Travel – Page 2 – the life of a nature photographer

Learning to Sport Climb

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

I just got back from learning to sport climb near Canmore. Despite the rainy forecast we actually got a fair bit of nice weather and had a great time! We climbed near Grassi Lakes, Heart Creek, and Wasootch. I can’t wait to get out again and try some lead climbing, as well as some more creative photography. It’s hard to concentrate on photography while I’m learning another thing entirely, but as I get more comfortable with climbing the quality of the photos should go up. Which probably means I should go to the climbing gym, but that’s not nearly as fun as climbing outdoors. Here are a few photos I did manage to get on our trip.

Being belayed down after a successful climb.

Reg belaying as Seb leads one of the routes near Grassi Lakes.

Mike climbing near Grassi.

Seb rappelling down after cleaning the route.

Enjoying a snack break.

North Saskatchewan River Adventure

Travel, Water

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Actually, it didn’t turn out to be too adventurous. No one dumped, no one froze, and although we got a fair amount of rain it was pretty nice weather. I went on a four day canoe trip on the North Saskatchewan River with a bunch of awesome people from MEC. We put in at the Forestry Trunk Road Bridge and took out near the Brierlies (some popular rapids) at Rocky Mountain House. We ate amazingly well, had a few campfires (thanks to no fire ban) and paddled through some small rapids (some paddled through larger rapids than others). I’m still going through the photos, but here’s a little preview.

The first day was actually nice and sunny – a great day of paddling!

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After the first day it got rainy, but we had loads of fun anyway.

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Erin and Chris ran Devil’s Elbow on a cold drizzly day in a Starbust all outfitted with float bags and thigh straps. We were all set up at the bottom of the rapids with a couple throw bags and a rescue boat, but they made it through.

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Eating Cheaply on the Road

Travel

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Not eating sandwiches, also — backpacking, not roadtripping
Olympus E-620 with 12-60 lens
48mm, F8, 1/1600 of a second

Sandwiches. This post could be that single word. But I’ll elaborate.

I go on road trips regularly, and I don’t have a lot of money. So I’ve had a lot of time to perfect this.

When I’m on a road trip I don’t want to spend lots of time eating — there’s much to see and places to go. Energy bars are quick, but they’re dry and not exactly a meal. Jerky tastes good every once in a while. Yogurt, fruit and fruit cups are great, but they’re not meals either. Lipton packs or other quick pasta packs are a hearty meal and taste good, but they require finding an appropriate place to set up a stove and a fair bit of time. Backpacker’s pantry and other add-water type meals are alright, but they’re outrageously expensive, and they still require that you get out a stove to boil water. At least you don’t need to wash dishes afterwards. And fast food, while convenient and occasionally yummy, is unhealthy, expensive, and requires you to be in a decent sized town when you’re hungry.

Sandwiches, however, are perfect. Every small town has a grocery store where you can pick up bread, cheese, mayo or miracle whip, and veggies (I like tomatoes and cucumbers). Generally, you can pick up enough for quite a few meals for not much money.

You can make sandwiches with very little preparation. A knife (and maybe a plate) is all that’s required. They only take a couple minutes to assemble, and they’re much healthier than fast-food. Clean-up afterward only requires wiping off the knife.

One little caveat. Sandwiches are great for road trips where you have a cooler — in summer it keeps everything cool, and in winter it keeps things from freezing. For backpacking, I’d worry about the mayo or miracle whip going bad. If anyone has suggestions for how to avoid this, that would be amazing. I’d leave out the spread, but then the sandwiches would be quite dry, and I can’t stand that. But when I’m backpacking I usually don’t mind taking longer to make a meal, and the Lipton packs are great for that.

Sleeping by the Tracks

Night Photography, Photo of the Day, Travel

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Sometimes on roadtrips it can be hard to find a quiet place to sleep. My trip to BC was quite the opposite — there seem to be old abandoned logging roads branching off every few kilometers. This was my home for one night on the way back from BC. The train went by once in the night and woke me up, but I love the sound of trains, and it lulled me back to sleep with dreams of far off destinations.

On a related note, I’m sad to be parting with my old Ford Escort wagon, which has been my home on many a road trip. The transmission went, and it’s an old car, and not worth repairing. I’m now on the hunt for another cheap, old, reliable vehicle that can haul my photos and display to shows, and that can sleep two.

Proximity to the Past

Rural Decay, Travel

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

On the way back from Manitoba, Anna and I stopped by the place she lived for a couple years when she was really young. It was strange, for me there were no memories, but I could watch them flooding back over her. She showed me around, not totally sure of places — some things had changed and some just seemed on a totally different scale than when she was five years old. The apartment where her family had lived was unlocked and uninhabited, so we looked around for a bit. Almost everything has changed so much from back then, but there are places where the past is much closer than normal.

