Winter Magic

In February of 2010, I participated in a three-day workshop, entitled “Winter Magic”. It was led by the well known, Alberta landscape photographer, Darwin Wiggett and was based at Aurum Lodge on Abraham Lake, west of Nordegg, Alberta. Our workshop focused on some unique winter scenes, featuring shots taken on the frozen Abraham Lake at sunrise and sunset. We also shot pictures of frozen waterfalls, some open water bordered by ice, glaciers and of course, some mountain scenes. Following are a series of shots from the workshop.

This photo was taken on the ice of Abraham Lake. It features bubbles frozen in the ice in the foreground, illuminated by the rays of the sun rising over the mountains in the background. I used a wide angle lens and required a 10 second exposure to get the shot. The other vital piece of equipment was a pair of ice crampons affixed to my boots. Without them, there was no way to stay on my feet on the slick ice in relatively high winds.

These impressive falls are located near the Sunwapta Pass, along the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper. We hiked into the falls from a parking lot along the parkway to get a great variety of pictures from many vantage points. This is very wide angle, shooting upward to capture the entire falls in one picture. Note my fellow photographers to the left and right of the falls to get an idea of the scale. I hope to return to this location later this year, to get pictures of the falls unfrozen.

A landscape taken just before sunset from the icy surface of Abraham Lake. It gives a sense of the expanse of the lake and the surrounding terrain. The ice in the foreground is an interesting feature that I wanted to capture. The ripples on the ice surface appear to have been created by wind driven water that froze very quickly. This a very open and exposed expanse of lake, constantly windy.

A well known tourist destination along the Icefields Parkway, south of Jasper. This glacier is the most prominent in the area and is easily accessible from the Parkway. In summer, a local tour company runs specially built buses right onto the glacier. I hiked up a considerable distance to get away from the parking lot and other signs of human presence, including several hikers who were inclined to stroll into my viewfinder. This one is a very wide angle to capture the entire breadth of the glacier.

A close-up shot taken from above the Cline River, incorporating the rocky wall of the river gorge. I was interested in the colors, something you don’t expect to find in this environment, in winter. The greenish color of the water is very natural; many of the lakes and streams in the Canadian Rockies are colored by the rock flour suspended in it. Rock flour is fine dust created by the grinding of glaciers on the underlying rock. Melt water carries the flour to the downstream lakes, streams and rivers.
The beautiful orange is contributed by lichen growing on the rocks and there is a little red thrown in from plant life growing out of cracks in the stone.

A close-up of some open water on the Cline River which flows into Abraham Lake. A morning scene with ample light required me to use neutral density filters to lengthen the exposure and create the blurred look to the flowing water. That look is intended to contrast with the sharpness of the ice and snow. I was trying to highlight the crystalline edge of the melting ice just above the flowing water.

Less than an hour from our base at Aurum Lodge, I photographed this peak just north of the Sunwapta Pass, along the Icefields Parkway. I searched diligently to find it’s name, but was unsuccessful. It may be an unnamed peak, that is not unusual. What is noteworthy is the abundance of snow, compared to the area around the Aurum Lodge (note the earlier photo “Cline Creek Bay on Lake Abraham”). Climatic variations are quite usual in the Rockies, particularly in a case such as this where there is a significant altitude difference between Abraham Lake and the Sunwapta Pass.

Following is a photo gallery of other photos from this series if you’d like to explore the magic of winter in the Rockies a little further.