Black bear family crossing a road in Banff National Park

I don’t even offer these one-day one-on-one photo tours anymore, so if you’re interested, visit our online Facebook cancer fundraiser we’re doing for a friend of mine, Larry Renshaw: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=437266849616908&set=a.434697159873877.112490.434682913208635&type=3&theater

There are also lots of other great auction items up for bidding, including xcountry and downhill skis, local Banff artwork, framed photos, and some of my other products like my books and greeting cards.  You can check out the whole auction online at https://www.facebook.com/LarryRenshawLarrysLoveLounge  And note that anyone can bid!  If you don’t have a Facebook account, just send an email with your bid to larryslovelounge@gmail.com

This is your chance to help out a legendary Banff/Canmore local!

Happy shooting,

John

One of my favourite early season landscape photography locations in Jasper is along the Athabasca River south of town on Highway 93 (the Icefields Parkway).  Earlybird photographers may see wolves or bears along this route prior to 8 am, and really early risers can catch some spectacular sunrise light between 5 and 7 am.

Mt Fryatt and the Athabasca River at sunrise in Jasper National Park

The best locations are south of Athabasca Falls (17 miles/30 kms south of Jasper).

Happy shooting!

John

The East End of Mt Rundle reflected in Johnson Lake, Banff National Park

My favourite location for scenic photos at Johnson Lake in the spring is an early morning reflection from the trail that runs along the northwest side of the lake (accessed directly from the parking lot at the lake).  This just happens to also take you to the best wildlife viewing location, which is a small lagoon about 250 m from the parking lot on the northwest side.  This lagoon is home to nesting loons and grebes each spring and often has a resident muskrat or two swimming around.  If you go sit by the shore and wait quietly, you often get rewarded with some great photo opps.

Happy shooting!

John

With spring comes the first itchings to get out and get some non-snowy images in the mountain parks and photographers hitting up the Banff area and Banff National Park in the next few weeks have a few great spots they can check out as the ice and snow melts. One of my personal favourites is the Vermilion Lakes area near the Town of Banff.  There are a host of things you can photograph along here, with nature photography hotspots all over the place, including some stunning mountain views at First, Second, and Third Vermilion Lakes, as well as the area between the Second and Third lake.

Mt Rundle and Sulphur Mountain from Third Vermilion Lake in Banff National Park

Early mornings and late evenings are best, which at this time of year, means being there from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., then again from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.

The Vermilion Lakes area is one of the first in the Banff area to start greening up, too, so photographers in early May should start seeing some greenery.

Nature photographers can drive along the length of Vermilion Lakes Drive to access any of the photo hotspots.

Happy shooting!

John

Bighorn sheep are plentiful along the Lake Minnewanka Drive for wildlife photographers looking for good spring photo opps in Banff National Park

The road is particularly well known for the large herds of bighorn sheep that hang out near Lake Minnewanka.  Several big rams also frequent the area, though I often go up there to get shots of the female ewes (pictured above) and their young.

The Lake Minnewanka scenic loop is about ten kilometers (seven miles) long and takes about a half hour to complete at a nice, slow pace while you’re looking for wildlife.  Wildlife photographers should be sure to check out the areas surrounding the Upper Bankhead parking lot for the multitudes of Columbian ground squirrels there.  Lucky visitors may also spot resident foxes or coyotes in this area, too.

The Lake Minnewanka Loop Road is a great early morning or late evening Banff drive.  I’ll often loop around it four or five times in a morning, beginning just before sunrise, to up my chances for running into a wolf or a grizzly.

Happy shooting!

John

For tips on where to find wildlife along the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper, check out John’s popular eBook, How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies:  The Icefields Parkway Wildlife Edition.

A large male black bear along Highway 16 in Jasper National Park

Black bears start becoming quite common sightings in Jasper in mid to late April, while grizzlies start to pop out regularly along the Icefields Parkway and throughout most of Banff and Kootenay National Parks a bit later in June. You can expect to see bears along the sides of roads like the Maligne Lake Road in Jasper beginning in mid to late May, while the Bow Valley Parkway in Banff is usually a bit later into May or even June.  An excellent early season are to look for bears in early May is along Highway 16 west of Jasper towards Mt Robson Provincial Park.  Some of the roadside areas green up quite early and it can be a great place to get a bear to yourself for photo purposes.

Happy shooting!

John

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I thought I’d step away from the location advice for a second and offer up a suggestion on what lenses to bring to the Canadian Rockies and why.  Obviously, most of you will be bringing your biggest, baddest 400mm or 500mm telephoto lenses if it’s wildlife you’re interested in, but I wanted to point out the benefits of using a 70-200mm lens more than your big gun.

Bull elk in a meadow in Banff National Park on a beautiful winter day

The first key advantage to having a 70-200mm lens (or a similar zoom) ready to go in the mountain parks is that it allows you to snap quick shots much more easily than a big lens does. It can be sitting on your front seat right beside you, always ready for whatever opportunity may pop up in front of you.

Secondly, it’s an easy lens to handhold and if you’re jumping out of the car for a quick shot of the giant bull elk, it’s far easier to do so with a smaller zoom than it is with a big telephoto.

And finally, the key reason for using a 70-200mm in the Rockies is that it allows you to get a lot more of the Rocky Mountain habitat into your shots with your wild subjects, making it much more likely that you’ll get home and see some pictures that definitely remind you of Banff and Jasper, and most importantly, don’t look as if they could be from your local zoo.

Happy shooting!

John

Check out my John E. Marriott Wildlife and Nature Photography Facebook fan page for more great tips and lots of new images!

I also spotted several moose and a red fox along the Maligne Lake Road, as well as a lot of bighorn sheep, elk, and deer throughout the park.

Happy shooting!

John

Wildflowers at Sunshine Meadows, Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park, BC

Given the snowpack this year, which is not particularly deep compared to last year, I’d put our best guess for the peak of wildflower photography to be sometime between July 25th and August 5th this summer.  The peak tends to be pretty uniform across the parks, from Jasper to Banff and even south into Kananaskis Country and Kootenay National Park.  You can expect roadside flowers to start peaking in mid to late July, with the true carpets of alpine flowers beginning in that last week of July in places like Sunshine Meadows, the Tonquin Valley (Jasper National Park) and the Rockwall (Kootenay National Park).

Happy shooting!

John

PS – interested in joining me for an incredible wildflower photography workshop experience?  Consider my heli-hiking flower photography workshop in August in the BC Rockies.

Just a quick note for all of you wildlife photographers out there that I have an opening in my Jasper winter wildlife photography workshop next week from February 7th-12th.

Come and join me for five days of photographing bighorn sheep, elk, moose, deer, coyote, and even wild wolves and lynx.

Bighorn sheep rams photographed during the 2011 Jasper winter wildlife photography workshop

Happy shooting!

John