The last snow and ice was melting from the river in April when I dropped by the dam one morning. Occasionally this river reflects enough blue sky to appear blue if you catch it at a certain angle, but it's really a muddy flow, transporting lots of sediment downstream. Known as the Frenchman River today, it was often called the Whitemud in times past. Wallace Stegner cemented the name in literature by renaming the town of Eastend, where he spent his formative boyhood years, "Whitemud" in his wonderful book, "Wolf Willow".
The dam I am standing on in this photo was built in the 1930s and the resulting reservoir is called Newton Lake. It doubles as an irrigation source for farmers and ranchers downstream, and a wildlife refuge. After roaring through the valley as the last glaciers melted 12,000 years ago, the river is now reduced to a placid stream. It flows south to Montana where it empties into the Milk River, which in turn joins the Missouri.
Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape snow water muddy brown shadow self shadowman railing dam looking down spring snowmelt melting reservoir lake Newton Lake Frenchman River Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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I was lucky. I was shooting landscapes and noticed two Mule Deer bucks resting on sunny slopes in the coulee below me. I quickly ducked out of sight, replaced my wide angle lens with a telephoto, and crept back to the crest of the ridge. There they were - not two, but four. This time they saw me right away, and wasted no time putting distance between us. The light was superb. I noticed the shadows while shooting, but this was less a careful composition than a pure reaction shot. The square crop came later, to move my three subjects a little off centre and emphasize the shadows. Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.
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Tags: Mule Deer Odocoileus hemionus wildlife animal mammal ungulate three shadows winter white cold snowy snow wild prairie Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada square 4tografie
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My hiking partner and I parted ways on a ridge; he went up to continue the high circuit, while I spent some time in the valley bottom. The light was flattening out by then, but I still found plenty of photo subjects... Killdeer Badlands, Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.
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Tags: shadow self landscape wild prairie Killdeer Badlands East Block Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada
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My own shadow, of course, in a field of canola stubble, on a very cold December day not far from Drumheller, Alberta (Canada).
Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: shadow field stubble winter cold very cold -30C wide angle fence simple prairie Drumheller Alberta Canada copyrighted James R. Page canola crop canola stubble
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