The nice thing about being a tourist is you have a fresh perspective on things that local people take for granted. For example, where I live, on the Eastern Coast of Canada, the vast majority of land features are somewhat diminutive compared to the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.
While working in Alberta, I was fortunate to explore landscapes that were polar opposite to the seascapes I was used to.
On one of my many weekend hikes into the Rocky Mountains, just outside Canmore, I decided to hike up a trail to Ha Ling Peak. This mountain towers over the small village of Canmore, an imposing prominence of the Earth's mantle and an impressive sight for someone from the East Coast of Canada.
Armed with my new Micro 4/3's sensor Olympus E-510, bear in mind this photo was taken back in 2013. At every turn in the trail, there were photographic opportunities. The hike was relatively easy because every break in the treeline presented grand vistas. I stopped often and took in the scenery as intrepid hikers by the dozen passed me by on their way to the summit. They seemed more intent on reaching the summit of Ha Ling than soaking in the wonders that lay before their very eyes.
The mountains are truly awe-inspiring to witness in person as opposed to seeing them in photographs and film. The real challenge was trying to capture that grandeur as best I could and convey how vast this landscape was. I used my medium telephoto lens, my trusty manual focus Rokkor 250mm refractor, to compress the background mountains with the foreground mountains and hone in on a smaller area. A wide-angle lens would have just made the mountains in the background less imposing than they are.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor