Waterton Lakes National Park, Landscapes Photography Trip.
During the summer Dean from Dat’s Photography, A Calgary Alberta Canada photographer with a humanitarian mission to help reduce preventible blindness, by using Dat’s Photography as a passion for photography and a way of raising funds to participate in an Optical Mission through the sale of prints and photographic services, like photo shoots.
During the planning of the photographic trip to Waterton Lakes National Park Dean looks at photos of the area that others have posted to the web using photo sharing sites like 500px, Flicker and View Bug. I also use apps like google earth,The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) This allows me to create a location and shoot list of what I hope to get during my photographic trip. If your a photographer planning to go on a photographic trip to any location you should be using these tools ignored not to wast you valuable time and effort with the hopes of capturing great Landscape or travel photographs.
After I had done some planning on locations and photos I would like to capture it was time to get packed and head off to my location to set up camp. As Waterton Lakes is a National Park in Canada you will need a Park Pass for the time you spend in the park or if you plan to visit more than one of the national parks in Alberta you may wish to buy a seasons park pass as it will pay of in a few days visit to any national park in Alberta and will give you the ability to visit any of Parks Canada’s National Parks across this great land of Canada.
Waterton Lakes is about three hours from the city of Calgary,so when I arrived at the park and made it to my camp ground it was early afternoon. I was created by one of the park rangers at the Crandell Mountain Campground and was told that there was a waiting list for camping sites and to come back with this paper with you waiting list number, for me that was number 22. My suggestion to you if planning to go to Waterton is to arrive early in the morning and get you camp spot or a good low waiting list number. or reserve a camp spot in the town of Waterton,Townsite Campground the only campground you can reserve a campground.
During the time I had to wate for my campground to become free I scouted out some of my shoot list locations as well as looking around the town of Waterton and the Prince of Wales Hotel, one of my to shoot locations.
Waterton is usually a very windy location so I was over joyed when close to sunset I set up my camera and composed the shot I was going to capture and the wind started co calm down and the lake water started to smooth out and looked like a mirror. my two favourite photos from the beach location looking west towards The Prince of Wales Hotel.

Sunset over The Prince of Wales Hotel,Waterton Lakes National Park.

Sunset on Waterton Lakes National Park.parks Canada.with the Prince of Wales Hotel’s reflection off waterton lake.
After capturing these great landscape photographs I headed back to my campground for the night as I was planing to get up before the sunrise and drive to Cameron Lake to capture the sunrising on the mountains at the end of Cameron Lake. Did you know that the south end of Cameron Lake is in the U.S.A and is only excusable from Canada. Cameron Lake strudels the 49th parallel, the boarder between Canada and the United States of America.
At five o’clock in the morning my iPhone wakes me up and the first thought through my head is DO I Want To Go ! a moment or five rolls by and I get up go to the car and head off to Cameron Lake to Capture this Amazing sunrise with the morning sun kissing the tops of the Rocky Mountains.

Reflections of Sunrise on Cameron Lake in the Waterton Lakes National Park, Part of Parks Canada Amazing National Parks.
On the way back to my campground I was in heaven thinking about the beautiful sunrise I just captured of Cameron Lake. When I came across two separate groups of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. One group consisting of one ram and his three ewe’s and the second group a short distance down the Akamina Parkway, also known as the Cameron Lake Road, was a bachelor group of three rams. Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep are my all time favourite animals. This was the best morning of taking photos ever, needless to say I was extremely happy I rolled out of my sleeping bag a five in the morning.

A Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Ram. Akamina Parkway.

Bighorn Sheep Waterton National, Akamina Parkway.

A Ram and his three Ewe’s bighorn sheep Waterton National Park.Akamina Parkway.

Rocky Mountain Big Horn Ram on the beautiful Akamina Parkway, also known as the Cameron Lake Road.
In the afternoon that day I scouted out a few locations for the next shoot. I looked at the Red Rock Canyon area but it was a hot day around 30 Celsius and the creek was stupid crazy busy with other visitors to the park. so off mack to camp. On the way back to cam I stopped off at a picnic area on the side of the Red Rock Parkway and found a gem of a location, a creek called Lost Horse Creek. The photographic gem of the creek is located under the parkway bridge.

Lost Horse Creek Red Rock Canyon, under the Red Rock Canyon Parkway
To capture this shot, I waded out into the creek to mid thigh, set my tripod up half in the water half on the rock wall of the creek. But me being me that wasn’t good enough so I decided to go just a bit further no further now up to my waste in what was refreshing water now becoming cold cold water. Now that I’m up to my wast in cold Lost Horse Creek I set up my camera on the creek bed and capture this beauty of a landscape shot.

Lost Horse Creek, under the Red Rock Parkway Waterton Lakes National Park.
Note to self and other photographers if your thinking about wading into any water take your wallet and any thing you may have in your pockets thats not waterproof . I managed to get a rather wet wallet and my car key fob wet but fortunately I had my cell phone in my camera bag, close call on the phone as it is usually in my pocket.
The next kind of photo on my shoot list was to capture the Milky Way. Having done some research with my Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) app and knowing that the milky way would be visible in the southern sky I decided to stay up late and drive back to Cameron Lake that night. Having been to Cameron lake for the sunrise the other day I visualized what it could be like and where to set up my tripod for some long exposure photography of the milky way. This is what I was blessed with that night.

Stepping stones to The Milky Way, Cameron Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park.

The Milky Way over Cameron Lake. Waterton Lakes National Park
So far Ive been blessed with some amazing landscape photos, until the next day I decided to re visit the Lost Horse Creek and see if the upper part of the creek was as good as the lower part. so up the creek I went in search of some good shots. I did capture a few like this one but at a cost.

Upper Lost Horse Creek.By Calgary Landscape Photographer,Dats Photography
So your probably asking: AT What Cost ?? and if your a photographer your probably thinking camera and lens or if your lucky only a lens. No less expensive that all that as I had my F-Stop Loka camera backpack on and my camera was locked into place by my Cotton Carrier.(no I don’t get payed by them to squish them into the story, just great gear). What happened was I was picking up the creek and I stepped on a rock, the rock went one way and I went the other twisting my left leg. After a few choice words I plunged my ankle and leg up to my knee into the creek water to help reduce the pain and swelling. I did manage to hobble back to the car with the help of my tripod that i used as a crutch. Needless to say that was the end of the trip but not the problem with the lower left leg. After a week of hobbling around, I thought things where getting better then when I was walking through the living room I took a step then head a loud pop, like a rubber band snapping and shooting pain up my leg. After a few choice words and a trip to the Dr’s office and an ultrasound of my calf muscle, I now have a tare in my calf muscle. Things are on the mend and getting better every day but it has put a damper into taking camping and photography trips for the next few weeks.
Thanks for viewing my blog.
If you have seen a photo on this blog or my web site, Dat’s Photography . And would like to purchase a print or two for your home and or office app photos are for sale and 50% of the proceeds go to funding my participation in an Optical Mission to dispense eyeglasses to people in need of corrective lenses.
Did you know: Currently, about 185 million persons worldwide are functionally blind due to simple refractive error. Another 700 million persons lack reading glasses.
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