Banff National Park

I woke at 4.30 am and a quick look at a shot near Johnson Lake I spotted last night I could see wouldn't work so I quickly drove around the nearby water features and found this great spot at cascade ponds.  
The clouds gave my the perfect strip of light across the Mt Rundle.  

That was the only sun I saw all day as the clouds where here to stay. So I did some of the popular Banff hikes up Johnston Canyon to visit two fairly boring (by my high standards) waterfalls. 

Next I drove to Moraine Lake, a very popular attraction and I kept seeing the same shot taken from the main viewpoint that I wanted to avoid and I found two nice spots for when the sun is out tomorrow. 

The one annoying thing about Banff is that there is a freeway right through the middle and everyone is driving too fast on it which makes it very difficult when I see a mountain range  I want to shoot and then want to explore the surrounding area for a good spot on the river or at a lake. So I was very happy when I got onto the quieter Icefields Parkway, the most picturesque road in the Rockies and began seeing shots I wanted to take when the sun comes out. 

I even saw what I thought was the epic shot of the mountains and setup for sunset hoping maybe I would get some colour in the sky but I was out of luck. 

I will be back here tomorrow night as this just looks dull. 

The Canadian Rockies - Kootenay National Park and Banff

It's amazing to be driving alongside the outskirts of the Rockies, seeing all the different shapes of the mountains that await. 
Along the way I noticed this mountain which had a great pattern from the last remaining snow down the creeks. I couldn't find a location that would add to the mountain but thought it was interesting enough to take just the mountain. The colour of the scene unfortunately was not interesting which is why it is black and white, my rule is if the colours don't add anything get rid of them. 

The first thing I did once arriving in Kootenay was hike to Dog Lake, it was nice and sunny and I ended up doing the hike with 3 canadians and their dog who probably did the hike 3 times over he was running around so much. The lake wasn't worth a shot as the clouds made the light horrible and the scene wasn't interesting enough to come back when the light would be nice. 
Just as we reached our cars it started to pour down so as I travelled up the park I was in the lookout for some nice stormy clouds over the mountains, which I did find here on the river. I had to wait a which for the rain to stop first though. 

Next I visited marble canyon, it was awesome to walk above such a deep canyon and see the water fall from the top all the way to the bottom that I captured in this shot. 

Ah yes another waterfall, I thought the rocks and the shapes the water made created an interesting shot. 

Kootenay National park is one of the smallest  parks in the Rockies and after half a day I was pretty happy I had seen what it had to offer and so entered Banff to explore ready for a Sunset and sunrise shot. As I was driving towards Banff the clouds parted and created an amazing strip of light across the mountains along with a rainbow. I rushed trying to find a clear spot to take a shot but the light quickly went and I missed it. It would have been my first rainbow shot! It's rare the light and scene behind a rainbow looks interesting so it's a real shame. 

But I had at least found the mountains I want to take at sunset so went about exploring all the nearby lakes for a good spot. 
The sunset certainly didn't disappoint!

Glacier National park Days 2 & 3

Since I was staying on the west side of the park that meant sunsise wasn't going to be worth getting up for so I got a nice long lie in this morning. 
I then explored some more areas of the park to see where I should be for sunsetand hiked to a few lakes. 
In the end I settled on Lake McDonald. 
Unfortunately though it was so cloudy I didn't get a good shot! 
So I drove back over to the east side to Two medicine lake to a location I saw yesterday ready for sunrise. 

I only just got this as the colour lasted for 2 minutes. 

I planned to re-take a picture of Virginia falls as there where no clouds today and the sun was at the right angle but when I arrived the route had been closed due to bears, it was so annoying since I just hiked it 2 days before! I almost thought about going anyway. 
I then headed back for the Canadian border for the Canadian Rockies!

Glacier National Park

It didn't start well in in Glacier National Park. I woke up early at 5am for sunrise but found myself scrambling around for the right spot, I found the right angle on the mountains the night before but it got too dark to find the perfect spot. In the end I settled for this shot on the lake, not an easy one to get as I had to walk through some woods off trail but it's not a spectacular one. That was also when I picked up my first ever tick as I discovered later that night. 

