Another Nice Sunrise

Well, it was another interesting day out in the Canadian Rockies. I started the day at Moraine Lake, one of my favorite spots in North America. Maybe it’s because of how intimate it seems to me, or the grand mountainous arc that protects this blue jewel.

In any event, I got up at 5:00 and got to the lake about 6:45, got set up and waited for the show to begin. FYI, my setup was: Hasselblad H4D-50, HCD 28mm with HTS1.5 Tilt-Shift (rendering the lens @42mm in medium format; that translates to around 33mm in DSLR terms), polarizer, Gitzo 3541 tripod with Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead and cable release.

I used the tilt-shift with the lens because I wanted a slightly tighter frame, but I intend to reshoot it next week with my Nikon D800 and Nikkor 14-24mm to see how that looks.

As the sun rose, I used a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter to balance the light. I increased that to a 4-stop and then to a 5-stop as the dynamic range increased. For the shot above, the specs were: ISO 200, 4 seconds @ f22.

The image has not been adjusted in post-processing yet, because I find that exceptionally difficult to do while I’m on the road. In fact, getting up at 5:00 AM and staying out until 9 or 10, then eating some slop for dinner leaves little time for me to post-process anyway.

For the rest of the day I ambled down the spectacular Bow Valley Parkway, checking out photo sites and stopping here and there. Perhaps I was overtired, but nothing really clicked for me (please forgive the pun!). And when I quickly reviewed my shots a few minutes ago I am not really liking very much. That may change when I get back and give my images a thorough check. A few images had potential. We’ll see.

Tomorrow it’s another sunrise start to the day, but I promised myself that I will eat breakfast afterward. Up to now it’s been protein bars, health bars (thank you, Kheyala!) and water. Come to think of it, that’s been lunch, too. Oh, well.