2012 in Review

Decorations for the Baby Shower I Threw for a Friend – Inspired by InkObsessionDesigns

It’s already almost the end of January and 2013 has already started to pick up, so 2012 almost seems like a faint memory despite it being less than a month ago. Such is life, I guess.

Newborn Shoot for a Friend

2012 was definitely a year full of firsts, challenges and triumphs. I also apparently took way more photos than I thought – as can be seen with the accompanying collages (look at alt-text for descriptions!) I also finished my Photography Certificate of Achievement through SAIT – go figure that procrastinating me has yet to submit my form to get the actual certificate.

Annual Field Trip

In 2012, I got my first “Real” job, watched one of my siblings get married,  Shot a wedding as the Primary Photographer, climbed a 10,000ft Mountain and sent out a Christmas card and letter. You know, small things like that.

House my Family let for my Brother’s Wedding

My Brother and Sister-in-Law’s Wedding

First of all, I learned a LOT at work. Not just technical stuff, but things about myself like how I am more capable than I think I am and that I can survive through embarrassing situations where I wish the floor would swallow me up as have fun to boot!

Okay, I’ll fill you in – at the end of August, I went up to Fort St. John on a field trip and I was so out of it on the first day that I dropped my glass of water on the floor (and all over myself) while at the client’s office. Go me! Despite being super spastic, I ended up having fun, but it could also because I have a tendency to get incredibly hyper when I’m really, really tired. I’ll keep believing the former as it makes me feel better about myself.

Summer Fun at the Cabin

Mr. Bean and I also spent a fair amount of time at the cabin having fires. I ate waaaaaay too many s’mores, but I justify it by saying that I’m making up for almost 12+ years of not eating them. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Vancouver Island

I also learned that I need to be better at taking care of myself. There was a period in June and July (before I went on a glorious vacation) that all I did was work, ride my bike to and from work, eat and sleep. I had no desire (or time) to do anything with other people. Not exactly the best example of enjoying life to its fullest. Or at all.

Friend’s Engagement Photos

While shooting my first official wedding, I gained even more respect for wedding photographers – everything happens SO quickly and you can really only hope that you’re able to capture everything and that it looks good. I was so happy that Mr. Bean helped me!

Friend’s Wedding Photos

I did manage to do a bit of hiking in 2012 – first I went with my parents to Mt. Lipsett in Kananaskis, Piper Pass in Kananaskis with my family while my sister was visiting, the Plain of the Six Glaciers in Lake Louise with my mom (where we saw a huge chunk of ice fall off a glacier – very cool) and to Pocaterra Cirque with Mr. Bean during the height of the larch trees. I LOVE larch trees.

Hiking in 2012 – Mt. Lipsett, Piper’s Pass/Elbow Trail, Lake Louise – Plain of the Six Glaciers, Pocaterra Cirque

My mom and I also went on a backpacking trip into the Skoki area in behind Lake Louise ski hill in Banff National Park. There, we climbed Mt. Richardson – take that, fear of heights! – my first 10,000 ft peak. We had a few issues with weather (hiking in the pouring rain isn’t the most fun), with our camp stove, forgetting sunscreen only to realize that there was some in the care after we went back to the Lake Louise townsite to get more and thinking that sunscreen was lotion, but we still had fun. We also ate delicious dehydrated meals, similar to our previous meals. The area was so beautiful that I convinced Mr. Bean that it would be a good idea to head to Skoki Lodge for our 5th wedding anniversary this year (in the same cabin that Will & Kate stayed in when they visited in 2011!)

Annual Backpacking Trip with my Mom

The year ended well and poorly – we celebrated a wonderful Christmas with both sides of our family and I baked a lot. Unfortunately, shortly after Christmas, I got the flu which eventually morphed into viral Bronchitis. I guess it was okay – it’s only because I was sick that I made all these storyboards!

Night Photography

What are the best moments of 2012 for you?

Fall Hiking in Buller Pass

Have you ever heard of the Larch tree? It’s a deciduous conifer tree that loses its needles every year after giving off a spectacular show of fall colours.

