Tag Archives: Water

Bottom of the food chain

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The other day I posted an image from my Canadian Rockies photo trip a few years back, and I got to reminiscing about the experience I had at Moraine Lake, which is shown here. As usual I like to travel in the fall, because I thoroughly enjoy the early mornings with frost and the fresh air this time of year, and I always wait till the bitter end to make any sort of reservation. This trip I decided I would stay at the moraine lake lodge with my wife for several days to take in the mountain grandeur, but I was quickly told we were not staying there after hearing it was almost 400 dollars a night. I stood my ground and we stayed one single night in a room with a fireplace looking out at this lake. To me it was worth every penny,as I woke to head out before dawn to shoot under a lovely sunrise.

Let me explain a bit about my one and only trip to a place where you can be the main course on the menu at any moment. When we arrived, there were two nice sized bears in the parking lot roaming around, which gave me reason to ponder my usual early morning escapades. Signs were everywhere to travel in groups of 4 or more, and make lots of noise. Upon checking in, I said I wanted to hike the 30 minutes or so to this lookout to shoot sunrise, and the girl at the desk said you have two options. First was simply sleep in, and the second was to carry a bottle of pepper spray that was about the size of a small fire extinguisher. I opted for the spray, headed out at dark in the morning and was totally alone for at least an hour. I made so much noise going up that trail, hand on the trigger just in case, and a few prayers said along the way. I kept thinking all they will find is my gear, a chewed up pepper spray bottle, and a bear taking a nap. It really was nerve-racking, but the view up here was unbelievable. I have never seen such aqua/turquoise color in water ever. The angle of the rising sun was less than ideal,but it was sweet nonetheless.

The following day we stayed at a B&B in Banff, and the owner showed us his scrapbook of a mountain lion he shot under his porch. The thing was being held under its front legs and was taller than this guy,who was pretty darn tall. Its kind of humorous, because I started seeing signs for mountain lion activity in places we hiked and I would extend my Gitzo tripod legs all the way out,thinking I would whack this thing if it got any bright ideas. Someone said if they are stalking you, you would never know it till they pounce. Nothing gives you a better sense of being alive than to know you are not the king of the mountains and you better tread cautiously.

Nature’s Pristine Wilderness

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Today I thought I would share an image from a trip I took to Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada some time ago. This was my only trip to this part of the world and it was simply breathtaking. The image shown is of the location called Spirit Island on Maligne lake, and it requires a 45 minute boat ride through incredible aqua colored waters to get to this final destination. The water is so cold,about 39 degrees  passengers are briefed on what to do in case of problems with the boat and the guide joked no one ever drowned here because hypothermia gets you first. Upon arrival at the landing area, passengers are told they have precisely ten minutes to get off the boat and shoot whatever pictures you can, and be back on the boat for the return trip. I have never been in such a beautiful place with such a miniscule amount of time to shoot. I remember setting a land speed record to get to the overlook before anyone else claimed the best angle, and I also remember some poor soul who had an expensive 35mm camera and his batteries were dead and he had no backup battery. Who on earth goes to such a destination with one battery?  Anyway, as I recall, this area is untouched by man except for the boat that pulls in, and seeing such a pristine landscape really was something special,even if it was for only 10 minutes. I know there are many amazing landscapes throughout the world, but this image is one of my most memorable from my few travels.I went in the fall and will hopefully share more images and experiences of this grand place in the future. I have a slide show presentation I do and within that show I have several quotes including this one from John Muir.   ” Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves”.

Reflections of simpler times

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As a photographer, I am always on the lookout for beautiful locations, and this spot is one I had bookmarked in my brain for the right moment. Many times, I will just drive around looking for opportunities, and this particular evening I saw the potential building in the way the clouds were positioned in the sky, and the angle the sun would probably hit them. I headed to this locale to look things over and after coming across a no trespassing sign at the edge of the public parking area located across the river from the farm, I decided I would put on my hip waders and venture into the water directly from the lot. I had to traverse slick rocks for about a hundred yards to get to this point in the river. All the while I was thinking about all my past experiences with water, and maybe this was not a great idea after all. As I got to the final spot where the reflection looked good, The water was about 6 inches from the top of my hip waders, and I was getting slightly nervous as a slip would mean big trouble for my gear. I mounted a wide-angle on the camera and had it locked to the tripod before I set out, and had my loaded camera backpack on my back, which has to weigh 40 plus pounds, so any misstep can get dicey real quick. The sunset materialized nicely and the water was really pushing against my tripod legs, so I shot a series as things kept building, till everything faded and I made my slow and deliberate way back to shore. Sometimes going the extra mile yields images that others can’t get or are too lazy to try, and I take pride in giving it my all.

