Landscape, Nature, and Wildlife Photography from the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Prairies
Author: Sean
Sean lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is surrounded by majestic views of the Rocky Mountains and constantly changing prairie landscapes.
While focusing on the beauty of the prairies, including the sweeping horizons, the vegetation, and the birds and animals, the Eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains are also a favorite place to wander and photograph.
I have updated my Panoramic Image Collection with a couple of images that I’ve made recently. The image above is Castle Mountain as seen from the Bow Valley Parkway. Castle is located halfway between Banff and Lake Louise on the Bow Valley Parkway, and is a popular mountain for hiking and climbing. I really liked the way the wispy clouds partially covered the golden rocks of the mountain, and the brilliant blue sky in the background just gave it some extra oomph! As soon as I saw the mountain I knew I had to make a panoramic image.
The next one is another view of Mount Rundle as seen from Vermillion lakes. I have wanted to get some good sunrise or sunset images from this location for a long time and I’m really happy with what I got from my recent visit.
The images in the Panoramic gallery look really great printed big! I’ve printed a few of these at 12″ x 36″ and they look fantastic. Unfortunately the print service in my online store will only print as big as 12″ x 24″, so if you want something bigger please contact me directly and I will make a custom print to your specifications. Note that while most of my panoramics are sized in a 1:3 aspect ratio, some are only 1:2. Each one may need to be cropped differently when printed…
There are lots of large animals that are easily found in the Rocky Mountains (and the foothills). One of the most beautiful, and one of my personal favorites, is the Bighorn Sheep. These animals are usually very easy to find in the same places over and over again, and so I’ve been able to observe them many times.
I recently took a drive west of Calgary along a route that I had never taken before. In two different places along the highway (near Exshaw) I saw large herds of sheep shortly after passing warning signs for sheep in the area. It’s funny how often you can see warning signs for animals but then never actually see any of animals. That is definitely not the case with Bighorn Sheep!
Although there was one memorable time when I was gently reminded by a rather large sheep that they really are wild animals, they are generally very passive and aren’t very concerned by human interaction. These two herds almost completely ignored me and they barely bothered to glance up while continuing to eat their morning meal.
One of the iconic images from Banff National Park is the view of Mount Rundle reflected in the Vermillion Lakes, usually at sunrise or sunset. I had never had a chance to make one of these images before since I had never been able to get there at the right time on a day in which the weather cooperated. I finally had a chance to do so this past weekend.
Making images of Rundle was actually a side trip (as many of my photographic expeditions are) while on the way to do something else. A friend and I were heading to Lake Louise for a day of skiing so we planned to get early enough to see the sunrise over Rundle. This is the perfect time of year for a trip like this since you can shoot the sunrise and still make it to Lake Louise in time for a full day of skiing!
We actually got to Banff a few minutes later than planned, but the timing worked out well anyway. We quickly found an open pool of water in the icy lake and got set up for the reflection shot. There was even on old dead tree laying on the ice that was all covered in frost, and it was oriented perfectly to lead the eye directly to the mountain. I made many beautiful images, and the one above is one of my favorites from the trip.
Every once in awhile the local birding community goes crazy about a special visitor to the area. Recently reports have been coming in daily about a trio of Northern Hawk Owls living north of Cochrane. I was was lucky enough to see two of the three birds today.
Although not endangered, these birds are considered to be rare in the Calgary area. For there to be three of them located in such close proximity is very exciting. Reports of these birds have been popping up on Alberta Bird since before Christmas and I was eager to see if I could find them. Fortunately these particular owls have been staying in the same spot for a long time, and they don’t seem to care that they are being watched by a lot of people. One of them actually flew onto a tree only a few feet away from me several times.
This particular bird has a regular behavioral pattern in which it perches in a high tree (or power pole) while preening; every so often it will fly down to a lower tree overlooking the adjacent farm field, and then patiently search the field for a meal. When it finds something it swoops down low over the grass and strikes from behind. Sometimes it eats the meal right there on the ground, while other times it flies off with it to enjoy it from a higher vantage point.
The nearby fields appear to be abundantly stocked with prey and these birds make many such trips throughout the day. I stayed to watch one of the birds for quite a long time and it was very exciting to be able to observe it so closely. I managed to make a few good sequences of images of it hunting, and I’ve put together a slideshow of one of these sequences…
When this sort of excitement crops up there is always the inevitable talk about the ethics of human interaction with wildlife. In this particular instance there have been huge numbers of people traveling down the same road eager to see and photograph such beautiful birds. Some people would say that this is very stressful to the bird and that it can really disrupt their lifestyle. I’ve already mentioned that these birds don’t seem to care very much about the people that are visiting them, and my personal belief is that birds and animals are generally very good at letting humans know when they are being bothered. In fact they usually do so very quickly…
As an aside, I have to say I don’t support feeding wild birds or animals just to get a better picture. There have been some reports that people have been baiting these birds (with pet store mice for example) to do just that. I certainly didn’t see it happening while I was watching the owls, and I would even go so far as to say that it would be completely unnecessary in this case. The adjacent field appears to be teeming with mice and these birds have been on a very steady diet of fresh food. Having said that, it happens all the time, and not just by photographers. But that’s a topic for another post…
