Canmore Creek

Today I went for a short hike with friend and photo scout par excellence, Dave Foreman. We went to Quarry Lake on the south side of Canmore, then followed a trail that ultimately brought us back to Canmore Creek which drains down through the town and into the Bow River. The creek is still running, not frozen over and  offered some great scenes too difficult to ignore.

This first picture is a deep view of the creek, with the mountain, East End of Rundle in the background. In the middle of the scene, you can see a small waterfall which I zeroed in upon for some interesting close-ups.

This first close-up of the waterfall was done at a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/250th sec. in an attempt at “stop action”. You can see the individual water droplets quite clearly; they didn’t move very far in the time the shutter was open. I really like the lacy looking ice that has formed on the edges of the stream and the highlights reflecting from it. To get the fast shutter speed under the prevailing light conditions and the small aperture I used (f16), I needed to increase the sensor sensitivity to ISO 3200.

The same shot again, this time with a much slower shutter speed (4/10th sec) which has a dramatic effect on the appearance of the water. Water droplets travel a long way in this period of time and by recording the movement of many droplets, I get the streaming effect you see here. In order to get this shot in broad daylight and without the benefit of a neutral density filter, I reduced the aperture to f22 and set the sensor sensitivity to ISO 50. Enough to give me almost 1/2 sec.  of exposure.

I moved in even more closely for this shot of the ice bordering the edge of the stream. This ice is very thin and has interesting edge patterns. Lacy! I also like the crystalline appearance of the light layer of snow resting on the ice. The water wasn’t moving very quickly in this area of the creek, giving a clearer view of the stone on the creek bed. If you think that water is cold, you’re right!

I look forward to returning to this area in summer to see how it looks and photographs with some more greenery around it.