White Crow

If there is one thing I have learned since we moved out west is that the only predictable thing about the mountains is how unpredictable they are. Back in March, we drove out to Banff to revisit a location we tried to shoot the sunset the weekend before but failed. During the drive there, the conditions seemed promising, there was just enough clouds and it seemed clear West of where we were going.

 

Once we got to the parking, we got out of the car and started to get ready for our little hike to get to the spot and just as we were about to about our hike, this massive snowstorm came out from behind the mountains and in a matter of seconds we went from a beautiful clear day to a complete witheout. We decided not to stick around, got back in the car and started driving with the hopes of getting ahead of the storm and finding a spot to shoot before the storm caught on. We ended up stopping at Bow Lake with only about 5 minutes to spare to find a composition before the sun set and the storm arrived. I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find a shot and then came across this little section of exposed ice. I did not waste any more time, setup the tripod and started taking shots and adjusting until I was happy with my composition. Litterally 1 minute after taking this picture, the storm caught on and we could not longer see the mountain across the lake which made it a long and stressful drive home.

 

This image is a focus stack of 2 pictures with the camera settings below:

20 mm

1/8 second

f11

ISO 64

Done