Top 16 of 2016

2016 has been a great year for me a s a photographer and it was also the first year I dedicated a lot of time to go out and shoot and plan my shots. This payed off big time and I came away with a lot memorable shots. Here is a small selection of my personal favourites from 2016 with some added information how I got each individual shot.

#1 Crowfoot vs. Photographer.

#1
Crowfoot vs. Photographer.
That morning in early August my colleague Tobi and I were getting up 5am at the Mosquito Creek HI Wilderness Hostel and drove out to Bow Lake on a cold and crisp morning. It was mostly clear outside, which was not the greatest start, as most likely there won’t be any dramatic colors in the sky. It was a Saturday morning and surprisingly we were the only guys out there at the lake. This lake is particularly cool because of the immense size of Crowfoot Mt. and the crystal clear waters of the lake. With drama in the sky absent it was a difficult environment to shoot. When the first light of the day hit the peak of Crowfoot Mt. I was trailing behind Tobi a bit and realized that he placed himself perfectly in the frame, so I quickly set up, framed the shot and shot three exposures (one under, regular and over exposed). The relatively cold temperatures that morning helped to generate whispy fog dancing above the lake and In combination with the flat light it created a very minimalistic scene showing displaying the sheer size of the Canadian Rockies.

#2 Dressed in Red.

#2
Dressed in Red.
Late September is the season of yellow larches in the Canadian Rockies, often referred to as “Larch Madness”. Last year I was hoping to go to one of the premier locations in Kananaskis, Chester Lake. Our trip there was OK, but spoiled by bad weather, so waking up in Canmore the next morning I was leased to find overcast skies in the west and clear skies looking east towards Calgary. I quickly drove out from our hotel to my favourite spot in town and when I arrived two photographers had already set up and where getting ready for an epic show. In the beginning all was grey and daylight slowly creeped in, I was almost tempted to packin as sunrise was getting closer and closer and no colors appeared. But 10 minutes before the sun came up the first line of clouds in the east started to glow in deep reds and I was thrilled, I first shot a vertical composition and then quickly ran back to my initial spot to capture the red skies over the iconic “Three Sisters” of Canmore. I often use Long Exposures to capture streaking clouds, but I felt this morning I wanted to show the structure in the clouds and also wanted to capture the color transition. An unforgettable morning spent with fellow photographers, who were all more than thrilled.

#3 Out of the Fog.

#3
Out of the Fog.
Shooting a lot of sunrises and sunsets in Edmonton this year I felt that I needed a change of scenery and I was exploring new avenues for spots that would allow an aerial view of the beautiful Edmonton River Valley. After knocking some doors and getting a proper training I was allowed access to a high point on the University of Alberta campus. My second time up yielded a nice surprise for me. Thick fog was rolling through the Valley of the North Saskatschewan River engulfing the famous High Level Bridge to a level were it wasn’t visible anymore. But with the sun slowly rising, the fog was burned away and crepsicular rays became visible through the bridge. I quickly set up my camera with my ND1.8 filter mounted to smoothen out the rolling fog a bit and got a perfect 8 sec exposure. The golden light was amazing and I caught the bridge in a very unique moment.

#4 Castle in the Mirror.

#4
Castle in the Mirror.
I have long been obsessed with the Castle-like appearance of Castle Mt. in the Bow Valley in Banff Nationalpark. Named Eisenhower Mt. for some time after WW2 it was given back its original name in 1979 and the sheer rock faces that tower over the relatively flat valley are just breathtaking. That afternoon in late January on a mild winter the peaks reflecting in a small pool of water truly caught my eye and I opted to use my 50/1.8 standard lens to take a “portrait” of the mountain mirroring in the perfectly still water. I have a lot of shots of this mountain, but this is the one that will stand out the most for me.

#5 Icy Frame

#5
Icy Frame.
In November 2015 I first explored the edge of the Athabasca Glacier with friends. We were surprised to find a glacier cave that day and ever since I saw it I wanted to come back. In late February I went on another road trip along the Icefields Parkway in a beautiful moonlit night. We arribed at the Glacier parking lot around 2 am in the morning and walked all the way to the glacier through hard, wind-blown snow. When we found the cave the moon was right behind the entrance and we shot some compositions with the moon bursting over the blues of the ice. Getting a little bit more comfortable I ventured into the ice cave and used my head lamp to light paint the cave. The view was breathtaking with the moon bathing Wilcox Ridge in amazing light while the stars were blinking. It was a truly special moment, especially with the knowledge that the cave has now collapsed and this is just a reminder of the ever-changing nature of glaciers.

#6 Frozen in Time.

#6
Frozen in Time.
Abraham Lake is usually all about methane bubbles being trapped in the waters of this artificial lake as part of the North Saskatschewan River system. This day in early January 2016 offered a lot: Icy winds, tons of bubbles, but also a lack of clouds and hence no fiery sunrise or sunset. But I particularly liked here how the stones were frozen into the perfectly clear ice, while the earth shadow created a nice purple haze over Mt. Mitchener on the horizon.

#7 Morning Launch.

