Summer Evening Light

Earlier this week, I ventured out in the evening to shoot some pre-sunset photographs around town. I took the photos in a few different locations over a period of 60 minutes, referred to as the “golden hour”, ending at sunset, 9:40 pm.

I began with this photograph looking upstream at Policeman Creek. The sky to the northwest at this time was largely covered with heavy dark cloud, with some light showers falling. The sun is obscured by Mount Rundle on the left of this scene, so the yellow tones are created from indirect sunlight on the clouds. Despite it being relatively early, the scene was quite dark due to the ponderous clouds overhead.

I moved on to the The Three Sisters Parkway to a location I know that always offers a good view of Canmore’s landmark, the Three Sisters peaks. They were getting some direct sunlight since they are located a little to the south of Mount Rundle and are able to catch the last rays of sunlight from behind it. The earlier, heavy cloud cover had moved on, leaving some colourfully illuminated cumulus clouds to complement my subject.

I walked a short distance in from the road to get this scene looking northwest up the Bow Valley. That’s Cascade Mountain, near Banff, in the distance. Light from the setting sun is getting faint but there remains sufficient to cast a nice yellow tone on the clouds and the sky beyond Cascade.

This photograph was taken from a roadside pullout on the Parkway, very near to home. It’s a great view down the valley and is very popular with tourists, looking for the great vista. I chose to convert the photo I took to black and white for two reasons. Firstly, there wasn’t much colour remaining, as the day approached sunset and secondly, I was better able to make visible the rain falling on the flanks of the Fairholme Range on the right side of the photograph.

Today’s final shot was taken along the Three Sisters Parkway, looking to the southeast. My attention was drawn to the very unusual, colourful and eye-catching clouds, just left of the “Little” Sister on the right.

I wrapped it up shortly after the sun had set and took the short drive home. It was a great evening to be out and the sunset did not disappoint.