July Photo Blogging Challenge:  Selfies

First of all, I seemed to have completely missed the June Photo blogging challenge.  Oh no! Was that the phone camera photo challenge???  That is my specialty!  Oh well.  Time is passing so quickly these days.  On to the theme for this month: selfies.  Like most of the other photo blogging participants, I am not a fan of selfies.  I had never heard of ussies.  But that makes sense after reading the other blog entries.  All my photos except one are actually ussies then.  Here we go.....

(1) On July 1st, my husband Colin and I were going to go for a Canada Day paddle on Spray Lake.  We loaded up the kayaks and equipment, which is no small feat.  By the time we got to the put-in spot, a strong wind had picked up.  Heading out on Spray Lake in windy conditions is not a good idea.  So, back home we came and quickly switched into Canada Day appropriate cycling gear.  We flew downtown just in the nick of time to catch the Canada Day parade and I remembered to take a selfie (whoops.... ussie) for the photo blog challenge, messy helmet hair and all. 

(2)  Although not a fan of taking regular selfies, for quite some time, I have been a fan to taking pano-selfies, or actually, I should call them pano-ussies.  Do you all know how to do this?  You put your cell phone on the panorama setting.  You spread your participants out along a scenic viewpoint.  You begin to pan the assembled folks, panning slowly.  As soon as you have passed by the first person in the line-up, you call out GO.  They run behind you, taking the camera carefully out of your hands.  The two key actions here are to grab the camera carefully and slowly keep the panning action going.  You then run quickly to the far end of the line-up and position yourself so you are in the photo.  Presto!  A photo with all of the group included, taken by two of the group members.

(2.a) Yup.  You guessed it.  There were three of us on this hike and nobody else at the viewpoint to take our photo.  So I started taking the photo, panning from L to R, then the person in yellow ran behind me, took the camera and kept slowly panning, giving me time to run into the shot on the R.  Cool, no?

 (2.b) Another hiking group.  Another pano-ussie.  This time, atop Jumpingpound Ridge: 

I must say, I love this trick and I love this photo.  It works really well when you are atop a scenic vista without anyone else around. 

BONUS SHOT!!!  This photo is not from this month, but from a few years ago.  But I just have to share this really cool take on the pano-ussie.  You can use this technique to clone yourself.  I have even used this technique to take a photo of 2 people x 2 (two sets of "twins" in other words).  Couldn't find an example looking back in my photo collection.  But here I am on the left and right of this photo: 

(4) I took this traditional selfie when I hauled a big load of stuff home (up a very steep incline) with my new e-bike, Bee and my Burley on a day that the smoke was bad.  I am totally in love with my new light 'n bright e-bike that is light enough to lift up onto the bike rack of Farley, our travel trailer but also strong enough to haul groceries up the side of Lawrence Grassi Mountain.  It is also light enough to ride as a regular bike on flat terrain.  Expect to see more pictures of Bee in future photo blogs.

(5) This traditional "ussie" was taken near the start of our backpacking trip to Tombstone backcountry campground after the initial steep 1.3 km to Elbow Lake, pictured in the background.  My friend Dorothy, who I did this trip with, had just turned 70 a few days before this adventure.  Way to go, Dorothy!  

Before I sign off, I am so excited to share with you that I have a new-to-me camera.  It is Canon EOS R mirrorless camera.  The person I consulted with on my new camera selection assures me this is like going from an iPhone 3 to an iPhone 12 Pro in terms of the advancement it will make in my camera equipment.  I know it is going to be a steep learning curve however.  But I am excited about what I will be able to accomplish with my photography moving forward.  Now, to go and watch my first YouTube video on how to get started with this camera.  Stay tuned! 

 May Photoblogging Challenge:  Telling A Story

This is a transition year for me: a transition year into retirement.  I just happened to notice that Alberta Parks was recruiting for Park Ambassadors.  When I investigated what the requirements were, it was to post semi-regularly to social media about Alberta Parks experiences.  This raised my interest, as I already enjoyed posting to social media about this very thing.  What were the perks of this volunteer assignment?  Free camping!  I was sold and completed my application.  A few weeks later, I was thrilled to learn I had been accepted and as I guessed, after the program had been running for 8 years, I was the first senior citizen to be chosen as an ambassador.

