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Alrighty, friends. So, we are all loaded up in the car and today we're taking you on a little bit of a road trip adventure. We're going to be visiting one of the gems of the Rocky Mountains here in Canada. We are driving down to Waterton Lakes National Park, which I feel it's like a well-kept secret. It doesn't get a lot of crowds, but it is absolutely stunning. And for this adventure, we are also partnering with OM System, formerly known as Olympus. They have sent us a camera to play around with as well as two lenses. So, yes, we're going to take you on a little bit of a photo adventure and just show you this stunning little spot that you definitely need to visit if you ever
make it to the Canadian Rockies. So, we're about a half hour away from the national park and we are already pulling over. Sam jumped out of the car. There's a little observation point here and we are starting to see the mountains. Those jagged peaks, they look so cool and so impressive. So, yeah, we're going to get a few shots and then continue onwards. We've got a little surprise for you coming up. Baby is also starting to wake up. Hey girl. Oh my gosh. The drive to Waterton Lakes National Park is epic in and of itself.
Just got off and filmed where there was a roadside stop. It said where the mountains meet the prairie. And that's a fantastic way of describing it. I mean, this particular area in Alberta, it's mostly prairies and then suddenly boom, you've got the Rocky Mountains just coming out of nowhere. I love that contrast and it makes for some epic views and epic photos. I've noticed on the drive there's lots of roadside stops and they give you lots of notes. So be like coming up in 1 kilometer. My suggestion is to pull over and admire the views. All right guys, so the surprise we had for you is that we've made a little pit stop at the bison paddock and today they are out and about. We can see them really well. So, we're basically on our
own self-driving safari, enjoying the bison, also known as the American buffalo. Stay inside your vehicle at all times, guys. And baby's baby's loving it, too. She just woke up and she's going She doesn't see them. She's just excited. It's fun. So, yeah, it's a loop. It's an enclosed drive and we're going to keep going and see if we can get a little bit closer. There's a tiny bit of traffic today, but it's okay. like we're still moving at a steady pace and everybody's giving each other uh plenty of time to get photos, get video, and just enjoy the wildlife. So, the camera we were testing out on this adventure is the OM1 Mark II. And because we knew we would be looking for bison, we put on the 40 to
150 mm f2.8 lens. This is a super handy lens to have in your kit if you enjoy wildlife photography. We like that it was fairly light for a zoom, weather sealed, and it had a rapid autofocus. Here are some of the photos we captured. So, we just finished our self-guided bison tour. A couple things that I would recommend is number one, prepare for a bumpy ride. This really tested out the suspension of our new/ old SUV. Um, it's a very bumpy ride and uh the roads are
in pretty rough condition. So, if you have an all-wheel drive, definitely take that. But what was really cool, we've been here twice, is that we actually got to get up close and intimate with the bison this time. So, we got some really, really nice shots and footage. We're really happy. I would highly recommend it, but be prepared to not necessarily see them up close. It's variable whether or not you'll get that opportunity. And also make sure you have a vehicle that can handle the kind of off-road conditions that uh that present themselves.
All righty, guys. So, today is a real windy one here at Waterton Lakes National Park. So, I hope you can hear me. Okay. I feel like my hat's going to blow away any second. But, we have come to our first stop of the day. We are currently at Cameron Falls. which are just over my shoulder over there. And I chose this spot to show you the live ND function on this OM system camera. So that stands for live neutral density. And basically it simulates an ND filter in the camera. So this is really good for blurring water, which is why I wanted to come to the waterfalls. Maybe we can try and find a river or a lake later on. And it's also really good if you've got a lot of movement in the
clouds, like if it's a really windy day and you want to get that wispy effect. So yeah, we're going to take some shots. So I just want to show you guys how I'm setting things up before I get the shot because I'm a visual learner. I need to see how it's done. So here on the wheel, you're going to go over to either the S or M mode. And once you're there, you are going to click on menu. over here. Now, once you're on the menu, you want to actually move on to menu number two. So, we're just going to use the wheel over here and scroll over to menu number two, which is here in purple. And you're going to see live ND shooting. You want to scroll down, click live ND shooting on, and then you can
select any of these options, and you are good to go. Obviously, the higher the ND filter here at 64, you're going to get some really creamy, smooth shots. I got a couple of waterfall shots with the 40 to 150 mm, and you'll notice those are the more cropped in shots, but I felt like I was missing some of the surrounding natural beauty of the falls. So, I switched over to the 12 to 100 mm f4.0 lens. The nice thing about this lens is its versatility. It has a broad focal length, meaning you can shoot everything from landscapes to portraits, which we did.
Hello, my precious baby girl. Are you having fun in Waterton, too? So, we're making lots of time for baby. We brought the little picnic blanket so she gets to crawl on the grass. Movement motion. I think we got ourselves a little explorer. No, you Oh, you feeling shy? No, mama. Yeah, we're having the best time at having fun. Yep. We found a place to eat, guys. Trappers Mountain Grill. They have a really nice looking lunch menu. I'm already noticing that they specialize in skillet mac and cheese. All kinds of burger, smoked barbecue. So, I'm just trying to figure
out what to get. Am I going to get burgers, mac and cheese? I'm going to get barbecue. I'm hungry. All of it. Someone got daddy's hat on. Is someone playing with daddy's hat? Oh, and we got the fork and knife, too. Ooh. Everything in the mouth. Oh, sweet potato poutine with gravy, cheese, curd. You can't have this yet, baby. You have no teeth. Poor Dane. How's that? You usually don't get sweet potato. That's pretty awesome. A nice combination though. Sweet and savory.
