This image was made at the trail head at Lower Bankhead, the former site of a huge coal-mining operation located in what is now Banff National Park. In 2003 we explored and photographed the ruins of what was the Bankhead townsite and mine. When we were in Banff recently, we pulled into the
parking area with plans to walk the trails again, but the mosquitoes convinced us otherwise (and
anyways, the light wasn't great.) On our way back to the car, I spotted these little purple flowers
growing amongst the grass and trees. I've seen some wonderful images taken of these and similar
species of trees and thought I'd try my hand at photographing them. The mosquitoes were merciless, so
I had to set up quickly and snapped off a few images, bracketing for exposure and a couple of
different compositions, before packing up and dashing for the car.

In my haste I didn't take the polarizer off--I had nowhere to put it and needed my free hand to keep
the mosquitoes at bay, hence the high iso which I now regret, but I needed a fast enough shutter
speed to freeze the blowing grasses. In addition to the usual tweaking in PS, I ran this thru Picture
Cooler to remove some unwanted color noise that was decorating the tree trunks.

Feedback and comments always appreciated!