Dear Reader (2020-09-30),
Introduction
Thank you for visiting and commenting. Thank you for providing support, encouragement, and inspiration even if you didn’t know you were doing so. Thank you for the pleasure of your company, especially Michelle and Liz. Today is also an answer to the question, why have there been such a flurry of posts this week. In keeping with the pattern first presented in the 30 in 30 Project, the Bryant Lake Trail was also a milestone event – it was my 30th new-to-me trail.
Thursday September 24, 2020 – Bryant Lake Trail < 17.0 – out and back,
The morning begins more slowly than other walking days. Eventually I make it into the truck for the drive to a new trail and a new road. I am excited. My research has suggested that this is a particularly wild part of Kananaskis The trailhead is 15/20 minutes north of Forgetmenot Pond on the road called “Powderface Trail”. Even though the parking area for the trailhead is just a partially gravelled flat area on the side of the road, it does have a name, the Canyon Creek parking area.
Once upon a time before the floods of 2013, I have read there used to be a trail. The first 5 k or so of the walk is really a slow game of find the trail. Most of the time I am walking on gravel, shale, or rock, as the creek beds are much wider than they once were, before the flood. Every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of the old dirt trail. Those segments are short, and then it is back to the stones (01,03). At the beginning of this year’s series of walks, the lack of trail would have made me apprehensive. Now, I am just taking today’s route in stride. The wind has been silently howling down the valley all morning, whipping the straps of my pack against my face. The route leaves a stream bed, and climbs up towards a tarn, Bryant Lake (02). The forest is still (04) and provides pleasant relief from the wind. Once above the treeline the land looks wild and barely tamed (05-08).
After a snack at the lake, I play with a combination of multiple exposures and ICM in an experiment to capture both structure and wind (09-12). The last two images are straight ICM experiments because the idea of stone on the move (13-14) makes me smile.
On the return trip, in the middle of absolutely now here, I start to exchange pleasantries with 2 hikers walking towards me – it’s A and his brother E. It is a treat to see A after such a long time, and we spend the next 30/40 minutes chatting. I head back along the creek beds. They continue up the valley on the first day of their 3-day hike. This route was into the wildest country I have walked this year, and the first time I have met people I know on the trail.
Now what. The walking doesn’t stop. There will at some point be some sort of a summary post, and perhaps even a something else.
As always all comments are sought and welcome.
Cheers, Sean
All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2020-2024
Looking over the blog itself, my eyes went immediately to the intentional camera movement shots. But being a diligent reader/commenter I went back to the first set.
2-This one has grown on me. At first I didn’t appreciate how the light and shadows went with the rock textures, and the little splotches of colour.
3-A happy making shot. The contrasting stripes and striations are wonderful. All the textures and shapes on the other rock are a treat for the eyes.
4-This might have been a tricky shot to get the light on the wood just right, or you came along at the right time. Love the composition, and the light dark balance.
5-One of the things a viewer almost never knows exactly what a photo subject looks like in real life. Sure, we know that grass is mostly green, the sky is often blue, clouds are usually whitish. But rocks can be almost any colour. So when I see this photo I’m thinking this could be what it really looks like, light coloured rocks in full harsh sun. Or it could be an editing choice on exposure.
6-Love the textures and bumps of colour, giving a strong sense of how high, and how up that slope is.
I’ve played with intentional camera movement several times, and found the results interesting, sometimes abstractly so, but not especially compelling. 9 and 14 are the most interesting to me, mainly because they’re the most abstract. At first for 9 I thought you’ve been working on your tax paperwork inbox.
Thank you Keith for visiting and being such a diligent reader/commenter.
~ 2 also grew on me. Initially it was nearly left on the cutting room floor, but eventually I found it was successful – it just needed a little help to re-establish depth.
~ 3 Even given my love of blue, I have on occasion started to slide the blues a little left to emphasize the foreground. In reality this was brown rock against grey rock – I just helped in post-processing
~ 4 thank you – I exposed for my subject and then let the rest fall away – I did return some light to the small pool of light near the lower right corner.
~ 5 This is wild country, and there really is not much difference between the black and white and what I experienced.
Cheers
~ re: taxes – These days most of what was once shoebox material has gone digital but the metaphor still holds true 🙂