Here are five photos depicting the start of my exciting new assignment:

(1) Alberta Parks visit #1:  Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park

I decided to make Glenbow Ranch, between Cochrane and Calgary, my first park visited in my new role as an Alberta Parks Ambassador.  I had been excited, a few days before my visit, to see stunning photographs of Mountain Bluebirds posted by the Friends of Glenbow Ranch.   After living in the mountains for a decade, I had never seen a Mountain Bluebird.  Turns out, they are more a bird of the foothills than the mountains.   So I spent several hours hiking around Glenbow Ranch, looking for bluebirds.  I did not see any.  On the way back to my car, I called into the visitor centre and asked them where the best place to see the mountain bluebirds might be.  The staff person escorted me back outside and said immediately.... "oh, there is one!" Sure enough, there it was.  She also indicated the nest boxes near the lookout by where my car was parked.  Sure enough, there were two more.  Mission accomplished!  What a beautiful bird!  

(2) Alberta Parks visit #2:  Bow Valley Provincial Park

Bow Valley Provincial Park is a favourite place to go to see displays of wildflowers.  Although the wildflower display will not peak until the end of June or beginning of May, it starts in mid-May with the early bloomers, the Prairie Crocuses.  They were on full and vivid display on May 11th, when I took an Active by Nature guest there.

(3) Alberta Crown Land Visit to See Wild Horses

Although not technically an Alberta Parks visit, I did take a drive through crown land to the Red Deer River Alberta Parks campground on May 13th, with the express purpose of seeing and photographing Alberta's wild horses.  We did see a number of "wildies" and a couple of newborn foals.  Once again, mission accomplished.  Did you know that DNA studies conducted by both the University of Calgary and University of Texas show that our Alberta wild horses are indeed genetically unique?  They have DNA related to the draft horse, Indigenous ponies and the original Spanish horse. There are multiple genetics found, but these studies show that this blend of genetics is only found in our Alberta wild horses. Leading scientific researchers have stated that if we were to lose these horses it would be a very large loss to Alberta.

I will be back later this summer to visit one of the lovely and quiet campgrounds up the Forestry Trunk Rd. (Hwy #40) along which the wildies can be viewed.  I was happy to get some lovely photos on this trip.  Here is my favourite photo of a stallion:

(4) Alberta Parks Visit #3:  Evan Thomas Provincial Recreation Area

The Troll Falls Trail is one of my favourite spots in Evan Thomas Provincial Recreation Area.  It is completely different on every different visit.  On this particular visit, the various waterfalls and cascades were as full as I had ever seen them.  It is such a picturesque hike, with so many photo stops along the way.  Ah.... the challenge of picking out JUST ONE.  Here is my choice - Upper Troll Falls long exposure: 

(5) Alberta Parks visit #4: Sibbald Lake Provincial Recreation Area

I choose to camp at Sibbald Lake Provincial Recreation Area to take advantage of the nearly endless number of hiking trails in close proximity to the campground.  One of the hikes I did with a friend was Jumpingpound Ridge & Summit, which I must say is one of my all time favourite hikes.  I will be back!   

And so concludes my photo blogging challenge for May.  But I am sure future blogs will also contain photos from the many Alberta Parks I plan on visiting.  June's theme of "Where will I go" seems especially suited to that.   Happy summer everyone!  

March Photo Blogging Challenge:  TEN

Being away on vacation in Vietnam and Cambodia for the past month, I completely forgot about the photo blogging challenge.  But I must have taken over 1,000 photos on this trip and when I looked back at my extensive collection of shots, I realized I had enough to complete the challenge this month.  As luck would have it on day TEN of our fourteen day cycling tour, we cycled 80 km which included a TEN km ascent up spectacular Hai Van pass followed by a TEN kilometre descent down the other side.  Much of the ascent was up a TEN percent grade.  So...... here we GO:

1.  On the TENTH day of the cycle tour, TEN members of our group of sixteen purchased a Cycling Vietnam jersey.  What a colourful group we were!  Here they are modelling the back of the shirt which featured a map of our route from Ho Chi Min City to Hanoi.  We cycled 501 km over the course of 9 days of cycling, going by overnight train and bus the rest of the distance.  Most of our cycling days, the temperature hovered around 40 degrees Celsius.  We had frequent rest stops when copious amounts of cold water and lemonade laced with a bit of salt as well as snacks were offered.  We also doused ourselves with cold water which combined with the air flow over our bodies from moving on our bikes, kept us "relatively" cool.  Occasionally, some members of the group took advantage of taking a rest in our air conditioned bus.  

