Grey­tones in boreal lake

I took this pho­to­graph at one of the five lakes in Emer­son Lakes Provin­cial Park, north­west of Edson, Alberta — a great lit­tle place that was almost com­pletely deserted the week­end I was there. If you don’t mind a lit­tle bit of gravel road, I would def­i­nitely rec­om­mend this spot for a quiet boreal retreat.

Although the mid­dle of the after­noon is not nor­mally the best time of day for mak­ing pho­tographs of the land­scape, great pho­tographs are still out there — and (if you ask me) any pho­tog­ra­pher that tells you oth­er­wise isn’t look­ing hard enough. In this image, made at just past 4pm on a nice sunny day, I just love how the lake holds nearly the full range of tones from the nearly black shad­ows along the shore­line to the bright white reflec­tions of the high cir­rus clouds and the mid­tones of the shal­low lakebed itself — all mixed together by the slight breeze caus­ing the rip­ples on the water’s surface.

Add in a cou­ple Bonaparte’s Gulls, a pair of Belted King­fish­ers, and a cho­rus of song­birds — and you’ve got your­self a pretty good spot to sit for a while, mak­ing pho­tographs as the clouds shift by (which is exactly what I did…)