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.
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Cecil and I revisited the wedge pond for sunrise again this week and were struck by this crazy 'double sunrise' occurrence, thanks to bounce light from mid level cloud. We arrived at 07:15 for an 08:09 sunrise, after setting up and talking for a few minutes the tip of Mt Kid began to illuminate even though we were 40 minutes before sunrise.
This was a result of bounce light from mid level cloud spread across the prairie to the east reflecting light all the way through to our position in the mountains. This lasted for more than 30 minutes culminating with the bright red cloud seen in the main image below (taken at 08:07) Then at 08:15 (6 minutes after sunrise) Mt Kidd was illuminated again by direct sunlight from the east. This changed the cloud colour from red to yellow before the sun rose far enough to reduce the cloud light and leave a clean alpenglow along the summit ridge. You can see the colour shift in the sequence below (the main image would sit 4th in the chain). Each has a timestamp to guide you along the way. At 4am this morning my eyes opened as if programmed, I'd set the alarm for 04:30 but didn't need it. As I stumbled around getting ready to head out to The Wedge Pond I wondered if this time I would actually get some sunrise images. I've made this trip several times trying to catch the sunrise hitting Mt Kidd and reflecting in the still waters, all have failed.
I arrived in good time and made my way through the trees in total darkness with just my head torch lighting the way. A dark Canadian forest is an eerie place to walk alone in the early hours. Not in a 'spooky' sense, but in a 'is that a shadow or a bear' sense. At 5:30 am all noise is amplified and a Canadian forest waking up at dawn has plenty of noise. It was nice to reach the edge of the lake where (thanks to lack of rainfall) there's a good wide buffer of open space between the water and the forest. I dumped my gear in one spot and set up the tripod hoping for some stars over Mt Kidd, unfortunately low cloud eliminated any chance of that. I hoped the cloud would stick around and bounce the morning sun back to earth but it drifted away before sunrise. I still managed a few nice shots as the light crept down the mountainside opposite. The lake was perfectly still and a thin veil of mist floated gracefully across the surface. It was a beautiful morning and I`m glad I made the effort to get there once again. I know I`ll be back because I am yet to make the shot I have envisaged, perhaps conditions will prevent me from ever making it, but what fun would it be if we got every shot, every time. |
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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