Early into the Tawatinaw Valley

Nestow Location

An unusually mild November gave me itchy feet last week, so I did a road trip up to the Tawatinaw Valley north of Edmonton. I connected with the gravel road at Nestow just off Highway 2A after an hour long drive in the dark. I had no goal in mind, so I slowly cruised up the road in the pre-dawn light, admiring the glow of the birch and aspen groves as they reflected back the car’s headlights. I was keeping watch on the eastern sky as I drove, looking for a spot where I could find a birch grove backlit by the rosy morning light. I was imagining this photograph: the pale trunks of a birch or aspen grove painted with light from a hand-held flashlight and the red glow of dawn behind. But the valley slope and the morning light did not coincide with my imaginings, and I drove on.

The Tawatinaw Valley is a glacial remnant. While today the river flows north to the Athabasca river, geological evidence indicates that it originally flowed south, a tunnel valley that had formed beneath the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet 12 000 years ago¹. Today the valley road provides a pleasant drive through farmland and ranches interspersed with natural forest. I stopped at a Watchable Wildlife (a now apparently defunct attempt by the Alberta Government’s Sustainable Resource Dept. to hi-lite areas of natural interest) location and walked down to a viewing platform overlooking some of the small lakes that are dotted here and there up and down the valley. I took some photographs using a split field neutral density filter to help equalize the light between the shadowed foreground and the sunlit shore behind.

View from the platform overlooking a lake.

(N.B. — I am trying to remedy the problem with the blurred look of the landscape photograph — I am at a loss to understand why WordPress sometimes displays photos this way as the original is sharp. Click to enlarge for a better view)

We have had an extraordinarily mild November this year. The autumn color is long gone and the bright orange-yellow fall color of the distant tamarack trees are now a rusty-brown. There are a few Natural Areas² in this region to explore, one near the town of Opal is said to be good tiger beetle country, so I will be exploring this area more frequently in the spring.

Equipment:

Nikon D80, Nikon 18-200mm VR Zoom Lens, Singh-Ray Galen Rowell Filter ND-2G-HS

References:

¹Geomorphology of the Tawatinaw Region

²Alberta’s Parks & Protected Areas Site Classifications

A New Era in Photography — National Geographic

A Toadlet of the Highlands

At the end of September I spent 5 days exploring the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. I  stayed at a campsite at Rampart Creek which was near a shallow pond beside the North Saskatchewan River. When returning from a walk one day I came across a toadlet, a juvenile Boreal or Western Toad, Bufo boreas, hopping across the path. It was a bit late in the season for toad activity, but I took advantage of its tardiness and took a few minutes to take some portraits in the white studio.

Boreal Toad, Bufo boreas.

My white studios were meant for bugs, but this particular toad was of such a small size (about 35mm/1.5″  in length), that I had no qualms placing it inside the white studio.  It was a cool day and the toad-ling was not overly concerned when it was picked up and brought over to the picnic table where I was doing my ’studio’ work. I  took a few picture in a white bowl first and then placed it in the larger white box for a ground level picture (in center, above). The color differences in the above collage are a result of the angle of the flash when the photograph was taken, but they are similar to the actual variation of color that can be found in the wild, running from a mottled green to dark brown.  I returned it to where I found it, off the path and near the pond, where it moved off into the water.  He had been a most co-operative subject.

The Boreal Toad is a one of the few amphibians found in alpine areas. It ranges down the length of western North America, from Alaska and the Yukon down to California. As adults they can reach a size of 12.5 cm (5″) from snout to vent, with the females being the largest. I plan to do a futrue article at Evolving Complexity with more details on this toad, but for those curious a backgrounder can be found at the Parks Canada site.

(Five photographs placed in a collage with Picasa. Taken with the Nikon D80 with a Tamron 90mm macro lens. Lighting was with a Nikon SB-600 flash equiped with a Lumiquest softbox)

That Time of Year

Summer Sun in Decline

Peyto Lake, Banff National Park

Peyto Lake

This was my second subject for the morning, and the sun had already climbed to a point where the warmth began to be noticed. I headed to Bow Summit, a popular tourist location because of the spectacular views of the turquoise waters of Peyto Lake. I was still early enough to beat the first bus load of visitors, but at the same time that meant that the lake would still be partly in shadow. I wanted to photograph something different from the typical post-card shot, but the odds were against me – clear blue sky, not a cloud to be seen and the lake partly shaded. I moved away from the viewpoint and headed up the trail in the direction of the Peyto Glacier. A brief walk through alpine forest brought me to a boulder covered slope that provided what I needed – foreground interest and a means to hide the shadowed shore of the lake.

(Nikon D80, Nikon 18 – 200mm VR  with graduated neutral density filter. Processed in Lightroom, resized in Picasa. ISO 200, f18, 1/60 sec.)

