Banff Pins and Buttons

Rapids turning the Bow River into a white swirl as it rushes towards Bow Falls and the Fairmont Banff Springs.

Setting sun over the Vermillion Lakes at Banff, Alberta Canada.

Emerald Lake, Alberta Canada in infrared black and white

A small cloud spinning around the top of Castle Mountain, as seen from the shores of the Bow River at Castle Junction. That cloud spun around, always slightly in front of the peaks, for the entire 45 minutes that I was there. It looks cool as a photo but even better as a timelapse, which you can watch at https://vimeo.com/202296789.

It doesn't get much better than going to somewhere that is packed during the day and finding it completely deserted for sunrise. I had the entire Bow Summit lookout to myself for much of this morning, and that made it feel even more special when the peaks all started to glow in orange, their reflection in the water below. Sure, the water is a brighter blue at midday, but this is truly the way to see Peyto Lake.

You know it's going to be a good morning when you get to your sunrise spot 45 minutes early to set up for a workshop and the sky is already pink. You know it's an even better morning when you have to talk about ways to avoid oversaturation of oranges and pinks because it's such a vivid sunrise!

fog in the trees

I had to be very careful to compose my shot and make sure that I didn't step on any of the perfect baubles of snow all along the shoreline at Castle Junction! I love the look of fresh snow when you can still see the shapes (and occasional peeks) of what it is covering.

Lake Louise is often pictured in wide angle, showing off the waters of the lake itself as well as the mountains that tower above it. On this morning in mid-November, though, I felt like the reflection really stole the show. Much of the rest of the lake already had a fine sheen of ice over it, and only this one corner had open water to reflect the snowy peaks of Mount Victoria above. It was a nice last glimpse of the lake, which was shortly after buried in snow and will stay that way until the end of May!

Sunset may have occurred with barely a whimper, but the threatening clouds -- which made good on their threat and dumped snow overnight -- were just as impressive. Camera: Nikon D750 w/ Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED ISO 200, 218s @ f/11

When we passed 7,000ft on our way uphill to the Larch Valley, the green pine trees started to give way to the gold of larches. The view of them stretching into the distance with the mountains behind was something else!

Emerald Lake, Alberta, Canada

The crags of Castle Mountain lit by the sun of an early November morning in Banff National Park. I find this mountain to be one of the most fascinating on the drive between Banff and Lake Louise; with every corner turned, it reveals a new face more interesting than the last.

Can you see the person standing on the edge and enjoying the view? He's so hard to pick in the seemingly never-ending landscape of trees and mountains stretching out beyond the Bow Summit. I never get sick of this lookout because it seems to change every time I visit -- in the time I've lived in Canada, the lake has morphed from milky green to blue to white!

I made two trips to Jasper in September, and on both trips, I needed to be in Jasper at a certain time so I wasn't able to dawdle along the Icefields Parkway like I usually do. It's a travesty to drive the Parkway without stopping though, and I found that on both trips, I made one photo stop: at Mount Chephren and the Waterfowl Lakes. Both times presented me with completely different scenes; the first was a smoky sunset, and the second was this gorgeous, foggy scene just after sunrise.

No matter what time of year, the view from Morant's Curve is stunning, with the mixture of natural (the mountains, the Bow River) and the manmade (the train tracks). The frame of golden aspens in late September just makes it even moreso.

From about halfway up the C-Level Cirque track on the side of Banff's Cascade Mountain, we found a lookout with my favourite view of the day. While Lake Minnewanka is gorgeous to visit, its waters are often rough; this angle smoothed them out as well as showing just how large the lake really is!

Elsewhere on Johnson Lake, the ice was thick enough to run across in snowshoes. Here, near the bridge, the water had other plans and had done its best to break free of the ice despite the -20ºC temperatures. Unfortunately, those plans also included inundating one of my boots when I stood in an area that was a bit deeper than I expected. Luckily the car and its heat were closeby!

The trees of Lake Louise are always an amazing sight to see, and by far my favourite time to see them is at night -- when you can look up past the snow-encrusted branches to see the stars glittering above. Add in a moonrise to light up the trees and a halo around said moon and you get a memorable sight indeed.

The Bow River doing its best to fight off the freezing effects of winter. Its shoreline was partially frozen, but the river itself -- despite having chunks of ice floating down it -- was still running strong.

Looking south down the Icefields Parkway from Sunwapta Pass. October was a fantastic time to do this scenic drive -- there was just enough snow to make the scenery even more stunning but not enough to make the driving difficult!

An idyllic summer morning at Lake Louise, its perfectly calm waters lighting up a brilliant green in the early morning light.

Jackson Hole wyoming is an amazing park for camping and hiking. This is national park design is special for those people which love national park and forest like yosemite national park, yellowstone national park, jasper national park etc.

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada stunning day with reflections.

Canoes set up on the shoreline of Two Jack Lake, ready for a morning of paddling out on the lake.

A cloudy sunrise and Mount Rundle perfectly reflected in one of the Vermilion Lakes on a calm November morning. I didn't even mind standing calf-deep in mud to see this! :)

Moraine Lake is one of my most popular workshop destinations, so over the summer, I watched the sunrise nearly 20 times there. It was fascinating to see how the lake changed over that time, as well as all the different sorts of lighting that can occur at that time of the morning. I captured the light on the Ten Peaks behind the canoes at the end of my second "All-Nighter" workshop in July. It was a great place to end our long night of shooting around the park!

I love being out in the mountains under the full moon. The mountain ridges light up in a completely different way than they do during the day and make for quite the otherwordly scene, particularly when the clouds are racing across the sky as fast as they were on this night at Lake Louise!

The Larch Valley track, which climbs to 8,000ft above Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, is one of the most popular hikes in Banff National Park in autumn. It's no wonder, since the pine trees turn to golden larches as soon as you hit 7,000ft and you're absolutely surrounded in autumn colour. What a place!

I went to Morant's Curve early one afternoon looking to capture a timelapse that perhaps featured a train. 45 minutes later, no trains had passed, but in that time, this cloud crossed the entire sky -- just a single streak with hardly a cloud around it. It was truly unbelievable to watch...and very exciting because I managed to capture the entire traversal in my timelapse, which you can watch at https://vimeo.com/202296789.

Flashback to late October when Bow Lake was just beginning to freeze. The -13ºC temps that morning made the open water steam like crazy, creating an absolutely stunning scene for golden hour. It was one of those scenes that, for the 1000th time in 2017, made me appreciate how lucky I am to live so close to the mountains.

Of all the places I've ever shot the Milky Way, Bow Lake has to be one of my favourites. The wide open expanse of calm, reflective lake, the perfect line-up of the Milky Way and Crowfoot Mountain -- it's just the perfect place to spend a summer night (even if that summer night does dip down to 0ºC)!

Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier in Banff National Park Alberta Canadian Rocky Mountains Canada photography by Andy Evans Photos

I'm not sure if I will ever find a road I love more than the Icefields Parkway (although the Spray Lakes Rd/Smith Dorrien in the Kananaskis comes a close second). I find a new angle on the mountains every time I drive it, and fortunately in winter, you can stand in the middle of the road for quite a while before a car passes by!

It's spring, and that means that the Icefields Parkway is once again free of snow and ready for the hordes that descend on it during the summer months. And really, that's understandable -- after all, why wouldn't you want to drive this road? It's 230km of some of the most spectacular scenery you'll ever see!

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunrise glow.