Welcome to Lake Louise in Banff National Park – our first stop on our Canadian Rockies adventure. Being at high altitude (~5400 feet), our goal was to get acclimated with a couple of easy hikes. That’s because the hikes will become strenuous very soon.  After 5.5 miles with 1,500 feet of elevation all the way to a tea house followed on the next day with a 6.5 mile hike with 400 feet of elevation, I’d say we got acclimated.  Maybe too acclimated. The tea house itself is not overly interesting. You do the hike for the beautiful views back to the “Chateau Lake Louise.”  Those did not disappoint. 

Shot looking back while hiking to the Little Beehive

Shot looking back while hiking to the Little Beehive

Our second day hike was focused on photographing waterfalls.  I like to photograph them using a 10 stop neutral density filter. If you have never seen one of these, it is so dark that very little light gets through. You can hold it up to the sky and look through – and see nothing.  Using this filter allows the camera shutter to stay open a long time (I like the results using about 25 seconds) producing a shot with  the falls looking silky smooth. The initial waterfall, “Takakkaw” is big and beautiful even though I still can’t pronounce it.  I’m convinced there is no proper pronunciation.

Takakkaw Falls

The real find on the hike was the “Point Lace Falls.” It was not an overly large falls, maybe 40 feet high.  But its real feature is the many water paths spreading throughout the rock face.  Here are two shots, one short exposure (hand held at 1/125 sec) and one long exposure (on tripod at 25 sec).  Which one do you light best?

Short Exposure at 1/125 sec

Short Exposure at 1/125 sec

 

Long Exposure at 25 sec.

Long Exposure at 25 sec.

Thank’s for reading…  Next post will be some shots during our drive up the Ice Fields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper.