Images West

Approaching Storm

2012-02-19T10:03:00.004-07:00

Approaching storm front with rainbow, near Suffield, Alberta.

Approaching Storm, Suffield, Alberta

This photo was taken around 1995, with an Olympus OM-4T camera and 40mm f2 Zuiko lens, on Fuji slide film. The little OM-system 35mm cameras packed a lot of professional-grade, industry-leading features in a light, compact body, and many of the little Zuiko lenses were true optical gems. The OM-4T and 40mm f2 lens were small enough to take anywhere, and I was fortunate enough to have them with me on a trip to Medicine Hat one afternoon. Spotting this incredible cloud formation, I pulled off the highway on the outskirts of the town of Suffield and snapped a few images, trying to capture the drama of this scene. Unfortunately, this digital scan doesn't quite match the vibrance and intensity of the original transparency.

Now, more than 15 years later, I'm using Olympus equipment again - this time it's the Pen E-P3 mirrorless digital camera, part of the Micro FourThirds system. This relatively new camera format provides the image quality and portability of the old Olympus OM system, and is taking the camera market by storm...

Seasons Greetings from Okotoks

2011-12-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

The Okotoks glacial erratic, known locally as the "Big Rock", on Christmas Day 2009.

Big Rock, Okotoks

Wild Rice and Onion Bread

2011-12-19T11:35:00.002-07:00

Wild rice and onion bread dough, just about ready for the oven... yummy!

Wild Rice and Onion Bread

Great Slave Lake

2011-10-24T17:45:00.000-06:00

Another image from our recent trip to the Northwest Territories...

Driftwood, Great Slave lake, NWT

This photo was taken on the beach at the campground in Hay River, Northwest Territories... just steps away from our campsite.

Mossleigh Grain Elevators

2011-10-22T19:52:00.000-06:00

I made a quick trip out on Highway 547 to Mossleigh this afternoon to try to catch some nice light on the old wooden grain elevators there. Here are a couple of the images captured just prior to sunset, using the EOS 1Ds III and the 24mm f3.5L TS-E perspective control lens.

Grain Elevator, Mossleigh, Alberta

Grain Elevators, Mossleigh, Alberta

Aspen Grove, Kananaskis

2011-10-22T12:02:00.003-06:00

More from the Zeiss Distagon 21mm f2.8 ZE, this time on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II...

Aspen Grove in Late Summer, Kananaskis Country

Dinosaur Provincial Park

2011-10-22T10:07:00.005-06:00

Last weekend we headed out to Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks, Alberta for some late-season camping. The weather was nice, although it did get down to -6ºC overnight, and the water in our camper was partially frozen the next morning.

Hiking around the park, I had a chance to try out my newly-acquired EOS 1Ds Mark III and Zeiss Distagon 21mm f2.8 ZE lens, both purchased from Camtec Photo in Montreal. While the 1Ds III lacks the advanced Live View features and higher-resolution rear LCD of my 5D Mark II, the large, bright full-frame optical viewfinder makes the use of manual-focus lenses like the Zeiss much easier and more enjoyable.

Here's a sample image taken with this gear - it may be difficult to see in this small web image, but the Zeiss lens renders the subject in a much more visually pleasing three-dimensional manner than other lens I've used.

Greasewood Bush, Dinosaur Provincial Park

Here's another photograph taken later the same day, with the same camera and lens combination. This image is more representative of the hoodoos and other interesting geological formations found throughout the park:

Hoodoos, Dinosaur Provincial Park

Chilcotin River

2011-10-07T17:07:00.000-06:00

One of the more interesting places we visited on our September road trip was Farwell Canyon, near Riske Creek, BC.

There are some large sand dunes above the Chilcotin River where it passes through the canyon, and the landscape is very surreal. We didn't get a chance to see the petroglyphs in this part of the canyon, but we'd like to go back again (as soon as we forget how bad the road is...)

The Chilcotin River winds through Farwell Canyon

Liard Highway, Northwest Territories

2011-09-19T17:36:00.002-06:00

After driving some 1,200 kilometres to kick off a week of camping in the Northwest Territories, were were rather dismayed to discover that many of the Territorial campgrounds were shutting down earlier than their advertised September 15 closing date. Of those that were still open after the Labour Day weekend, the campground operators were only accepting cash (with no receipts). Something to think about for those who might be contemplating a trip to the Northwest Territories next year - call ahead to find out if they're planning to be open for business or not.

