For the final weekend of the “official” summer, @bfg85 and I took a little road trip to Gravenhurst to celebrate her Grandmother’s 80th birthday at the family cottage.
Over 25 guests, quite a few beers, plenty of sun and a box of convenience store fireworks all melded together for a damn fine weekend. A few photos in the gallery below. Enjoy.
There is a selection of 25 images from my recent trip to Wyoming.
Some notes about this trip and the photos.
Lodging – The Four Seasons in Teton Village is unreal. That is a level of service I have never before experience.
Meals – Had amazing dinners in 3 places. First, the Snake River Grill in the town of Jackson. Order the pork shank, no question. Second, the Roadhouse Barbecue just outside the Teton Village. Order the baby back ribs and be amazed. Quality ribs smoked for 2 hours, poached in beer for another 2 hours, then grilled to perfection. The final choice was The Peak Restaurant actually located at the base of the mountain. Amazing 14oz Bison steak.
Wildlife – I will agree that there was an abundance of wildlife to be found in the parks. Usually it isn’t too hard to spot as most people have stopped their cars and there are huge traffic jams of people with their dinky point and shoots trying to get an elk photo 500 yards away. So they move closer and closer in, kids yelling and screaming, and the animal disappears back in the forest. This cycle repeats itself. The only animals who don’t give a shit are the bison. They could care less and prefer to wander in the middle of the road creating a huge traffic jam. On my final day, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to try and catch some large rack male moose in the swamps of Grand Teton NP. After waiting for an hour and a half… not one. Thems be the breaks of a nature photographer. Apparently the morning before there were so many you were tripping over them. Efff.
People – There are certainly some characters to be found on any road trip. Highlights of this trip include: the couple renewing their wedding vows after 50 years, the ever present child who swarms to me and decides to throw rocks into the water two feet beside me while I’m shooting in that water, and the old guy forced to take care of his two miniature dogs.
Enjoy.
On my quest to get all sorts of photos I would never see in Ontario, I took an evening hike up to Cecret (or Secret) Lake in the Albion Basin at Alta. An awesome spot, and the hike up is only 30 minutes and fairly easy to do.
I knew something was up when the parking lot was full at 6pm on a Tuesday night. Turns out there were a lot of people up there already, or on their way up. Not ideal for shooting landscape photos, but it was only 30 minutes, no big loss. I was sure as the sun started setting, people would be heading home.
On the way up, I heard rushing water coming from the side of the trail… gotta check it out. Snow in July, Utah is awesome for that.
Another 10 minutes from that spot and I’d made it to the top. Turns out there was a god damn frenzy of people up there. Little kids screaming at the top of their lungs, middle-aged women with bottles of wine, teenagers throwing rocks at the water… all the good stuff you need for landscape photos. So here I am standing on a small rock in the lake, when some kid asks me to move so he can catch salamanders. Hmm… ok, I’ll indulge this for a few minutes. I ask him to watch out for the camera. No such luck… child starts bumping into my lens and almost knocks the tripod and camera in to the lake. Wicked. Alright kid, I’m Kenny Powers, and you’re fuckin’ out!
Thanks for getting outta the way, back to making some bangers.
People finally left, so I hiked up higher to catch the sunset as it was going down over the mountains.
Finally, I passed a bull moose and a family of 3 deer on the way home, but the light was gone. I guess I’ll have to visit them another day.
Decided to take a hike up to Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak in the Mill B of Big Cottonwood. About a 7 mile trip all-in. A nice 85 degrees, very few people and an ice-cold lake at the top.
There was a bit of a breeze on the way up, which wasn’t going to help for some still water reflections, but I decided to scout it anyways and maybe get lucky. I definitely lucked out. There was only one sketch section on the way up, this rock field you had to scamper through for about 20 feet. Not long but a slip here would be rough.
The reflections weren’t quite what I needed, but shooting 2 minute exposures during the day certainly gave the water enough time to settle down and get Sundial Peak reflected properly in the lake.
It’s been a bit of time since I last updated this blog. In that time frame, I’ve managed to fly back to London, Ontario, get my university degree from Western, pack up my house, move everything to a storage locker, book a big corporate client and do a 7am shoot for them, and fly back to Salt Lake City for the next six weeks where I’ll be riding my bike… and that’s about it.
Flying with bikes is a real pain in the ass. Somewhere in the last few months, Delta upped their minimum charge by $75 for a total of $175, which I then have to pay tax on, bringing it to $185, on top of that, it’s a US airline, so that’ll be US Dollars… thanks a lot Delta. If you’re lucky your box won’t get hammer-tossed onto and off of the plane. When it finally reaches you on the other side, the wheels are out of alignment and that’s a few more bucks having a local shop get them spinning in a straight line and less like a taco. If I can avoid flying with a bike again, I will.
Yesterday involved a trip to the Draper DH course. I’d read about it as a decent local downhill bike trail, so decided to give it a go. All went reasonably well, until I reached the end about 15 minutes later… and realized where I was. An hour hike-a-bike from where I parked my car… that really sucked. Never again without a shuttle.
After spending a whole day with power tools to refinish some Muskoka Chairs for the parents, a big storm blew up from the valley and right over the house. After the storm cleared, an awesome sunset with an epic rainbow. Photographers dream.
