The weather has been really poor over the last few weekends, so I have been trawling through my back catalogue of images. This was take in Banff, Canada several years ago. It was around 9am but I had already been up for hours. These two guys were gleefully meandering downstream, exciting about the fishing prospects to come. I would have loved to have joined the fun but was there to photograph, not frolic.
Still in the Canadian Rockies, I tried to shoot the famous Moraine Lake, situated close to Lake Louise, a few times but to no avail. In the end, it took me three attempts to capture this dawn scene. First time, I wondered into the forest jutting out into the lake on the right. I was spooked by a bear and decided a shot was not worth a mauling. The second attempt was marred by terrible weather. Third time lucky. The light lasted about 5 minutes before clouding over.
The solitude of the morning was somewhat dispensed with when I was interviewed by a Japanese film crew, who turned up too late to capture the dawn and wanted to use my photographs.
I was staying in a small motel in Banff and had scouted this location out the previous day. The light was falling to my right on the lakeside but I loved the dawn vanilla skies above the mountain on the other side of the lake.
A few years ago, I was in the Canadian Rockies, travelling around Banff and Jasper National Parks. The shot for today was taken from an observation platform above Peyto Lake. It was not a great time of day to be shooting as it was close to midday but this really made the turquoise colour of the lake stand out all the more against the lush green of the surround forest, greyness of the mountain face and deep blue of the sky.
This was taken a few miles away, along the river bank above a raging torrent below. You can make out a young girl relaxing by the river, wearing red, to give you a size perspective of the scene.
Dawn on a stretch of beach a few miles south of Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. No another person around for miles, just the gentle lapping of the Pacific ocean against the shore. Mist was rising from the land, creating a very other-worldly effect.
Holiday season was well over and the temperature was only a just in double digits. Still, one of my favourite beaches in Canada.
Just prior to the Frankfurt motorshow in September, I went out to Canada for a two week photoshoot. Starting off in Calgary, I headed west to Banff National Park. From here, I drove through all the surrounding national parks including Kootenay, Yoho and Jasper. Over the first ten days, I covered almost 2000 miles.
After returning to Calgary, I then flew further west to Victoria, capital of Vancouver Island. My good friend Justene Miller, a Canadian from Vancouver, gave me some excellent advice, to visit Tofino and Ucluelet, on the Pacific coast of the island. I was treated to a cloud rainbow, something I have never seen before.
I loved Canada, with its spectacular landscape and friendly locals. My only reservation is that the food is much like the US is pretty awful most of the time.
My other riding partner this year is Angelique.
She is Canadian, living in California and has also done big bike rides of a different sort. Washington DC to Costa Rica on a BMW 750 for starters (no pedals). No motorbikes on this one though!
Angelique has always been into road and mountain biking and flirting with the idea of touring but like Dave, has never done it, so she’s ‘way psyched’ as they say in the San Fran vernacular. She’s on an endless prep schedule, antagonising bike shops all over the Bay Area, to help her convert her mountain bike’s to a touring bike. Good luck!
Angelique has several other great outdoor passions. Earlier this year, she went climbing in Thailand and kitting in the Philippines. She’s a big fan of remote, exercised filled adventures like canoeing down the Zambezi. I feel like a lightweight in comparison as I did the Zambezi in an eight man dingy back in 1994.
We’ll both be hauling Canon 5DII’s as she’s also a very keen photographer. She’ll be bringing along her 17-40 for the ride. I’ll post some of her images as well, if she lets me.
Finally, Angelique just took ownership of her first dog, Ziggy, an 8 week old German Shepherd, who she will be abandoning to come on this trip. That’s how great it’s going to be 🙂
All Terrain Photography 