Dear Reader (2022-10-15),
Healy Pass <>20k – Out and Back
Thursday October 06, 2022; Thursday October 13, 2022 – with Cam
It is October 6, and I am over halfway along the trail to Healy Pass when I meet a cannister (my new term for a collection of photographers) of photographers around 10:00 am. They are bubbling with brief words of success about their dawn photography session. They had started from the Sunshine gondola parking lot around 05:00. It strikes me that the trail to Healy Pass would be a relatively easy to navigate in the dark. It is wide (for a trail), well defined, the inclines are shallow, and the trail is only rocky for brief sections.
I arrive at the pass, make note that the blues are hazy, and the best light of the morning has long passed. There is an ebb and flow to what our eyes see, frame, and envisage. Oddly enough those waves of perception have nothing to do with time, place, or subject matter. Sometimes, like today my eyes see very little, and I have the banal photos to prove it. On the way back to the parking I stop at a small waterfall. By this time my eyes have improved (1, 2). After seeing my images captured near the pass, the thought of a walk-for-dawn takes further root.
It is October 13. April, rolled her eyes multiple times yesterday evening, when I told her my alarm was going to go off at 01:45 so that I could meet Cam at 03:00 near the Petro-Can station at #22 and the Trans-Canada. Shortly after 04:30 we have assembled our gear, turned on our headlamps, and are on the trail. It is a funny trail. It is only when one looks back, one realizes the amount of elevation that is being gained. Time and steps pass quickly as a we talk a little about this and a little about that. We also make note of recent bear signs. This leads to deciding that it would be nice to have a book called “What’s That Shit”. I don’t think that one has been written. But, when I get home, I do find a web site called “What’s That Scat”, a book titled “What Shat That?”, and for kids there is the book titled “Whose Poop is That?”. Having exhausted that topic, we walk and talk on. We arrive at Healy pass in time for dawn. Today my eyes are working much better (3-11).
Good company, good walk, and a decent image or three. Number 8 was a complete accident and one with which I am rather pleased. As always these images look better on a larger monitor.
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Cheers, Sean
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My first thought at the title was that I had missed a boat load of posts, then realized there are two numbering sequences at work. Then I wondered if bear spray was going to make an appearance.
We have both struggled with flowing water, and I really like what you’ve done with 1 and 2. I’d be hard pressed to say which I like better.
The light on the rocks below the delicate sky in 5 really caught my eye, but not so much that I’d have set my alarm for 1:45 am. What’s odd is that mountains are big solid things planted firmly in the earth, but I’ve never thought of that before. Yet somehow, these mountains give that impression of stability and solidness.
I don’t remember you doing many panoramas. Maybe that’s just my brain being feeble. But for 9 I ran the browser window as wide as it would go, being happy I was looking on computer screen, not the ever so filthy laptop screen. The shadow line and how it interacted with the layer lines in the mountains was fascinating. That must have been a tricky exposure.
As always, thank you Keith for visiting and commenting. Your comment on stability and solidness is interesting. I wonder if that is a function of framing, or especially in the case 5, whether it is function of the highlights on the rock face. Regarding 9, I exposed for the orange on the mountains, and did some dodging and burning to bring things in balance during post-processing.
I continue to admire you and your work very much. All the best to you, April, and the kids.
Dear Colleen, I am touched – thank you kindly.