This photo was taken on our way down to BC, where they still seem to value tourism...

Liard Highway, Northwest Territories

Peace River

2011-09-18T16:23:00.000-06:00

We passed through the scenic Peace River region in northeast BC during September, and stopped to take this photo in the Bear Flats area near Fort St. John.

Sadly, the picturesque farmland in this valley will be flooded if BC Hydro's proposed Site C dam project goes ahead. If you've ever wanted to visit this region, do it now while you still can.

Peace River, near Bear Flats

Boya Lake

2011-07-12T05:41:00.002-06:00

Tranquil and scenic Boya Lake, along the Cassiar Highway in northern British Columbia. This is one of our favourite stopping places on our trips to and from the Yukon.

Boya Lake, British Columbia

Boya Lake is situated on the Liard Plain, an area carved out by glaciers 20,000 years ago. The lake is noted for its colour and clarity. The bottom is composed of marl, a mixture of silt and shell fragments. The crystal clear waters and aqua-marine lake colour are a result of the light reflecting from the marl bottom.

The glacially sculpted landscape around 4,597 hectare Boya Lake Provincial Park is characterized by elongated ridges, or drumlins and eskers. The park offers two short hiking trails, a mountain bike trail, and limitless canoeing and kayaking opportunities. Boya Lake is also one of the few lakes in the north that is warm enough for swimming!

From The Archives... Herschel Petroglyphs

2011-05-31T12:31:00.009-06:00

Here's an interesting image from the Herschel Petroglyphs archaeological site, that I scanned from one of my old 35mm black & white film negatives the other...

Herschel Petroglyphs, 1999

The Herschel Petroglyph site is located near the small town of Herschel, Saskatchewan. The site features three boulders covered with petroglyphs, in the form of grooves, cup-shaped depressions and bisected circles. Additional archaeological features such as tipi rings are also found in the area.

Web Site Rebuild In Progress...

2011-05-02T15:16:00.008-06:00

In case you've visited my web site recently and thought there weren't as many photos as before, you were right...

Since the beginning of the year, I had been using Zenfolio to host my photos and articles. Unfortunately, due to a seemingly minor misunderstanding, someone at Zenfolio decided to delete everything I had uploaded, with no advance warning, and even more unfortunate was my lapse in keeping a backup of some of the information.

A large number of the photos are now back on line, hosted at PhotoShelter. They seem to be a whole lot more reliable than Zenfolio, plus they support stock image sales, which more than justifies the slightly higher annual cost. I'm hard at work trying to get everything back the way it was, but if you're looking for a particular image in the mean time, please give me a shout!

Tipi Ring overlooking the Bow River, near the Majorville Medicine Wheel

Nikon D7000 High ISO Images

2011-03-10T18:46:00.001-07:00

Here are some sample images from the D7000 for comparison with the 1D Mark IV samples I posted earlier.

Once again, all were captured as NEF (RAW) files, and processed in Lightroom 3 using standard camera profiles. As with the Canon images, metering was set manually using an incident meter, and white balance was left on Auto. The LR noise reduction slider was set at 25 for the ISO 800 image in this sequence, and then increased to 50 for the remaining images. Here is the overall scene:

Here are the 1:1 actual pixel crops, from ISO 800 to ISO 25,600 (click on any one to see a larger version):

EOS 1D Mark IV High ISO Samples

2011-03-10T18:22:00.001-07:00

I took a number of test shots with the EOS 1D Mark IV as part of a comparison I was working on, and have decided to post them here in case others might be interested in seeing them.

All images were RAW captures, processed using standard camera profiles in Lightroom 3, following my normal workflow. Exposure was determined with a hand-held incident light meter and set manually; white balance was set to AutoWB. The noise reduction slider was set to 25 for the ISO 800 to 3200 images, and then increased to 50 for the remaining images. Here is the full image (at ISO 800):

The following images are all 1:1 actual pixel crops, from ISO 800 to ISO 102,400 (click on them to see larger files):

New Majorville Medicine Wheel Images

2010-10-25T14:23:00.006-06:00

We recently made a day trip out to the Majorville Medicine Wheel near Milo, Alberta. We had never been out to the medicine wheel this late in the year, and we were curious to see what it would look like. While most of the details of the wheel were obscured by the grass that had grown over the site during the summer, the sky was clear and the light near sunset gave the landscape a beautiful warm glow.

