My 'go to' spring location is West Bragg Creek. It's close to home and clear of snow early in the year and, because it is wet in the spring, there are few mountain bikes on the trails at this time.
Today I did one of my usual routes covering 13 km of muddy trail in the rain, it was much more enjoyable than it sounds. I had my lightweight gear on and ultralight waterproof stuff over the top, the result was a warm dry me in a muddy wet forest. I found it quite challenging to make images, mainly due to the inclement weather and my camera and lens choice for the day, it was my old A7r, taken as a hedge against the weather potential. As it transpires the trees and my rain gear kept the water away almost entirely, so maybe next time I venture out in the rain, I'll take my better camera gear. It was really enjoyable with absolutely nobody around for almost the entire circuit, I did see two teen girls jogging who were absolutely filthy with mud splatter from head to toe. It's an indication of how muddy the trail was that they slowed to pass me so they didn't splash me in the same manner. Higher up in the forest the low cloud presented some photo opportunities giving me my own cloud forest for 5 km or so, all in all I would definitely do this again as the rain gear rarely gets an outing and I didn't really notice the rain once hiking. The main shot today is of the forest as I ascended into the low cloud for the first time, the gallery has captions as usual.
2 Comments
Last week I enjoyed a short hike around my local haunt, West Bragg Creek. There were so many wildflowers there that I was determined to return with the macro lens and capture the details of a few at least.
With my friend Cecil back from his pan-European tour we decided to meet up at West Bragg and have an afternoon hike. We wandered for several hours shooting the plants, chatting and enjoying the great outdoors. We found a good number of images along the trail and it was difficult to choose a dozen for the blog, but I like the selection below starting with this huge thistle. The gallery has captions to identify the species. Regular readers of the blog will know that West Bragg Creek is an area close to home and my 'go to' location for an easy walk during the week. At the weekend there are too many mountain bikes there to enjoy the space so we tend to look elsewhere at weekends.
Another good thing about West Bragg Creek is the huge selection of trails available with over 150 linear kilometers that cross each other at regular intervals. This results in an almost endless selection of routes through the forested hills. Yesterday I made a nice 12 km circuit and avoided the rain showers that blew through. The whole area is awash with wildflowers at the moment and I think it won't be long before I'm back down there with the macro lens for another wander. Until then there's a small captioned gallery below from my short hike yesterday. It was only monday this week when I took a hike around the forest at West Bragg Creek with my macro lens in hand (see post below this one). The smoke has made a return but I wanted to get out so I went back to West Bragg and made a different 11km route today.
To keep me thinking I took the wide angle lens so there's plenty of looking up the trees as the landscape has little value in the forest. I have included a shot of a nice bend in the trail and of the distant smoke filled hills. We're promised rain for the weekend so that would be great, we might just get to see the sky in a week or so. The forest fire smoke has dissipated a little more today but still not enough to permit any serious hiking. The air was a little more breathable so I took the macro lens and made an easy 10km hike around the forests of West Bragg Creek.
West Bragg is close to home and a nice place to spend an easy afternoon but there aren't many photo opportunities there other than macro. I enjoy macro work outdoors as it makes me look at the forest differently but I'm not sure of the value of the finished images, there's only so many close up shots you want to see. Anyway, having said all of that, here's a gallery of macro images shot today showing the plants as they transition into autumn. It's always nice to take a fixed focal length lens and shoot for the day without the benefit of the modern zoom lens. It makes you think about composition and framing in a very different way. One of my favourite things is to take the 180mm macro lens and go to the local forest making landscapes practically impossible. I don't take a tripod as I don't like to be encumbered when I'm out walking, the result is a hand held 180mm macro lens presenting more than a few challenges. Low light in the forest, very shallow depth of field and wind movement of the chosen subject are just a few of the hurdles made worse by the lack of a tripod.
Having said all of that, I really do love it, the macro makes me look at the smaller things, they are things I always notice but generally walk past without an image because of the limitations of other lenses in comparison. Nothing captures detail like a macro lens and today I made a lovely shot of some wild Virginia Bluebells on the forest floor (main image). I also added a small gallery of other macro shots from West Bragg Creek this afternoon including an ant dragging a huge dead beetle through the grass, the gallery has captions with relevant plant and insect names. Well OK, the title should say "no sign of spring in West Bragg", but still, at least it was warm today. I honestly thought that the trail network at West Bragg would be almost clear of snow by now, perhaps a bit muddy at worst. I was genuinely surprised by just how much snow remains and it sure made for weary legs after 13km of plodding through it. On the up side I did get to ask "why the long face" as I saw moose too tired to run away, he kind of plodded away similar to myself, sick to death of the prolonged winter.
It was nice to be out and a timely reminder that I need to start working off the excess of my winter hibernation. There's a small captioned gallery below showing the meagre sights available in the snow covered forest. Me and the bees sucked the last of summer up today as the mercury hit 25C once again. I took a short 8km wander on the local trail at West Bragg Creek with the macro lens in hand looking for another shot for my 52 project. I got a nice one for the project and a few more besides so thought I'd share some here. I did discover one thing today, if you shine an ultra bright LED torch/flashlight into the entrance to a wasps nest they will pour out in large numbers in a very short time, my guess is they think the entrance has been breached as light is pouring in so they come to investigate, suffice to say I got only one shot of the wasps within before beating a hasty (sting free) retreat.
I set out to try and walk off a cold this afternoon with a 15km hike through the local forest at west Bragg Creek. It was incredibly hot and my body certainly did it's best to sweat it out, only time will tell if I was successful. I only took along the macro lens in the hope of finding a nice shot for the 52 project but as I stumbled about in the forest I saw this huge moose with tremendous antlers in a clearing close to me. I hardly had time to ask "why the long face" when he trotted off into the dense bushes beyond but not before I grabbed a shot or two. Below is a selection of the macro shots from the day, there are no captions just something to show for my efforts.
Another local wander at West Bragg Creek today, a nice 8km circuit as a warm up for something better tomorrow (though I'm not sure what that will be as yet) The autumn colours are continuing to spread across the canopy and the ease of hiking here and the warm sunshine make it a tempting target at any time. As always, click small images below for a larger gallery.
|
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
|