My job as a marketer in the school publishing industry has awarded me with lots of opportunity to travel, especially across this beautiful country of ours.  I’ve spent time in every province except one (Manitoba), and have a list of favourite places: St. John’s, Halifax, Saskatoon, Vancouver and all of Alberta.  In my first 3 years working for Pearson Education, I spent much of my working life in Alberta.  A stunning province!  However, my time was pretty much limited to driving between Calgary and Edmonton on that long, narrow ribbon of highway, prairie on one side and the Rockies far off in the distance on the other side.  My heart always longed for the mountains.  Well, after a very good bonus one spring, I decided to take my first official vacation (involving leaving the province of Ontario, and an airplane…).  I chose a Rocky Mountain lodge tour.  I drove the stunning highways between Banff, Jasper, Field and Golden (BC) staying at small riverside cottages or lovely mountain lodges.  On my last night I planned to stay at Moraine Lake Lodge near Lake Louise.  This was the first week of June and I was salivating at the thought of seeing Moraine Lake in all of its emerald glory.  Well…I arrived at the Lodge to find the lake…frozen!!  It seems that everyone else was much smarter than me, as I was the lone occupant at the Lodge on its first day of spring opening.  But that night, a miracle happened.

I awoke at sunrise the next morning to a warm spring breeze and Moraine Lake stunningly free of ice and the colour of azure.  I scrambled up the rock pile at the end of the lake with my then trusty Sony camera and took the shot you see above.  The $20 dollar shot.  It was much later when I got back home and processed this shot that I knew I loved photography!  I hope you like the stark black and white treatment here, but if you’d prefer to see Moraine Lake in all its azure glory, please visit my website.  Happy Sunday everyone!