The Wedge - July 14th, 2013

After reading lots of on-line trip reports on the Wedge scramble route I thought it'd be fun to go and try as it seemed to be within my skill level. I was nervously excited about crossing from the false summit to the true summit as there is a narrow path between the two and I imagined capturing incredible pictures from the lofty peak. The recent floods in southern Alberta had washed out some bridges in Kananaskis and last Thursday they had announced that the bridge over Evan-Thomas creek had been restored to single lane traffic which you have to cross to get to the trail head at Wedge pond.

A lot of the trip reports I read are from the late 90's or early 2000's when everyone seemed to be cutting their mountain-scrambling-teeth on the routes that I'm just starting to discover. There was a bit of information about route finding and getting through the trees to the shoulder of the mountain. The approach trail was easy to find and after 15 years (since some of the earliest posted trip reports) of people climbing the Wedge that the trail was very well defined. There were a couple of washed out sections on the way up due to recent heavy rains but they didn't pose much of a problem.

I walked through the forest, up the shoulder and got to the base of the summit in about two and a half hours. On the way there was a spectacular view of Mt. Kidd and the Kananaskis valley.

Rainbow - July 4, 2013

The clouds were directly overhead of the house and I was on the driveway out front when I spotted a rainbow in the sky.  Hopped in the car and started driving east on McKnight blvd towards Conrich. The rainbow wasn't fully formed but the left leg was pretty strong. I stopped at the side of the road and made a couple shots with a longer lens to compress the landscape and zoom in on the horizon. I drove east some more, getting closer to the storm front. As I got closer the rainbow started to get stronger and soon I could see the whole thing. Next was to find a vantage point from which to shoot from. The fields are just starting to turn yellow so I turned off the main highway and onto a gravel road heading north to try and find a composition that would include the fields.

Rainbows are positional in that if you move or change the angle between you, the sun and the rain that's falling, the rainbow will move. If the angle changes too much the rainbow can disappear. As I drove north I was hoping that the rainbow wouldn't up and vanish. I came across this side road, stopped driving, hopped out and started making photos.

I like this one because of the access road in it. I had a few where I was further to the left and it was just field but this one has some nice leading lines and the access road helps break up the foreground. There are also some power lines coming in from the upper right. I thought about cloning them out but decided to leave them in as they also help to direct the eye towards the center of the frame.

Sibbald Meadows Pond - June 29, 2013

I had been itching to get out and see if the wild flowers were blooming. Many areas west of Calgary in the mountains are inaccessible due to flood damage. Conor and I drove out to Sibbald meadows pond for a bit of fishing. A few years ago I shot some wildflowers there and was worried that they'd be out by now and that I was missing an opportunity to get out there and shoot. As it turned out, many of the wild flowers I shot before were in late July and I was a bit early. There were still some out though. Conor and I fished the pond for a little while, without much luck, and after a while I traded my fishing rod for a camera and tripod.

I had climbed up a pretty steep hillside and was trying to frame the prairie smoke. Unfortunately I`d forgotten my cable release in the car and so I had to make do without it.. the challenge is that at macro views if there is any motion in the object at all, the picture will be blurry. Even pressing the release on the camera can induce motion and make the picture blurry from camera motion. Using the cable release takes away one of these variables by keeping the camera steady during exposure. After taking many photo`s, I was able to find a composition that I liked and to position the focus where I wanted with out much blur.

Peace Bridge - June 27, 2013

Parked the car in China town with my bike on the carrier, and rode around to try and find a place on the river to make an interesting picture. Ended up near the peace bridge. I took some shots from the south end into the tunnel of the bridge then made my way across to the north side.

As the sun was setting, I could see that the light was reflecting off of the surface of the water and wanted to make a long exposure to help enhance the light bands reflecting off the buildings.

The river is still pretty high, but not as high as last Friday when the flooding occurred, but it's still muddy and brown.

I ended up talking to a random fellow for quite a while and missed some of the sunset. By the time we were done the lights on the bridge had come on which would have been a different photo but by then I was ready to move on and spent about 15 minutes on the bike paths looking for more shots. I didn't find any that would have prompted me to stop and get the camera out so I rode back to the car and came home.

Thanks for looking
brad.

Calgary Skyline - June 25, 2013

I'd parked near rotary park just above center street. I had my bike on the bike carrier, and used it to ride along the bike path's near the river. I rode down the hill and across the center street bridge to the suoth side of the river and ended up going east. The new foot bridge on the end of St. George island that is being constructed was in pretty bad shape because of the flooding and I tried to get a shot but the light quickly changed and it started to rain on me.

I moved towards the Langevin bridge and ended up hanging out underneath it to avoid getting soaked. Eventually the rain stopped. Actually, it didn`t really stop, it just kind of paused. I could see there was a pretty strong rainbow in the east but didn't feel like I was in a good position to capture it. I was on the bridge and was able to make a composition I liked that included the rainbow. The sun was very low and there were lots of very interesting clouds in the sky. The light was almost magical.

Another view of the Langevin bridge.

On my way back to the car, I paused and made this shot of the Center street bridge and some downtown buildings. There was lots of colour and reflections on the buildings. I think this shot turned out pretty good, I've tried in the past to get a similar view but I've not had nice sunset light to complement it.

Thanks for looking.

Brad

Bow River flood - June 21, 2013

The river has flooded due to heavy rain the past few weeks and a lot of the city is under water on this, the first day of summer.

For part of the after noon I played tourist and went down to the river at Center street to see it in person. There were a number of curious on lookers walking around the area. The river is high and flowing very fast with a lot of debris racing by in the muddied water. I could hear the roar of the water and feel the unrelenting power of the river as it forced its way past the bridge. The railing in the foreground is part of the bike path that leads under the lower deck of the bridge. Normally the river water is about 15-20 feet below the lower deck, here the water is slipping just below the road. Curious onlookers risked walking onto the road in order to take some candid photos with the long exposure some of them have turned into ghosts.

There are a lot of people affected by this flood and the cleanup will be a long time. My thoughts go out to those who have lost or damaged property.

Thanks for looking
Brad.

Wasootch Peak - June 1, 2013

Climbed up to the summit of Wasootch Peak also known as GR334455. I'm somewhat new to climbing and peak names and so on and I'm not really sure what the GR334455 is other than maybe it's a map name and the name "wasootch peak" is really an unofficial name. I suppose I'll learn some of this over time, but for now it was fun to walk up the side of the mountain and make it to the summit.

The view below is just after passing the tree line looking back along the ascent route. Down below is Highway 40 and the road that leads to Kananaskis village and the Nakiska ski hill.

While I was walking I wore a GoPro on a chest harness and would sometimes take some video. The clip below is just as I climb up to the summit ridge. I thought it was kind of neat and offered a different perspective than just photos.

If your curious, you can see other photo's from this day here

Thanks for looking,
Brad