Two Jack Lake

Two Jack Lake is on the Lake Minnewanka loop road, 12 km from the town of Banff. It is a popular camping area and scenic site for photographers, with a stunning view of Mount Rundle to the south. The lake is often quite still, making it possible to capture good reflections of Mount Rundle on its surface. In this photograph, I’ve captured the lake bottom in the foreground, using a circular polarizing filter to cut the glare (and consequently the reflection) close to the shore. Moving outward from the shore, the effect of the filter diminishes, leaving the reflection. I like the way the view of the lake bottom fades into the reflection on the water’s surface and the transition in colour from the brown on the bottom to the blue and green of the lake’s surface.

This photograph was taken using a Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens, a circular polarizing filter and a 2-stop neutral density gradient filter. The camera was in manual mode with an aperture of f/18, an ISO setting of 200 and a shutter speed of 1/15 sec.