Trip Turbulence

Photo of the Day, Prairie, Travel

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Thunderstorm in southern Saskatchewan. This is one reason I love the prairies.

Anna and I just got back from Manitoba where we were visiting family. Family trips are not exactly conducive to photography, especially when they are rushed, but I managed to take a few photos. I’m almost looking forward to winter, when everything can slow down a bit, and I get a chance to go through my photos.

Conquering BC’s Freezing Lakes

Mountain, Travel, Water

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

My trip to BC was a glorious success — I survived, the car mostly survived, and I had a blast. It started out with a four day road trip, riddled with stops and hikes at random places. Then I got to go camping for a couple days with a good friend, and I ended it off with a couple days driving to get back. I mostly slept in the car, which was pretty comfortable until my sleeping mat decided to deflate.

I have a bunch photos to post over the next couple weeks, but I thought this was an appropriate start.

My friend Will swimming in a cold lake in the mountains in BC.

Normally I don’t take photos of people. I make two exceptions: when I take photos at weddings (only as a second photographer, talk to Curtis if you want a wedding photographer), and this.

Kananaskis Landscape – Elpoca Mountain

Landscape, Mountain, Photo of the Day, Travel

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

The area around Elpoca Mountain looks fascinating to me, and I never got a chance to explore it. It was a forbidden land — closed because of grizzly sightings. But the vertical slabs of rock jutting from the warm grassy slopes was a magical contrast that caught my attention, and something I have not seen often in the rocky mountains.

Photos at Elm Cafe (and other news)

Galleries and Shows, Landscape, Photo of the Day, Travel

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

If you go to the Elm Cafe (on 117 Street just north of Jasper Ave) in the next couple weeks, you’ll be able to enjoy a few of my photos! And you’ll get to enjoy their awesome coffee!

And, as always, you can see my art at The Daffodil Gallery (on 124 Street at 104 Ave).

After a great camping trip in the mountains, I’m back with lots of photos to share. Turns out that with the heavy snowfall this year, we were a couple weeks too early to do a bunch of the hikes we wanted to, but it was a great trip anyway. Apparently I’m starting to become a bit of a birder, but I’m not quite sure how that mixes with my photography yet. I really enjoy being aware of what’s going on around me and knowing what all the sounds are — it makes me feel just a little more connected and less like an outsider when I’m “alone” in the woods. Maybe one of these days, if people are interested, I’ll post some of my bird photos that I took mostly for identification (being a photographer and not a real birder, I have a fairly long lens, but no binoculars). But for now I’ll be posting photos I’m happy with for their aesthetic qualities.

Taken near Sofa Mountain, in Waterton National Park.

Abraham Lake: Lazy Day

Landscape, Travel

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

After being blown around on Abraham Lake, I was looking forward to getting out of the wind. I was also interested in seeing Mistaya Canyon and Panther Falls in the winter, and both are fairly close. I had a cold but filling breakfast in the car and drove to Mistaya Canyon. I was really looking forward to it, but as I drove up the snowbank blocked my view out of the passenger window. This 4 foot deep snow dampened my enthusiasm a bit, and I was really enjoying the music, so I decided to go see if Panther Falls looked more accessible.

This may have been a mistake. Panther Falls did look much more accessible, but as I walked down the hill I started to have my doubts. I sunk down to my waist at the bottom of the hill, but I was determined. I decided to press on. It was an arduous process, but I made my way to the middle of the falls with no trail to follow. In summer, this would be a 5 minute walk, but I think it took me 45 minutes. I realized once I got there that the bottom would have been more interesting, but I was already pretty tired. So I relaxed on the ice by the falls, had a couple of energy bars, and then started the trek back up to the top.

Don’t try this without crampons. I was nervous enough even with them on.

Once I finally got to the top, I was tired of deep snow. And I was still tired of being blown over. So I drove leisurely back to Abraham Lake, enjoying the mule deer, whitetail deer, and elk. The burnt area from my previous post is also in this stretch. This time, instead of going to the center of the lake, I stopped right at the west end at Preacher’s Point. This turned out to be a great decision. Lots of interesting ice here and beautiful weather. I spent the afternoon puttering about on the ice, thoroughly enjoying myself and taking lots of photos.

Late in the afternoon I returned to the car, had some scrumptious chili, and emptied my memory card to my laptop. After another few small stops here and there along the lake, I headed home through winter rain.