When I’m out to take pictures of wildlife, I’m hoping for clear weather with good lighting. But under the same weather for landscape photography, the camera stays in the bag. You do not just want to take pictures of the mountains, but also the mood created by the combination of the landscape, clouds, shadows, and light. The more time you spend taking pictures, the more refined your style becomes. I’m finding it now, particularly when it comes to landscape photography. Well, even when it comes to flora and fauna, certain conditions must be met before the camera comes out. Photography is like any other skill in life. Over time, you start getting a better sense of what the final image is going to look like before you even take the picture. If you know the image will be good, you take the picture. And if you are unsure, you might take the image. For the rest of the situations, the camera stays put and you keep moving. Otherwise, you are not going to get far on a hike.
Moon
A few times each winter I just like to go for a drive on 93 North. As long as the weather is good for driving, it’s a great way to check on several different areas and see how places look compared to previous winters. Plus, it’s my favourite drive. I left well before the sunrise in order to get pictures of it. But that morning there were more clouds than open sky, preventing the bright sunrise. Still, it was great to be out there, many of the peaks covered with snow and the glaciers were showing their beautiful winter blue colour. I started paying attention to the moon. Stopping a few times along the way to get pictures of the moon with a peak in the foreground. As the moon got closer and closer to setting behind the mountains, the pictures started to look better. As too many times, the best picture was the last one. Capturing it less than a km before reaching Jasper National Park. With lack of other vehicles on the road, the relaxing road trip continued to see if I could locate mountain goats further ahead.
Rockwall
The day before I had done an early morning hike, timed it to make sure I was back at the trail head well before the temperature went over 30 degrees Celsius that day. My preference is always to complete the hard part of the hike before the solar noon during the hot summer days. I was out hiking again the following morning, this time in the neighbouring national park, Kootenay. Half an hour before sunrise, I was on the trail making my way to Floe Lake. Enjoyed the sunrise colours taking place behind me and the nice morning light hitting the Rockwall front of me. It had rained during the night, with the vegetation hanging over some parts of the trail, the water off the plants felt great on a warm morning. Before I hit the fun switchbacks to the lake, I had a quick water break and then up I went. Had some quick chats with campers who were on their way out, but before I knew it, I was past the switchbacks. As I descended toward the lake, I was greeted by other campers who were still having their breakfast. Not one to take landscape pictures two hours after the sunrise, the light quality falls off. But when I saw the lake water was close to calm and part of the Rockwall that was behind the Floe Lake was being mirrored in the lake. A picture was waiting to be taken.
Castle Mountain
I do lot of exploring by foot, learning about the areas I visit and looking for new photography opportunities. No matter if I have been there before or not, there is always something different to see, During one of my adventure I came across a place to take different view picture of a popular mountain in Banff, Castle Mountain.
Mount Rundle
More experimenting with star trails pictures. Northern Lights were out, but I could only include them in part of the frame. I thought with the Northern Lights I would include star trails, so I took several pictures over a 15 minute period. When I started there were less clouds, but they soon moved in. In the end I lost some of the star trails and the northern lights. But I was still happy with the experiment.
Until next moment,
Amar