Calgary – a view to the tower’s lights
The night lights on the Calgary Tower caught my eye a couple of weeks ago. I found an interesting perspective after moving around a bit.
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Springbank electrics
The thunder and lightning rolled over the prairies several times over the past couple of weeks. On August 1st, I went out to photograph dusk as the smoke from the wildfires has helped create some beautiful evening scenes. The haze thinned after sunset and a large cloud took shape from it as the sky cooled into night.
While the color slipped away, the cloud grew and I caught a flicker of lightning on the northern edge. Rain didn’t fall and the wind never really picked up. However a fork crackled through the air every few minutes for the next couple of hours.
The storm slowly churned east towards Calgary and the open prairie beyond. The trailing edge left behind a clear sky dotted with stars. This last photograph caught the moon illuminating the cloud as it rose.
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Sunset into smoke and silhouettes
The wildfire smoke gave the setting sun a fiery hue as it fell towards the horizon on the first day of August. A few minutes earlier I had watched as it slipped into the clouds rendered indistinct in the hazy atmosphere. When the orb re-appeared just above the horizon, with the pink light tracing out the tops of the cloud bank, I enjoyed this beautiful moment.
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In a sea of prairie green
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Lightning over Lac Mercier
This lake is near Mont-Tremblant and has a lovely beach where my son and I swam the day before this heavy storm blew through the Laurentian Mountains.
The lightning strikes came in sets, striking the hills across the water. Beside the beach is a pier and a small covered area where I was able to hide from the rain. That afforded a wonderful view of the lake and back towards the vibrant little town. Of course, much of that view was illuminated only by the flashes of lightning – most along the hills across the water but a couple were over the community.
I felt the accompanying thunder from those deep in my chest. Frequently, the wind ripped through the valley and drove the rain horizontally. The temperature dropped fast when the storm approached and stayed cool through the evening. I was glad for the rain gear I had stashed in my pack.
There were occasional stretches where everything calmed down, almost to catch a collective breath, but the storm crashed across the mountains relentlessly otherwise. A proper summer storm by every measure. After a couple of hours, the rain picked up even more and I thought it was well past time to get home.
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A smoked sunrise over Springbank
Smoke from wildfires to the west has brought a haze to the sky around Calgary. That saturated the sun’s appearance as it rose off the horizon. I watched the sunrise at the same time as the moonset from a hill near of Springbank.
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Mountain lines above the Chain Lakes
During the road trip home after a quick trip to the Kootenays my dad and I stopped to enjoy this view of the hills, valleys and mountains on the eastern flank of the Rockies above the Chain Lakes.
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Mist in Mont-Tremblant
One morning while I was in Québec, I drove out early and found the mist evaporating off of the Rivière du Diable (Devil’s river) where it flows south of Lac Munroe in Mont-Tremblant National Park. I only explored a small corner of the park but was enchanted by its beauty.
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Lightning strikes over Lac Mercier
A fierce thunderstorm in the Mont-Tremblant area of the Laurentians in Québec last night. Steady sheets of lightning, howling wind and hammering rain accompanied the thunder that rang across the valleys for hours. This photograph was from Lac Mercier just after midnight. When this lightning cracked, it shook the gazebo I was standing under. I left a few minutes later – I’d had enough and the rain that followed shortly afterwards was of an almost biblical level. It was time to get home. I will share a few more from the night soon but my son and I are off to Ottawa to visit Parliament Hill.
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A superior lake for a morning swim
This was my first view of Lac-Supérieur when I was driving in the Laurentians early yesterday morning. Despite the sign, I really wanted to run down the dock and dive in.
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Canada Day fireworks in Mont-Tremblant
Kian and I headed up the ski hill last night to get a good vantage point for the fireworks. We found a great slab of bare rock near the flying mile chairlift and enjoyed the explosions as they lit up the village and echoed across the valley.
Pretty fantastic to spend a warm night watching the light show above this pretty little town with my son.
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Happy Canada Day!
I love this country, its people and the direction we are, generally, heading in. Lot’s of ground still to cover on equality, indigenous people’s rights, the economy and many more. But, we are discussing these, looking in the mirror and moving forward together. That is worth celebrating!
The photograph is from this morning along a little waterfall near the village of Mont-Tremblant in Québec, Canada.