I tried to capture the scene a little differently than I had in the past, including some images with the moon rising in the sky above the central stone cairn in the centre of the wheel, as well as some new perspectives showing the prairies and river valley to the east of the site.

You can follow this link to visit my Majorville Medicine Wheel gallery and see some additional images.

Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta

Moonrise Over the Majorville Medicine Wheellink

Daytrip to Majorville

2010-10-21T17:59:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday afternoon we went exploring some back roads east of town, and we eventually ended up at the Majorville Medicine Wheel, just before sunset. We captured lots of images as the light faded, and I should have a selection uploaded and on line by the end of this week...

Photographers at the Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta

Web SIte Access...

2010-10-05T22:57:00.001-06:00

If you're trying to visit my web site (www.imageswest.ca) over the next week or so, there may be some access issues (or simply no access at all) while my domain hosting is being transferred to a new ISP.

For those of you who have had trouble finding my site over the past month or so, I apologize if you've encountered problems - due to some internal communication problems at my existing service provider, many of you ended up at a dead end on the PhotoShelter site. Hopefully the change to a new (and more competent) service provider will get things back to normal soon.

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

There's hope on the horizon - thanks for your patience!

More from the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

2010-10-04T12:35:00.000-06:00

Here's another photo from the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, showing its low noise performance at high ISO settings...

This photo is nothing special, just a quick hand-held snapshot testing the Canon EF 70-200mm f4L IS lens coupled with the EF 2x II extender. After reading a lot of internet forum posts about how the 1D IV couldn't focus in low light, I wanted to see how well the camera would focus with the slowest lens combination I could find... hence the slow zoom lens and 2x extender, giving a resulting aperture of f8. The light levels were so low, I had to crank the ISO up to the camera's highest standard setting of 12,800 (there are 3 high settings available through a Custom Function setting) in order to get a useable shutter speed. As you can see from the photo above, the camera had no issues whatsoever in finding and locking focus, and the noise levels at these settings isn't too bad either.

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 70-200mm f4L IS + EF 2x II extender, ISO 12,800, hand-held)

Okotoks Fall Colours

2010-10-01T08:37:00.001-06:00

I managed to get out for a few minutes yesterday afternoon to capture some of the beautiful fall colours along the Sheep River in Okotoks. I'm glad we got some blue skies before all the leaves had fallen.

Fall Colours, Okotoks, Alberta

Fall Colours along the Sheep River, Okotoks

More fishing images, but no bears this time...

Fishing on the Sheep River, Okotoks, Alberta

(Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f4L IS)

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

2010-09-30T11:01:00.000-06:00

I have to say, I'm really impressed with the image quality of Canon's EOS 1D Mark IV for wildlife photography. I had always liked Canon's approach to the sports and wildlife segments of professional photography with their APS-H sensor cameras; these cameras use a sensor just slightly smaller than a standard frame of 35mm film, and as a result the images produced by these cameras have the same angle of view as a lens having an approximately 30% longer focal length - great for close-ups of birds and animals. However, I had always been reluctant to use these cameras for professional work due to the lower resolution sensors they used, as many stock agencies required a 48 megabyte file size (roughly 16 million pixels) for submissions, which meant the 10 and 12 megapixel cameras didn't quite cut it. When the 16-megapixel 1D Mark IV was announced, I was finally optimistic that this camera would deliver the best of both worlds - a narrower angle of view for sports and wildlife, and enough resolution for almost any intended use. Does the camera live up to expectations? You be the judge...

Grizzly Bear with Salmon

Here's a tighter crop of the photo, showing how much detail it captures (the original is not this noisy - even at ISO 2500 - the artifacts you see are from compressing the image for web display)...

Grizzly Bear with Salmon

If you think that's mildly impressive, here's the original image without cropping:

Grizzly Bear with Salmon

Keep in mind, if I had been using a full-frame camera such as the Nikon D3, the bear would have been 40% smaller in the frame using the same focal length lens (400mm) or else I would have needed to use a much larger lens to get the same angle of view.

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 300mm f2.8L IS + EF-1.4X II extender, ISO 2500)

Grizzly Bear Profile

2010-09-28T16:38:00.000-06:00

This photo was taken on our last morning in Tweedsmuir. This bear had just emerged from the water and was intently watching another bear farther along the river bank.

