After an extremely long day of hiking and photographing in the mountain backcountry, the last thing I wanted to do is stay out late photographing the night sky in the bitter cold. My warm bed was calling my name, yet the realization that I missed the aurora the previous night and the solar forecast was calling for an even better display for this night was just too hard to resist. I re-packed my gear, grabbed the dog, and off we went. As I left my house, I could already see the show was going to be a good one. Even under a veil of city lights, the aurora came to life and danced across the sky. By the time I left the city, I became awestruck with the magnificent display of green waves of light overhead. Tired and exhausted, I only stayed out for an hour. In that time, I’ll admit, I had a struggle to find something to make for a compelling image. These barns aren’t too far from my house and I always wanted to shoot them during the aurora. It was a struggle on site to pull off a compelling image as the barns are further away than I previously thought. With the pasture gated off, I had to get creative and instead of showing the entire night sky and having tiny awkward little barns, I decided to zoom in and go for a more intricate scene. I feel like this image does justice for what I saw that night, even if it’s just a small segment of the night sky.
Typically, I try to shy away from areas that are busy with other photographers. I generally prefer my own solitude when I am out in the mountains rather than being shoulder to shoulder with other people. In the fall, that’s not the easiest to do. It seems there are far more people willing to get out early to capture the autumn colour than any other time of year. Just to the right of this image is a well-known local mountain known as the three sisters. Noted for the prominent triple peaks, this mountain is a magnet for landscape photographers. By the time I arrived after feeding the kid, stopping for the kid to have a pee break, and then feeding the kid after she was hungry again, then stopping several more times for the dog to have his poo and pee breaks we were the last ones there and had the least desirable spot to capture the three sisters. Being late for the sunrise, I didn’t have much for options to head to a new location so I thought I’d make the best of it. As the sun started to rise, I instantly saw the main feature shot was not going to be the best one of the day. The clouds in the east were starting to ignite with the telltale signs of an epic sunrise. Conversely, there was nothing but empty sky over the three sisters which doesn’t bode well for a landscape photo. Instead I decided to change my direction of shooting and capture the silhouette of the trees with the sunrise. Instantly I had the best seat in the house, lucky me. The best part was that everyone else was so engrossed in capturing the three sisters, not one of them decided to look around and I was the only one who ended up capturing this. I remember some people looking in confusion at all the cameras pointing in one direction and me shooting the completely opposite way. I guess it pays to always look around. It worked for me at least.
The first light of the day is cast upon Mt. Lyautey on Upper Kananaskis Lake.
