Smoky Sunset in Assiniboine — Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, BC, Canada.

I have so much to say about this image… this was the first night of the first backpacking trip I went on, ever, and it was the first trip I ever went on explicitly for the purpose of landscape photography. And yet despite my inexperience, this is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken, due to some truly exceptional circumstances.

Significant wildfires had just begun nearby, and the smoke was being blown in, creating these incredible light rays, while still maintaining visibility of Mt. Assiniboine. If we had come the day before, it would’ve been less spectacular, and the day after, you couldn’t have seen Assiniboine. Because the smoke rolled in at just the right time, not earlier in the day, or at night, this is a photograph that would be difficult to ever replicate.

This image also placed in the Amateur Top 50 of the 2018 Epson International Pano Awards.

I need to thank my friend Jake Schual-Berke for this, because he went with me on this trip and showed me the ropes of backpacking. He tolerated a bunch of my complaining, especially about a poorly-fitting pack, not having enough snacks, and he also carried all the cooking equipment, shared meals, and so on. This trip wouldn’t have been possible without him.

Smoky Sunset — Banff National Park, AB, Canada.

Taken the day after this image in Assiniboine, backpacking out of Assiniboine park back to our car. We stayed in an old cabin near here, and it was pretty interesting to photograph sunset in these smoky conditions. I thought it made for interesting layering show the shapes of these mountains. This was a really spectacular valley, not very photographed due to the remoteness of it. Unlike Assiniboine, which you can reach with a subsidized helicopter trip (which is what we did - flew in and backpacked out), you have to hike a considerable distance to reach this valley.

Sunset over a Stream — Banff National Park, AB, Canada.