Grizzly Bear Profile

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 300mm f2.8L IS, EF-2X II entender)

Another Grizzly Bear Portrait

2010-09-24T08:58:00.000-06:00

Here's another photo of the grizzly bear from the previous post, this time with a more complimentary background...

Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos)

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 300mm f2.8L IS, EF 2X-II extender)

What's For Lunch?

2010-09-18T17:10:00.000-06:00

This inquisitive bear is looking over the (very low) electric fence around the wildlife viewing platform on the Atnarko River. One might almost think he's reviewing the lunch menu, but not all of the photographers trapped inside the enclosure on the other side of that fence were as calm about the situation as the bear was.

It did make for a great close-up opportunity, with some of the nicest light we saw in the three days we were there.

Grizzly Bear Looking Over Fence

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 300mm f2.8L IS, EF 2X-II extender)

Flying Bear...?

2010-09-17T22:49:00.000-06:00

Who knew grizzly bears could fly? While watching the bears trying to catch salmon along the Atnarko River we saw a lot of different fishing techniques, but none quite as entertaining as this one:

Grizzly Bear Diving in the Water

Unfortunately, all it got him was wet...

Grizzly Bear Shaking Off Water

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EF 300mm f2.8L IS + EF 2X-II extender)

Check out my Bears Photo Gallery in the days to come, as I upload more grizzly bear images.

Grizzly Bears of Tweedsmuir

2010-09-16T09:55:00.000-06:00

Our original plans for our road trip were to start at Stewart for a few days of bear watching at Hyder, but Mother Nature had other ideas...

It started raining the evening we arrived in Stewart, and never stopped. We had to change sites in the campground a few times to stay above the rising water levels, and there was so much water and silt in Fish Creek that we didn't see any salmon in the channels, let alone bears. Thoroughly soaked and with no bears in sight, we decided to move on.

We had originally planned to head north on the Cassiar Highway, stopping at Telegraph Creek before heading on up to the Yukon, but the weather forecast for the whole of northern BC was pretty much the same as we were getting in Stewart - rain, and more rain - so we decided to turn south in search of drier (and hopefully sunnier) climes. We had never been to Bella Coola, so armed with our trusty GPS, we headed inland and started making our way down to the Chilcotin region.

Tweedsmuir Provincial Park proved to be an interesting place, and even though the rain managed to follow us there, we finally got to see some bears...

Grizzly Eating Salmon from Cliff LeSergent on Vimeo.

This video was captured with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV digital SLR stills camera... real videographers might cringe at the quality, because I did everything wrong, but it was pretty exciting to capture this scene all the same!

Nisga'a Lava Beds

2010-09-09T17:14:00.000-06:00

En route to Stewart, BC we took a detour to visit the Nisga'a lava beds near New Aiyansh. The Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park is easily accessible from Terrace, just an hour's drive north on the Nisga'a Highway (Highway 113).

The lava beds were created by lava flows from the Tseax cone, during its last eruption some 250 years ago. The lava followed a creekbed down the valley, damming the Ksi Sii Aks river to create Lava Lake, before continuing on its path down to the Nass River, where it destroyed two Nisga'a villages, with the loss of some 2,000 lives.

The eerie landscape of the lava beds covers some 18,000 hectares, and is up to 12 meters deep in places. The main lava bed on the south side of the Nass River is 10 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide; the distance the lava flowed is remarkable when one considers how flat the terrain is.

Nisga'a Memorial Lava Beds, New Aiyansh

(Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f4L)

In the photo below, the bright red leaves of the small maple in the foreground remind me of red-hot lava erupting from the ground, while the mist shrouding the peak in the background evokes the image of smoke and steam issuing from a volcanic cone.

Red Maple, Nisga'a Lava Beds

(Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f4L)

The Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park was established in 1992, and is jointly managed by the Nisga'a Nation and the Province of British Columbia. The park offers a 16-site campground, interesting interpretive centre, and guided tours to the Tseax volcano cone.

Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Park

On the Road Again...

2010-08-29T12:45:00.000-06:00

Arctic Circle, September 2004

Well, we're loading up the old Westfalia, and tomorrow morning we're heading out on the road again for another trip up north. We're starting out by heading for Stewart, BC (via Banff, Jasper, and the Yellowhead Highway) where we hope to see some bears at Fish Creek, Alaska, visit the Salmon Glacier, eat some great food at the Bitter Creek Cafe, and not get rained on too much.

After a few days in the Stewart area, we'll planning to head up the Cassiar Highway, with side trips to Telegraph Creek and Boya Lake. From there it's up to the Yukon where we'll make stops in Whitehorse and Dawson City, before driving the Dempster HIghway up to the Arctic Circle (see above...) before returning to Watson Lake via the Robert Campbell Highway. If time and weather permit, we may take a detour via the Liard Highway and Mackenzie Highway into the Northwest Territories, for visits to Yellowknife and/or Wood Buffalo National part before starting the long drive back south. That should add up to around 10,000 kilometers by the time we finally make it home!

So, blog posts may be fairly infrequent during the next three weeks... but you can expect to see lots of new photos when we get back!

New Addition... Panasonic Lumix GF1

2010-08-26T11:09:00.000-06:00

UPS dropped off a new addition to my gear collection this morning... a Panasonic Lumix GF1 digital camera. Unfortunately, they left the box with the memory cards back at the depot in Calgary - hopefully they will show up tomorrow...

Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1

I had been interested in the new Micro Four Thirds format since it hit the market last year, but I had held off buying one of the cameras from Olympus or Panasonic until now. Choosing between the various offerings from the two brands was difficult, but in the end I went with the Panasonic for a number of reasons, including better autofocus, and a more user-friendly control layout. I was also swayed by this review of the GF1 by Craig Mod.

Time will tell if I made the right choice, but I will be giving the GF1 and the lovely little 20mm f1.7 "pancake" lens a thorough workout on our trip to northern BC, Alaska, and the Yukon which kicks off next week. Who knows, I may actually go so far as to write a review of the camera when I get back... stay tuned!

Salmon Glacier Redux...

2010-08-25T14:53:00.000-06:00

I find glaciers fascinating, and the Salmon Glacier is just so scenic, that I just couldn't resist posting another picture of it...

Salmon Glacier

On the other hand, my wife (that's her in yesterday's post) says I have way too many photos of it, and she's always after me to stop putting so many of them in my slide shows...

(Canon EOS 5D, 24-105mm f4L, ISO 100)

Salmon Glacier

2010-08-24T09:21:00.000-06:00

On a clear day, the Salmon Glacier is a very impressive sight...

Salmon Glacier, British Columbia

Even though it's in a somewhat remote corner of British Columbia, it is one of the few glaciers in North America that is easily accessible by road. This photo was taken from the viewpoint along the Granduc Mine road, which starts in Stewart, British Columbia and passes through Hyder, Alaska before crossing back into Canada.

(Canon EOS 5D, 24-105mm f4L IS, 100 ISO)

Check out my Coast Mountain Glaciers photo gallery!

Berendon Glacier

2010-08-23T08:46:00.000-06:00

Berendon Glacier

Not quite as large as the nearby Salmon Glacier, the scenic Berendon Glacier makes a great photographic stand-in on those frequent days when its more well-known neighbor is socked in with clouds or fog. Just a few kilometers over the pass and down the road from the popular Salmon Glacier viewpoint, the weather can be dramatically different. The best vantage points for the Berendon Glacier are from the site of the old Granduc Mine, or if you're more adventurous, it's possible to hike down to the small lake at the toe of the glacier.

The Berendon Glacier, along with the Leduc, Salmon, and Frank Mackie Glaciers, are all part of the larger Frank Mackie Highland Glacier Complex in the Coast Mountains, north of Stewart, British Columbia.

(Nikon D200, 17-55mm f2.8, ISO 200)

Visit the Coast Mountain Glaciers photo gallery

Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park

2010-08-22T08:57:00.000-06:00

Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park in the Northwest Territories is located about 70 kilometers north of the 60th Parallel, on the Mackenzie Highway (Highway 1), also known as the Waterfalls Route. This scenic park, situated along the Hay River, boasts two beautiful waterfalls, Alexandra Falls and Louise Falls.

Alexandra Falls

Louise Falls

From the Louise Falls campground, visitors can descend into Twin Falls Gorge to reach several vantage points overlooking the lower falls. Be prepared for lots of stair climbing...

Hiker descending stairs at Twin Falls Gorge

The campground at Louise Falls is clean and well maintained (as are all public campgrounds in the Northwest Territories) and offers 18 sites for tent and trailer camping, including some pull-through sites for larger RV's. Twin Falls Gorge can be reached in one (long) day's drive from Edmonton, and is well worth the trip.

