We spied a small group of rams up a steep hill not far from Jasper Townsite. The only thing separating use from our subjects was a fairly aggressive climb up a hill. Not to be detered, we all wanted to make the effort to see what there was to see. One thing I discovered this trip is no matter how reluctant I was towards putting in the effort, 100% olf the time, the effort paid off. The rams on the slopes were extremely cooperative and photogenic. The best shooting was when we tropped off the slope back to the cars. There, on the cliffs were three rams lounging away watching the scene unfold. We only had 10 minutes with these guys before they decided to depart.

The last stop of the day was up an unnamed hill I'll label as Sheep Ridge. While I've always been successful with sheep this ridge's eastern slope, I wasn't prepared for no action at all. We climbed to where we previously found 18 rams and didn't see any this time. Instead of giving up, we continued to climb to the ridge top and searched for our subjects. Eventually we found our rams but I was especially taken by the unusual beauty at the top of the hill. Most of the area was devoid of any vegetation due to feedings by the sheep throughout past eons. The few stands of grass that were on the hill seemed to cause little islands in a sea of sand. It looked as these islands were placed on pedestals above the sand surface. I liked the contrast between the distant mountains and the sand formantions in the foreground. It was doubly fortunate the snow and light seemed to support a dramatic image like we see below. As usual, this image was made from three separate pictures stitched together to make the panoramic. The process, as I said previously, can be quite easy. You can read about how I did this image in my Article of the Month last month. The only filter I used for this image was a 2 stop NG grad which kept the distant tones under control.

Cheers

Tom