When I went hiking last week with my mom, we hiked up to Buller Pass in Kananaskis Country, which fortunately for us had many larch trees at the peak of their golden-yellow colour. Pretty, aren’t they?

One thing I did learn was to be aware of what settings your camera is at. First, I didn’t realize that my camera was on manual (I usually keep it on aperture priority to counteract my absent-mindedness), so my photos at the beginning were very under exposed. This one looks pretty cool though.

Then I didn’t realize that I had my camera on spot metering for some reason, so many of the photos were over exposed in the camera’s attempt to make the point of focus middle grey. Ooops. So please learn from me and actually pay attention!

The hike to Buller Pass is definitely worth it – it’s just over 14 km long with 670m elevation gain. The trail head starts on the other side of the road from the Mount Buller Rest Area, on the Smith-Dorrien Spray Lakes Trail. (About 30 km north of where the road takes off of the Kananaskis Lakes Trail in Peter Lougheed Park off of Highway 40.) You first start by climbing through the trees and you will cross Buller Creek a few times.

As you start climbing, you will hike through the remnants of the prescribed burn area done in August/September 2011 (an attempt to battle some of the pine beetles that are taking over). Unfortunately, it appeared that it got a bit out of control and burned down a large patch of spruce and larch trees in the sub-alpine.

You will come across a pretty little waterfall. Since it frosted the night before, part of it was still frozen.

Then you will continue to climb until you reach a valley with tons of larch trees.

View Looking Down the Valley

There’s also a lot of neat geology on this hike, including some neat looking fossils. (My mum will soon be publishing a “Take a Geology Hike” pamphlet on this hike, so if you’re interested, let me know and I can give you the link when it comes out.)

View Up the Valley to Buller Pass

From there, you will continue to climb up across some talus slopes until you reach Buller Pass. It looks a lot harder than it is, but it goes by pretty quickly and affords amazing views. From there looking east, you can see Ribbon lake and Guinn pass (on the right.)

Click for Larger Image

If you look west, you can see Mount Assiniboine (on the right).

My mom and I managed to do this hike in just over 5 hours, which included plenty of picture and geology breaks.

This hike was definitely worth your while – we had absolutely beautiful weather, amazing views and fabulous fall colours. I definitely recommend going in the fall to see the larches in their splendour, but I imagine it would still be very pretty during the summer as well.

Where is one place that you like to visit in the fall?

Many of these shots are Straight Out Of the Camera and shared at this week’s Orange themed Good to Wow: Shoot and Edit.

One of the shots of my brother and his fiance was nominated as one of the top SOOCs in September (Thanks Jill!) – please go and vote for me!

  

It’s Time to Cherish Summer…

Today I went hiking with my sister and it reminded me of how short summer really is around here.

Yep, that’s snow. I should note that shortly after this photo was taken, we both put on basically all the clothes we brought with us.

Since I want to be in denial, I will spend more time looking at the photos from my backpacking trip last week, where the weather was wonderful.

After looking at LeavesnBlooms’ blog, I was inspired to try HDR toning. Isn’t it pretty? For some reason, I wanted to try to make this photo black and white.

To see the rest of the edits of this week’s Shoot and Edit “Body of Water” theme, head over to Ashley’s blog!

Another Backpacking Trip to Remember

Maude Lake - Click for Larger Image

Every time I go out to the mountains, it makes me want to return the moment I leave. Last week’s backpacking trip to Kananaskis with my mom was no different.

I thought I was going to be really nervous about the whole experience – I guess I got rid of most of the first time jitters last year – but the moment I slipped on the much lighter pack than last year, I was good to go. It took us a bit longer than expected to hike in the 8 km (5 miles) – apparently it takes much longer to get somewhere when you’re carrying a 50 lb backpack and it’s over 25C (77F) outside.

