What Is Waterfowl Lakes And Where Is It?
Waterfowl Lakes is a huge, beautiful lake along the IceFields Parkway at Banff National Park in Alberta Canada. It is one of many stunning lakes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Waterfowl Lakes is located about 60km or 36 miles north of the town of Lake Louise along the IceFields Parkway. There is a very popular and beautiful campground located by the lake. The Banff Num-Ti-Jah Lodge located on the edge of Bow Lake is the closest actual hotel or lodge to Waterfowl Lakes. The tallest and most prominent mountain peak in this giant Waterfowl Lakes panorama is Mt. Chephren.
What Is It Like To Travel To Waterfowl Lakes At Banff National Park?
Access to this lake and this view is really easy assuming you have a car. When driving to it from the Lake Louise area you will see it on the left side of the road. If coming down from Jasper National Park it will be on the right side of the road. There is a fair amount of parking by the lake. It’s not a huge lot but I’ve never seen it full or had trouble getting a parking spot there. Lots of people don’t even notice it and drive right by. It is accessible anytime of day. Coming from either direction it is a beautiful scenic drive that can be a bit gnarly during the winter.
If you plan to visit Waterfowl Lakes and other nearby lakes like Peyto Lake, Moraine Lake and Bow Lake, the most convenient town to stay in is the Lake Louise Village. If you want to stay closer than that, chances are you’ll have to camp or stay at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge located on the edge of Bow Lake.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Panoramic Photo Of Waterfowl Lakes?
Photographing Waterfowl Lakes is really simple. Just walk up, snap a shot and that’s it. You can get a decent shot of waterfowl lakes. If you want to get something a bit more unique, it takes some planning and some luck.
I tried numerous times to get sunrise photos with the mountain peaks glowing and reflecting in the water. It was always too windy at sunrise and for at least a half hour after sunrise to get any decent reflections. It was always too cloudy to get the mountain peaks glowing at sunrise.
In order to get a large panoramic shot like the one featured on this page you’ll need to pack your patience and wait for the winds al across this HUGE lake to go dead calm. If you are shooting a stitched panorama, the winds will need to stay calm for a while as you go through and snap somewhere around 100 shots to cover multiple columns and rows to create a massive print. If you have camera that can shoot a panorama all internally it will be much easier to get a shot like this. Since Waterfowl Lakes is pretty far from Lake Louise and there are much more famous photo sites much closer to Lake Louise this is not a spot that has historically attracted much of a sunrise crowd.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing This Panoramic Waterfowl Lakes Landscape?
Any camera will do pretty well when photographing Waterfowl Lakes at Banff along the IceFields Parkway. A cel phone will work, a point and shoot camera will work OK. A DSLR or mirrorless camera will likely give you better files for better wall art prints.
In order to get a massive file like this that can be ordered at 108 inches wide and can be printed much larger than that, a solid tripod, a Nodal Ninja panoramic head or something similar combined with a full frame DSLR and a lens at least 50mm will do the trick. A mirrorless camera should be able to achieve the same and might not require a heavy pano head like the Nodal Ninja models.
What Is The Story Behind This Panoramic Waterfowl Lakes Landscape Wall Art Photo?
After years of going to Banff and Jasper National Parks and sticking mostly to the famous and crowded sunrise locations, I started to go a bit farther out to less visited locations in 2018. I’d been to Waterfowl Lakes numerous times in the middle of the day. Instead of going to Moraine Lake for yet another sunrise I decided to try Waterfowl Lakes.
I got up before the crack of dawn and made the trek all the way out to Waterfowl Lakes in time for sunrise. When I got there, the cloud cover was too thick to let the rising sun hit the mountain peaks and light them up. Though the wind forecast was for very calm winds, there was enough wind at sunrise and for about an hour afterward to wipe out any possibility of reflections.
Sunrise turned out to be a bust at Waterfowl Lakes. Again. Since I’d driven all the way out there I decided to stick around and try to shoot a massive panoramic with a perfect reflection. It must have been at least 90 minutes after sunrise. Sometimes the whole lake would be full of ripples and sometimes a section of ripples would dance across the lake. In order to get the perfect panoramic shot with near perfect reflections I needed dead calm. Sometime a breeze out over the lake I couldn’t even feel at the lake shore would cause a portion of the water to ripple.
In order to get a full stitched panorama I needed about 5 minutes to go through all the shots that needed to be stitched together. There were plenty of aborted shots. I’d get partway through and the wind would kick up just enough to mess up the reflections. Finally after about an hour and a half or maybe even two hours of standing there everything stayed dead calm long enough to get all the shots for a perfect stitched panoramic shot.
Like numerous other shots featured on this website, it took days to get this shot and it still wasn’t the one I really wanted. The reflections are just about perfect but I wasn’t able to get the perfect reflections with the mountains glowing. That version may remain forever elusive!
What Formats Is This Waterfowl Lakes Panoramic Reflection Wall Art Print Available?
This panoramic photo of Waterfowl Lakes is available in HUGE sizes. The printer is able to print it in sizes up to 108×43 inches. That is NINE feet wide. If the printer could print larger, it could be printed larger. To get the maximum size it can be ordered as a stretched canvas or on a variety of premium papers. On wood or acrylic, it can be printed as large at 96 inches and that drops to 84 inches on metal.
If you want to hang it in an area with softer diffused lighting, any of the above prints will look great. If there will be direct natural light shining on it or light from exposed light bulbs then something with a matte finish would be best. A matte paper print or matte canvas. Anything else that is more shiny a reflective can still look good but it will reflect exposed lights and furnishings in the room to an extent.
Other home decor items include tapestries, shower curtains, and Sherpa fleece blankets. They all look great and cost a fair bit less that large prints.
This image is available on apparel, cel phone cases and on sturdy, high quality canvas tote bags that make great replacements for the plastic shopping bags that are vanishing from grocery and other stores.
For those who like puzzles, this image comes in 500 and 1,000 piece puzzles as well.
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