September 2022
The Bucket Won’t Remember Me
“The Bucket Shot” — “The Mountains Won’t Remember Me” — If you haven’t seen these gems of Cinematography by Peter McKinnon, do yourself a favor, crack open a cold one and watch them.
Ever since I watched these videos, a life goal has been to visit Banff, Alberta and spend some time getting lost in the mountains. Growing up in coastal China and Lake Ontario, I’d never had the chance to be surrounded by massive formations. It wouldn’t be until my 2-year delayed graduation trip that I would book a trip to Banff and meet my friend there before rental car-ing it to Vancouver.
What I came for was a shot at the most instagrammable lake in the world, Moraine Lake. What I ended up discovering were so much more than the cliche shot from atop Rock Pile trail. Hiking in high altitude for the first time. Bear safety. How cold the water is in Bow Lake in September. How much I want to live there.
Most importantly, I discovered that some of the most important moments could be staying up late to shoot some stars.
Landing at 11:40pm plane, we could already see glimpses of a clear night of stars. So after the 2 hour drive and dropping off our bags, a quick google search set us off to Two Jack Lake.
The perseverance to get up at night, figure out settings with 30s delay between feedback, and to stay still for some posed photos were the definition of endurance. And endure we did, and the Milky Way rewarded us for it.
These are the photos. And more, because while cliche, Moraine Lake is still really the most instagrammable lake in the world.