The Ramparts by Twilight

This was the view from my campsite on the Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park. Well after sundown, dusk… Mountains by Moonlight…

Over the North Saskatchewan River

(Nikon D80 with 18 – 200mm VR lens set at 18mm. 30 sec exposure, f16 at ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom 2.5)

Packing it up…

This last trip to the mountains gave me the opportunity to compare two systems for carrying my photographic gear – one, an older LowePro backpack, the Nature Trekker AW II and a newer LowePro sling bag, the SlingShot 300 AW. I used information from the LowePro website to make the following comparison table:

Hardworking backpack can be customized for multiple systems. Includes ergonomic harness, quick-adjust waist belt, All Weather Cover™ and water-resistant zippers. Trekker Tripod Mount™ positions down the center or on either side, attachment loops made from the tough Hypalon® you see in river rafts hold optional SlipLock™ accessories wherever they’re most convenient.	The SlingShot 300 AW uses a unique sling design to go from “carry mode” to “ready mode” in just seconds. Carried comfortably on the back, it easily rotates to the front so you can get to your camera quickly. The SlingShot 300 AW has a full access lid to make loading it a snap. This feature-rich bag also includes a built-in memory card pouch, micro fiber LCD cloth and two generous organizer pockets. It also has water-resistant zippers and All Weather Cover™
Capacity: Pro SLR; 4–5 lenses (up to a 400mm f/2.8); flash and accessories; or compact medium format system (like the Mamiya® 645); or small field camera system	Capacity: Pro SLR with attached 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens, 5-6 extra lenses or flash unit and cables and accessories.
Size(Interior): 11.4W X 5.9D X 16.7H in./ 29 X 15 X 42.5 cm	Size(Interior): 11.8W X 6.5D X 11.8H in./ 30 X 16.5 X 30 cm
Size(Exterior): 14.6W X 15D X 19.1H in./ 37 X 38 X 48.5 cm	Size(Exterior): 13W X 9.1D X 17.3H in./ 33 X 23 X 44 cm
Outer fabric: water-resistant 600D ripstop nylon and 600D Endura™ nylon	Outer fabric: water-resistant micro fiber, ripstop nylon and 600D TXP™
Weight: 6.39lbs/2.9kg	Weight: 3.09lbs/1.4kg

On the Icefields Parkway

I have recently returned from a trip to the Banff National Park section of the Icefields Parkway. I based myself at the Rampart Creek Campground, 88 km north of the tourist haven of Lake Louise and explored the area for 5 days. Each morning I would be up before sunrise, trembling in the near freezing temperatures. I would make my way to a roadside pull-over, mix a luke-warm instant chocolate (my thermos ain’t what it used to be…) and coffee mix, recline my seat and watch the stars until the first light of dawn showed itself. I would then cruise down the highway in search of scenery that had the potential of catching the first rays of the early morning sun.

First Light - Icefields Parkway

Now landscape  photographers defer from ordinary folk. If someone were to ask me how the weather was on my trip, I would have replied, “Terrible! Four days of clear sunny skies and only one with clouds!”

It can ruin a trip, having too much ‘good’ weather. Flat blue skies are good for postcards, but I was hoping to go a bit beyond that on this trip. I had to rely on a selection of filters – split-field neutral density, neutral density and very early morning light with long exposures to make some images that I am happy with. In the first blue sky days I also resorted to a bit of stock photography of the RV-going-down-a-highway type, but my memory card seems to have been repelled by the idea, because I can find no trace of them – not on the card, and not on the computer or the back-up. Go figure.

So now I don’t trust my SanDisk Extreme III SDHC 8 GB card at all (this is the second time this has happened), and I still have no way of knowing if it is actually the card’s fault or the camera’s. When I discovered the problem I looked for solutions – there doesn’t seem to be a known issue with the card or the camera. I have updated the firmware on the D80, but I don’t know if that was the problem. Is there any way to test an SD card? I would not want to use this card again until I have some way of determining where the fault is.

More on this mountain trip later, as the panoramas are assembled…

(Panorama made with Nikon D80 and the Nikon VR 18 – 200mm zoom lens set at 18mm and vertical. ISO 200, f16, 1/20 sec exposure with white balance set to cloudy. Image assembled with Microsoft ICE, adjusted and cropped in Adobe Lightroom)

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British Wildlife Photography Awards

The winners of the first annual British Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced, and can be viewed at Winners 2009.

Some great photography here, and even though the winning photograph, a dew spangled damsel fly is  somewhat clichéd, it is technically excellent.

And it is great to see that there is a youth category to encourage young photographers.

(Pictured, the winner of the Urban Wildlife category: The Ultimate Flock by Lorne Gill)

Late Harvest

Late in the Day