BC Grasslands

Pizza Ice!

On my March 7th posting I took you out to the Churn Creek area along treacherous road conditions. I finally got to my destination by driving at night after freeze-up. The next morning I woke up and went down to the Fraser River. It was there I found these amazing pizza shaped ice formations along the shoreline. I had never seen ice shaped like this before – it was a total surprise. I quickly got my camera gear and started my compositional search. What an exciting morning! Even the chunks of ice floating down the river seemed to be circular. In the background are the canyon walls of the mid-Fraser River Canyon near the Gang Ranch. The grasslands are right on top. Needless to say there was no time for breakfast until 11am that morning!

Grasslands Awareness Project-Official Launch

This past Tuesday evening at The Lodge Conference and Retreat Centre in 100 Mile House, the GCC in partnership with myself, officially launched the Grasslands Awareness Project. The goal of the project is the creation of a major BC publication on the Grasslands of British Columbia. The presentation included a power point presentation describing the grasslands from a global perspective to that of the grasslands in B.C. This was followed by the feature presentation on the grasslands of the Cariboo-Chilcotin which included a slide-sound show. The evening was also a fundraising event. The response was overwhelming. One lady offered to initiate an artists retreat in the grasslands which is to end up as an exhibit to promote the project. A gentleman volunteered to be an official fundraiser for the book project while yet another gentleman offered to sponsor a 500 mm IS telephoto lens in order to capture the endangered birds and animals which depend entirely on the grasslands. There were many other donors as well and they are being rewarded with a tour to the grasslands with a grasslands ecologist and myself. All-in-all it was a most encouraging evening...a great one for the grasslands and for the book project as well. Thank you so very much from all of us.

High Risk Roads

Hi again everyone. Sorry I disappeared from sight recently, but I had major computer problems including the inevitable hard drive crash & burn! Fortunately I had just about everything backed-up. The good part of all this is that I went out to photograph in the grasslands more often! On my first trip out in February, there was little snow compared to the same time last year. From a driving perspective, however, the roads were treacherous. The mud out there turns to ‘gumbo’ which is worse than ice. When I saw the remains of a car below me on my left and a car passing me wearing chains on my right, I knew the risks were high! Even 4-WD was doing nothing for me. Eventually I had to stop and wait till freeze-up. I then traveled at night to the spot where I could photograph for the day. Visit the Landscape gallery for a different perspective of the back road I was traveling on.