For all Canadians of a certain age, Moraine Lake is a memory for us, even if we have not had the good fortune to visit. So I know you’re asking yourself  “Ken, how is this so? How can someone have a memory of a place that they have never been to? Do Canadians have superpowers?” The short answer is yes, yes Canadians have superpowers, but I’d have to kill you all if I told you any more, so let’s move on shall we?

The slightly longer, and significantly duller answer is that Moraine Lake once graced the back of the old Canadian twenty dollar bill. So, even if you didn’t know anything about the lake, or Banff National Park, you still had seen a picture of this incredible place. See for yourself:

Please feel free to send me all of your old Canadian twenty dollar bills, I’m collecting them to go along with this photo. It’s just for the sake of art, not that I want your money or anything. Really! Okay, not really, but that still should not stop you from sending me your twenties. I also accept fifties and hundreds, I’m all about being flexible, and therefore willing to compromise. After all, flexibility and compromise are part of our Canadian superpowers, but I have already said too much!

Moraine Lake is another of Banff national Park’s glacier fed lakes, and the colour of the water is due to the abundance of rock flour in the water. I wrote about rock flour in a previous post about Peyto Lake, which has an even more dazzling colour to it’s water.

If you look at the back of the photograph, you’ll notice the haze. This was not fog or cloud, but rather smoke that had drifted in from hundreds of kilometres away in British Columbia. Forest fires were raging in that part of the country while I was visiting Banff National Park, and on this day in particular you could see and smell the smoke very clearly. No matter how much I am told, or how much I read that forest fires are all part of the natural process of life, death, and rebirth, it still makes me sad to see all those incredible trees go up in flames. Even though there were no fires in the area when I took this photo, the smell was incredibly powerful. Throughout the day I kept having flashbacks to my visit to Tasmania a few years ago. The eastern side of the island had been devastated by fires and the charred remains of trees were everywhere. It had just been a week or so that the fires has spread throughout Tasmania when I got there, so the evidence of fire was apparent everywhere you looked.  It was surreal to witness some of the devastation, mixed in with the natural beauty of Tasmania.

Photography, Copyright, and the Law

A couple of weeks ago, I promised to share some valuable information about how copyright affect photographers, and the people who use photography. It is an often misunderstood concept, especially when getting in to the legal aspects of how copyright works. You almost have to be a lawyer in order to understand how copyright functions, so I thought it would be a great idea to talk to one of the top copyright lawyers in the United States. Carolyn E. Wright is an attorney who focuses on intellectual property issues, including copyright and trademark law, contracts, licensing, general business and commercial law, and commercial and tort litigation. She literally wrote the book on the subject, her book “Photographer’s Legal Guide” should be in every photographer’s bookshelf.

In Part One of my series on the subject of Copyright in Photography, I was fortunate enough to have Carolyn take the time to talk with me about this very important subject. Thanks Carolyn!

An interview with Carolyn E. Wright of photoattorney.com

Enjoy more travel photos and stories: