Finally back from a travel-filled May and June. A total of 35 days shooting with both old and new friends. The only problem is having to go through thousands of photos to find the best ones. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good problem to have and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
One of the most visited locations within Banff National Park is Lake Louise. The lake is home to the Victoria Glacier and visitors to the lake come from all over the world to see it. The lake was made popular in the late 19th century, when the Canadian Pacific Railway erected the Chateau Lake Louise on its shores to attract people to travel by rail to the then remote Canadian Rockies. On my first visit to Banff in 1994, I remember seeing the lake’s beauty, especially in the early morning light. Back then, you could visit the lake in early morning and have it mostly to yourself. Fast forward twenty-five years and you have to arrive before 9 am or you might not be able to park anywhere near it and instead need to take a shuttle from the highway. The one thing I remember from that first visit were the bright red canoes sitting alone on the lake waiting to take some lucky visitors out on the lake to get closer to the glacier. In my many visits since then, the crowds have taken over and getting any decent photos of the canoes was virtually impossible. Earlier this month when we stopped at the lake, the crowds were not nearly as bad as they have been in recent years. I am not sure why, but I wasn’t complaining. The canoes, for the first time since my initial visit, were free of people and the sun was lighting them up wonderfully. The scene took me back to 1994 and I had to capture it.