Mountains and Theatre

This is the reason I love living where I do. December 11 morning, near Okotoks. The clouds put the prairie in shade and the mountain tops in the sun.  It was beautiful. Cold, but beautiful.

Over the past several years, I have photographed the play put on at Alexander's high school. This is a fun and fairly challenging project, as it takes about 3 days. I go to one full rehearsal  to get an idea of the lighting and staging of the play, then shoot the dress rehearsal, then process the photos and print about 15 for the school promotion.

This year the play was "Grease". As always, I am impressed with the talent and work that the students put into the production. The quality level is way beyond a typical high school production.

Here are some of the  photos:

 

At the end of the dress rehearsal, I ask the actor who played Danny, the principal male role, if he would pose for a more formal portrait, in character. The players are naturally keen to get going after a five hour rehearsal (!) so I had about 5 minutes to set up my lights and get the shot. It is great to photograph actors as they are not shy in front of a camera and they take direction well. I am quite happy with the result, especially given the short time I had.

Garth

July Road Trip

In July Matthew and I went on our annual road trip to Vancouver and Gibsons. These are a lot of fun, good bonding between son and dad and lots of laughs.

 This time we stopped at places on Highway 1 that we have not stopped at before.  First was Wapta Falls in Kicking Horse Pass.

Next was the Giant Cedars in Rogers Pass. this is a coastal rain forest 400 kilometers from the coast! A unique combination of the way the winds blow and the topography.  Very interesting in that these trees are 50 meters tall and it is cool and damp among them. But you can see where this micro climate ends and the normal evergreen forests of the Rockies begin again.

 

Matthew giving some guide to the size of these trees.

In Vancouver, we did another adventure that I have never done - went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. This has been a tourist attraction for about 100 years. Not the original bridge!

It is a true coastal rain forest. Huge cedar trees! The tallest is 76 meters (250 ft) and 1300 years old!! 80 years old at the time of Charlemagne in Europe! Mind boggling.  the tallest tree at 127 meters was cut down in 1895.  Surprising that these trees survived the ravages of man and nature. This is not the tallest, but I liked the view on this and the next.

Then we went over to Gibsons, BC to visit my sister. On the ferry, we heard singing and discovered a Kenyan Girls Choir on their way to visit Gibsons. I couldn't get a shot from the front. Their singing was wonderful.

This is their director, Isaac Kaguri Kavehere, adding some bass to the choir.

Arriving at My sister's house, we were greeted by this deer in the front yard. Completely unafraid of us. After this photo was taken, it happily began to eat again.

Evening in Gibsons harbour.

Chaster Beach at sunset. A bit misty, but it added to the atmosphere and helped filter the sun.

Vegetables for dinner.

On our way home we stopped for a sandwich at this meadow in Kicking Horse Pass. A carpet of flowers.

It was a great trip and we look forward to doing something similar again next yer.

Random Shots

Been a bit of time since my last post.  No real  theme today, just some samples of some shots over the summer.  The first was taken in July, when the canola was in full bloom.

The rest are taken with my new Pentax K5.  My old Pentax K20 has more than 100,000 clicks on it and I am concerned it may die.  As the K5 was a great bargain as it was discontinued, I picked one up. Very happy with it and an improvement in image quality from the K20.

 On September 2 there was a very strong wind blowing - 80 to 100 kph.  I noticed that there were three hawks swirling about and landing in our yard.  They had a kill -  a gopher -  and were each in turn chasing the other off.

Having just received my new K5 a day earlier, I put on my Sigma 170-500 and stuck my head out the upstairs window. As I did so, one of the birds appeared just over the roof, stationary in the wind. It was almost too close for 170mm!  I blasted away at 7 fps, getting the money shots. Phenomenal - I had never seen the hawks this close.  I took a moment to chimp and saw the dreaded words 'No card in the camera' on the screen!!!  I had taken some test shots earlier and left the card in my computer.

After screaming around the house and berating myself for being an idiot, I calmed down enough to take many more shots, but the birds never came as close.  So I am posting the leftovers - of my shots, not the gopher! (I went into the yard after and there was not evidence of the gopher. Nature is very efficient)

The last two are of wheat in a field near my house, early morning as sun began to rise.

Hope you enjoy these.

Garth

Finally got around to going through the rest of the photos of Lake O'Hara.

Saturday, August 4, Alexander and I headed off for a hike. We didn't really have an objective - there are many possibilities. So it was up the trail.

Looking back at a portion of the trail. This is the beginning of the Opabin Plateau area.

Again there were marmots - not afraid.

Then we decided to hike up to the Opabin Glacier. It was a beautiful, warm day, but the breeze off the glacier kept us cool.  Looking back over Opabin Lake and the Plateau. Getting close as you can see snow.

We saw a strange sight - a container of some sort just sitting by a rock

Thinking it to be placed there by aliens, we had a peek inside - empty.  Very odd!

Looking up at the glacier

An ice cave up close - you can see this in the previous photos. Didn't go in as we weren't sure if the roof was stable and we didn't have any ice gear with us anyway. Very hard to walk on ice without crampons.

Another ice cave with the melt water coming off it.  Lousy exposure I know, but hard with all that ice reflecting the sun!

Alexander standing just at the toe of the glacier. We are at about  2350m/7755ft at this point.

AS we were getting ready to go, we saw some climbers coming over the pass that is to the south.  They roped up and came down the glacier. Gives a better perspective on the size of the glacier, although it is really a small one.

Back down on the Opabin Plateau - one of the Moor Lakes on the Plateau, Wiwaxy Peak centre background and Cathedral Mountain left background.

The next day - August 5, Alexander and I again went out, this time fairly early - about 6:30 am, to take more photos. The HDR photos I posted earlier were taken this day.

Alexander surveying Lake O'Hara and Mount Schaffer

Alexander took many photos too. He likes to experiment with the view. The lake was a perfect mirror.

More reflections

Yours truly taking the HDR panorama I posted earlier.

And finally, a few shots of the campground area:

and our home for the time we were there

Should you ever be able to make a trip to this area, I hope my photos will serve to recommend it.

Garth