Sunset in Kananaskis Country, Alberta with approaching thunderstorm - August 2010.
This photograph was taken along Highway 40 in Alberta during an amazing sunset and an incoming storm. The mountains in the background define the border with British Columbia, with the Highwood River peeking out here and there in the mid to background of the image, with mountain wildflowers gracing the foreground.
This is 18 shot stitched panorama plus 2-exposure HDR treatment (2 rows of 9 photographs, 36 exposures total) taken with a Canon 40D, Canon TS-E 24 mm/3.5 L, and Nodal Ninja 5 panoramic head, shot very rapidly given quick moving clouds and rapidly changing light.
What is memorable from the date this image was taken (besides this sunset) is that maybe 45 minutes earlier, while further west up the highway, near the Highwood Pass, I was into taking a macro shot of some wild-flowers by the side of the highway, with tripod set up maybe 0.15 m above ground (6-inches) with a 100 mm macro lens when my parents shouted from one of the two vehicles we were traveling in "Bear!".
A Grizzly mother and cub was crossing the highway maybe 125 m away from where I was shooting (moving away from us towards the river). So having wrong lens on camera, set up on tripod while lying on ground I certainly did not get that shot (they were in sight maybe 5-seconds total anyhow), and I rushed back to our vehicle as a precaution and we decided to move out and head back to my folks' home.
Needless to say, maybe 30 km away from the bear later, I had the added pressure of my nervous father going on about me stopping again on the side of the highway to take these shots with bears "around".