I then discovered this spot shortly after, I'm wishing I had been here for the first rays of light but then maybe I didn't miss out. 

Next I went for a short hike to visit the falls near St Marys lake, I took these shots on my 617 film camera so I'll have to wait to see how the turn out. Here are the shots taken

on my GF1 to give you an idea.  

Currently I was on the east side of the park and to get to the west side normally you could take a short drive along the going to the sun road, but annoyingly part of it was still closed at it's highest point due to snow so I had to drive 200km around it. On the way I did see some locations to revisit at sunrise at Two Medicine lake in the south east of the park.

I also got this shot of this pretty cascade waterfall on the outskirts.

Once on the west side my first place to visit was yet another waterfall, something the park has plenty of but not all that exciting. This one wasn't spectacular from the bottom but it did allow me to get this nice shot from the top. 

Next I went and hiked the Avalanche Creek, twice. The first time around I didn't take my camera as it was raining a bit so I was just checking it out. But once I got to Avalanche lake the sun came out and it was nice enough that I headed back a few hours later when the sun was lower. 

On the way back down I also took this nice shot of the creek. All in I did 9 miles of hiking and my legs were sore since half was uphill, but it was worth it for the shots. 

The Deer here aren't as scared of human as most places, this one just carried on with his business whilst bikers walked by. 

I am really looking forward to sleep after the long day. 

Heading back to Vancouver

On June 21st I set off from Toronto on the next big leg of my road trip across Canada back to Vancouver via the rockies. 
I had done my research and the Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces weren't going to offer me much for shots so I decided to drive straight through and just see if anything caught my eye. It didn't. 
I did 900 km the first day even picking up my very first hitch hiker, an 18 year old heading across canada working at various farms. The first night I stayed in a small town called Wawa, which means big bird which is why they have these everywhere. 

I had a drink in the only place still open and got talking to some American bikers on a road trip of their own. It was a good start as these road trips can get quite lonely on your own in the middle of national parks with no one to be seen. 

Day 2 I drove a huge 1100km (my record) to stay in the crappiest $70 motel ever somewhere along the trans Canada highway. I've paid half the price in the states and got a nicer room. I guess that's what you get in the middle of nowhere. 

On day 3 I got a shot thanks to a detour due to flooding, I have always wanted a nice hay bail shot to add to my collection.

You see some funny things on such a long road trip, and this was certainly one, I would love to know why it is better to pull a tractor this way. 

I also drove past this outside a scrap metal place. 

As night fell a storm came over me and for a a second time driving over the plains on this trip I could see hundreds of lightening strikes around me. So of course I took a shot bit with no decent landscape to go with it. 

On day 4 I had only a few hours of driving to do before arriving at the Rockies, which were teasing me on the way. 

At lunchtime I arrived at  Waterton Lakes national park.  It's small but has a sone nice mountains and creeks. It was very windy which made it hard to get shots.

I only spent the afternoon there before heading across the border to the USA to Glacier National Park so I would be ready for sunrise the next day. 

Toronto

My photography came to a complete stop when I arrived in Toronto a week and a half ago as I got sick. It was a shame as I felt like I was wasting my time here. I guess too many early rises with 4 hours sleep finally caught up with me! 

Once I was feeling better I started to explore the city, I had already done some research online and sort had an idea of where I needed to be, which is on Toronto island. This is the standard Toronto spot to get skyline in all it's glory which meant I needed to do something different so I spent an afternoon exploring the island on a dull cloudy day so I was ready with my location when the sun was out. 

The next day was that day and I hopped on the ferry to arrive at my spot at 3.30 for the best light on the scene, it's was a perfect day and I got a great shot.

I was lucky because just as I was setting up the shot a couple wondered by looking for somewhere to sit and were happy to be in my shot. 

Then it was the waiting game for me as I also wanted to get the skyline after sunset which meant 5 hours of sun bathing and book reading as there wasn't anything else on the island I wanted to shoot. 
Although whilst lying down I spotted this shot, which just happens to be the same tree in the shot above.

It was worth the wait as I got this shot, again there was a couple also watching the Sunset and kindly agreed to pose for the shot. 

