Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Lodge Office / The Dreaded "M" Setting

Our brother-in-law wanted to visit Emerald Lake after reviews claimed this to be the "Jewel of the Rockies", and they were right!  This is the sight that greets visitors on their way to the lodge, though most of the trailheads were behind and to the left of this perspective.

A closer, more quaint view of the lodge office:

The water was so still and reflections so clear that I spent a lot of time making them as perfect as possible.  Whenever the lake was the primary or secondary subject, a separate layer of just the reflection(s) was created, which was adjusted for tone, contrast and exposure.  Think it was worth the effort.

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It is about now on the trip that I switched from taking pictures in the "P" setting to capturing them in the dreaded "M" setting.  This resulted in far fewer wasted shots, though they are still bracketed (3 frames at 0.7 stop between each).  Really a breakthrough, as you really need to know what you're doing to shoot everything in Manual mode.  So I crossed a threshold.  Better late than never, and never too late to take your skills to the next level!

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Fairmont Guests

I debated about posting this one, being just a bunch of flowers, but concluded that the people in the windows were interesting enough to slip it in.  Entertaining to guess the story behind what's going on in each of the three frames...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Mountainside with Parking Lot

One last mountain shot before moving on.  This range makes up the right flank bordering the lake as you view it from the hotel.  Zoomed-out shot is below, showing what looks to be ample parking but surely the traffic guys are preparing to flush some more folks through to the exits as was done to us:

Note that the sky is much bluer in this shot.  The cyans and blues were lightened in many others, as can be seen when comparing it to the top pic above.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Mountain Glaciers

Here we are with a 3/4 window shot featuring a couple of glaciers that overlook the lake.  Would be very interesting to see what the surface area of these looked like 25, 50 years ago...like many others around the world it's an easy bet that they were substantially bigger.  At Mendenhall in Alaska they had a graphic depicting the differences in surface area over time but didn't see anything like that here.

The role of man in all this has been vehemently debated of late, but no matter - Earth's temperature is clearly getting warmer whatever the cause.  Sad to see, but our planet has gone through many of these cycles before...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Canoers Through Branches

 

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Canoe Rental Focus Shift

Sliding to the left a few feet, decided that a focus shift might be possible here, though the wind didn't help as it was constantly moving the vegetation.  Still passable though:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Canoe Rental Dock Through Vegetation

In the spirit of taking a picture of something through something, here we have the canoe rental place captured through some lakeside vegetation.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Boat Reflections

A couple more reflection shots that turned out nicely.  Note how the forest in the background of the pic above affected how the camera interpreted color of the frame as a whole.  For that reason I'd vote on the bookmark below as the better picture.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Crowded Shoreline

Focusing now on the lake, these pictures reveal just how crowded it was at this time of year, which frankly isn't too bad compared to what one would find at some of the U.S. national parks.  We were traveling in the middle of September, a good time of year for oldsters like us since kids are in school, etc.

It was a calm, clear day so the reflections on the lake's surface came out nicely in the pic above.  It was windier the second time we came here, as can be seen below:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Fairmont from Behind

One more of the Fairmont before proceeding to the lake and its environs...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Meditating Man

Is it wrong to sneak in a pic of what is obviously a very private moment if it's in a public setting?  Where is the line that crosses from private worship to capsules of culture?  I got a fuss when snapping this image more than 13 years ago, and as a result sought permission before taking this picture some nine years later.  They seemed OK with it...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Full View of Fairmont

This 2-shot panorama (best viewed on a larger screen) would be a more iconic view of the Fairmont were it not for the red crane and construction visible in the midground.  It's possible to remove it, so maybe one day...

