We’ve had some really nasty cold weather on the prairies this winter. You can tell it’s cold out when even the hay bales look cold!
Normally the Chinook winds we see in the Calgary area bring warm air with them as they blow in from the West Coast. But this year it seems like the winds have been cold and harsh. We’ve seen lots of snow and the temperature has regularly been below -20 °C. Now that’s cold!
At least I generally get to go inside when I want to. Not like these poor bales…
There’s something about a cityscape that draws me in. I’ve got lots of pictures of the Calgary Skyline, including others from this exact spot, but I still enjoy making them. This particular image is the latest in a series of high resolution panoramas that I’ve been making recently. I was actually out trying to capture a shot of the setting full moon looming large against the Rocky Mountains in the background. Unfortunately I arrived a little late and the moon practically evaporated against the horizon. I made a similar image back in the fall, but it was more of a pastoral scene than the one I was trying for this time. Oh well, there’s always next month…
It seems odd but this is one of the few images of the city that I’ve done in daylight. Most of my previous attempts were made late at night, and usually on extremely cold days. In fact some of my favorites show the ice and snow along the Bow river, and they often feature the reflected lights of the city glowing in the river.
One of the iconic images from Banff National Park is the view of Mount Rundle reflected in the Vermillion Lakes, usually at sunrise or sunset. I had never had a chance to make one of these images before since I had never been able to get there at the right time on a day in which the weather cooperated. I finally had a chance to do so this past weekend.
Making images of Rundle was actually a side trip (as many of my photographic expeditions are) while on the way to do something else. A friend and I were heading to Lake Louise for a day of skiing so we planned to get early enough to see the sunrise over Rundle. This is the perfect time of year for a trip like this since you can shoot the sunrise and still make it to Lake Louise in time for a full day of skiing!
We actually got to Banff a few minutes later than planned, but the timing worked out well anyway. We quickly found an open pool of water in the icy lake and got set up for the reflection shot. There was even on old dead tree laying on the ice that was all covered in frost, and it was oriented perfectly to lead the eye directly to the mountain. I made many beautiful images, and the one above is one of my favorites from the trip.
I’ve seen hundreds of deer in the fields every day around sunrise and sunset over the last couple of weeks. I often see deer on my daily commute but I’ve never seen such a high concentration before. I’m really not sure why there are so many around all of a sudden, but it’s been pretty exciting to watch!
These three checked me out very carefully before deciding they should leave.
