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The Winter Blues

The Winter Blues

Hey Ya’ll

So we are coming upon the end of February and the days are finally getting longer. This winter has been a cold one in Jan and Feb, a lot of days have been -30C some even -40C. Sometimes I wonder why I live in a place where the air hurts my face, but then I remember that big angry and evil things like spiders don’t live up here. Well I mean at least not the ones that can kill you.

Over the winter it is easy to get down and loose the drive to go out and shoot, it happens to me every year. I wake up for sunrise and look at the temp and say “nope”. Even though it may be hard you gotta push through, work on other forms of your craft, work on your editing , work on you business.

This winter I worked on other types of photography, mainly portrait, honing my craft. I did manage to get out a few times to my beloved Rockies however. Here are just a few shots from this winter so far.

 

 

 

Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

Hey Ya’ll

Back in August I had done a 14 day road trip through the US and saw some amazing things. When I got back home I decided that I had to go back to see the Solar Eclipse. You see I had to be back in town for 3 days so that left me 15 hours to get back to Idaho for the Eclipse. So my good friend Joel and I jumped in my car on sunday night and started on our adventure.

We made it to the boarder around 11pm and made it through with no problem, there were only a handful of cars which was nice because I was worried that there were going to be more. By about midnight we arrived in Shelby MT, where we topped up the tank and grabbed some snacks. I got a second wind so I kept driving, around 4am I started to fade and Joel took over driving. I caught about 30 minutes of sleep and spent the rest of the time in and out. Around 6 am we made it to our destination a desert just north of Huxberg Idaho. This place was amazing it had sand dunes for days. I had no idea that this was a thing in Idaho, I found it on a map the day before leaving.

We caught about an hour of sleep and then we woke to sunrise, we got up and started scouting the area for our spot. We found a good area and returned with our gear, not an easy task with 40lbs of gear on sand in hot weather haha. We set up our cameras and waited. The eclipse started at 10:30 and when I looked through my solar glasses I saw something I could only describe as incredible, seeing the moon start to slip in front of the sun sent shivers down my neck. We both started to shoot, quickly learning just how fast the sun moved out of frame, learning that standing the tripod all the way up was better than on the ground, finding what exposure times were needed, etc.

As the moon started to cover more of the sun we noticed some pretty rad things, first the skin baking/burning feeling went away, you know the one you get on a super hot clear day, the one where you can feel your skin cook, that went away. But it was still hot. Then we noticed our shadows had secondary shadows, Im not scientist but I am guessing thats the light arriving at two differing angles an times. Leading up to the moments before totality the horizon behind us was dark, this was the moons shadow approaching us. We also noticed atthat point we could take off our sunglasses and not have to squint anymore, the light dimmed enough to look around at ease.

Now it was almost time for the big show in a few seconds we start a 2.5 minute race for totality, we got right to our cameras as the sun vanished, lights out!!!! We both frantically pulled the solar filters from our camera (it is only ok to do this during a total eclipse in the path of totality). Made fast adjustments to the settings and started firing off bracketed shots.

Then I stopped…

Even though this event only took 2.5 minutes it felt much longer. I looked up at the sun with my bare eyes and witnessed the single most amazing thing I’ve even seen, I simply don’t have words to describe the feelings in my mind and in my heart at the moment. The best I have is bliss.

Then I snapped out of it and sprinted to my other camera, rookie mistake here I set up my second camera 30 yards away for a cool landscape shot but I should have placed both cameras near by. I grabbed my landscape shot and then raced back to the other camera. Looking up at the sun at totality our eyes see a violet hue to the glow, but the camera just sees white.

After totality we put the filters back on and finished off the rest of the phases, the whole event lasted a couple of hours. We headed back to the car for some welcomed AC and then began the grid locked ride home. We made it as far as Great Falls MT and had to call it a night we were both bagged, we stayed at Joels favourite motel that had a bar in it called the Sip and Dip, there were mermaids, it was awesome!

In less than 48 hours we were back in Canada with the craziest adventure stored to our memory banks, I know that its moments and adventures like this I will remember for the rest of my life. One day, hopefully a long time from now, I will leaving this earth and this body and as I do I can look back on my life with pride and happiness.

David

Early Mornings at Louise

Early Mornings at Louise

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One of my favourite places to be is in the mountains, I’m pretty sure that is a given. There is one place in particular that has my heart and thats Lake Louise. No matter what I always stop at Lake Louise, it doesn’t matter if I am in the area for something other than the lake or if I’m passing through to go to Jasper or BC. I always stop. Ever since I was a kid my grandparents would take me there, it was a favourite for them too. We have seen many seasons there, even spent Christmas parties at the lodge there.

This particular morning I wasn’t to sure that sunrise was going to be very good, there were a lot of thick low hanging clouds with a lot of them sitting on the top of the glacier above Lake Louise. I set my gear up anyways and waited, slowly the sun rose above the mountains across the valley lighting up the clouds behind the camera. It seemed like it was going to be impossible for the sun to make it across to the clouds above the lake. Right when I was about to call it a bust, as I was reaching for my camera red and pink hues started to creep into the clouds above me. Slowly the colours danced their way into my composition and thats when I started to mash on the shutter.

 

What a Morning

What a Morning

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Earlier this week I made a trip out to the Rockies, I decided to head out late after work and slept in the back of my car for the night. There wasn’t much sleeping I kept waking up every hour to check the sky, I was hoping to catch a shot of the Milky Way at Herbert Lake. 12am, 1am , 2am, 3am all fly by and the clouds just kept sitting there. Then suddenly the clouds finally parted (partially), I still have to work on the image a bit more.

After shooting the Milky Way, and acting like a fool screaming in the dark to avoid any wild animals approaching, I jumped in my car and headed for Emerald Lake. When I got there I did a quick walk around and found my spot. I set up my gear being careful not to drop anything in the lake. I sat back and waited, then mother nature did her magic. Check out what I got!

 

Three Little Bears

Three Little Bears

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This week I took a couple days and ventured off to the mountains as I usually do. I didn’t really have an agenda or destination in mind when I started, I was letting my gut and a little luck guide me.

I ended up at Emerald Lake for sunrise one morning (see my last post for details), once I wrapped there I started to make my way back home. Along the way I stumbled across a family of 3 Black Bears, a mama and 2 cubs. They were the cutest little things I’ve ever seen. I found it amazing to watch as mama kept close watch of them and how the little ones bumped and stumbled around like goofy little kids normally do.

I spent around 30 min shooting from the edge of the road, standing out of my sunroof to get a clear shot. A few semi trucks flew by spooking the little ones into the bush, eventually they came back.

This was my first time getting some half decent shots of cubs, this year was the first time I had ever seen them in the first place. So adorable, now I know why photographers are addicted to looking for them.