Wait...We're Going Where??

NOPIMING PROVINCIAL PARK

As Landscape photographers with a portfolio deadline fast approaching, Kellie and Brittany decided to take a day trip up north to Nopiming Provincial Park. I was invited along, thinking this may be a good opportunity to take some really great macro shots as I had declared Decorative Art as my major.

Getting up at the CRACK OF DAWN.... or at least what felt like it, I was slightly channeling my inner zombie when the girls showed up at my house at 7AM. Off we trucked to the promised land with a quick stop at the Pinawa Falls. Arriving in at the falls around 9AM the sunlight was perfect for shooting and sitting in the car for 2 hours made us definitely want to get out, stretch our legs and explore the park. Shooting was great fun and very successful. Even stopping to play with shadows for next week's board assignment: 


Some of the landscape shots from the Pinawa Falls:

 

After discovering Kellie has a fear of snakes when I accidentally stepped on one and Brittany picked up another one we left Pinawa around 10AM and continued on our adventure to Nopiming....still quite a ways away.

Finally making it into the enormous park we arrived at our second stop of the day, Tulaby Falls....only needing to stop and ask for directions once. While Kellie and Brittany stayed down by the water taking pictures, I wandered the hillside, even climbing to the top to get the perfect view of the area. Only when attempting to climb down did I realize how foolish it is to climb by oneself. I lost the path I had followed on the way up, so thinking I could make my own I set off down the hill, slipped on some moss, decided I had better start over and find my path after all and climbed to the top once more. Finding my path, I sprinted down the hill feeling as though I was Bambi in the forest and then hoping any nearby bears weren't having the same thought.

When our trio did regroup we took off once more for our third and final stop, the Ancient Mountains.

Taking a detour once more to stretch our legs and skip some rocks on the lake side.

The rest of the drive seemed never ending. The Ancient Mountains had moved! Or...maybe we took a wrong turn? GPS was my only comfort in the backseat. And after a couple more hours, praise the Lord we arrived at the Ancient Mountains....except of course this is still Manitoba so they were pretty loose and fast with the wording of "mountains." This ended up being our least favourite part of the day. However after the ridiculously long hike up the HILL (because let's face it that's what it really was) we felt like we'd climbed Everest, especially when one of us still had a bum ankle.


All in all it was a great day. I had tons of fun with two of the best companions around and the images I captured are some of my favourite from the year, most of them even made their way into my portfolio. Best way to spend a Wednesday!





Colleen Wales
PV Diploma Student
2012-13