moved slowly through the group making shots along the way. It is by far the best elk encounter I've had since we moved to Canada, it's also one I would have avoided in September/October owing to the aggressive nature of the beast during the rut. Today they were sedate and unmoved by our presence so we were able to make the most of the encounter. After an eight day stretch without seeing the mercury rise above zero, finding open water in Kananaskis to make a sunset reflection wasn't going to be easy. Cecil and I set out at lunchtime yesterday to shoot what we could of the area and seek out a spot for sunset.
Things didn't look too good at Barrier Lake, a complete whiteout meant we didn't even exit the truck, we drove a circuit and moved on. As we got to Mt Lorette Ponds we stopped and got our first shot of the day. You always feel better once you've made that first shot, you feel that you have 'started', the first shot is rarely the best of the day but it opens the door and gets the mind working toward image making and composition. Our next stop was the bridge over the Kananaskis River at Mt Allan Drive, with almost any amount of warming, the river will gain water from melting snow and break free of it's icy skin leaving photo opportunities along the banks. Today was no different and we spent quite a while walking along the bank making shots. From here we moved on and found a small amount of open water at the north east corner of the lower lake, after making a few images we continued on to our usual sunset haunt at the south west side of the lower lake. Unfortunately our usual haunt was iced over and covered in snow. It was now only an hour before sunset and we needed to make a decision, so we returned to the small section of open water at the north east corner of the lower lake. I already knew that this corner lost the light early at sunset, so the very best light (the last light) misses this spot but we had little option today. So we stood in the shaded corner, huddled beneath layers of winter gear avoiding the light breeze that cut through exposed skin like a razor and eventually got a few nice images before the light was gone indicating an early ride home. The main shot below is the open water at the north east end of the lower lake, the dam can be seen on the right side. The footprints on the snow are from a little dipper who was scavenging there, he needs open water throughout winter just to survive, which puts our pursuits into perspective I think. During my usual midweek wander in Kananaskis with Cecil this week, we found some calm patches of open water in the frozen upper lake. These helped provide some stunning shots of Mt Indefatigable reflected in the mirror like surface, in the main image the mountain even has a bow on it.
We stopped in at The Widowmaker on the Kananaskis River, Barrier Lake, The Lower Lake and upper lake before returning to the lower lake for sunset. We found some nice shots today and as always enjoyed being out and about in K Country. Just before sunset we saw a coyote laid out on the ice of the lower lake, as we made shots of him he came right toward us to access the shoreline before skirting around to the north side of the inlet. Once comfortably away from us he howled his sunset song for a while before settling down again. It was really wonderful to be serenaded by coyote song as we made shots of the sunset in the calm empty surrounds of Kananaskis. As usual the gallery has captions to show the way, the coyote images have their own post below this one. There's not much diversity in the images of todays trip to kananaskis. Strong winds and icy cold temperatures did little to encourage Cecil and I to get out by the water at our first location, Barrier Lake. The main images today shows Mt Baldy behind the 'crocodile teeth' of natures construction on a lakeside log at Barrier.
We visited five locations but only made images at three, Barrier Lake, The Kananaskis River and the Lower Lake. We enjoyed ourselves and the first real ice of winter made for a change of topic if nothing else. Water levels were high and large waves left me soaked a couple of times early on, but the right gear meant I felt little of it. Winter really is upon us now. |
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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