Emerald Lake - Gem in Canadian Rockies

Emerald Lake and Full Moon Lit Clouds - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

If i were to pick one lake which i liked most in my Canadian Rockies, It would be Emerald lake! That was the first lake we visited during our trip. The surrounding was so calm and reflections were so clear as if i was seeing the mirror image from glass. The feeling i had after seeing that clear water and surreal environment is very hard to describe in words.

My wife and I spent our evening there and saw beautiful sunset ( Photos yet to come). Then we head back for our hotel and drove back in night after having dinner.

Guess what, it was a full moon and views of the lake were beyond imagination. The temperature was just around freezing point but no sign of mist/fog. The clouds were backlit by moon light and were reflecting in lake when passing over the mountain.  

 I took the opportunity to put my 10 Stop ND filter and show the motion of clouds against calm Water in lake.

When i saw the results i was literally jumping and saying to myself OMG OMG...

[ Big Thanks to my Friend Fio for telling me about this image ]

How i made this image

Nikon D800, Nikon 16mm-35mm @ 16mm - F8.0, ISO 200, 166 Sec. ( Long exposure was achieved using BW 10 Stop MRC Filter)

In terms of processing, I cropped image, Increased contrast, Curve Adjustment and Black/White point adjustment. Finally exported using Facebook Plugin.

I hope you will like it. NK

Dawn Light before snow storm at Valley of Ten Peaks

This Labor day long weekend I went to drove from Seattle to Canadian Rockies. My Canadian visa was about to expire so my wife and i made a quick plan to head to Canada. The first place that came to mind was Canadian Rockies. It was in our list from long time and we have heard lot about it.

The weather prediction was not very great with rain almost everyday on that week. We took chance and decided to drive to banff. The drive all the way from Seattle to Banff was amazing. We were lucky that weather was great w/o any rain.

We woke up very early ~5:00  and head towards Moraine Lake. Sky was not looking good at-all. Dark clouds like in Seattle Winter. As soon as we reached moraine lake it started raining a bit. I decided to still head for sunrise shot and took the RockPile Trail.

When i reached at top of the rockpile trail, i was amazed to see the view.  The water was so clear, All the Ten peaks were reflecting perfectly. I'd never seen such crystal clear water and mountains reflections. I had initially thought that I've to fight with bunch of photographers to get good spot as it's with places like Mesa Arch / Delicate Arch. But there was no other photographer !! The entire lake was mine to photograph that morning..

It was almost 6:50AM and clouds suddenly started moving fast. Sun started to shine from a small window. I quickly grabbed my new 10 Stop filter and this is the result i got after 90 secs exposure..

After i head back, there was sudden snow fall in the area and over 1 inch accumulation occurred in few hours.I was so glad i made the decision to head for shot.

How i made this image

Gear: Nikon D800, Nikon 16-35mm F4 VRII, BW 10 Stop Filter.
Camera Settings: 16mm. F9, ISO 200, 90 Sec ( Using intervalometer )

In terms of processing, imported image in Lightroom. Cropped to 4x5 ratio. Adjusted contrast and curves a bit and exported using my facebook/blog preset.

I hope you will like it. NK