Spring Storms

The past few weeks I’ve had a few failed attempts at shooting sunrise and finding wildlife, I should’nt expect anything more from this time of year… other than Spring storms.

I’ve managed to get a few reasonable images from the past few weeks, the temperatures vary from -17c to +11c which makes preparing for shoots pretty tough. One minute it can be a bluebird day, the next a blizzard.

Here’s a couple from a recent trip to Abraham Lake

Abraham Lake, Clearwater County

A Bighorn lamb licking minerals off the ground at Abraham Lake

These photos were all taken within an hour of each other. Driving conditions got crazy on the way back to Banff.

Destructive Ice

This is another photograph from Abraham Lake taken a few days ago. This lake is dammed so the water level decreases during the winter because any precipitation doesnt reach the lake itself. The lake freezes when it is relatively full, the water decreases forcing the ice to crush, sending it plummeting to its depths or forcing it up creating ice mountains. In this case the ice had been forced up and cracked into many pieces.

You can get a real feel for the thickness of this ice in this photograph. I tried to capture the different Blues from the scene, the colour of the ice was so surreal.

(This photo would not have been possible without the help of Dani’s Ice Cleats! Having attempted this 15% gradient polished ice several times I was about to give up when Dani offered her cleats up)

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Frozen Bubbles

Recently, myself and two other photographers took a trip to Abraham Lake, Clearwater County, Alberta. I had previously heard about this lake but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer beauty of it.

Having witnessed a lot of the Canadian Rockies in the past years thanks to my photography, It has become increasingly challenging to find something that really wows me. I appreciate it all nonetheless but this place really stands out for me.

Walking out onto a frozen lake, with ice three feet deep, and so clear its like standing on glass looking down to the lake bed. So polished and perfect you can make out every detail below, if it wasnt for the occasional visible crack, you would forget you were standing on a lake. All of this gives that same adrenalin rush and fear when you are falling in your sleep.

It was after walking out a few metres on the lake that we came upon the infamous bubble formations of Abraham Lake. These naturally occurring bubbles form as the ice freezes the same time as gas is released from the lake bed. They create the most stunning effect. I have tried to reproduce this effect as much as possible in the below photographs but seeing it in person is unforgettable.

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More from this shoot soon!