Whiteshell Wandering
I was honoured to take a family friend to the Whiteshell Provincial Park for a day of hiking and photography. This guy has done some serious work and it was a pleasure to watch him in action. He has a great eye for light, and frequently pointed out subjects that I was missing, even though they were right in front of me.
The hike was at Pine Point, an 8km loop past three low sets of rapids. The Whiteshell is a fascinating introduction to the Canadian Shield, a vast expanse of lakes, marshes, thin soil, and bald, lichen-covered rock. Mosses grow in the smallest nooks and depressions, eventually, over the years, providing enough soil for the smallest tuft of grass:
An island in a sea of rock.
Birches often find anchorage in the narrowest crevasses:
Narrow rivers bordered by marshes drain the surrounding lakes:
Late in the year the river flows over algae-covered rocks:
I like the colours here, but lucked out with the splash arcs at the top.
After the Pine Point hike we stopped by the Petroforms site at Bannock Point only a couple of kilometres away. This area has some very old petroforms, and is still used by the local indigenous groups. The wide open rock makes it feel like an open-air cathedral:
I found the choices of objects and placement artistic and fascinating:
Buddha. Love it!
There's something inexplicably beautiful about the raw stone and minimal foliage, with a hint of human touch, a testament to the severity of the environment here:
The next week I did the Hunt Lake trail, which only starts at Hunt Lake but mostly follows the coastline of West Hawk Lake. It was absolutely gorgeous, but a very strenuous hike for me. It might only be 12km, but it's very up and down, like a natural Stairmaster. I didn't do much photography on the way out, because I didn't know how long it would take and how much time I would need for the return. But I made mental notes of spots that might be nicer for photography later in the day, and managed to gather a couple I'm pleased with:
Another picturesque marsh, naturally vignetted.
Signs of the end of the year were everywhere:
This leaf has done a summer's worth of work.
I didn't expect to find cedars, but they were everywhere on the trail. They love moisture, but they also need deeper soil:
I also didn't expect White Pine. Their long soft needles form a carpet for parts of the trail:
And finally at the end of the day I was treated to, yes, another little marsh. But if you were a turtle, wouldn't you want to live here?
Photographers may note that many of my crops are starting to use the 4:3 format. At first it was just experimentation, as I couldn't get the right "feel" with the standard 2:3 format. Sometimes now I will frame the shot with this crop in mind, but at this point in the learning process it is still hit-and-miss.
And sometimes it's the opposite: as noted above, often I'm really after a panorama, either 16:9 or even 3:1. As I experiment more I've been playing with different crops, but 4:3 is becoming my favourite. The camera doesn't do this while taking the shot, so I need to make mental notes when I do it intentionally.
Part of this might be motivated by continuing to ponder a shift to Micro 4/3 format. I'd love to play around with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 ii, but it's kind of out of my price range at the moment, and the low-light performance needs to come to the next level before I start thinking about it seriously.
That's all for this post, be well!
