Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Mountain Vista

Probably one of my favorites of the mountain shots.  Think it looks sort of like a painting.

In the past I've sent out "alerts" warning viewers that we're getting into the more mundane, clichéd shots common in landscape photography.  While not a huge fan of those, here I couldn't help but get drawn in to these magnificent views, capturing them in order to share their beauty on this platform.  No doubt there are millions, if not billions, of pictures taken and shared from this area; however I've concluded that, well, maybe these pics have not yet been seen by the few followers of this blog.  So here we go...more to come!

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Visitor Center

Thought this building was very cleverly designed, obviously influenced by its surroundings.

Since we're still well into the 90's here in Houston, the most common question we got upon our return was about the temperature.  We couldn't have asked for better weather!  Upon our arrival the low was in the 40's and highs were in the 60's with abundant sunshine.  A front blew through after the second day, which pushed temperatures down to the upper 20's at night and into the 40's by day.  So long as the wind wasn't blowing we were very comfortable even when it was colder.

Of course I went through the regular vacation-inspired round of thoughts along the lines of "Yes, this would be perfect for us, and the Canadian cold isn't so bad after all, so we should move here", etc., but know that if we were up there in the dead of winter those feelings probably would change...

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Information Booth

A few more while in town.  This presumably was set up to help alleviate staff workload in the Visitor Center, a pic of which will be posted tomorrow.  After having gone through Banff, we were glad to have chosen this little village for our stay...much less crowded, and free of all hassles related to overcrowded sidewalks, the party crowd, etc.

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Mountainscape

As stated in an earlier post, from our second-story balcony there was a photo in every direction.  As an extension of that, the same applies wherever you go in Lake Louise Village.  We were fortunate in that the weather permitted vistas such as this one.  Looks like something you'd find on a remote wilderness hike, but not so:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Bookmarks from Lodge

 

Canadian Rockies - Louise Lake Village, Fuji Lookalike (sort of)

Our hotel/lodge room was on the second floor, which afforded excellent views such as this.  With the sun coming in at such a low angle on the mountaintop, couldn't help remembering this shot of Fuji from a trip to Japan.

Standing in the same place just outside our door, zoomed in to capture the shot below:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, Fall Leaves

Still on the balcony, I swung the Bigger Cahoona up and down, back and forth, seeing a photo in every direction.  Later in the trip I saw some standalone trees that were a much brighter yellow than these and appeared as though they were on fire.  That was on the road, though, and with five others in our rented van I just couldn't stop whenever I saw something.  So this will have to suffice for the first half of our journey.

Wider view below of same frame:

...an even wider view here, to get a perspective on the layout of the lodge property; we were in building 4 of 5:

Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Village, WARNING Resulting from First Balcony Shot

This is a view from the balcony just outside our hotel room door.  I'm not posting this because it's a great picture - it certainly is not - but as a reminder to WATCH YOUR SETTINGS!!  I went into this trip mindful of the ISO, exposure compensation, bracket setting, and everything else WITH THE EXCEPTION OF METERING!  Landscapes with snowy mountaintops are extremely contrasty, and it was not until the second day that I discovered that all pics captured to that point were using spot metering instead of matrix metering.  This rendered useless many otherwise acceptable shots.  Live and learn I suppose; this is one of the reasons I'd like to take a class and learn from the experts how to really use a camera.

The zoomed-in pic below was taken from the same vantage point, but much later in the day when it could be crafted into a silhouette shot.  Why they kept Christmas lights strung around that one tree in the foreground we never found out...

Canadian Rockies - Small Towns from Above

A thought occurred to me as I sat taking pictures of the scenery below.  Small towns such as these have distinguishing features that could make them easy to locate on a map.  Would it not be interesting to identify them later on?  I could duplicate the flight on my simulator at home, then look for the features and patterns that would zero in on exactly which towns these are, then get to know them a little bit.  What is the population?  What is the relationship or dynamic between the larger town at the bottom and the two smaller towns strung along the highway going up?  How do each use the river for recreation and/or commerce?  Etc. etc.  Might be a fun little exercise to keep the synapses firing during retirement...

 

Canadian Rockies - The Wonder of Flight and a Wonderful Sight

It still amazes me that people - lots of people - can enter a tube which rises high in the sky, then travels at more than 500 mph to a destination, then can safely land at that destination!  Never lost a sense of awe that such a thing can be done.

And of course the view!  From miles up in the air you can look down to see entire cities and towns, along with the surrounding topography.  Not to mention sunrises, sunsets, storm clouds with lightning, and occasionally other jetliners passing underneath or overhead to their own destinations.  Even some airline pilots appreciate their unique vantage point, and carry along a DSLR to take pictures from the cockpit when something amazing appears before them.

One of the most memorable sights I've ever seen was on a flight over the Swiss Alps going from London to Athens.  It was a crystal clear June day, and the gorgeous mountains with their snowy tops were passing below when I spied a jetliner going the opposite direction underneath our flight path.  I will never forget the beauty of those mountains along with the uniqueness of seeing the other jetliner passing below, leaving its contrail as if bisecting the scene.

On this trip up to Canada I was fortunate enough to get a window seat far enough back in the cabin to (mostly) avoid the wing or the engine, and decided to grab the Bigger Cahoona to try a few shots.  It was not without its challenges, however; you're in constant motion, and need to be careful not to bang the lens against the window.  And it's important to have lens cleaners handy to wipe the film and nose prints off of the window before beginning.

So I did those things and took pictures of what I considered to be interesting, this being the first one.  In spite of the precautions and cleaning of the window, a lot of post-capture was needed to yield a passable snapshot, as can be seen from the original below: