Sunrise in the Canadian Rockies

It’s now 4:00 PM in Banff National Park in Canada. I’ve been up since 4:00 AM on my first day here this year, hoping to catch a nice sunrise at Kananaskis Regional Park en route to Banff. Judging from this unprocessed image from my camera, I think I did.

Driving to the shore of Wedge Pond in the dark, I suddenly got in touch with something I’d like to share with you. The roads were empty. I had not passed a car in at least 30 minutes, when I looked in my side view mirror and caught a glimpse of the sky behind me starting to lighten.

Look, I hate getting up that early as much as anyone. But to this day I get a chill up my spine when I witness the sky just beginning to lighten, promising the gift of a spectacular sunrise in all its glory. At those moments I feel as if I am the luckiest man on the planet, whether or not a great sunrise materializes. And when the alpenglow hits the peaks of a mountain I’m capturing in camera, well, there’s no drug high that can beat that!

The image was taken with a Hasselblad H4D-50, 28mm lens, polarizing filter: ISO 100, 1.0 sec at f22, tripod mounted.

I’m heading out now to case out a shot I want to take for sunset. Stay tuned.