David & Sherry Photography

#6

Photographic Bliss

Sometimes all the plans we make come together to create perfection. This is the Most Perfect Pre-Planned Photo We've Ever Taken

This was taken during a planned Couplescape trip where we wanted to create this photo. However, the circumstances around it are anything but simple. We came up with an idea to create a Couplescape image in Larch Valley above Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta and immediately there are a few problems. The Larch or Tamarac trees are only yellow for a short time during the fall, usually the last week of September when the weather is also unpredictable... so that's fun! Also, it's a good hour and a half hike from the parking lot to the valley so we all need to be ready to adventure, plus the parking lot at Moraine Lake is small and the number of tourists is large, and if you take the shuttle bus from the additional parking the last shuttle departs at 5:00 pm so you can't stay until good light if you need to take the shuttle.

What we were looking for was for the sun to illuminate the yellow trees against the blue sky and mountain backdrop with our couple as an integral part of the photo. So off to planning we went. One of our couples signed up for this adventure, flights booked, lodgings booked and we were ready to go. We had two days planned just in case we had bad weather on one of them. A very short time before we were ready to go our couple messaged to say it was impossible for them to be there as they had a schedule change so we were left with everything booked but nobody to photograph... So we reached out to our network trying to find someone available on this next Tuesday to join un on an adventure and we had a taker.

The session was planned for the afternoon but we wanted to make sure we got parking so as to not take the shuttle so Sherry and I were up there for 7:30 am... we brought a picnic lunch and spent 4 hours hiking before our couple arrived, then we made our way up the mountain and then the God blessed us with the most wonderful weather. What was a fairly cloudy day, as the sun was hovering just above the mountain tops the clouds parted and the incredible golden light started pouring down on the yellow trees and we had about 15 minutes of perfection. It was one of the most sublime lighting moments we have been part of.