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.
2 Comments
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. 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. 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. Since we got back from Las Vegas three weeks ago we have been stuck indoors. We were hit with incredibly low temperatures (even by our standards) for over two weeks. Our daytime highs have been around -20C and worse with wind chill. Our lowest has been -53C with wind chill, it's almost like being imprisoned.
But as the weekend passed, the thermometer rose above '0' once more and I have finally managed to get out to the mountains. In fairness it was still -7 out there, away from the warm chinook winds that drift across the prairies. Wind chill took it down to about -10 but it was good to be out. Photography was challenging because everything is covered in snow as you might expect. Cloud prevented any sunset opportunity, though I was aware of that before starting out, today was about escaping the indoors. I put on the snowshoes for the first time this year and made a huge loop across the upper lake before arcing round to the north shore forest to escape the fierce wind. The walk back through the forest was far more enjoyable. The trail was already broken by others and the trees cut out all of the wind. Back at the truck I removed the snowshoes and drove round to the lower lake, I spotted a bit of open water and decided to walk down to shoot there. It was only a short walk and I was just grabbing a shot so I didn't bother with the snowshoes.....will I ever learn? Almost waist deep in snow with boulders beneath I stumbled, staggered and slipped my way to the waterside and back...."never again" I said out loud as I finally escaped the ocean of white that engulfed me, but in reality this is not my first "never again" for these conditions and probably won't be my last. 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. With my friend Cecil heading out to the east coast next week we decided to have a day in kananaskis yesterday. The weather was changeable with some blue skies but a lot of cloud and scattered showers, luckily we avoided the rain.
We stopped at our usual haunts along highway 40 to assess the condition of the autumn change so far and managed to find a moment of calm at the Wedge pond (see main pic). At the upper lake we walked the trail around the peninsula to the old stump skeletons and shot what we found along the way. We made a few landscapes as always and a few detailed shots to keep things fresh. As usual we had a great day wandering and managed to find some 'new' images in the same old places as well as re shooting the old in a new way. The gallery has location captions and a little bit more info. |
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
|