2.  Starting off, in this photo, you can count TEN (oops, I think on looking again, there might be 10 + 1 in this photo) members of our cycling group, plus our faithful sweep/bike mechanic who always brought up the rear, dealing with any problems we had with our bikes.  He could change a flat in the blink of an eye!  He made sure none of us got lost.  Look at all that enthusiasm as we prepared for our big day of cycling.

3. Now the hard work begins..... a TEN km uphill grind with many sections at a TEN % grade.  I was very glad this day that I opted for an e-bike.  I did this because in my training sessions, of which the longest one was 23 km, I was having some knee pain.  Knowing we had two days of close to 100 km of cycling, I did not want to have to spend most of my time on the bus.  I wanted to ride.  Riding an e-bike, my knee did not give me any issues whatsoever.  But there were other benefits.  As I love to take photos, this allowed me to cycle strongly to the head of our "Vietnam Cycling Posse", snap photos of the group as they rode by, putting me well at the very back of the pack.  Then I would repeat this process, cycling back to the front and taking more photos.  This worked like a charm and I was able to get good photos of everyone, as well as the scenery and cultural highlights.  For a comprehensive photographic look at our tour, here is a link to many, many more photos:  https://www.forever.com/app/users/mandy-johnson--1/albums/cycling-vietnam/1fy0pyx8zkx2mutks13q48db1.  The other benefit was this made all my cycling enjoyable.  Definitely most people who were not riding e-bikes felt this challenging ascent was a bit of a "sufferfest".  I would definitely take the e-bike option when I do future cycling tours.  Not only does the pedal assist flatten out those demanding ascents, but the fact that you move quicker keeps increases the air flowing around you, which keeps you from overheating as much.  Riding a regular bike, when you slow down in hot weather to go up a steep hill, you really feel the heat a lot more.  Being as it was so hot and I was riding so much faster with my pedal assist, this was a huge unanticipated benefit.  There were a total of four of us on e-bikes.  Two of the others were already pretty strong riders and they assisted me with photographing the tour in the same manner as yours truly.  The remaining person was the weakest rider on the tour, a fit and active 70 year old.  On the first day, she found the cycling on a regular bike to be a bit of a challenge.  One of the strong riders who had taken the e-bike option decided she did not need it, so switched with her.   This made all the difference for our 70 year old rider, who had never done a bike tour before.  She was absolutely thrilled and ended up having the experience of a lifetime with the biggest grin on her face every moment of the ride, for the rest of this adventure. 

4.  Almost at the summit, Vicky Young of Canmore takes a break at a viewpoint to peer over the edge of the escarpment, looking way down to the shoreline of the South China Sea, where we had ridden up from.  

5. After the challenging climb, our reward was a thrilling TEN km descent down the switch-backing road, back down to the coastline again.

Cycling Vietnam, with Exodus Travels, was an exceptional adventure!  Details can be found here.  Our group of 16 consisted of 14 females and two guys ...... my husband Colin and my friend Marilyn's husband Don.  We were from Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Canmore, Vancouver, White Rock and one expat now living in Australia.  The group chemistry was fantastic, with many new friendships being established and old acquaintances renewed.  It was so much fun doing this with a group of kindred spirits.  The youngest in the group were in their 50's and there were two people in their 70's.  Our tour guide, Tri, was amazing!  He kept us safe in the insanely busy city traffic we sometimes had to negotiate, had a fabulous sense of humour and enthralled us with his knowledge of and passion for his country.   He also shared with us touching personal stories and gave us a fantastic insight into daily life today in Vietnam.  The tour also provided us with a different perspective on the horrendous "American War" and the toll it took on the people of Vietnam.  From day one he referred to us as "my family" and indeed we felt like one big happy family.  The people of Vietnam were so friendly, especially the children who enthusiastically greeted us with "Hello's" and high fives.  The only downside was the horrendous garbage problem everywhere... in the cities, small villages along the roadside in the national parks, along the shoreline and so much plastic waste in the water, even at Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  But this seems to be a huge global problem in the developing world and third world countries.  It is certainly not unique to Vietnam.  But it was a topic of much conversation as it was very distressing to see the scale of it.  Other than that, the country side was fantastic and the towns and villages... interesting.  Colin and I continued on to Siem Reap, going to Angkor Was and the surrounding temple ruins and finding a really cool geocache hidden at a remote jungle ruin that tourists do not go to, only a handful of adventurous geocachers.  After posting a few photos to Instagram, Geocaching HQ contacted me and plan to feature this find as a future Geocache of the week or in one of their upcoming newsletters.  Stay tuned!!!

