Verdant Vermilion (Lakes)

Summer Hues

My celebration of Canada Day included a morning visit to the nearby Vermilion Lakes. This is one of my favourite photography sites that I visit regularly, winter, spring/summer and autumn.

Today’s pictures are definitely summer scenes, as evidenced by the abundance of the colour green.

I begin with this early morning view across the lake with Eagle Mountain (r) and Mount Howard Douglas (l) in the background. I could not have asked for a better day; sunny, no wind and just enough clouds to provide great reflections on the lake’s surface.

This photograph was taken at one of the many quiet inlets off the main lakes. It’s very shallow and dotted with grassy islets. Again, I was pleased to have their reflection in the water along with those of the surrounding trees. A nice image, but I would have preferred not to have the pond scum in the foreground. Hey, that’s nature!

In this instance, I was looking for an opening in the shrubbery surrounding the lake’s edge for what I hoped would be a good picture. The combination of the warm weather and the periodic showers we’ve had recently was very good for plant life and openings such as this one weren’t very open. I liked what I was seeing nonetheless, so I took a picture.

This scene posed a few focus challenges. So I used three images, each focused in different areas and combined them as to include only the focused areas. This technique is known as focus blending and is achieved by stacking the images, masking the areas not in focus and allowing the desired areas only to show through in the final picture. As you will observe, I chose to leave the trees across the pond with a very “soft” focus. This was intended to centre the viewer’s attention on the foreground.

I like this stump protruding through the water’s surface. In addition to the stump, I wanted to include a view of the lake bottom and reflections of the clouds on its surface. I used a circular polarizer affixed to my lens, adjusted to reduce glare on the water. In so doing, I altered the appearance of the clouds’ reflection, enabling me to see through those reflections and reveal much of the lake bottom. I was able to strike a balance that I like. The distorted cloud reflections are interesting and there’s an unexpected artifact on the bottom that would not otherwise be exposed. Look at the large rock, in the shadow of the stump. It’s length of chain.

I did locate a better opening to capture the mountains across this inlet on the lake.

I conclude today’s post with another reflection. With the sun at my back, I was able to capture the grasses in the foreground, mirrored on the surface of the water. And, I managed to keep my own reflection plus that of the camera and tripod out of the scene!

I enjoyed my Canada Day celebration. I hope you did as well. 🇨🇦