Evening night morning in the Valley of the Ten Peaks
A good friend and I went up to Moraine Lake at the beginning of June. We photographed from dusk into dark, crashed out for a couple of hours and then shot the sunrise. These are a few of the photographs as the time rolled by.
Into the night…
Rising with the sun…
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Spring equinox and the supermoon
I was happy to miss the moonrise on March 19th. My daughter was performing one of her dance routines – where she sings too so I was in no rush to leave that. Quick shout out to the Moto Café in Bragg Creek – thanks for hosting the recital – wonderful coffee, scones and atmosphere!
When the performers had all finished, I headed east towards the prairie and found the full moon still fairly low with the alpen glow hanging in the sky above it. I knew this stand of trees and thought it’s silhouette, along with the color in the sky, would frame the golden supermoon well. It felt like a great start to spring!
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Elbow Falls under an alpen glow
A cold morning greeted me at Elbow Falls yesterday. I set up from a rocky perch above the river and enjoyed watching the day come in. The clouds above caught the early pink light while the land below was gently brushed by the alpen glow that preceded sunrise.
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Evening at Cathedral Rock
Alpen glow over Red Rock Crossing
Canon 5D Mark III + 70-200mm f/4 lens at 140mm: 2 seconds at f/11 on ISO 200
The afternoon I spent at Red Rock Crossing was a fun trek along Oak Creek but when the shadows lengthened, I trotted back to where I could have a view of Cathedral Rock. It’s an iconic location and with the evening light moving into deep reds I was enthralled by her beautiful cliffs and spires.
Nighttime at the Cathedral
Canon 5D Mark III + 70-200mm f/4 lens at 184mm: 5 seconds at f/4 on ISO 2500
After a couple minutes of splashing around, the red color disappeared quickly, leaving pink clouds above and darkening rock below. It did not take very long for the stars to start standing out against evening’s blanket. A beautiful evening in Sedona, Arizona.
Sedona to sleep
Canon 5D Mark III + 70-200mm f/4 lens at 140mm: 5 seconds at f/4 on ISO 3200
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Autumn glow at Wedge Pond
Canon 5DIII camera with a Canon 17-40mm lens (at 17mm): 13 seconds at f/22 on ISO 400
With most of the aspens having turned gold in the lower reaches of Kananaskis Country around Bragg Creek, I was excited to get up to Wedge Pond to see how the colours were around the water and up towards Mount Kidd. It was a cloudy morning but for a few minutes at dawn the sun broke through in a couple of places. A strange, soft purple-pink glow illuminated the whole scene fleetingly. I doubt I will ever get tired of visiting this place.
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Autumn at Wedge Pond
(please click on any image to go to a higher resolution version)
The morning was cold as I walked down to Wedge Pond on Friday. No frost, but very chilly under the clear skies. I woke early so I was there before the skies had started to brighten. The only sounds were the splash of the occasional fish jumping and bull elk bugling challenges nearby in the forest. It was a special moment to take in. In the darkness the exposures ranged up to five minutes to show the pre-dawn scene as below. The slowly lightening sky to the east reflected on the upper flanks of the mountain.
As the sun approached, the birds started chattering and a few other photographers showed up for the alpen glow and then first light on Mount Kidd. Kananaskis lived up to expectations again. It was lovely to be on the lake’s shore for the morning with the autumn colours coming in.
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Rocky Mountain Landscapes: Wedge Pond
I have been spending a fair amount of time in Kananaskis Country as autumn has taken hold across the Rockies in Southern Alberta. A couple of mornings I have spent daybreak on the shoreline of Wedge Pond just off Highway 40 a few kilometers south of the Nakiska Ski Resort. Before the sun rises high enough to hit Mount Kidd’s ridges, the whole mountain glows red in the pre-dawn light.
After only a couple of minutes, the sunlight reaches over The Wedge and Mt. McDougal to Kidd and then it quickly runs down the mountainside as the sun climbs into the sky.
The image above with the sun drawing a red band along the top of the mountain was from September 5th where all the trees skirting the pond were still in summer green. The first two images were taken just under three weeks later. A couple of cool days got the seasonal change kickstarted and the transformation to yellow and orange was complete in just a few days.
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Midnight Sun – Cochrane, Alberta
Sunset was 10pm last night but the sky was still quite bright in the northwest after midnight.
These clouds were incredible and worth pulling off to the side of the road in the middle of the night.
Christopher Martin Photography 