Bluepeak: Travel, tourism and photography

Amazing Rockies aurora timelapse

Rogier — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:57:34 +0000

The Mountains in Motions team recently captured some amazing aurora timelapse footage at Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park. Stay tuned for the release of the full movie in fall 2012.

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found

Rogier — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:35:22 +0000

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found: Highlights from the Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi Project. In 1999, a most amazing discovery was made in the northwest corner of BC. The remains and belongings of a man buried in ice for hundreds of years were discovered melting out of a remote glacier and became the focus of study in a collaborative project by the community and scientists, including several museum staff, over the next decade. Read an excellent and fascinating summary of the project to find out who he was. The story is close to my heart as I lived for two years on Chilkat Pass, only a few km from where he was found.

RAW or JPG?

Rogier — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:31:36 +0000

This is a dilemma for many a photographer: shoot JPG, which don’t need any processing, or RAW, which provides you more opportunity to enhance the image in the computer? Darwin Wiggett and Sam Chrysanthou wrote an excellent intro on RAW vs JPG on their blog.

Yosemite Timelapse Project

Rogier — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:56:12 +0000

Yet another great timelapse project, this time in Yosemite NP.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Mountains in Motion timelapse project

Rogier — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:03:44 +0000

This trailer for a new documentary on the Rocky Mountains has some amazing footage. I can’t wait to see the full movie! Make sure to watch it in HD.

Mountains in Motion: The Canadian Rockies | Official Trailer from The Upthink Lab on Vimeo.

Jasper National Park: 12 months of adventure

Rogier — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:37:13 +0000

Jasper National Park offers a great variety of adventures, anytime of the year. These photos reflect on some of them.

January

Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park, in winter

February

Tangle Falls along the Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park, in winter

March

Snowshoers on Jacques Lake, Jasper National Park

Jacques Lake, Jasper National Park in light of full "super" moon

April

Snowshoeing on Whistlers Summit, Jasper National Park

White-tailed ptarmigan in winter plumage on Whistlers summit, Jasper National Park.

May

Male mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus, along the Athabasca River, Jasper National Park.

June

Grizzly bear, Ursus arctos, digging along the Icefields Parkway

July

Family overlooking Snake Indian Falls in Jasper National Park

Aspen stand along the North Boundary Trail, Jasper National Park

August

360 degree panorama of Indian Ridge, Jasper National Park

Alpine lake below Pyramid Mountain, Jasper National Park.

Spindley Creek at Spindley Creek picnic area, Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park. (Parks Canada/Rogier Gruys)

September

The Ramparts and Amethyst Lake from Tonquin Valley Adventures dock in Jasper National Park at sunrise

Young girl walking on log at first Geraldine Lake in Jasper National Park

October

Lorraine Lake in the Maligne Valley, Jasper National Park

Pyramid mountain and the cross at the summit of Morro Peak, Jasper National Park

The full moon lights up Mt. Edith Cavell from the shore of Cavell Lake, Jasper National Park.

November

The International Space Station is captured as a straight broken line among curved star trails over Patricia Lake in Jasper National Park in a one-hour exposure.

December

Visitor snowshoeing on Overlook trail on Pyramid Bench, Jasper National Park.

Longer timelapse video of earth from the International Space Station

Rogier — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:31:29 +0000

This video of earth from the International Space Station is even better than the short timelapse video of earth I found last week. The scene at 0:31 shows the Rockies and Jasper National Park just to the left of the middle of the frame. An island of darkness in a sea of light.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

View of earth from International Space Station

Rogier — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:43:23 +0000

Last month I posted a photo of the International Space Station flying over Jasper National Park. Here is the view from the other side: North and South America from the ISS. The flyover starts over the Pacific NW of Vancouver Island, continues over the western US, down to Mexico, and on to South America. It ends with sunrise over the Antarctic.

The large areas of city lights show how important Dark Sky Preserves like Jasper National Park are.

Mahikan Trails survival course

Rogier — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:47:22 +0000

There are a lot of outdoor courses out there, but few are as excellent and comprehensive as Mahikan Trails’ survival courses. Just took their 2-day survival course last week. It is actually more of a bushcraft course. At the end of it we had built shelters, made whistles, wood saws, fishing nets, traps, learnt about native foods, fire craft, you name it. And we had a great time while at it. Highly recommended.

One of world’s scariest airports

Rogier — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:14:17 +0000

Korupun (sometimes spelled Koropun) in the highlands of West Papua, has one of the world’s scariest air strips. See this video of a take-off and landing at the strip.

I can attest to the difficulty of landing here; I spent two weeks in the mountains above Korupun in 1995. Planes start by flying over the strip to check for pigs, then have to make one full circle to get low enough to land. When taking off, the plane has to make a 90 degree turn to avoid the mountain wall across the valley, followed by a full turn to get out of the steep walled valley. It’s an experience!