Antler Lake Trail

One of my favourite places to hike near Gold River is the Antler Lake Trail which circumvents the lake through old growth forest and marsh lands.  The trail is unbelievably maintained by some local volunteers and provides opportunites for some great photography. During the summer months I hike this trail everyday except for when I go away to camp or what have you.  

The light filters through the old growth forest and astounds me so much that I got to taking my camera and tripod along with me during the hike.  There seems to be a never ending supply of photo opps along the trail for flora and fauna as well as the odd encounter with some wildlife that lives in the forest. Depending on the time of day you can take some awesome pictures as is witnessed by this shot of the trail crossing over a small wooden walkway under some younger old growth Western Cedar trees. 

The attraction to me was the way the light filtered through the cedar bows and fell upon the mossy forest floor.  I set up my tripod and took a few shots with different apertures and shutter speeds to try to warm up the light somewhat. I settled on a shutter speed/aperture of 1/25 sec; f/9; ISO 400 and a focal length of 34.0 mm. This seemed to provide me with the warmest hue that my eyes liked in the finished product.

This is a popular print and sells well.  I have enlarged it as high as 24x36 with no noise issues or quality problems.  This print hangs on the Courtenay White Spot wall if you're in the neighbourhood and want to see it enlarged in a black metal frame with double white mat.