After a year of living in Squamish there is no doubt about it, Squamish photography rocks! The list of reasons as to why Squamish is so stunning for photography could be endless so I have decided to keep it to a small number, for now. Here we go.
Squamish Photography Rocks #1 -The Night Sky
No.21 Buy Now The Northern Lights display their beauty above Squamish and the Stawamus Chief.
The Other Day
After spending a winter of commuting up and down the gorgeous Sea to Sky highway for work in Whistler it was a welcome relief when spring and summer broke. With the change in the seasons came my first experience of the Aurora Borealis in Squamish. I have seen it a few times over the years in Whistler and camping in the mountains near Pemberton. Sitting at home on my couch, I saw a tweet saying that activity was strong. I hadn’t explored the area much to find a good view north.
Obviously the best spot was going to be on top of the Stawamus Chief (the big rock on the right of the photo), however, I sure wasn’t hiking up there at 1100pm at night. So, it was a quick drive around to try and locate a spot. I ended up at this lookout on the side of the road just south of Squamish looking back at the town. The lights made it a little hard get the exposure that I wanted but in the end, I was fairly happy with the result. I’ll include a link at the end of the post to the time-lapse I created that night.
Squamish Photography Rocks #2 – The Weather!
No.22 Buy Now A double rainbow arches over Squamish & Stawamus Chief.
One of the pleasures of living in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains is the speed at which the weather changes. It is ridiculous. Storms blow in and out at a rapid rate. Right now it is cloudy with sunny patches. This morning when I woke about it was a torrential downpour, biblical almost, and apparently we are headed back that way tonight with winds of up to 80 km/h. Clouds and storms moving this quickly offer some pretty amazing opportunities to snap a photo or two.
This shot of one the most famous landmarks in Squamish, The Stawamus Chief was a by-chance kind of shot. I was preparing to head out for dinner and looked out the window and saw the epic colorful arch stretching over the Chief. I jumped in the car, raced down to a spot where I thought might produce this kind of perspective. Rapidly, I snapped some shots, jumped back in the car and made it just in time for dinner. Fortunately, a couple of the photographs turned out nicely.
Squamish Photography Rocks #3 – The Water!
No.23 Buy Now Just a short drive north of Squamish, on the way to Whistler, is a couple of epic waterfalls. Including this one, Brandywine Falls.
One of the great things about living in a province like British Columbia is the amount of water. It’s everywhere. There is an ocean, the pacific. Too many rivers and streams to keep count over. My favourite thing about several rivers and streams is that in mountainous terrain that means waterfalls. The drive from Squamish to Vancouver has some awesome waterfalls along the way. Shannon Falls (just south of Squamish), which is visible on the right side of the double rainbow photo above, makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road as you pass it.
About 30 minutes north of Squamish and 20 minutes south of Whistler sits Brandywine falls. The river crashes over a crumbling hole in the earth into the bowl below. It’s worth a stop no matter what time of year or what the weather (they do close the gates to the park for the winter months).
That wraps up my round-up for today. For more photos of this incredible area be sure to check out Jta85 Photography or my Instagram feed.
As I mentioned, these are just a few of the reasons that make this area incredible. The list of reasons could go on. Next time I bring up the reasons Squamish photography rocks I’ll probably mention things like eagles, mountains, mountain biking, kite-surfing, rock-climbing, lakes, forests…well you get the point.
Until next time,
Jimmy.