Splish,Splash,Takin a Bath

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Several people told me they enjoyed the stories of my Maine escapades, so due to the fact I am behind on processing new images, I will share another story and image. Several years ago, I asked a friend if he wants to travel to the Poconos in Pennsylvania to shoot some fall foliage and a few waterfalls. It was a lovely fall day and we arrived to see perfect conditions for shooting. The location shown here is called Silver thread falls and although it’s not the most photogenic, it is among the highest at 80 feet. I was shooting film at the time and this image was snapped on the way to the top of the falls. We took the trail all the way to the top, and upon reaching this point, we were greeted with an overlook of sorts that included a rail fence. I took one look at the fence and decided I was having none of it, and immediately reached over the railing to set my loaded camera bag on the ground on the other side. I then turned to my buddy to say something, only to hear a small bumping sound, which was my camera bag headed down the embankment to the flowing stream. By the time I jumped over the fence, my bag was already heading downstream toward the top of the waterfall shown here. Without hesitation or thinking, I jumped off the bank from about 6 ft up and splashed into the water,which was about knee-deep and grabbed my bag. I made my way to the water’s edge real quick, opened my bag which was buckled shut, and of course every lens,camera etc was totally filled with water. I remember being so upset at my own stupidity as we drove home, as I held my lenses out the window to try to dry them.

The funny moment came when several hikers came rushing up from down below to the top of the falls to find me soaking wet, and told us they thought someone was committing suicide when they saw me jump. As I settled back down after the incident, I realized how dicey the situation was and how it could have gone downhill pretty quick. I was maybe 10 feet from the edge of this falls in fairly fast water, so one slip on a rock and both myself and my gear may have taken the express lane to the bottom. One thing I specifically remember after I got home was that my parents owned this kitchen device that cooked food with cyclonic heated air, which basically was air spinning incredibly fast inside this circular contraption. My 80-200 that would not dry for days, suddenly dried out totally in about 20 minutes in this thing. It was too late anyway, but it absolutely worked to dry the water out. This image is one of the few that survived because they were already in film canisters that stayed dry that day

Mixing things up

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A friend sent me a link to a little photo project to try, so today I gave it a whirl. The original idea was to mix water and cooking oil and shoot the resulting effect. After initial tests, I decided to mix rubbing alcohol and canola oil. This seemed to work pretty well as the two were easy to stir up and then they slowly separated from tiny circles to progressively larger circles as time went by. I have included an image of my messy setup to give visual aid to anyone wanting to try this. In the setup photo, you will see a clear glass bowl that the camera looks straight down into, and I simply cut a hole in a board slightly smaller than my dish. I did this to keep spill light from the flash hitting anything but my colorful items and not the glass bowl. The arrows point to my two flashes that were aimed at the pile of colorful clothing that I placed about two feet below the dish. Basically the flash hits the colorful items and the liquid picks up the colors. Flashes were set on manual and I shot around f 16-22 for most shots. I may try water and oil at some point,but initially it seemed they separated too quickly. Lens was a 105 micro and I was almost at 1 to 1 magnification.The three white sticks are to keep my dish from moving.

Frozen in Time

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Old man winter made a brief comeback today in the form of temperatures that hovered around 12-15 degrees at daybreak. Cold conditions like this can provide some interesting possibilities if you are dressed properly and look long and hard enough.This image was captured at the edge of a local pond. It’s a wonder I even go near this pond, because it’s the same place my father made me wade into when I was around ten years old. I had pushed my friends sled across the frozen pond, and of course it went in the only open hole on the entire pond, so that evening when my father found out, he loaded me in the car, drove me to the pond and made me try to recover the submerged sled.I got to about waist deep, till he said get out, and then promptly drove me to buy a new one for my friend. Suffice it to say, I never pushed any sleds across frozen ponds from that day forward. That was decades ago, but it’s indelibly etched in my mind.

Full Moon Rising

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Today was full moon, and It reminded me of a shot I took last month during full moon. As a photographer, I make every effort to plan ahead as much as possible, and by using a free program called – The Photographers Ephemeris, which uses google earth to show you sun/moon locations, I previewed a few potential places I wanted to shoot to see if the full moon would be in the right spot. This farm, complete with a flooded field yielded the perfect opportunity. The key to capturing such an image is to shoot when moonrise happens right at sunset, so exposure can retain detail in the moon and the landscape. It’s a fleeting few minutes.The glow on the water is all real, and a slight breeze almost ruined my shot. Instead of rushing around back roads, I arrived, set up my tripod, aimed exactly where the program said the moon would rise and simply waited for it to appear.The accompanying buggy shot is taken from the same location a few days later. The water just sits here from the summer floods and has covered the road numerous times. I made over two dozen trips to this spot, which is approx 15 miles away to capture this unique double horse-drawn buggy image. A link to the Sun/Moon tool is in my blogroll. Try it on your home address to see its accuracy.