| Rockies Fall Colours Photography Workshop with Darwin Wiggett |
| What if you could leave everything behind for a while, go off somewhere wonderful, and spend a few days totally immersed in doing something you passionately enjoy, and could do it with people who shared that passion? I spent 5 days with Darwin Wiggett, whose gorgeous landscape photos would inspire any photographer, and two American guys who also came to be inspired, at Aurum Lodge in Nordegg, Alberta. We spent all day, every day, from dawn till dark, hunting for "magic light" in the mountains. It was cold, I didn't get much sleep, and this summer-lover got snowed on in September, but these things paled in the face of the beautiful Rockies and the chance to learn landscape photography from a pro with a true appreciation of his subject. I would have liked a few more weeks to traipse round with them -- Rick & David were agreeable shooting companions, and Alan from the lodge always seemed willing to stop the car when someone said, "OH--!" At least some of my future shooting will be prefaced with "What would Darwin do...?" I could use up a lot of space describing the experience, but filling it with pictures might be better. |
| Alberta Trip 2005 |
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| In the first place, this is why I got even less sleep than the guys... up half the night trying to shoot the gorgeous moonlit view out my window... |
| Our first morning. It rained. I left my raincoat at the lodge. But this was pretty... |
| Indian Paintbrush explosion. |
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| Hopefully, newbies are excused for shooting an entire roll of film on their first bighorn sheep. You can almost walk right up to these guys. |
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| I love finding patterns in nature. We should never be too busy gazing around at the big picture -- marvellous as it was here -- to forget to look at the beauty under our feet. |
| Why I want a Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue filter!! Gold-Eye Lake. |
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| Shoreline of Abraham Lake. |
| Some lonely trees. I believe Darwin calls this "landscape extraction". |
| Above right: Panther Falls: talk about slippery slopes. A neat place, but someone had some twinges from teetering down the muddy trail, and trying not to slide off the edge! You can go right under the falls, too. |
| Above: Mom's favourite picture. Taken from Rampart Ponds, Banff National Park, where we spent our second sunrise. I like the one at right too. |
| Page 2 |
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| Sept. 18-23 |