>Tilt!< Photographic Overload!

652 pictures we took in the last 2 days. 600 are amazing! My mind is spinning, my eyes are bugging, my jaw aches from dropping open so many times. I’ll try to give you just the highlights. Forgive me if you become overwhelmed, too.

Yesterday (Friday), we woke up early (!) to catch the early morning light at Patricia and Pyramid Lakes (we were there the day before for the afternoon light). We got a bonus! As the sun was rising, the moon was setting. We’re still in the Jasper townsight, pulled over to the side of the road. The school is in the foreground.

When we got to Patricia Lake, we joined a photo class already set up w/ their digital SLR’s on their tripods & their instructor telling them about f-stops & apertures.

We took our little digital cameras with their automatic settings, bounded down the bank to the lakeshore, pointed and shot away, and I think we got some pretty good shots.

  Notice the moon in the rocks at the bottom…

Reflection of the mountains & the moon in Patricia Lake (above)

Notice the steam on the lake…

  Pyramid Mountain

Looks like I have the moon in my hands (almost). Notice I have on my winter jacket. Had on my gloves earlier (& later!), too!

From Patricia Lake we went up the road to Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Island. It stole our breaths away!

 

The bridge leading to Pyramid Island with Pyramid Mountain in the background, just starting to be painted with light…

Whistlers Mountain. We would be there later in the day (this is going to be a long blog!). You can see the Upper Station shining on the lower bump from the top.

  Pyramid Mountain in the early morning light (7:11 MDT)

Mt. Edith Cavell. We would be there later that day, too (did I mention long blog???)

The mountains aren’t the only things that look good in morning alpenglow… (note sweatshirt, winter coat, gloves…)
 The sun coming up over the Colin Range (sometimes with 2 l’s, sometimes with 1)

 Pyramid Mountain.

Detail of Pyramid Island’s shore, lest we lose the forest for the trees, so to speak…

OK. This still makes me gasp (as do many of our other pictures from that morning).

I think what I’ll do is wrap up this blog here, with just the morning shots. Yesterday we also went up Whistlers Mountain via the Jasper Tramway and then went to Mt Edith Cavell to hike the Cavell Meadows. It was an absolutely beautiful day. A bit hazy/smoky, but beautiful. I already told you how many pictures we took…

Today (Saturday) we went to Maligne Lake and took the boat tour to Spirit Island (actually an isthmus) and the amazing box canyon at the end of the lake. 200 more pictures.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be a rainy day with a chance of thundershowers. Sounds like a good day to hike to a waterfall. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I’ll catch up (if only posting Picasa links).

OK… here’s one of the “money” shots from today’s boat trip on Maligne Lake (unfortunately, no money…)