Afternoon Walk

Yesterday afternoon was a beautiful time for a walk. Warm temperature, sunshine and enough cloud to make the scenery very interesting. I took a camera and was rewarded with many good opportunities. Today, I’ll share the mountain scenes and come back to some other shots I took in a subsequent post. Today’s pictures were taken along the bicycle pathway that follows the Bow River. I was walking toward the west with the sun behind me, enjoying a nice combination of light and shadows on the mountain peaks.

The first picture is a grand panoramic scene, featuring the BowValley, flanked on the left by the Rundle Range and on the right by the Fairholme Range. I used a wide angle lens  at its widest (18 mm focal length). It was a good day for a polarizing filter which I used to deepen the blue of the sky and diminish glare from the snow and the water of the river.

For the next photo I used a narrower angle (50 mm focal length) to get a closer view of the pump house on the river bank. I’ve also brought Cascade Mountain in the background to greater prominence, capturing the sunlight getting through the clouds and brightly illuminating its lower left side.

Glancing to my right as I progressed along the pathway, I decided to snap this next shot of Grotto Mountain. Grotto is the large mountain in the shadows to the right. The other peak to its left is (to the best of my knowledge) unnamed.

I conclude with a picture of Mount Rundle, the southern boundary of the Bow Valley. I often refer to it as the Rundle Range but it is one mountain, with one name,  extending from Canmore to Banff, a distance of about 20 km (12 miles). I think this picture best exemplifies the beautiful combination of light, cloud and sky that I experienced on my walk yesterday.

I chose a good day to take some pictures. The light was as good as it gets, displaying the Bow Valley at its best.