Skolai Images

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo of an Indian Paintbrush, wildflower Castilleja miniata, from the Canadian Rockies, in Banff National Park. Banff National Park and the surrounding Greater Canadian Rockies ecosystem is a simply amazing place to photograph, with a myriad subjects to seek out and photograph. It has awesome mountain scenery, forests and montane ecosystems, sub-alpine and alpine regions, lakes and ponds, sloughs, rivers, glaciers, icefields, waterfalls, canyons, rockfaces, wildflowers, shrubs and grasses. Aspen trees, pine, larch, spruce, and so on. Wildlife photography in the area is probably some of the best in North America, second only (maybe) to Yellowstone National Park, which is just over a day’s drive south. Elk, moose, caribou, mule deer, whitetail deer, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, to chipmunks, magpies and jays - a long, long list of subjects.

I think one of the hardest things to deal with as a visitor to Banff National Park intending to photograph the area is (more…)

Hey Folks,

Here’s another image from Moraine Lake, a couple of tourists enjoying the view, lakeside, of Wenkchmena Peaks and Moraine Lake. Banff National Park is a sweet place, with an incredible array of photographic opportunities and interesting subjects to shoot. I could go up to Moraine Lake a thousand times and not get bored with that view, I reckon. It does get a little sticky, inundated with bus loads of tourists as the day goes by, but early in the morning there’s usually very few people there.

One of the cool things about Banff National Park, for the nature photographer, is there are so many simply awesome scenes that are super-accessible. Just a short walk off the road and you’ve got this incredible scene. For the more adventurous traveller, there’s a ton of hikes and trails to explore and places to get into the backcountry and away from it all, which is great too, but for some really easy access, Banff National Park is the spot. Moraine Lake is just one of the places among literally dozens of scenic opportunities. I’ll try to post a few more along the way.

Cheers

Carl

Banff National Park Photos.

Hey Folks

Here’s another image from the Canadian Rockies - immortalized on the Canadian $20 bill. Moraine Lake is one of the classic views of the Canadian Rockies, indeed, of anywhere. It’s a special place. The lake is most likely mis-named - it’s probably not a moraine that formed it at all, but a rock slide. The peaks that tower above the inviting turquoise lake are called the Wenkchemna Peaks. “Wenkchemna” is the Stoney Indian word for 10. The Stoney Indians lived in the area, and guided early European settlers and explorers in the region.

Samuel Allen and Walter Wilcox were 2 of the first European explorers in the area, and they’re generally credited with much of the initial exploration of the Canadian Rockies - given, of course, that various Indian Nations already lived there, and had done so for centuries, and called the place home. Wilcox was especially fond of Moraine Lake and Wenkchemna Peaks, (more…)

Hey Folks,

I promised I’d stop with the dog-fest today, so indeed, being a man of my word, I did exactly that. Here’s a photo I shot last September on the now infamous trip thru the Canadian Rockies with my parents. This is Peyto Lake, one of the icons of the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park. Little trivia again. Anyone care to explain the rich color of the lake? I’ll give ya a hint. It’s cold.

Cheers

Carl
Banff National Park Stock Photos.

Hey Folks,

Happy New Year!

This photo is from Moose Meadows, in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. I took this in fall 2007, on the trip through the Canadian and North American Rockies with my mum and dad.

All the best for 2008.

Cheers

Carl
Banff National Park Photos.

Hey Folks,

A few more posts before the electricity goes and I scrounge around in the eternal darkness of the Alaskan winter. This one is a bighorn ram that I photographed on my first trip to Jasper National Park a few years back. I recently rescanned it, and am spending some downtime now getting caught up on editing and processing images. It’s funny looking at scans of slides these days, after shooting digital for just a few years. Pretty amazing the difference - though I think that’s a function of scanning more than film versus digital quality.

Well, it’s insanely past my bedtime, and I’ve had a big day, so this will be short and I’ll head to my room. You all have a good one and enjoy it while you got it - whatever it is.