Yeah, I like it. And I got the mac and cheese with brisket. Check this out. Woohoo. Look how hardy that looks. The portions for We both got appetizers are huge, too. So, can only imagine how big the mans are. Oh, yeah. That's some delicious brisket. You know, I was thinking about getting some of the barbecue here, but I'm like, you know what? We still got stuff to do, so I'm going to keep it a little bit lighter. This allows you to sample the barbecue, but not like overindulge in it. And this is a really nice cheesy creamy mac and cheese. We'll share for sure. You'll really like this.
Tasty. So, we are back at the big school. The place to go. We are lunch. Lunch was great, but we had dessert on our minds, too. We came here a few years ago and remembered how good it was, so we're like, we got to come back. We live those good times. I ended up getting the coconut flavor. Yeah. Now that we have a baby, we do this in turn. So, you were kind enough to let me go first. You'll go after me. We eat in shifts, guys. It's all about teamwork. So good. So, we're done. Nice hot summer day. Come out here and have a nice ice cream like this. I love it.
Heavenly hash for me. Yes, I've done mine. Time for Audrey. Round two. That looks good. Mhm. It's like a chocolate and vanilla swirl with chocolate chips. And it's got some nuts. I'm not entirely sure what kind. Could be walnuts. It's good. That looks mighty fine. From over here. Place is always popular. Mhm. I remember when we were here, we actually when we were here a couple years ago, we had to wait in line. We did. It was like peak tourism at the time. A little bit of philosophy for you to hear today. You can't buy happiness, but apparently you can buy ice cream. Are you feeling happy after the ice cream?
It has made me happy. So there we go. Mission accomplished. Do you want to be in the shot with mama or you go with papa? Oh, you can try the shot. Hi, beautiful. So cute. All righty. So, time for the next photo op. So, we are now looking over the Prince of Wales Hotel from here down at the lake. It's a beautiful property that I would love to stay at one day, but today we are just photographing it. So, the next feature I'm going to show you is the live G&D or the graduated neutral density. So, today is a really bright
day, super sunny, not a whole lot of clouds in the sky. So, the G&D is ideal for darkening a really bright sky or a really bright area on your photograph. And you can choose between soft, medium, and hard. So, I'm going to take the same photo without the G&D and then using level 2, 4, and 8 so that you can see exactly what that looks like and you can really compare it. All right, so for accessing the live graduated neutral density shooting mode, you are going to want to go to the second menu and right here you'll see live G&D shooting. You'll click okay. Again, you need to turn this on and then you can select the level of G&D you'd like to have. Obviously, the higher the number, the greater the strength.
So, one of the things that I've come to really appreciate about Waterton, especially now that we have a family, it's just how familyfriendly it is. You can come to into the town and be walking alongside the lake and it's just so easy and it's so accessible for everyone. You see people out here taking photos. You see lots of other babies being pushed around on strollers. There's kids and families playing out by the little bit of the beach area as well. Just stunning, beautiful views and uh lots of shops and places to eat. And then on the other hand, you can go drive into the park if you want to get out there right into nature and not see too many people and get away from it all.
You also have that option. So some national parks don't have both on offer. It's either one or the other. Often it leans way more towards just nature types of activities. But there's a lot of uh family fun to be had here um in the town itself. And you can come here and just chill, take it easy, have an ice cream, and not even hike, and still appreciate the beauty that the park has to offer. All righty, guys. I am hiding in the car because the winds are insane. I have only seen winds this strong in Patagonia. It's the kind of winds that you can lean into and it'll hold you up.
Um, so yes, we found our next photo location. We are here by the lake and we've got some really nice jagged peaks. We've also got some little waves happening on the lake because again, the wind is so intense. But the next feature that I wanted to show you on this camera is the high-res feature, which you can use either handheld or with a tripod. Now, if you shoot handheld, you are going to get 50 megapixels. And if you do so with a tripod, it's going to be 80 megapixels. And this is a really handy feature if you're shooting in places where tripods aren't always allowed, which has happened to us when we've been traveling. Sometimes we've, you know, walked into an attraction or something
ready to set up and they're like, "No, no, no tripods." Um, but yeah, you can still get a really high resolution, sharp image even when shooting handheld. So, we're going to go out into the wind and try it out. Oh my gosh, the reality of shooting a day like today. Woo! I hope you enjoyed this photography adventure using the OM1 Mark II by OM system. This was a fun photo challenge as we typically stick to video and a good reminder to pause, take more photos, and capture some memories in a different medium. All righty, guys. And this is basically where we're going to call it a day. We had planned on possibly going for some hiking, but to be perfectly honest, it was just too windy today. It wouldn't have been great for the baby, and we had
a lot of fun doing other things. So, we hope we showed you how beautiful Waterton is and how familyfriendly it is. You can take a baby out for the day and have a really fun time. You don't have to be out in doing hardcore trekking or some of the other things that people associate with going to national parks. You can take it easy. You can have a fun time. And that's exactly what we did. We just found the entire experience really nice. And this is not far from where we live. So, I guarantee you that we'll be back in Waterton again. So, we hope you enjoyed this video. We hope you learned a little bit about photography today. and we'll be back soon with more adventures here in Alberta. Tata for now
