Lake Louise Banff National Park Pins and Buttons

Hector Lake in the Canadian Rockies from the Icefields Parkway

Hector Lake in the Canadian Rockies from the Icefields Parkway

Beautiful Nature Scene from Norway

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunrise glow.

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunset.

The deep blue and emerald waters of Moraine Lake sparkle in a panoramic view seen from "The Rockpile."

From about halfway up the C-Level Cirque track on the side of Banff's Cascade Mountain, we found a lookout with my favourite view of the day. While Lake Minnewanka is gorgeous to visit, its waters are often rough; this angle smoothed them out as well as showing just how large the lake really is!

Pulpit Peak in the Canadian Rockies from the Icefields Parkway

Pulpit Peak and Hector Lake in the Canadian Rockies from the Icefields Parkway

Pulpit Peak and Hector Lake in the Canadian Rockies from the Icefields Parkway

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada stunning day with reflections.

Moraine Lake isn't often seen without its signature brilliantly blue waters, but this scene -- with its dramatic clouds welling up over the top of the mountains -- begged for black & white. Location: Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Canada Camera: Nikon D700 w/ 24-70mm f/2.8 lens

The cabins of Shadow Lake Lodge nestled in amongst the pine trees of Banff National Park. It snowed for most of our 13km snowshoe trip in, so we were happy to get even a glimpse of the area -- resplendent in its fresh coat of snow -- before we snowshoed out the next morning!

Sometimes you can just tell that the sun's had it after a cloudy day. I could almost hear it yelling from behind the mountain, "let me out! I just want to light up the sky once today!"

As the clouds that had followed us for the morning slowly broke up, they turned the sky into a crazy puzzle with pieces that didn't quite fit together. When we stopped at Lower Waterfowl Lake to capture them, we found some piles of ice that fit right in with the scene; being -20º though, we decided not to try to fit all the icy puzzle pieces together!

When we started the night shooting at Vermilion Lakes, we had no idea it would end with watching the aurora dance high above Lake Minnewanka! The clouds, which had been much heavier earlier in the evening, gradually cleared and let us see this gorgeous display all across the northern sky. It was the strongest auroras I've seen yet in Alberta!

Late on the evening of Christmas Day, we headed out to Lake Minnewanka to see if we could get a glimpse of the northern lights, which were supposed to be quite strong. Not only did we see them dancing above the peaks at the end of the lake, but we also caught a glimpse of Santa heading back home to the North Pole (or it could have been a meteorite -- you decide)!

Maligne Lake is a lake in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. The lake is famed for the colour of its azure water, the surrounding peaks, the three glaciers visible from the lake, and Spirit Island, a frequently and very famously photographed islet.

Of all the places I've ever shot the Milky Way, Bow Lake has to be one of my favourites. The wide open expanse of calm, reflective lake, the perfect line-up of the Milky Way and Crowfoot Mountain -- it's just the perfect place to spend a summer night (even if that summer night does dip down to 0ºC)!

Colorful canoes at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, on a rainny summer day.

You know it's going to be a good morning when you get to your sunrise spot 45 minutes early to set up for a workshop and the sky is already pink. You know it's an even better morning when you have to talk about ways to avoid oversaturation of oranges and pinks because it's such a vivid sunrise!

How amazing is Bow Lake at night? The Milky Way lined up perfectly over Crowfoot Mountain on this night in late June. You wouldn't have guessed it from the blue in the sky, but this photo was actually taken after 1am; even though the sun sets, it is close enough to the northern horizon that the sky stays in a constant state of faint twilight at this time of year.

Colorful canoes at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, on a rainny summer day.

Wow. There are some places that take the words right out of your mouth, and Moraine Lake is one of them. The Valley of the Ten Peaks may be one of the most crowded places in the Rockies, but a visit there is so worth it -- particularly if you get there early enough to see the lake look like glass, reflecting the mountains and the sky above.

Can you see the person standing on the edge and enjoying the view? He's so hard to pick in the seemingly never-ending landscape of trees and mountains stretching out beyond the Bow Summit. I never get sick of this lookout because it seems to change every time I visit -- in the time I've lived in Canada, the lake has morphed from milky green to blue to white!

The Larch Valley track, which climbs to 8,000ft above Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, is one of the most popular hikes in Banff National Park in autumn. It's no wonder, since the pine trees turn to golden larches as soon as you hit 7,000ft and you're absolutely surrounded in autumn colour. What a place!

Clouds scatter above the Ten Peaks on a perfectly still September morning in the Rockies. Despite the crowds that flock here in September to see the autumn colours in the nearby Larch Valley, I still can't think of a better place to start the morning.

On Tuesday morning, I was lucky enough to make it to the Moraine Lake Road entrance just after the road was opened for the season. I arrived at the lake to find I was only the third car parked in the parking lot! It was fantastic exploring around the Rockpile in the wintry conditions, and it proved that Moraine Lake is well worth visiting even when the water isn't shining brightly blue like it does later in the summer!

While snow covered the majority of Johnson Lake and kept it hidden from view on this visit in mid-February, a small unfrozen area gave a little window into what was hiding underneath the winter wonderland!

I'd driven past Herbert Lake a number of times on windy days where the lake was rough, but on this morning, all was still and it was absolutely perfect. I called it Herbert Lake's Last Hurrah because this was only days before all the lakes in Banff National Park began to freeze; on my next visit two weeks later, it was frozen solid!

That feeling when you have the Rockpile all to yourself, knowing that within days it will be swarming with bus after bus full of people. It was pure serenity; that is, until a snow removal truck arrived and filled the air with constant BEEEEP BEEEEP *BEEEEP*s. Oh well, you can but try.

Canoes set up on the shoreline of Two Jack Lake, ready for a morning of paddling out on the lake.

In the summer months, sunrise creates a gorgeous alpenglow on the ten peaks behind Moraine Lake. It first paints the peaks in orange and then gradually sinks down the mountains as it turns pink and then white. It's an amazing sight to behold, and even though I frequent Moraine Lake for sunrise workshops, it's a scene that never gets old!

Moraine Lake is one of my most popular workshop destinations, so over the summer, I watched the sunrise nearly 20 times there. It was fascinating to see how the lake changed over that time, as well as all the different sorts of lighting that can occur at that time of the morning. I captured the light on the Ten Peaks behind the canoes at the end of my second "All-Nighter" workshop in July. It was a great place to end our long night of shooting around the park!

Wow! What a difference a month makes. When I visited the Bow Summit in September, the peaks had just received their first dusting of snow. A month later, we hiked through the snow just to get to the lookout, and the snow on the slopes below it made for a perfect spot to have a winter picnic and enjoy the amazing views.

While much of the rest of the Icefields Parkway felt more like autumn than winter, the Bow Summit didn't quite fall into that category. We had to plow through a bit of snow just to park and then were treated to a winter wonderland of frosted trees and snowy tracks on our way up to the Peyto Lake viewpoint. It was one of the highlights of our drive!