Getting out of the city :: PYKtures Stories

I’m at heart a nature person. In my childhood, I used to spend a lot of time doing a lot of outdoor activities by going to summer camps and even went to become a camp counselor for many summers, and ski instructor during many winters. Being stuck to the city with all school studies and jobs, I’ve rarely gone to walk in this peace haven. Thus, I spent most of my vacation time just looking for nature hikes instead of beaches to lie down.



Obviously, my desire to hike is much associated to my love of street photography: I take a lot of photowalks in Montreal to shake the stress out of my system. Listening to the city breathing is quite nice. Yet after many months spent at the same place, I got sick of it and needed a getaway to the quiet and peaceful.



Thankfully, I have a big park in front of my house where I take walks a lot, but even this safe haven of insanity isn’t enough to prevent me from going insane. During my Christmas break, I had a chat with fellow photographer Zhiyao for a mountain outing at Mont St-Hilaire for some landscape and nature photography. It would be a great occasion to try out my newly acquired snowshoes (Christmas gift from the parents). I’ve also gathered some people to join us for the hike and last Saturday, it was D-Day.



For that day, I wore polypropylene undergarment under my ski jacket and pants. Polypropylene clothes are made very light and thin. They keep you warm during activities in cold to very cold weather because they don’t keep the humidity in. I believe everybody here in Québec should at least have a set of those at home as they are very handy for walking in near -25°C temperature.

The gear I decided to use was:
- Nikkor AF-S 18-105VR (for most of the walk)
- Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 (for the later darker moments of the walk)

So back to Saturday, my friends picked me up at my place at 11:30am then we drove to the mountain. I didn’t expect the McGill University to own the nature park.

Anyways, it didn’t take long before we got our boots (snowshoes in my case) on the snow and started walking among all the other outdoor lovers with sticks and high-end hiking equipment, which we didn’t have. Compared to the easy architecture lines of the city, looking for interesting things to shoot during the hike was quite a challenge due to the chaotic texture of the trees. Yet chilling out with my friends in a peaceful forest gave me the priceless feeling of satisfaction.





Walking with the snowshoes happened to be the best idea I got yet. With those I could go “offroad” and get to the vantage points I wanted. The amount of grip the claws gave was so great I could confidently walk/run up or down any surface, even on the edges of a cliff. The only downside was that they make the sound of a Gundam robot during each step I take.







Some friend brought his newly bought Nikkor AF-D 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens and let me try it for some steps. The feeling was amazing and it brought something new to composition (mainly because it could almost see 180°).




The best moments of the day were when we entered sunlight as we walked from the shadow areas of the mountain to the sunny ones. I was immensely amazed by the frozen landscape that covered the perfectly blue sky. It felt like entering a fairy tale in the land of the Narnian Ice Queen.









When we reached the summit to the sum of all our efforts, we were rewarded by a beautiful sunset on a flat yet textured landscape. I was turned speechless by the view as if time slowed down to the speed of sunlight. A moment of Zen carried my thoughts as I stood there taking pictures.













Naturally, when the excitement’s gone, it was time to go down. Because we only had 15 min to go down the mountain, I ran down with my snowshoes while still looking for interesting composition. I couldn’t get my eyes of that beautiful gradient behind all the treeline.





When we finally reached the parking lot, we were the last ones left to leave. Then we went for some coffee and treats over at Tim Hortons before calling it a day. And what a day it was! I’d redo that anytime!


For all the pictures look here



Addedum: You might have noticed how bigger the pictures are. I wanted them to be bigger to match the size of those found in Boston The BIG Picture. This is also a test of how the new layout reacts to big pictures too. Please comment on how readable this article is. It will help me post better entries. Thank you!