#7
Morning Launch.
Canoes resting on a boat launch on the shores of Pyramid Lake in Jasper after a fresh dusting of snow at sunrise in late November. I was in Jasper multiple times during our time in Alberta, but mostly not to mainly photograph but rather on trips with family that yielded little to no time to get out and take pictures. So this road trip in November yielded some shots I had in mind for a long time. This one was taken with my 14mm Ultra-Wide lens a Rokinon 14/2.8 that is known to have an issue called mustache-distortion, especially pronounced if the horizon is not in the middle of the frame. Also the genral distortion for this lens is quite considerable, but the “free-transfrom” tool in PS helped me to work around that problem.

#8 Consolation Lakes.

#8
Consolation Lakes
Hiking up Panorama Ridge is exhausting but equally rewarding with unperturbed birds-eye views of the amazing Consolation Lakes and the mighty Mt. Babel. Not much to add to this, except that whenever you decide to bring all of your gear on a scramble, better think twice and shed some unnecessary equipment for water. I did not make the summit that day because I had too much gear and too little water, so maybe I would have had more amazing views, if I decided to bring the extra bottle.

#9 Up in the Clouds.

#9
Up in the clouds.
Having Wedge Pond all to myself in late August, I was granted an epic cloud play with almost perfectly calm waters. To even out the slightly blurred surface I used my ND3.0 Filter from Haida and got a 3 minute exposure that created very smooth clouds and a perfectly clean reflection. Having no foreground elements I felt that the 50/50 horizon worked best and the rush of light coming in through the valley definitely helped the image to gain some drama. Also when editing reflection shots I recommend making sure that the reflection is at least 0.1eV darker then the object to make it look natural.

#10 Cracked Egg.

#10
Cracked Egg.
Exploring the Bisti Wilderness in New Mexico a week ago was definitely one of the highlights of 2016 and with clouds rushing overhead I got this dramatic view of a so-called "cracked egg". More on this trip in the next blog post. Again I used my ND3.0 (big stopper) to create the streaking clouds.

#11
Star Pool.
A calm early May night at Two Jack Lake with Sue paddling through a pool of stars. First time out shooting with local legend Paul Zizka and thanks to his creative mastermind I came up with this scene. This was totally his idea and I was just happy to tag along. The images he published show Sue being illuminated from below. But my favorite is this here with no added light source and the stars appearing to go down the drain.

#12 Up in the Air.

#12
Up in the Air.
No description needed, flying through the aurora in early February was mind-blowing. If you ever want to photograph the aurora from a plane, make sure to check the flight route and choose your seat accordingly. I was siiting in the first row of the economy class, which helped to have space for my tripod. I used my fast 14/2.8 lens pressed against the cabin window on my tripod. My jacket functioned as a blanket to block out the cabin lights. Shot this at ISO6400, 14mm, f2.8 and 6sec. I feel this is the upper limit to get crisp stars.

#13 Electric City.

#13
Electric City.
I came to shoot the sunset and ended up catching a lightning storm blasting over downtown Edmonton while daylight was slowly fading. To get all the lightning in one frame used multiple frames and painted in the extra strikes using the lighten blend mode in PS, nut nevertheless, this here is just the result from two frames. But in hindsight I probably didn’t use the ideal settings.

#14 Yoho Blues.

#14
Yoho Blues.
The blue waters of the Yoho River in October of last year on a very moody day out near Field in B.C. I stumbled upon very slippery rocks to get this composition and stumbling turned into falling, so I shot this being half wet. It totally payed off. This is another example of using ND filters to your advantage, as it helped to soften the water and bring out the amazing blue hues in the glacial waters rushing down towards the Pacific Ocean. Compositionally I liked how the stones created a line drawing you into the frame, while the peaks in the background created some added interest.

#15 Morning Explosion.

#15
Morning Explosion.
Another one from my high point above Edmonton, which I already showed in my post about “Edmonton from above”. In October Edmonton had some amazing sunrises, but this display was by far the most colorful.

#16 Moon Rise.

#16
Moon Rise.
This is from a long night out in early April earlier this year. Our destination for this morning was an old school house near Hameruka, which is ca. 4.5 h southeast of Edmonton. Arriving there just in time around 3am we were left in the darkness and could not find the house. We came all the way just to be in an open field with no foreground, but at least the skies were brilliantly dark. But luckily we found some roadside ponds and some reet to play with and around 4.15am the moon rose in the southeast just below the Milky Way, it was a 27% waning moon and so low over the horizon it did not manage to blow out the Milky Way, so in the end we came away with something very unique: The moon rise under the MW, which looks fake to be true, but it wasn’t. This is a single exposure at ISO3200 using Rokinon 14mm/2.8 at f2.8 with an exposure time of 30sec. I edited this in LR only, as I still feel my PS editing skills are not advanced enough when it comes to shooting the MW. But one general rule that has done wonders for my night results is to look at the histogram, which should be exposed to the left, BUT be shifted more to the middle, so that on your screen it looks almost too bright, that way you do not cut off blacks which you cannot recover, also bringing down the exposure in LR is easier than bringing it up.