Early Snowfall

Yesterday, still early autumn, marked the first snowfall of the season. Seemingly early, but not unusual for Canmore. It was a gorgeous day and I was able to get out for a morning of photography with some friends from the Canmore Camera Club, Jiri Dlask and Kevin McCormick.

Once the preliminary coffees and a discussion of where to go were completed, we set out for the Spring Creek area via the main street. As you may conclude from my first picture, some Canmorites were caught off guard by the showfall and were faced with some snow removal before taking to the roads. That is to say, cleaning the snow off the bicycle and waiting for the town to clear the streets.

We reached the Spring Creek community just after nine a.m., perfectly timed to catch the early morning sun shining across Policeman Creek, illuminating the mist rising off the water.

We moved on, along the boardwalk following the creek downstream. I took this next photograph, a similar scene including the fresh snow on the long grasses and a number of rocks along the shoreline, exposed by the lower water levels of autumn.

The next two pictures were taken on the opposite side of the boardwalk. This water is not part of the creek. They are small pools created by higher water levels earlier in the year, now cut off from the main flow of the creek. They have frozen over in the last week as temperatures have cooled from the warm weather we’ve enjoyed earlier this autumn.

I really like the shadowing in these pictures. The sun is low in the sky, casting long shadows across the scene and of course, the warm rays of the morning sun do get through to illuminate the fresh snow and ice.

The contrast of this black and white scene shows the wisps of mist above the water very well. The sun was shining along the creek at this location, doing a great job of brightening the highlights on the snow as well as illuminating the mist.

Looking westward along Police Creek is this great view of Mount Rundle in the background. I took the picture from the bridge crossing the creek.

We called it a day, shortly after 11:00 a.m.We enjoyed a beautiful morning. It was very good for taking photographs and just a pleasure to be out enjoying the surroundings on a magnificent day.