Archive For The “mountains” Category
A rare Christmas Eve waxing gibbous (almost full at 98.4 per cent) moonrise over Mt. Elizabeth in Kitimat. (Robin Rowland)
Sony Alpha 55 at 200mm.
The moon rise over Mt. Elizabeth, 500mm Minolta mirror lens with Sony Alpha 77. (Robin Rowland)
About 20 minutes before moonrise. Mt. Elizabeth at dusk. (Robin Rowland)
The moonrise in November (about 20 minutes later so the sky was darker)
A winter full moon rises over Kitimat BC’s iconic Mt. Elizabeth, November 25, 2015.
The moon rises over Mt. Elizabeth, shot for the sky. Sony A7II, using old Vivitar manual Minolta mount 85 to 205 zoom, 1/100 sec, f3,5, ISO 5000, Shutter priority (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Mt. Elizabeth, shot for the moon, a bit noisy, better in black and white. Sony A7II, Vivitar 85 to 205mm, ISO 5000, 1/250 f3.5, Shuter priority (Robin Rowland)
The moonrise begins. Sony A77, Sigma 170-500 at 180mm, 1/30 f5.0, ISO 4000, Shutter priority (Robin Rowland)
Mt. Elizabeth at dusk as I was setting up. Taken at 1649. Alpha 55, Tamron 70 to 300mm at 135, ISO 6400 1/125 at f4.5, Shutter priority (Robin Rowland)
The Photographers’ Ephemeris called for Moon rise at 1654 hrs (at sea level, of course). The first hint of moonrise (on a very cold night) came at 1728.
Another view of the hint of moonrise to come. The sky is dark enough at this point that you can see stars in the sky, before the bright moon floods them out. Sony A77 with Sigma 170-500mm (on tripod) at 180mm, 0.4 sec at f5, ISO 4000 program mode.
The cold November moon, over Kitimat, shot for moon exposure at 1749. Alpha 77, 170 to 500 at 200mm, shutter priority 1/2000, f5.6, ISO 4000. (Robin Rowland)
Kitimat harbour is shrouded in fog at slack tide after what was left of Tropical Storm Oho had passed and before a new storm blew in, October 9, 2015. (Robin Rowland)
The Hawaiian hurricanes that follow the path of the “Pineapple Express” across the northern Pacific normally dwindle to rain storms by the time they reach the Kitimat Valley. On October 9, 2015, however, what was left of Hurricane Oho was still at tropical storm strength.
I was assigned by Global BC to get storm and rain pictures. There was still heavy rain when I shot my first video at the Kitimat viewpoint.
The Kitimat estuary and Minette Bay are hidden in heavy fog as rain from Tropical Storm Oho continues to fall at the Kitimat Viewpoint, Oct. 9. 2015. (Robin Rowland)
I then drove down to Hospital Beach, expecting to get some good shots of waves pounding against the shore. To my surprise, I saw Kitimat harbour as I have never seen it. It was slack tide, the water was dead calm and the fog shrouded the entire harbour. Looking over to Rio Tinto BC Operations Terminal B (the old Eurocan dock) (Robin Rowland)
Rio Tinto’s Terminal A and part of the older smelter emerge from the fog. (Robin Rowland)
The Smit tug dock. (Robin Rowland)
Another view of the harbour looking toward Terminal B. (Robin Rowland)
The fog makes part of the harbour look like an alien world from a science fiction movie.(Robin Rowland)
Another view from the Hospital Beach boat launch ramp looking toward the Smit tug dock. (Robin Rowland)
Looking along Hospital Beach back toward Terminal A and the aluminum smelter. (Robin Rowland)
When I was back at my computer, filing the video to Vancouver, the rain from the second storm moving in began to pound down outside my window.
For the past few days, a cold weather inversion has kept a layer of smoke over Kitimat, BC, the Kitimat harbour and Douglas Channel, and according to the Environment Canada weather alert, as far into the interior as Vanderhoof. This image from the park on Albatross Avenue looking out toward Douglas Channel on Friday, November 14, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
A slightly different angle, where part of the Channel can be seen through the smokey haze. (Robin Rowland)
And a stitch panorama of the whole view of the Channel, part of a project where I have been taking panoramic images of the harbour and Douglas Channel from the same spot since 2010. If this image was reproduced full size it would be 200 centimetres or about 78 inches wide. It is a bit noisy at that level and if I eventually use it, will probably be at a smaller size. (Robin Rowland)
Since I moved back to Kitimat, I’ve flown from Northwest Regional Terrace-Kitimat airport to Vancouver several times, spring, summer and winter,. There’s always been snow on the mountains. This year I went down on September 7 and flew back on September 11.
On the flight down I looked out and saw the Coast Range mountains. All but the highest peaks with no snow, the rest of the high mountain tops, normally bluish and white from fresh snow. Now both on the flight down and the flight back, those mountain tops were a dull brown. So was 2014 just a dry year, with no fresh snow or is this another indication of climate change?
The images were taken from a Westjet Bombardier flying at 25,000 feet. Digital photographs have been slightly colour corrected to eliminate bluish tint from the atmosphere, but all reflect what I saw. As in the image at the top, you see the deep green of the forest on the lower slopes, the dull brown and grey of the rocks of the peaks and the snow, snow only seen in the areas where the sun seldom reaches and that snow itself dull, old, covered in dust.
Dirt covered glaciers sneak in the valleys they’ve carved while higher up the mountains are bare, brown, sepia, black and grey, just like the deserts I saw when flying over Nevada a few years ago,
A closer view of the glacier and the peaks. There has been no fresh snow for weeks.
A river snakes through a valley, where the rain forest only reaches only about a third way up the slopes. The rest is bare.
The only snow visible is on a stump like mountain top overlooking a green valley.
Dirty snow on the peaks overlooking lush river valleys.
Another glacier in valley empties into a lake with bare mountains above.
While one mountain still has snow at the top….
On another there are some bare traces of snow and an alpine lake.
More ice and snow on a peak, a glacier and dirty desert like slopes.
On the way back
Leaving Vancouver, heading north and looking east.
More mountains with just a trace of snow.
A gorgeous green glacier fed alpine lake.
Glaciers come down from the peaks, and join together surrounded by bare rocky peaks.