Photo for this week's Good to Wow Photo Challenge

We set up our base camp at a lovely campground called Forks (aptly named as there are many rivers and streams meeting). One of the reasons why I liked it was because it had a communal eating area with fire pits and bear lockers. I think bear lockers are fantastic as it means you don’t have to string all your food up and hope that a bear won’t get it.

Lower Kananaskis Lake by the Trailhead - Click for Larger Image

Upper Kananaskis Lake - Click for Larger Picture

Speaking of bears, there were a few bears in the area while we were there. My mom and I didn’t see any, just lots of scat. The thing with bears is to make as much noise as you can and if you see one, to respect it by quietly backing away and letting the bear move away. I was glad to have my mom there as she has lots of experience with bears from working in the field and thus isn’t paralyzed by the thought of meeting one, so that helped me not to be so afraid of them.

You definitely get to meet some interesting people while backpacking. One of the other groups that was there while we were was a family of eight: a mom, 5 siblings ranging probably from 18 to 6 (4 boys and 1 girl), a girlfriend, a cousin and their dog. They made popcorn and baked potatoes over the fire every night, brought up a huge kettle and went to bed before dark. All the younger boys spent their time running around with their burnt walking sticks and jumping in the glacier fed river, so I guess it’s no wonder why they all went to bed so early!

My mom and I went on two hikes – one up to Turbine Canyon, Maude Lake and the North Kananaskis Pass (~20km) and the other to Three Isle Lake and South Kananaskis Pass (~16km). Both had pretty big elevation gains but the views were definitely worth it!

Self Portrait at North Kananaskis Pass

View Near South Kananaskis Pass

Like on last year’s trip, I couldn’t resist swimming in an alpine lake. Holy man is it ever cold but so worth it!

For your entertainment - me swimming in an alpine lake

That's right, I swam in this lake - Click for Larger Image

It may surprise some of you that I took absolutely no photos of our food on this trip despite putting in lots of effort to make dehydrated meals. It could be because I was hungry and I essentially made the same things as last year’s backpacking trip.

I learned a bit about geology on this trip from my mom as she put stations in for various outcrops – did you know that a syncline is where the rocks on a mountain are shaped like a “V” and an anticline is where they are shaped as an “A”? Well, now you do. You’re welcome.

A mini lake on the way to Turbine Canyon - Click for Larger Image

I’m kind of sad that the trip is over – we were blessed with gorgeous weather and a great time. I was happy to see Mr. Bean, though!

How was your week?

*Please see all the rest of the SOOCs for this week’s body-of-water themed Good to Wow: Shoot and Edit Photo Challenge! I used the picture of the creek as the lake panoramas technically aren’t SOOCs as I used photoshop to put them together.

Hornby Island Adventures

The most exciting thing Mr. Bean and I did while on Vancouver Island was visit Hornby Island, a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia. It’s a hippie island with lots of cute art places, farms and those kinds of things.

Given that my parents are geologist, I have to show case some of the interesting rock formations as there are lots of them. It’s almost difficult to believe that these are real.

My "Shadows" SOOC

This trip had a few firsts:

• Mr. Bean’s first time to the islands
• The first time we ever picked up a hitchhiker
• The first time that bacon was ordered on a salad at the fish n’ chips stand we went to
• We ate the first blackberries of the season

Okay, maybe we technically didn’t pick up a hitchhiker. To get to Hornby Island, you have to first take a ferry to Denman Island, drive across the island and catch another ferry to Hornby. While we were waiting in the first ferry line, a girl who works at one of the restaurants on Hornby asked for a ride across Denman. She was really nice, not creepy and quite helpful at recommending places for us to check out. For the record, we would never actually stop and pick up a person on the side of the road as that is illegal.

View from Helliwell Park - Click for Larger Image

There’s two things that I’m sad about: that I forgot to take my camera to the beautiful white sand beach at Tribune Bay where I went swimming and that we weren’t there when the stand with homemade rhubarb vanilla ice cream was open. I guess we’ll just have to go back!

Where do you want to go back and visit?

Almost all these shots are Straight Out Of the Camera. Go and see all the other Shadow SOOCs over at Jill’s blog!