Niagara Falls

On my way to my next stop I visited Niagara Falls, it's a shame it's such a tacky place with Casinos but the falls are impressive, I arrived too late to go on the Maid of the mist but plan to go back again before I leave Toronto. 

Parking here is expensive if you come alone at $18, but luckily I managed to find some free parking. 

I've never understood why the border police are so aggressive and rude when you pull up to enter the USA, it made even less sense when I now wanted to come back into Canada to be greeted by the same attitude, even when I have a work visa. It makes you wonder if they want you to spend money in their country. 

Washington DC

My trip across the states wouldn't be complete without visiting the capital. 

It's a funny place being such a small square mile or so, apparently crime is a big issue in the surrounding areas which is crazy when it's so close to the White house. 

There isn't much to shoot in terms of cityscapes here but some interesting monuments and buildings, most of which I shot on 617 film so I will have to wait and see how they turn out. 

The nice thing about the area is that all the historic buildings are very clean which is nice change from London but then London is much more historic. 

There is also the annoying no tripod rule at most monuments which is very restrictive for my style of shooting but I still got most of the shots I wanted to get. This shot would have been great on my 617 camera but instead I had to shoot it handheld on my panasonic gf1. 

It was close to 40 degrees during my stay here which made shooting quite unbearable at times, especially walking around with my heavy gear. 

Road Trip days 19-25: New York

It's been a while since I've had the time to blog, but also pictures on this leg of the trip have been very sparse as the weather took a turn for the worse. 

New York is a crazy city, the roads are the worst I've ever driven on, the drivers are terrible, it's noisy and dirty. It made me realise how nice London is. 

I arrive to a rainy New York on a Monday afternoon, not one to waste time I headed for downtown to explore. 

I soon realised this would be a hard city to photograph, all the buildings up close are a bit boring and it is a very messy city with lots of street clutter meaning getting a shot in the city very hard.

I then set about looking for a great view of the whole city to take and after lots of driving around along the east side river I could see it was a shot everyone had that included the Brooklyn bridge in the foreground. It's a great shot but I need to try and get something different. 

I wondered if there would be something interesting to be found on the Brooklyn bridge as there is a walkway across the middle. 

I was right, there was a great spot looking down the bridge with the city in the background, a shot no one seems to have, so now I have to wait for a nice sunrise to get the shot. 

Finally Saturday morning was forecast to be a clear morning so I set my alarm for 4am and headed for my spot on Brooklyn bridge and discovered why no one had this shot, because everytime a car passes over the bridge it wobbles making it impossible in this low light to take the shot and a 24hr city like New York cars cross at all hours. 

Luckily for me half the bridge was closed so there were small breaks when I could take a shot, but then sometimes at a perfect moment a cyclist or runner would go by ruining the moment. But I got it! As the sun rose some mist floated across the water for a perfect scene, I was so happy as this was the first hot I had taken after 5 days here. 

This was by far the moat painful shot I have ever taken, I was there for 3 hours waiting for small lulls in the traffic to take a shot just to make sure I got it as I didn't want to walk away to find the shot was blurry from the wobbly bridge. 

I got a handful of other shots that weekend wondering around the city, but didn't see the sun again.  

Central park certainly comes alive on the weekend with Baseball games going on. This is the busiest city park I've been to and not even on a sunny day!

Road Trip Days 15 & 16: Chicago

The weather was great as I arrived in Chicago at 3pm and headed for Downtown to explore and see what shots I could get before the bad weather they had due rolled in.

It's an interesting city and I could see why they would shoot Spiderman and Batman here, I loved the transit system and how it was just placed on top of roads like a rushed job.

A walk along the Chicago river gives you a great view of the city with all the different architecture and I was able to get a few building shots.

For sunset I headed toward Michigan lake to try and find a nice clear view of the Chicago skyline, on the way I spotted a fountain, the Buckingham Fountain which looked like it was the perfect for sunset so I set up my shot and waited and boy did I get one of the perfect sunsets spreading across the shot.
This makes me very happy for my first day in Chicago!

On the second day I was not so lucky with the weather so I concentrated on finding interesting buildings to shoot in the city, only a few met my criteria for my style of shooting.