February Photo Blogging Challenge: LOVE

 When I learned of the theme for February's Photo Blogging Challenge, my idea formed instantly and I was determined to follow it through.  I was going to find heart shaped images in nature.  Heart shaped clouds, rocks, snow or ice formations are examples of what I hunted.  I searched high and low with great intent all month.  But nature only delivered one image worthy of sharing.  It was a pretty good one, I admit.  But sadly, nature did not deliver signs of love for me to photograph.  Although I still did experience lots of natural love:  sunrises and sunsets, beautiful mountain landscapes, icy waterfalls, wildlife encounters.  But I only saw the one heart shape.

(1) Here it is, taken with two of my guided hike clients who were excited to share this image with their husbands for Valentine's Day:

(2) I have seen gorgeous photos where people have created artistic and incredibly elaborate designs by trampling down fresh snow into intricate designs.  I settled for having my two friends on a recent snowshoe outing trample out a heart:

These two assisted me in looking for hearty signs from nature all day.  But no luck.  Dorothy came up with another idea.... a heart shadow.

(3)  A heart shadow made on a fresh blanket of snow: 

(4) With no addition photos to share on that particular theme, I will share a photo of perhaps the sunrise photo I love more than any I have taken to date, which was shot the morning of February 25th at the confluence of the Bow River and Canmore Creek.

(5) To finish of the month of love, a picture of my dearly beloved husband and adventure buddy, Colin, skating on Lake Windermere, British Columbia's Whiteway, the longest skating trail in the world, so they say.

January Photo Challenge:  Nice, New & Looking Ahead

(1) Nice Snow Carving!

The Banff SnowDays Festival featured some fantastic snow carvings.  I photographed this one at night and it was my favourite.  Just look at how intricate this snow carving is.  Look at the detail of the forest, the cabin and the creek that spills out of the sphere:  

 (2)  New Hike

King Creek Ridge is a hike we have been thinking about doing for years.  January 1, 2023 we finally did it.  Unlike Mrs. Geoks experience, we lucked out with great conditions under foot and bluebird skies.  It was one of the best hiking days we have ever had!

(3)  Nice Skate!

What a wild skate it was on Lake Minnewanka in January!  The weather had been quite mild for a few days, which left puddles of water on top of the thick layer of ice.  It was just a bit disconcerting to skate through puddles of water, but the ice was thick and safe and made for some awesome reflections.

4. A New Day Begins at Cascade Ponds

And I was there to capture it and this group of six young elk bulls just waking up.

5. Looking Ahead

I am looking ahead to retiring in a year's time.  This will actually be a wind-up year for my Active by Nature business.  I am looking ahead to having more time to spend on developing my photography skills and purchasing some new camera equipment.  I am looking ahead to capturing more sunrises, like this:

But in the immediate future, I am looking ahead to next month's photo blogging challenge!

Cheers everyone!

Mandy

December Photo Challenge:  Happy Holidays!

What a month December 2022 was!  I enjoyed the holiday season with my immediate family and a very small group of friends, to reduce the possibility of contracting COVID.  Around Christmas itself, the weather here in Canmore was bitterly cold, with temperatures in the high -30's with wind chill on top of that.  It was especially challenging for me because we were dog-sitting my grand-dog from Dec 21 - 28th.  Being a breed more suited to a dessert climate, he had to be dressed with a coat, booties and even a balaclava on the worst days.  After all the time and struggle to get him suitably attired, he no sooner did his business than he wanted to come back in!   But there were many lovely moments to celebrate as well:  the season kicked off with our family visit to Banff's spectacular "In Search of Christmas Spirit.  There was frozen bubble making on the coldest of days, Christmas Day with good friends, the witnessing of glorious sunrises,  and on Dec. 31st, a first visit to William Watson Lodge to ring in the New Year.

