My buddy Cecil has been spending his money on a new lens for night shooting recently, and was keen to try it out on a clear winter night. In fairness I think he would have preferred a clear summer night but the wait was too long.
We 'social distanced' our way to Kananaskis and met in the car park for the upper lake at 3pm so we could have a mosey around and maybe catch a sunset. Everything was covered in snow so the usual ice images were not available but we did explore some new sunset spots before opting for a higher view from the upper lake dam. The milky way is at it's lowest point at this time of year so the galactic centre is not visible at all, but you can still grab an image of the tail end and gain an understanding of how to shoot it, that's all that mattered today. My main shot is of hoar frost on a birch tree that has always caught my eye. In springtime the bright vibrant green leaves stand out against the dark firs behind, in autumn the yellow and orange leaves burst from the background, unfortunately the sun never strikes the little tree directly and so the lighting is always flat. Today, covered in hoar frost it caught my eye again and the contrast was enough to make me grab a shot. The gallery has a small run of captioned images from a great night standing out on the frozen lake underneath an ocean of stars, with Cec making long "oooooohhh" sounds every time the ice flexed and shuddered underfoot, causing me to laugh every time. As a final bonus on the way home I saw a moose on the highway dining on road salt as usual at this time of year, too dark for an image but lovely to see all the same.
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Since the clocks went back I have been waiting for the the right moon phase to return to Kananaskis at night and capture a milky way image. 'Done it before' I hear you cry, and you are right to say so, but I still don't feel I have made a great milky way shot. I've made a few good ones now but not a great, stand out, stunning milky way shot and to be honest, after tonight I still haven't.
The right moon phase was earlier this week when a new moon would mean perfectly dark skies, but low cloud washed out every evening, tonight the moon was at 1/8th and low enough to get away with it. Even though some of that hazy cloud from earlier in the week ultimately stuck around beyond predictions and washed over the Milky Way it was well worth the trip. I had a wonderful time all alone in Kananaskis. Fresh snow and a week of temperatures below freezing meant a night in the mountains at -22 was not very high on other peoples agenda, and that's what makes it so great. I always tell everybody that Kananaskis rewards those who take the time to visit, and today was no different. As I made my way along the Kananaskis Lakes trail an enormous owl swooped toward me and landed on the roadside sign for William Watson Lodge. I jumped on the brakes and reached behind me pulling the camera bag from the back seat, I grabbed the 200 mm and fired off 3 shots before he flew into the trees out of sight. Fortunately in one of the shots he had turned and looked right at me. A Great Grey Owl, the worlds largest owl by length with a wingspan around 5 feet and body length about 2.5 feet he is an impressive specimen. It was the most fleeting of sightings but wonderful to experience for that moment. I arrived at the upper lake in good time and wandered around grabbing shots of the beautiful hoar frost on the snow covered ice. Every movement of my feet sounding like tiny shards of glass breaking as the frost was disturbed. Sunset was curtailed for the most part thanks to a thin cloud that passed through, not only killing sunset but bringing moisture that caused lots of frost on my lenses and camera, and worse still, misting of the glass. I did a little 'wool spinning' through the blue hour and this time I added lights along the cable to fill some of the black hole that remains in the centre of the spin. I chose differing blues to compliment the orange glow of the sparks. Ultimately that hazy cloud causing lens misting also impacted the Milky Way shots so I didn't try too hard to make that 'great image' tonight but I really did have a wonderful evening in spite of that wayward cloud. With a new moon due on wednesday, dark skies were guaranteed over kananaskis lakes on tuesday night. I checked my resources and found predictions for almost cloud free, low humidity air so decided to make the trip out there in the hope of making a sunset and then hanging around for a milky way shot.
