Category Archives: memberships

Maligne Canyon ice hike

Maligne Canyon ice hikeI had a great experience last night on the Maligne Canyon ice hike in Canada’s Jasper National Park. This is a trip you must make with a guide. Boots and ice spikes are provided — a necessity for the second half of the hike when you are literally walking on the frozen and sometimes slushy river. It’s a pretty good trek from the parking area to the ice falls and fairly disorienting in the dark with only an LED headlamp to show you the way. There are a few overlooks at the top of the falls that are accessible during the day on your own but the fun of the night trip begins when the guide leads you off of the path and down into the canyon. It’s similar to exploring a cave except you can see the stars between the high canyon walls and many of the formations are ice instead of stone. This is not a trip that can be made in the summer as the river prevents all access.

To say that this was a challenge to shoot would be an understatement. It’s a three-hour trip and you’re not encouraged to linger too long in any one place. In my case, I was with a group which added the challenge of getting time exposures without other’s flashes going off. Still some nice images were made. Here the guide shines his hand-held light behind a frozen ice flow.

It’s a great trip and I would highly recommend it. Just be aware that it is exceedingly slippery in places and it pays to follow the advice of a good guide to get the best footing and avoid a wet and chilly surprise.

Orion over Lake Johnson, Banff

Orion over Johnson Lake, Banff

I arrived in Banff in Alberta, Canada yesterday afternoon to beautiful, clear skies and temps in the 30s (F). Much better than the below-freezing temps and ice storms I left back home.

I took this shot of the constellation of Orion on a moonlit hike on frozen Lake Johnson last evening. I haven’t done a lot of night photography and was surprised by how much difficulty I had focussing (time exposures can mislead — it was much darker out than it appears in the photo). I had to switch to manual focus because it was too dark for the autofocus to lock. Knocking the focus all the way to infinity didn’t result in sharp images, however. I needed to “pull back from the edge” a bit and stop down to use the depth of field to widen my in-focus area. It still seemed hit or miss at times (cold and increasingly numb fingers — and brain — might have also been contributing) but I managed to get a few reasonably sharp images.

Another photographer I was with, Michael DeFreitas, suggested using a fluorescent white balance — something he had learn on shoots in the Antarctic. I have to admit, it did give fairly clean whites and nice rich blues in such dim light. Thanks, Michael. I look forward to getting these back to the big screen in the office to see what detail and color I can pull out of them.