1. In Search of Christmas Spirit

Experiencing Banff's "In Search of Christmas Spirit" is definitely a highlight of the holiday period.  We have attended this with my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter for three years in a row now.  Emily is three and it is so special experiencing it with her, seeing the joy and wonder in her eyes and hearing her pronounce "it's magic!"

2. Frozen Bubble Photography

The extreme cold spell in December afforded me the opportunity to re-visit my frozen bubble making and photographing skills, still under development.  I was pretty pleased with a number of my shots and I am looking forward to working on this again this winter, with it not being QUITE so cold! 

3. Practising My Night-Mode Photography With My iPhone

My iPhone 12 Pro does an amazing job on night mode.  Here is another photo from "In Search of Christmas Spirit, this one looking down Banff Avenue from just inside the Cascade Gardens at the Park Administration Centre.  

4. T'is The Season For Sunrise Photography

While any month is a good month for sunrise photography, I appreciate the convenience of shooting the sunrise in December because it happens at the latest time in the morning, given the shortest of days.  That means you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.  Get a good night's sleep and get up to photograph the sunrise at a most decent time.  December 8th was one of those days.  That particular day, the sunrise peak colour, which of course can be very fleeting, lasted for ages.  Oh, the agony of having to pick just one photo to represent that outing!  I have dozens.  But let's go with this one, taken in Canmore's Spring Creek neighbourhood: 

 

5. Christmas Day Selfie Photo

I was determined to do a Christmas Day family photo.  It was Colin and I and grand-dog Bourbon.   But it was bitterly cold.  This was going to require setting up my tripod, preparing the shot, then lining up the subjects and being very quick about getting the shot.  So.... off we tramped to nearby Quarry Lake.  I had my husband Colin continue walking with Bourbon as I set up my equipment, getting everything ready for a very quick shoot.  When I was ready, I called out to Colin to return, indicated where they were to position themselves, pushed the button on my phone with the 10 second timer engaged, jumped in the photo and VOILA.  Took one shot only.  

Happy 2023 everyone!

 November Photo Blogging Challenge: INSTASNAP

True confession:  I found this the hardest challenge of the photo blogging project yet!  Why?  Since acquiring my iPhone12 Pro a year ago, I use it to take 90% of my photos.  I took SO many photos in November, I really, really wanted to share 50, not 5!!!

I deliberated long and hard before chosing my paltry five 😱!

Here we go:

1.  SKI BUMS

As members of this challenge may have realized by now, I am very active in the outdoors:  skiing (both downhill and x-country), biking, hiking, snowshoeing, Nordic walking and paddling are all passions of mine.  It is SO much easier to pack my tiny, light iPhone in a pocket rather than lug around my bulky and heavy Canon SLR and heavy lenses.  I love taking photos skiing and I have a very old (about 30 years old) fanny pack-type camera case that ties around my waist.  When downhill skiing, this always requires a hasty adjustment to swing the camera around from resting on my back to resting on my tummy.  It is cumbersome to say the least. The compactness and ease of pulling out my iPhone to capture a candid moment like above is just too great.  This is my son, Mark and my granddaughter, Emily (3.5 years) going up the magic carpet at Norquay.  Mark suggested Emily look at Grandy (me) by looking between her legs.  She obliged and I was quickly able to snap this picture of my two beloved "ski bums" and then stash my camera quickly and easily back in my breast pocket.  Oh the joy!   

I also use Snapseed now to edit all my photos.  I love how it easily and significantly improves photos.  I try not to overdo it by adding to much saturation as a lot of people seem prone to do, on Instagram, anyways.   I do use the POP feature a lot, which really makes detail standout although I am not sure exactly how it does that.  I mainly use Tune Image.  I find it especially helpful in reducing the shadow effect of photos taken with a lot of snow in them.  In this example, the green trees were closer to a black colour before I reduced the shadows.  I also love the crop feature on Snapseed, to crop a photo while accurately maintaining the proportions.  It also makes it easy to edit a photo to post a square photo on my Instagram account (activebynaturecanmore).  

After I bought my iPhone, I enrolled in the iPhone Photography Course offered by Emile, through Facebook.  I learned SO much!  That is where I found out about Snapseed.   Oh... final note.... I did try using the attachment Mrs. Geoks kindly gave me, which clips my camera on to my backpack, but haven't had much success with it. 

2. WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

If there is a good chance I will see wildlife on my outing, or if wildlife photography is in fact the objective of my outing, that is about the one time I will still schlep my fore mentioned Canon Rebel and the HEAVY 300mm telephoto lens I have.  But often when out and about a wildlife encounter pops up when I do not have my Canon with me as it did this day, with this cow elk located on the side of the road.  

When I am taking wildlife photos with my iPhone, I do not attempt to get a closeup of the animal as that would entail either getting too close, or cropping so severely the end resort is distorted.  Below is an example where I am showcasing the elk and its setting, with Ha Ling peak prominently in the background.  I think often these shots are much more interesting than the close ups with wildlife that people seem to gravitate towards, with potentially dire consequences for both the wildlife and the human(s) involved when they get WAY too close to the wildlife.  

In this shot, I did use the pretty good 2 x zoom on my iPhone and then I did use Snapseed to crop the photo and lighten the overly dark trees.

I am happy to report that my wildlife photography with my Canon has improved considerably lately, as I have finally, finally permanently graduated from always using it in auto mode.  That has been a long time coming and has been the result of more time to practise in recent months.  I have a wonderful photo of a pine marten that has been a regular visitor in my back yard recently.  But it didn't fit with how I chose to interpret last month's "Potpourri" theme.  I will post it on the Photo Challenge Facebook page, as I would love to share it with the group.  

3.  SELFIES

Of course, the use of the smart phone has tremendously increased the popularity of the selfie.  I am not a big fan of them and I don't do a good job of taking them.  I guess with practice I will improve.  But here is a different kind of iPhone selfie with a bit of a story to it.  I would like to improve my astro-photography.  Once again, I have recently discovered that I get better results using my iPhone than I do with my Canon.  I also recently had the good fortune of bumping into legendary photographer, Paul Zizka, while out hiking one day.  I used this rare opportunity to ask him about my poor results trying to photograph the Aurora  with my Canon.  The pictures of late have always turned out too grainy and my understanding is that you need to use the highest ISO setting to get good photos of the Aurora.  When he asked me what camera I was using and I said a Canon Rebel, he said it likely was not a good enough camera to handle an ISO setting that high and to try knocking it down a bit.  A new camera and lens are not in the budget right now, but I did invest in a better tripod with an attachment to allow me to mount my iPhone on it.  Low and behold, I got some good Aurora photos with my iPhone and I have been practising taking my tripod out with me for sunrise photography too and also using it to shoot some sunrise time-lapse videos.  So here am I in this photo, out to shoot the sunrise.  It fizzled that morning, but the consolation prize was nice early morning light on the mountains and the opportunity to take a tripod selfie.

4. PANO PICTURES

Stitching multiple photos together to create panoramic shots using photo editing skills and software I do not have is not of interest to me at the present time.  Perhaps down the road.  But the beautiful panoramic photos you can take with a smart phone.... well, that is another thing!

Have you tried the pano selfie using a smart phone?  One person starts taking the pano shot, then when the subject is out of the shot, that person runs behind the photographer and takes the phone from them.  Now the roles are reversed with the subject being the photographer and the photographer running into place to become the subject.  With a little practise, you and BOTH be in the photo twice!  Or you can be in the photo twice yourself and create a photo where it looks like you have an identical twin.  I forgot to take a pano selfie this month for the challenge.  But again, I will post one on the Facebook page for the group, just for fun.   Here is my favourite pano photo of the month, of a friend atop Jumpingpound Ridge in Kananaskis County, with a background of the front ranges the Rocky Mountains.

5. The Mountains, The Mountains!

As sunrise is much later in the day in November than it is for the rest of the year (except for December which is also COLDER), I have been out on several early morning photo expeditions.  On this particular morning, I got several photos of Banff National Park's Mount Rundle that I am really happy with.  I also got some breathtaking mountain reflection photos at nearby Lake Minewanka, but alas, I have reached my five photo limit, so I will leave you with this one.  Once again, the sky didn't light up but the results were still dramatic, especially with the reflection in partially frozen Two Jack Lake.

What I did not practise too much this month was using my iPhone on Night Mode.  But hey, look at that.... the theme for December is "Tis The Season" which will be perfect for taking pictures on night mode.  Downtown Canmore is very festive at night this month and in just a few short days, on December 10th, we will once again be partaking in a favourite family tradition, attending "In Search of the Spirit of Christmas" at the Park Administration Grounds in Banff.  Stay tuned!  All the best for the holiday season!