Atri Ray is very passionate and enthusiastic about photography and I believe that it shows up in his images. He is a really fun person to have along on a tour. Here are a few of Atri’s favorite images from the tour.

©Atri Ray

©Atri Ray

©Atri Ray

©Atri Ray

©Atri Ray

©Atri Ray

I am finally getting around to posting a few of my favorite images from the Winter Mountain Magic Photography Tour that ran this past January. For photographers that are interested in joining one of our photo tours we have two upcoming ones for later this year (Transition to Winter Photo Tour – November 14^th to 18^th, 2018) and early in 2019 (Winter Mountain Magic Photo Tour – January 9^th to 13^th, 2019). For both of these photo tours the group size is small so they could fill up early. To find out more information on these photo tours click on the tour names above. Hope to see you there! – Leslie

Mount Michener and frozen Abraham Lake, Olympus E-M1 mark II, Olympus 12-40mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Textures in the ice, Abraham lake, Alberta, Olympus PEN F, Olympus 60mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Cosmic view of ice on Abraham Lake, Olympus E-M1 mark II, Olympus 12-40mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

The colours of prayer flags, Kootenay Plains, Alberta, Olympus E-M1 mark II, Olympus 40-150mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Trees against the snow, Alberta, Olympus E-M1 mark II, Olympus 40-150mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Like looking through water, Abraham lake, Alberta, Olympus PEN F, Olympus 60mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Sunrise over frozen Lake, Alberta, Olympus E-M1 mark II, Olympus 12-40mm f2.8, ©Leslie Degner

Winter can test our skill of visualizing, but Puiming (Ming) Webber pushed herself to observe her surroundings till she found subjects that were important to her. And usually it didn’t take her long to find something interesting to photograph. She has a great eye for simplicity, shape and form in the landscape and uses a medium format camera to capture incredible images. The following are a few of the images that Ming captured.

©Puiming Webber

©Puiming Webber

©Puiming Webber

©Puiming Webber

©Puiming Webber

©Puiming Webber

In my previous post I mentioned that there was a painter amongst us on the “photography” tour. Martha (Marty) Hill Schafer sketched and painted with watercolors to capture her experiences during the tour. Marty would join us initially at each location capturing to her memory something that she found meaningful and inspirational from there, and then she would head back to the vehicle to warm up and paint or sketch. At some locations we would be there for a couple hours or more and in the winter weather conditions that we experienced you can’t just sit outside and do your paintings.

Besides being an artist, Marty is also an author and formerly the Picture Editor at Audubon magazine. One of her books “The Art of Photographing Nature”, which features photographs by Art Wolfe, is in our personal collection of photography books. It is a wonderful read and contains great insight into visualizing and composing for both photographers and artists alike (unfortunately I forgot to bring our copy along so that I could get Marty to sign it – maybe next time). So far Marty has submitted one completed painting from the tour, hopefully we will see more of her work in the future. You can view and find out more about her work at aquafolio.com

Snow Trees © Martha Hill Schafer

In mid January out at Aurum Lodge in the Canadian Rockies, Alan Ernst, the owner of the lodge, and myself co-lead our Winter Mountain Magic Photography Tour. This year’s participants consisted of five photographers and a painter, each with a slightly different vision of what they wanted to capture. They all were enthusiastic, outgoing and a lot of fun and all worked well together as a group.  We experienced a wide range of conditions; the temperatures ranged from – 18°C to +1°C, there were moderate winds, some snow and several cloudy days.  From sunrise to sunset we were out photographing at various locations near the lodge, Abraham Lake and further afield into Banff National Park. Overall we had a great time and captured a lot of wonderful images.

Kevin Schafer is a repeat participant of our Winter Mountain Magic Photography Tour; his first time joining us was in 2016.  Kevin specializes in photographing rare and threatened wildlife and has been published in National Geographic.  Below are a few of Kevin’s images that he captured on this year’s tour (click here to view some of the photos he took while on the 2016 tour).  More of Kevin’s work can be viewed at kevinschafer.com and @schaferpho

©2018 Kevin Schafer

© 2018 Kevin Schafer

© 2018 Kevin Schafer

© 2018 Kevin Schafer

© 2018 Kevin Schafer

© 2018 Kevin Schafer