For the more adventurous, it is possible to drive an 1800 kilometer loop starting in Peace River, Alberta and heading north on Highway 35, which becomes the Mackenzie Highway on crossing into the Northwest Territories. From the junction at Checkpoint, follow the Liard Highway (NWT Highway 7) south to connect with the Alaska Highway (BC Highway 97) near Fort Nelson for the return leg to Alberta.

Don't forget to stop and claim your certificate from the NWT Visitor's Centre when you cross the 60th Parallel!

(all images: Nikon D200; top image 17-55mm f2.8, others 12-24mm f4, ISO 200)

Visit the Waterfalls Route Photo Gallery

Whistle Pig

2010-08-22T00:42:00.000-06:00

Hoary marmots are the largest member of the ground squirrel family, and are found near treeline in the mountain regions of western Canada and Alaska. They are also known as "whistlers" or "whistle pigs" because of the high-pitched alarm sound they make when frightened.

Hoary Marmot, Coast Mountains, British Columbia

We photographed this marmot near the Salmon Glacier in the coast mountains of British Columbia. The area is frequented by sightseers, so the marmots here are somewhat tame and make good photographic subjects on the days when the glacier is socked in with clouds.

(Nikon D200, 300mm f4, ISO 200)

Louise Falls

2010-08-21T07:34:00.000-06:00

The Mackenzie Highway, linking Alberta and the Northwest Territories, passes through Twin Falls Gorge Park just north of the 60th parallel. The majestic Alexandra Falls and equally beautiful Louise Falls give the park its name. These waterfalls on the Hay River, along with falls on the nearby Kakisa and Trout Rivers, make up the Waterfalls Route. This highway is part of a popular circle drive tour called the Deh Cho Connector.

Louise Falls on the Hay River, Northwest Territories

While the larger Alexandra Falls is more often seen (and photographed), Louise Falls is just a short hike down the canyon, and presents the photographer with a number of spectacular vantage points.

(Nikon D200, 12-24mm f4)

Visit the Waterfalls Route Photo Gallery

Majorville Medicine Wheel

2010-08-20T15:34:00.000-06:00

Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta

Located due west of Brooks, Alberta on the west side of the Bow River, the remote site takes its name from the long-vanished town of Majorville. Access to the site is difficult, and requires a four-wheel drive vehicle most times of the year. The hilltop on which the medicine wheel is situated is now fenced to prevent vehicle access, and visitors are greeted by a faded interpretive sign describing the medicine wheel.

A short hike up a well-worn track leads to the medicine wheel itself. At the top, the view is magnificent, and the rolling terrain continues for many kilometers in every direction. Immediately to the east lies the valley of the Bow River, and several tipi rings mark the presence of ancient encampments above its banks. Two smaller hills to the southeast and southwest are also marked by stone cairns, although on a much smaller scale than the central cairn of the medicine wheel.

The pile of stones looks rather unassuming at first. Now overgrown with prairie grass and a few wild roses, much of its outer structure has disappeared. Having endured some fifty centuries on this lonely hilltop overlooking the Bow River, the Majorville Medicine Wheel has suffered considerable damage at the hands of visitors over the past few generations.

The eastern half of the wheel structure has been all but obliterated, thanks to a few generations of vandalism However, the western portion remains relatively intact, and the “spoke and rim” structure of the wheel is plainly visible during the times of the year when the grass is short. A portion of the central cairn was excavated in 1971, and artifacts found at the base of the structure dated its construction to some five thousand years before present, which pre-dates Stonehenge.

Recent studies have advanced the theory that the “medicine wheel” is the centre-piece of a large astronomical observatory complex that covers nearly 100 square kilometers. Intriguingly, the small cairns situated on the nearby hills align very precisely with the sunrise and sunset during the summer and winter solstices. Researchers at other well-known medicine wheels, such as Moose Mountain in Saskatchewan, and the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming (where the term “medicine wheel” originated) have also found astronomical alignments played an important role in the construction of those sites.

Unfortunately, the area surrounding the Majorville site holds large deposits of natural gas, and drilling activity has been steadily encroaching on the site over the past decade, and little, if anything, has been done to protect the largely unexplored area surrounding the main site.

(Pentax 645N, 45mm f2.8, Fuji Velvia 50)

Visit the Majorville Medicine Wheel Photo Gallery