I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

(July 24th) For the afternoon, I decided to explore the other side of Jasper, the alpine terrain. Heading out of the valleys, I quickly was surrounded by taller and taller peaks. The alpine terrain creates many rapids in the rivers and occasional waterfalls. I stopped at one of the major falls, but it was unphotographable with contrasty light, loads of people, and fences and paths in every angle. However at a random stop along the road I found a small gem of a waterfall. Now it was time to really put the neutral density filter to work.

The waterfall was great. Since it was near noon, the cloud cover that lasted also helped to keep the contrast down and enable a shot that wouldn't have been possible with full sun. The biggest trick was keeping the tripod from moving during the long 10 second exposure time when the tripod was in the moving water. I am quite pleased with these images and the neutral density filter proved itself a necessary piece of my landscape gear.

After the waterfalls, I headed up to the highest terrain of the park. Passing through boulder fields and open, rocky moraines, I was on the look out for the animals I knew frequently these places - grizzly bears, wolves, and mountain goats. The mountain goat was my particular goal, since there aren't so many places where you can find them. But reaching the Banff end of the park, there was nothing to be found. I looked at the enormous, but shrinking glacier there and headed back in despair. Just when I had left the high terrain and all hope seemed vanquished, I passed one spot that I had researched and luck was with me - the mountain goats were there. Those hours of research had paid off!

In my research in the weeks before the trip, I learned that the goats liked to come down from the high peaks to an area of exposed earth to lick mineral deposits that were there. Although they weren't there on my first time through, now there were two males at the spot. As I began shooting a mother and her kid also joined in. The shooting was perfect - great light, cooperative subjects, interesting behaviors - nothing more you could wish for. It was a blast shooting these animals and the kid was adorable.

Little did I know that throughout the rest of my trip I would never get another opportunity with the mountain goats, but after losing the marmots, I made the best of it. I shot over 700 keepers of the goats. At one point, someone shouted out that there was a black bear with her two cubs nearby. I quickly went over to check it out. But there was no hope of a clean shot or any light, so I quickly returned to use the last remaining light on the goats. My preferences have definitely changed. While at first I was in love with framing a picture as tightly as possible, I am finding myself enjoying shots that frame more of the environment and context of the animals. Shots which capture interaction between individuals like this one of the mother and her kid are my favorites.