Below are John Knight’s images from the 2010 Fire and Ice tour. Be sure to drop by John’s website for lots more inspiration!
- ©John Knight
Chephren’s Mirror-Mount Chephren and Waterfowl Lake, Banff NP, Alberta
Canon EOS 5D Mark2, Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L II
Exposure: 1/5 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100
Filters: Circular polarizer (Singh-Ray) + 2-stop grad (Singh-Ray)
Tripod & Head: Gitzo 3540 XLS with RRS BH-55 ballhead & cable release
Description: Sunrise at Waterfowl Lake along the Icefield Parkway was our first stop on the 2010 ‘Fire and Ice Tour’. This image was one of my first using a tilt-shift lens. For this shot, I looked for something ‘simple’, i.e., just the mountain and its reflection. With my camera in Av mode, I used the camera’s ‘live view’ and the lens’ ‘tilt’ capability (i.e., with a ‘tilt’ of only a couple of ticks with the tripod at eye level) on the lens to make sure that everything was in focus from a third of the way into the image to the mountain top. Before taking the shot, I adjusted the polarizing filter and inserted a 2-stop grad filter.
©John Knight
Fire on Ice, Preacher’s Point, Abraham Lake, Alberta
Canon EOS 5D Mark2, Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L II
Exposure: 1/5 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100
Filters: Circular polarizer (Singh-Ray) + 2-stop grad (Singh-Ray)
Tripod & Head: Gitzo 3540 XLS with RRS BH-55 ballhead & cable release
Description: For this shot, I was poised precariously near the shoreline on the thin newly formed ice of Abraham Lake. I made sure that I stayed close to the shoreline where the water was shallow. The main challenge, however, was to stay in one place while lying on the polished ice. Each time that I moved, gravity tried to pull me down slope towards deeper water. Walking crampons would have been great, but they were in the car. A polarizing and a 2-stop grad filter were used with a low ISO to slow the shutter speed so that I could capture some of the time-lapsed colour changes in the clouds. I took some shots with a 5-stop ND filter (Singh-Ray) to further slow the shutter speed (next image), but the colour caste from this filter (magenta) created a very different look to the sunrise. I preferred the shot here without the 5-stop ND filter.
©John Knight
Icy Stepping-stones, Mistaya River Canyon, Banff NP, Alberta
Canon EOS 5D Mark2, Canon EF24-105 f/4.0L IS USM @ 97mm focal length
Exposure: 0.3 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 100
Filters: Circular polarizer (Rodenstock) + 2-stop grad (Singh-Ray) + 5-stop neutral density filter (Lee)
Tripod & Head: Gitzo 3540 XLS with RRS BH-55 ballhead & cable release
Description: This image was selected from within a larger image. I wanted to capture the detail of the crystalline and amorphous ice types framed by the moving water. The smaller ice-covered rocks look like stepping stones, drawing your focus into the image and towards the large boulder in the background.
©John Knight
Autumn’s Tranquil Transition, Whirlpool Point, Kootenay Plains, Alberta
Canon EOS 5D Mark2, Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L II
Exposure: 1/4 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 100
Filters: Circular polarizer (Singh-Ray) + 2-stop grad (Singh-Ray)
Tripod & Head: Gitzo 3540 XLS with RRS BH-55 ballhead & cable release
Description: Near the end of our tour and just before sunset, we stopped at Whirlpool Point along the David Thompson Highway. I scrambled down to a small protected lake that had frozen recently. The gathering storm clouds framed the highlighted mountains in the middle ground. The bluish-grey light from the setting sun helped to create a moody feeling. The protected tranquility of this scene was an illusion of reality. Only a short distance away, frigid and dust-laden winds howled down the North Saskatchewan River valley, a stark reminder that winter was just around the corner.
©John Knight
Frozen Orbs, Preacher’s Point, Abraham Lake, Alberta
Canon EOS 5D Mark2, Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L II
Exposure: 30 sec @ f/13.0, ISO 100
Filters: Circular polarizer (Singh-Ray) + 2-stop grad (Singh-Ray) + 5-stop neutral density (Singh-Ray)
Tripod & Head: Gitzo 3540 XLS with RRS BH-55 ballhead & cable release
Description: This shot was taken with a 5-stop ND filter (Singh-Ray). The magenta colour caste created by this filter was then adjusted in Photoshop by using the ‘white point eye-dropper’ tool to sample different parts of the image until a pleasing result was found. The orbs in the foreground were formed from bubbles of methane gas that seeped from the lake bottom and were trapped in the ice as the lake froze.
©John Knight
Bighorn Audio-visual, Bighorn Sheep, Jasper NP, Alberta
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF500mm f/4.0L IS USM
Exposure: 1/250 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 800
Filters: none
Support: bean-bag
Description: Even during a tour focused primarily on landscape photography, it is important to keep a camera and longer lens handy for surprise encounters with wildlife. While returning to Jasper from Moberly Flats we found a herd of Big Horn sheep. With my other camera, I quickly captured several head-shots before everyone started to leave. In keeping with the principles of ‘first-best-different’ (Bill Marsh), I decided, in collaboration with my son, Eric, to create an unusual image of the sheep’s head that is ‘different’. The result focuses your attention around curved geometry of the horn and from the ear towards the sheep’s eye.
Darwin Wiggett 