This winter I got my first taste of ski touring and backcountry winter camping! Besides the blisters from borrowed boots, it was incredible and I look forward to many more trips. This trip I fell a lot, so not a whole lot of picture taking happened. I promise I’ll get better at skiing and deliver more photos in the future.
Taken in Molar Meadows, Banff
23mm, f7.1, 1/1000 of a second
My favorite part of this photo is the tension. You can feel the impending crash of the water on the rocks — two parts interacting in a violent and beautiful way.
Taken at Panther Falls, Banff.
I love the way frost grows at the edges of open water.
Often in landscapes I try to get all the details visible – lots of contrast, but with the blacks never going totally black and the whites never getting so bright they lose detail. Sometimes though, it pays to blow out the highlights. This is one of those things that’s irreversible in an image, and can look bad, so you have to be sure about it. But when it works it can add a mood to a photo that won’t be there otherwise. This is something I’ve seen done in lomo photography, wedding photography and some fashion photography for a long time, but I’ve never really tried it for landscapes. Curtis Round, another photographer who I’ve often had the pleasure of shooting with, has inspired me over the last few years. He often does this kind of thing in his wedding and engagement shoots, and it looks great.
Taken in Johnston Canyon, Banff.
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.
Sunset reflected in the Bow River.
Taken at the Cave and Basin around sunset.
Ice and frost near the Bow River in Banff.
I pick the worst times for vacations. The roads were as bad as they’ve been in recent memory and in Banff it was either close to -30 or snowing the whole time. I think I got some good shots though – this was from yesterday, a frigid night on Lake Louise.
After a long and occasionally scary drive to Banff (after 10 I stopped counting cars in the ditch on highway 2), we’re here safely, I’ve now finished my design work for the day, and I’m finally ready to go out hiking! Hello -20 weather!
Here’s one from last summer.
