In May and June 1999 my wife and I had a five-week holiday in western Canada, northwestern USA and Hawaii. On the presumption that a picture is worth a thousand words (and also is usually more interesting) I have placed a few of my photographs on this web page. The intention is not to present a photographic travelogue of all the places we visited, but to merely show you some of the photos which I found the most interesting and satisfying. I have also summarised our trip in a linked website, "Our Trip to Western Canada and USA" if you want to know where we went.

For those interested in a few technical details, my present camera is a Canon EOS-100. I use only two lenses (both zooms), a Sigma 28-105mm and a Canon 70-300mm. I generally use Fujicolor 400 film as this allows me to hand-hold at 300mm focal length for "close-up shots" without a tripod. I sometimes use the in-camera flash to provide fill-in flash for portrait-type shots.

For the preparation of computer images I use commercial prints (A4 enlargements if possible, but sometimes postcard-size prints if I have not obtained enlargements). I have an OpticPro 9630P flat-bed digitiser and use Adobe Acrobat software for the scanning. I then carry out photo editing (minimal use to date, mainly cropping and colour/contrast control) using Microsoft Photo Editor software. I compose my web pages using Microsoft Word and transfer the files to my GeoCities website using the GeoCities EZ File Upload Utility. Detailed editing (such as adding the photographs) are done on-line. Fortunately GeoCities offer 15 MB of free webspace, and this website of mine uses up less than 1 MB.

PEYTO LAKE, ALBERTA

Peyto Lake is located in Banff National Park, 43 km north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway.

This impressive view is seen from the lookout at Bow Summit - in early June this involved a 1 km walk through snow to reach the lookout, but it was well worth the effort.

There is still some ice on the lake.

Lake Peyto flows to the north (the right) and is one of the main tributaries of the North Saskatchewan River and ultimately flows into Hudson Bay.

ATHABASCA FALLS, ALBERTA

These mighty falls, on the Athabasca River, are located in Jasper National Park 30 km south of Jasper beside the Icefields Parkway.

The falls are 23 m high.

The Athabasca River is a tributary of the Peace and Mackenzie Rivers and this water ultimately flows into the Arctic Ocean.

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CHATEAU LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA

This magnificent hotel is at Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

The photo was taken in early June when the winter ice had not fully melted from the lake.

There is a good walking track along the western side of the lake and this is from where this photo was taken.

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MOUNT ROBSON PROVINCIAL PARK, BRITISH COLUMBIA

From Mount Robson township there is a lovely 4.5 km walk (one way) to Kinney Lake at the base of Mt Robson.

This photo of me and some western red cedar giants was taken during our walk.

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YELLOW-BELLIED MARMOT, MONTANA

We met this very friendly and attractive (and I think also hungry) fellow in a car park in Glacier National Park (near Many Glacier).

Photo was taken on 300 mm zoom from about two metres distance, with fill-in flash.

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MOUNT SAINT HELENS, WASHINGTON

This is my favourite photo of our trip! It is a reflection of Mount St Helens crater (and me) taken in a window of the Johnston Ridge Observatory in Mount St Helens national Volcanic Monument.

This observatory is only 5 miles (8 km) from the crater.

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RAFTING, IDAHO

This photo was taken from roadside (Hwy 12) on the upper Lochsa River in Clearwater National Forest.

There was also kyaking but my photos were not as good as this one.

In Idaho State there are 3250 miles of white water rivers !!

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STELLER'S JAY, WASHINGTON

These beautiful birds were seen in an overlook car park in Mount Rainier National Park, somewhere between Longmire and Paradise.

In late May the ground was still snow-covered and tourists were an obvious easy source of food.

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GRAY JAY, WASHINGTON

These birds were found at the same location as the Steller's Jays.

The photograph was taken on 300 mm zoom at a distance of about two metres, with fill-in flash.

No, we didn't feed them, but many people did!

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AKAKA FALLS, HAWAII

These impressive falls (442 feet drop) are located in Akaka Falls State Park, about 17 miles north of Hilo on Hawaii Island (known locally as The Big Island).

The eastern side of the island has a wet tropical climate, quite different to the arid (but sunny) west side.

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For a "note on our Canada/USA trip."

To return to "Homepage."

Brian Gunter, Cooma, Australia

Prepared 1 February 2000

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