Banff 2017 - Day 1
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BANFF 2017 - Day 1
Bow River at Night
(Link to full-sized version: http://www.tom-hill.biz/Galleries/Scenics/Canada/i-924KHMJ/A)
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Here is the one half way interesting image from the first day of my recent visit to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I used to visit this park quite often when I was stationed in Cold Lake Alberta. But, since I left that assignment in 2001, I haven't been back until just last week. In a nut-shell, I am very sorry it's taken me so much time to go back, especially in winter.
I only decided on this trip a couple months ago for the express purpose of field-testing several pieces of important winter gear I acquired for next months very large trip to Japan. Because I hadn't conducted any major winter activities in almost 15 years, I needed several new pieces of gear to make the big trip to Japan be successful. Since I'm a pedantic kind of guy, I figured out I needed to field-test this gear to develop confidence I was equipped correctly. What better place to go where it's reliably cold but beautiful than Banff National Park in Alberta.
The image you see here was the single relatively successful I took after landing in the area. This particular image was shot after dinner when walking back to my room in the bitter cold. You see the skies were clear and the stars were very bright. Inspired by the possibilities of shooting night scenes with these stars, I ran off to a particularly picturesque location I spied on the way into the village I was staying at--i.e. Lake Louise--this wonderful location. Funny enough, I wasn't the only guy with this idea. I was simply slower.
I got to this scenic location only to find someone else shooting there. Turns out this particular person had already been at the location for several hours hoping to get a nice scene with a train in the foreground. He said he hadn't seen a train the whole time he was at the sight. Since it was almost -25 deg C, I was totally outdone by this man's commitment to overcome being cold to get a pictures. I was impressed to say the least.
This particular image was among the first I took that night. Unfortunately, just after I got there, the clouds began to roll-in, blocking out the stars. In fact, that other photographer shared several images from his camera showing off the clear and cloudless skies until I finally showed up. My thoughts were, if you couldn't take good images with stars, why shoot at night? Unfortunately, the clouds meant I ended my shooting session much earlier than the several hours the other photographer claimed he had put into his imagery.
An interesting tidbit from this image includes the light from the Lake Louise town and Chateau on the surrounding mountains.
More images will follow in the next couple of days to fully show off the amazing scenery that Banff is famous for. Until then, enjoy this image and the rest of this gallery.
Tom