We spent three weeks in Canada, specifically the Banff-Jasper area, in the fall of 2021. We spent most of our time travelling up and down the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic drives in North America. This was the end of the tourist season, and well before the ski areas opened up in Banff, there were not many folks around. But it was great for landscape photography!

It seemed like the entire area was closing down right before our eyes. Some of the parking lots were closed, and the hotel we stayed at for part of the time was approaching the day after we checked out. This was our second time visiting Bow Lake, and this time, it was kind of rainy with minimal definition in the clouds, making the compositions pretty mundane and lifeless.

So, I grabbed my MIOPS intervalometer and tried some longer exposures using a 10-stop neutral density filter and a 10-stop variable neutral density filter staked to get the exposures I was looking for. Trying different exposure times takes a while when you vary the times from one minute to up to 4 minutes. The streakiness of the clouds would vary depending on the exposure.

I wandered up and down the shoreline during each exposure, wondering if this would be the best. This particular exposure was 170 seconds, and it really allowed the lake to take on a very smooth effect, also allowing the lake to pick up some reflection of the mountains in the lake and give the clouds an interesting look and feel.