2210_0276 First Light, October
While the migratory birds are departing for warmer places and the mammals grow their winter coats, the northern prairie undergoes a rapid and dramatic transformation. The green hills have turned brown and orange; red fruits appear on the buffaloberry bushes. Days are shorter, nights cooler. Change is in the air...
In October my friend George, the film maker, came down from Swift Current for a screening of his documentary, Wild Prairie Man, at the Palais Royale Theatre in Val Marie. The next morning he came by my house in the pitch dark and we headed out to Grasslands, watching as the southeastern sky began to glow and brighten, and then looking for a good spot to get out as the first direct rays began to sweep the prairie.
We stopped somewhere between the former Dixon and Walker ranches, now part of the national park. Here the broad plateau was broken by gullies that drain snowmelt each spring into the Frenchman River, seen here as a dark band of shadow near the top of the frame, but not far away, lined with small trees and shrubs. I used a wide angle lens to emphasize the foreground - in fact this shot is 75% foreground, and the distances look greater than they really are.
Nevertheless, it's a large valley; behind me, the hills rose up just as they do on the far side. I often imagine this place in early post-glacial times, when much of this valley would have been filled with water: the Frenchman rolling southward into the Missouri drainage, as it does today with far less volume. What a privilege to be here, now, in a place filled with wildlife, on the relatively untouched prairie, with only the breeze making small sounds through dry grasses, and sometimes carrying distant coyote voices. But my fingers were numb with the cold. Soon I'd be breaking out the winter parka, boots, gloves, mitts, and wool hat.
* Don't believe the map. This is Canada, not the United States.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2022 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
2210_0276 First Light, October
While the migratory birds are departing for warmer places and the mammals grow their winter coats, the northern prairie undergoes a rapid and dramatic transformation. The green hills have turned brown and orange; red fruits appear on the buffaloberry bushes. Days are shorter, nights cooler. Change is in the air...
In October my friend George, the film maker, came down from Swift Current for a screening of his documentary, Wild Prairie Man, at the Palais Royale Theatre in Val Marie. The next morning he came by my house in the pitch dark and we headed out to Grasslands, watching as the southeastern sky began to glow and brighten, and then looking for a good spot to get out as the first direct rays began to sweep the prairie.
We stopped somewhere between the former Dixon and Walker ranches, now part of the national park. Here the broad plateau was broken by gullies that drain snowmelt each spring into the Frenchman River, seen here as a dark band of shadow near the top of the frame, but not far away, lined with small trees and shrubs. I used a wide angle lens to emphasize the foreground - in fact this shot is 75% foreground, and the distances look greater than they really are.
Nevertheless, it's a large valley; behind me, the hills rose up just as they do on the far side. I often imagine this place in early post-glacial times, when much of this valley would have been filled with water: the Frenchman rolling southward into the Missouri drainage, as it does today with far less volume. What a privilege to be here, now, in a place filled with wildlife, on the relatively untouched prairie, with only the breeze making small sounds through dry grasses, and sometimes carrying distant coyote voices. But my fingers were numb with the cold. Soon I'd be breaking out the winter parka, boots, gloves, mitts, and wool hat.
* Don't believe the map. This is Canada, not the United States.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2022 James R. Page - all rights reserved.