Stars over Mt. Rundle Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park, Canada Willie and I got our first taste of the northern lights when we were in Iceland in March. Since then I've been eager to see more aurora and had hoped that we'd see a little during our time in Banff. On this evening, a solar storm was predicted, that we hoped would cause the sky to glow green. NASA measures the solar radiation, which is what causes the aurora, and assigns it a number on a 1-9 scale. To see the aurora in Banff we needed something around a Kp 5 storm. Unfortunately, the storm that hit was only a Kp 4 and the only thing we saw was a *very faint* green glow on the very horizon. Our first stop, though, while hunting for the aurora was Vermillion Lakes. Even though the sky only had a faint green tint, there was some beautiful light in the clouds and hitting Mrt Rundle, due to light pollution from the town of Banff. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 1600
Clouds over Castle Mtn Banff National Park, Canada I spent almost a week in Banff and got all sorts of weather: clear skies, rain, snow, more snow, fog, clouds, you name it. The weather never put a damper on our photography and Willie and I spent our time driving madlessly around trying to find scenes to photograph. We made our way towards Lake Louise as a snow storm was brewing in the area. The more north we drove the more clouds we saw. As we got near Castle Mountain it began to peak itself out of the brewing clouds. There happened to be a Vista Point pull-out on the highway that we pulled into, grabbed our big lenses, and snapped away as it popped into view. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8: 200mm, f/11, 1/320 sec, ISO 200
Snowshoeing to Peyto Lake Banff National Park, Canada The Canadian Rockies are known for epic mountain and lake scenes, beautiful peaked mountains with colorful lakes sitting at their base. Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, and Peyto Lake, just to name a few. When we set out on our nearly week long trip to Banff National Park I expected to see as many of these mountain scenes as I could. Willie and I explored the area close to Banff National Park on our first few days, when the weather was clear and easy to get the lay of the land. Then a big snow storm hit and dumped over a foot of snow on the area. Our ability to venture further out and see many of these epic mountain scenes began to decline. On our last full day in Banff I turned to Willie and said "there's no way we're coming here and not seeing Peyto. Hop in the car, we're going!" And off we went ... which Willie was perfectly fine with since he wasn't driving and could do his typical thing: fall asleep. I was quite glad we had rented an all-wheel drive SUV because the road to Peyto, Icefields Parkway, really wasn't plowed. By that I mean that one lane had been plowed and it became a game of dodging cars. On the way to Peyto we had the plowed lane but on the way back ... well, lets say that was not the most fun time to be the driver. I had brought snow-shoes with me, in the event of needing to hike through the snow, and it turned out to be a good decision because the mile long trail to Peyto was filled with 2 feet of snow! A nice family from Colorado, whom we exchanged contact info with, sludged through first and carved out a path that made our hike with heavy camera gear much nicer! Although the epic mountains behind Peyto Lake never made an appearance, it was still an epic view! I've been wanting to put more of a "people element" into my photos lately, so when Willie was done taking his photos I hopped on down and placed myself in the photo. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 24mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 100
