In mid February, eight photographers from three countries got together to tour the Kootenay Plains and parts of Banff National Park in Alberta, looking for winter subjects. Blessed with good weather and raring to go, the group was up and out from dawn to dusk to take advantage of the ever changing lighting and weather patterns.
Participants included everyone from amateurs to professionals, using equipment from compact and digital 35mm cameras, to medium and large format film cameras. What everyone had in common was a love of nature and a willingness to suffer numb fingers and toes in pursuit of the perfect winter photo. Below is a small selection of the images made by the group over three days.
The one lesson that is constantly reinforced whenever I am part of a photo tour is just how different everyone sees the world around them. Even when folks are inches apart, set up on the same scene, the results are dramatically variable. At many of the stops while some people tried to capture grand vistas, others were lost in the intricacies of intimate scenes or macro photography.
It was inspiring and instructional to look through the viewfinders of participant’s camera and to see the portfolios they brought with them to share with the group. For example, although I was very familiar with the work of Eric Fredine and Adam Gibbs from the galleries here at NPN, seeing their fine-art, large format prints ‘live, in-person’ was amazing. The details, the textures, the quality of their prints were astounding! JPEGS on the web just don’t cut it after seeing the ‘real’ thing up close.
And the information and camaraderie shared in a group situation can not be beat. After the tour I was still fired up and the creative juices were flowing. For anyone who thinks that good nature photography is best done as an isolated, personal endeavor, I suggest giving a photo tour, or teaming up with other NPN shooters a try. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.