Oh wow - just as I’m ready to hit “publish”, one of the dogs upstairs goes insanely off her head. At this time of night that means one thing: I looked outside and there’s 2 moose in the front yard. How cool is that? A cow moose and her calf under the street lights wandering through the front yard. Awesome!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks

Well, this shall be my last post from the Lower 48 states, for a while at least. Tomorrow on the eve I fly to Alaska, and settle down for some winter fun. It’s been a short trip, and tons of fun with my parents - hopefully it won’t take 3 more years for me to get the chance to see them again.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Alaska, and if the weather is at all reasonable, trying to get some more images from Wrangell St. Elias. I also have a boatload of files to process, website updates to do, emails to return, and more computer stuff as well - which I’m not so eager to undertake, but, it seems, I have to. I have a ton of writing I want to, and also have had a few books recommended to me that I am keen to read. On top of that the moose rut is just starting to get underway, and that will be fun to photograph, so it seems I’ll be kept busy. I guess that’s good.

For now, I’ll just post this picture of my mum and her new friend from Banff National Park, waving us all goodbye.

Cheers

Carl
Banff National Park Photos.

Hey Folks

I didn’t get to post anything yesterday, because we didn’t get anywhere that had wi-fi. So today I’ll make up for that by uploading 2 posts, the first one I had intended to upload yesterday but didn’t get a chance. This one is fresh out of the box.

Now we’re in the Canmore area, just south of Banff. Today I took my parents up to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and also drove the Minnewanka Loop, a sweet drive. The weather wasn’t the best, but could’ve been worse. Moraine Lake is a treat in any weather, so that was fun. Lake Louise is, in my opinion, really hard to enjoy unless you have the time to walk up the trail and leave the pandemonium of the Lodge and crowds behind. Even my poor old dad noted the irony (more…)

Hey Folks

Well, here I am in Banff. I’m still riding around the countryside with my parents, who give new meaning to the word “doddering”. We’ve visited nearly every public toilet in western Canada, which has been a real treat. So far, I haven’t had to unleash any violence, but I may resort to that medium of regulation sometime in the near future. My patience has been the mainstay of what stability we’ve managed to clutch. Dad doesn’t listen, and mum mumbles; a potent combination.

Actually, they’re doing OK, and I’m really enjoying showing them some of my favorite parts of the world. (more…)

Hey Folks

Here’s the latest from the road! I shot this saturday evening, just before dark. I had long been looking to forward to bringing my parents thru the Canadian Rockies one fall, Jasper National Park in particular. I knew they’d love watching the elk in rut, hearing the bugles and feeling the energy of the place. We had an awesome day, and visited Maligne Lake where we hiked out for a mile or so along the shore, and enjoyed some quiet of the forest and nearby mountains, before walking back and having lunch down the road by Medicine Lake. A quick run into town for a milk shake, some email and shopping (my mother is a certified shopaholic) and we were back out in the park looking for elk. just before dark we found this bull and his harem. I grabbed my camera and tried to get some slow shutter speed images, blurring the motion of the elk as they moved about. I was really hoping I’d got this series right when it happened, as the bull looked awesome through the viewfinder. After dinner this evening, I browsed through the images from today and was glad to see this was pretty close to what I was hoping for. A nice bull elk image, conveying the frenetic energy of the rut, and the intensity of the great animals.

Photographing elk is an addiction, I’m the first to admit. The rut is so different to other ungulates because of the setting (majestic mountains ranges such as the Rockies), the crisp fall air, fall colors, and the bugling. That bugling is such an amazing sound. my mum asked my why the elk bulls bugle, and I wasn’t sure. Some say it’s an expression of dominance, a challenge to other bulls, or a call to females. It could well be an expression of the sheer exuberance of being alive and a part of this incredible experience. I think if I could bugle like that as the mist settles down on the pine forest in the Canadian Rockies, I probably would too!

Cheers

Carl