Kootenay mountains in November

It was fortunate that I was travelling home from Alberta yesterday as the roads were good and the skies were open.  As I was not pressed for time, I stopped several times in order to capture the splendour I was witnessing.  The Kootenays have always captured my imagination and it is relatively easy to get a nice photograph when fog, clouds, or some form of precipitation gets in the way.

When shooting a vista I like to follow a few simple rules of thumb.  Wide angle lenses (35mm relative in this case) are usually a given and I like to use small apertures to increase depth of field.  The roadside turnout proved to be an excellent spot to see the mountain range and the sun further cooperated by being south while my camera was pointed in a northerly direction.  This had the benefits of both boosting colour and reducing shadows.  

I like to use the Rule of Thirds; the heavily laden black spruce tree follows one of those meridians.  I also like to find a foreground that enhances the background.  The key here is that any foreground subject should not block or overwhelm whatever is going on behind it.  Playing with focal length and distance to the subject is a great way to find the best composition.  This is a technique I often use and find that it often provides better shots than just capturing an image because something is there.

I have a few other pictures I took that I will display in the coming days.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com
 

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