There is something unique in the left side of this picture which will be elaborated upon tomorrow.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Fairmont with Silhouettes

Being a fan of silhouettes and pictures taken of something through something, this one ticks two boxes.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise, Fairmont from Parking Lot

 

...so after that 3+km hike to the lake we finally catch a glimpse of the iconic Fairmont hotel.  Wider shot from same position below:

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Open Mountain Vista #2

 

This is very similar in character to the pic posted yesterday, but I like the one below better due to the composition and color variation:

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Open Mountain Vista #1

Vistas such as this are what greeted us as we emerged from the woods and got closer to Lake Louise.  Fairly typical landscape, but passable as a better-than-average photograph.

Not that these don't take some work.  As stated many times earlier in this blog, my goal in photography is nothing simpler than to capture the average photograph, then do the work necessary to craft it into a slightly better-than-average photograph.  Shadows/highlights adjustments are tweaked on all; typically the mountains are made into their own layer to adjust color (to remove haze), then sharpened and increased contrast; and in some cases the sky is lightened.  Also, as you'll see especially in later posts of Emerald Lake, the surface reflection of the lake is enhanced using Auto-contrast and Levels to make it sharper and bring out the darker areas.  Sometimes tedious to do all this, but a labor of love that makes the time fly...

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Sunlit Foliage

Thought of this very similar post from the rain forest near Ketchikan, Alaska.  The latitudes are similar, though it's much drier in west-central Canada.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Trail Hike, Closeup of Evergreen Trunk

Hmmm...see a bookmark in here somewhere.  Was reminded of this post when I snapped the picture, though the other one was leafless.

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Sunlit Evergreen

Many times I tried to image what these same scenes would look like in the dead of winter, when trees such as this would be completely hidden by a thick blanket of snow.  I'm no skier, but undoubtedly would have to wear either skis or snow shoes in order to make the same hike in January or February, or even March.

We overheard someone saying that the attrition rate of school teachers here was 50% year-on-year.  They decide to move to the area when it's warm and pretty, but bail after the first winter, disillusioned at the harsh temperatures and hard work required just to cope with the cold.

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Focus-shifted Creek

Most of the trail winds through thick woods, and we immediately knew we'd made the right choice to hoof it to Lake Louise instead of driving.  Through its length the trail stuck pretty close to the creek, sometimes crossing on rustic bridges (good for family portraits).  A picture to be captured at every turn.  It was uphill most of the way, but certainly worth the effort.

It was here that I came to a conclusion.  So many dream of having a nice cabin alongside a mountain creek such as this, including myself.  But there was constant, high-decibel white noise with the water rushing over the rocks, and after about a half-hour it started to get on my nerves.  Probably best to live about a quarter-mile away...

Reminiscent of this post from Colorado, focus-shift of same below:

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Open Vistas

In order to get to the trail head we walked down a road leading from town and crossed a bridge, which is where these images were captured.  The sun was out full by then - not ideal for picture taking - but a few images were captured that could be massaged into something blogworthy.

The highly cropped pic below was looking to the right.  One thing that had to be adjusted for in post-capture was haze.  To correct for this, in many images a separate layer of just the distant mountains was created, then the cyans/blues reduced, and sharpening was applied at 75%:

Canadian Rockies - Louise Creek Trail Hike, Distance Sign

On our first full day of the trip we were eager to see the ever-popular Lake Louise.  Thus, bright and early we got into the van for the short drive there, and were impressed to see how organized they were.  As we neared the entrance to the lake there were lots of cones in the road, along with personnel waving their arms and directing traffic to the seemingly ample parking area.  Excited to see the lake, we dutifully following all their instructions.  And we followed.  And we followed...until we found ourselves back on the road leading to our hotel!

Yes, they very efficiently flushed us right through the parking area and through a wooded area until we were spit back out on the highway going in the opposite direction, away from the lake!  Hmmm...must be full or something.  So what to do?

Then it dawned on us that, since this is a hiking vacation, why don't be just walk there?!?  That's when we found the trail with this sign indicating that all that driving and hassle would have covered just a few kilometers anyway.  So this was an easy solution for us, to take our first hike to the lake, killing two birds.

