Castle Mountain – Night Photography in the Canadian Rockies

I recently had the good fortune to spend a week in Banff attending the 2014 International Snow Science Workshop. The conference was an excellent mix of snow science researchers, practitioners, and industry members and covered a lot of ground including snow mechanics, materials properties, human factors, and of course plenty of time for networking.

While in Banff I swapped out a night of networking in favour of astro photography. One of my favourite things about doing night shoots is that by their very nature they force me to slow down. I have found that it takes at least 30min of open exposure to time to get a star-trails image that I’m happy with, any less doesn’t do it, and this is 30min of slow, outdoor, time that I wouldn’t otherwise take. Unfortunately, the night I chose had a few clouds blow in on me and I ended up cutting the session short. I think the images still worked out, and I’d like to go back again for another try.

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Since the clouds were covering Castle Mountain I re-oriented and tried for some shots of the Milky Way galaxay, another favourite of mine. Unfortunately there were clouds there too.

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Marble Canyon – Canadian Rockies Photography

Marble Canyon is a fantastic place. It’s a very accessible slot-canyon with an easy paved path right off Highway 93 South. The path starts out at the river level and before long you’re climbing up and up while the canyon and river drops beneath you. The rocks there have a great rusty-red colour and lend some contrast to the pale-blue glacier water.

 

Marble Canyon is inside an old wildfire burn area which lends it a very spooky and other-worldly feel.

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Spring Safety Article in Outdoor Photographer – Canadian Rockies Adventure Photography

We (Jonathan Neufeld and Keith Szlater) were published in the April 2011 edition of Outdoor Photographer.

Check out the Solutions: Spring Safety article on pg 94, it’s got some great information on avalanches, running water, and hypothermia. It’s the second article now that we’ve had published and hopefully there will be a few more on it’s heels.

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Prairies and Mountains – Canadian Rockies Photography

An iconic image is one that evokes an immediate reaction, something with an immediate sense of place and emotion. For me, iconic images of Alberta always have a juxtaposition of prairies and mountains. There is something about the rolling fields in the foreground with the towering white mountains standing firm behind them that really appeals to me.

The north side of Highway 1, just west of the Springbank turnoff, is a location that I’ve noticed while aiming for destinations further west. Today however I went there with the express purpose of capturing the juxtaposition of prairies and mountains while there was a small break in the winter weather.

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