There's no galactic centre visible in the northern hemisphere at this time of year, but on a moonless night with dry clear air you can still make a nice shot of the northern arm of this beautiful array of stars. Having this vast wilderness to myself is common on a winter weeknight and tonight was no different. I had the full winter gear on for the first time this year, and a flask of tea for the stargazing later. I had the whole of the lower lake to myself for sunset shots. When I first arrived the lake was incredibly calm and I quickly set up and made a nice multi shot panorama of the Opal and Elk mountain ranges reflected in the mirror like surface. I followed this with a number of sunset shots from various locations along the shore. Once sunset was over I packed away the gear and made my way to the upper lake, again I had the whole area to myself. I had taken along some sparklers to mess around with during the blue hour and my 24mm f1.4 lens to grab as much starlight as I could. Kananaskis Lakes is an official 'dark sky' site so on a moonless night it is an incredible spectacle to be a part of, but that lack of light makes it challenging to shoot with any foreground. Fortunately the mountains now have a dusting of snow to reflect what light is available and the 24mm f1.4 has no trouble finding it. It was another wonderful evening in the company of those enormous star filled skies. The bitter cold was kept at bay by my winter gear leaving me the simple pleasure of sitting on a rock stargazing, and drinking hot tea, for quite some time.. There are no captions today, the sunset shots are at the lower lake and the rest at the upper. You can click the main shot for a larger version as it squeezes approximately 20 km of mountain range into one shot. Conditions were perfect for a milky way shot yesterday, with no cloud and cold clear skies over kananaskis I had to head out with the camera. I left home about 2pm and made my way to highway 40 where I stopped off at Barrier Lake to make a few images of the spindrift blowing over Mt Baldy, it was incredibly cold on exposed skin but I was well prepared for the temperatures today. I stopped again along highway 40 at Mt Kidd where the spindrift was irresistible and covered the towering monolith in fast moving clouds of snow lifted from the rock face. As I approached kananaskis lakes I could see snow blowing over Mt Sarrail ridge too so I headed up there first to make a couple of shots before finally making my way to the lower lake for sunset.
I really like the sunset shots even though there's no cloud to reflect the light they still worked out well, I struggled to choose between them so posted almost all of them. I walked a stretch of the bank making images here and there, then enjoyed a cuppa watching the very last of the light die away before heading up to the upper lake. At the upper lake I decided to do some steel wool burning during the blue hour to kill time waiting for it to be dark enough for the milky way. I really like some of those shots too as the yellow light works so well with the blue ambient light. Finally the night closed in and the 'dark sky site' lit up with a billion stars as the milky way materialised out of the darkness. I was able to complete my evening in kananaskis with some nice starlight images and make my way home along empty highways. I was home by 8.30 pm and checking my images like an excited kid, I'm pretty happy with the overall bunch. The sky was quite clear last night and from the balcony I could make out that wonderful white cloud that signals the milky way is lurking above, so I roamed the garden for a couple of hours shooting a few sequences that I could stack and bring out the full image.
While catching the Milky Way shots I set up another camera over in the corner of the yard shooting a star trail sequence. I tried a new angle with some trees in the foreground but don't really like the finished product as it's not particularly interesting. I'm really pleased with the results of the Milky Way shots given the amount of ambient light in the area, I might have to start venturing out to make some nightscapes in the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday in spite of weather predictions, so I gambled on a sunset out in the mountains, packed the camera gear and headed out. The sunset failed to produce anything really spectacular but I did get some great shots overall. It started with some ice refracting light over river rocks and ended with an incredible milky way image. I did get a few sunset shots (as you can see in the main image) and had some more practice with the homemade lightsticks. I made the short run from my sunset spot to Upper Kananaskis Lake where I was messing with the lightsticks when I noticed the milky way rising. I really wasn't dressed for a winter night in the mountains but couldn't let that get away so I stood freezing on the top of the dam between the upper and lower lakes and captured a bunch of nice shots, one of which even had a really nice shooting star (or maybe it was an iridium flare). It was a fantastic afternoon and evening but I was frozen solid by the time I got home and had to stand in a hot shower for ages to thaw out. Images in the gallery have captions with locations and further info.
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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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