But there was a caveat for me.  Just a few days before leaving on this trip, eager to hit the ground running to begin retirement, I began to deep-clean here at the house.  In doing so I picked up boxes and objects that were way too heavy for this slowly-deteriorating body to endure, including an 80-lb backup electric generator, ending up with a classic case of sciatica.  And sciatica is one thing you don't want to bring on a five-day hiking vacation.  But I "soldiered on", as they say, willing my body through our daily hikes with Advil close at hand.

Canadian Rockies - Main Building of Ski Resort

This was the central building that housed the restaurant and gift shop, etc.  Loved the logs, stones, and rustic appeal in general - and the fact that it was people-less - so snapped one for the blog.  Thought the color combined with sharp edges might make an interesting Glowing Edges effect:

Following the sequence of the adventures to be had on the trip, next we'll see a bit of our first hike...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Ski Resort Rooflines

We took a bus to Moraine Lake during the latter part of our stay up there in the Rockies, and the summer staging area was the parking lot of a nearby ski resort.  I'd never been to a ski resort before, so we spent some time wandering around to see how "the other half" vacations.  Pretty much what we expected, though it was sans people and snow.  You could see how the runs were cut through the forest and they had not one but three lifts, one of which was running as a ride for the warm-weather visitors.

What I found most interesting, however, was the architecture and look of the buildings, evidently styled to match the surroundings.  Since I like both rustics and roof lines, knew this would be a keeper.  Found and Glowing Edges effects applied below:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Potted Flowers at Supermarket

This is a very small, cropped-in portion of a photo captured as some of us guys waited outside for the women-folk to shop at the local supermarket.  A front had blown through, and with it came some rain.  We learned that when rain was forecast it didn't mean a tropical, Houston-type downpour, but more of a slow patter such as what Andrew and I saw in England.  Makes sense, as they are fairly close in latitude.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Babbling Brook (or is it Bubbling Stream?)

This serene setting can be found a mere 50 steps from the Visitor Center in Lake Louise Village.  Being from Houston, it's kind of neat to know that almost all of the water in the creeks and streams around here comes from snow melt.  There was a day when you could dip a cup in and enjoy a nice drink, but am not so sure that's the case any more...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Christmas Lights / My Very Own Boeing 737

Okay okay, just one more from the balcony.  Captured just outside the door to our room on the second floor, thought this gave a better perspective on that odd tree with the Christmas lights.  There was one more on the property, seemingly chosen at random.  Suppose they do the rest of the trees when the season gets closer.

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Well, I finally did it.  Bought the PMDG Boeing 737 in the flight simulator, in itself an amazing game or hobby, whatever you choose to call it (I prefer hobby).  So realistic that not just one, but several real airline pilots produce YouTube channels dedicated to teaching hobbyists like us how to fly it.  Now I must learn from the ground up - literally - every switch, dial, knob, lever and display.  Looking forward to keeping the ol' synapses fired up during retirement...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, More Fog-Shrouded Mountains

 ...a wider view of the distant mountains with clouds and fog.  Another one below when the sun managed to peek through, this from the same location and angle seen here just a few days ago:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Focus Shift of Fog-Shrouded Mountain

Taken the same morning, had been looking for an opportunity to focus-shift from some flower baskets hanging over our balcony in building #4, and figured this might work.  Focus shifted to the pink flowers below:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Favorite Window Shot

Probably my favorite from town, this was captured from the second-floor balcony where our brother-in-law and his wife (Chenjean's sister) were staying in building #5 of the Lake Louise Village Inn.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Half-Window Shot of Craggy Mountain

On one of the cooler mornings (28° F) we woke up to find the surrounding mountains shrouded by fog.  I went crazy snapping away to capture this phenomenon, though it's probably a common sight in these parts.  Nevertheless, I found the fog an important element in creating mystery, and applied sharpening to make the mountains look more craggy, providing an extra measure of contrast against the sky and trees.  Another one of my favorites...