The most frequent comment I heard when telling people about my trip last month to take my parents to visit my brother in Alberta was “Canada? Oh, how lovely!”
Well, no – not all of it is lovely. Most of it is flat and covered in trees, cut through by wide straight  highways. This is the road from Edmonton to Grande Prairie, our destination. It takes 5 hours if you set the cruise control to the speed limit:

There are small settlements dotted along every hour or so, but none with any charm:

I have a satnav app for Canada on my iPhone. Useful for the cities, but fairly redundant outside of them. This says ‘turn right in 275 km.’
The more observant of you will notice that the cruise control was set above the speed limit!

However, I did manage to escape for 24 hours, to visit a fellow Wedding Photojournalist Association member in Jasper.
It’s not every day you drive a 600 mile round trip for dinner, but it was worth it! Alisen Charlten and I had a fascinating chat about the similarities and differences of weddings in Scotland and Canada. Most of the couples she photographs are from outside the Jasper area, who come there to get married surrounded by it’s natural beauty.
The next morning, despite the dreary weather, I was able to see why. I’ve never considered myself to be a landscape photographer, but with scenery like this, you can’t fail to get a few ‘picture post card’ images. I’ve always agreed with the great Joe McNally that “I’ve never seen a landscape that couldn’t be improved by putting someone in it!” And in that respect, Alisen has the best of both worlds.

Finally we flew to Toronto, to meet my nephew who’s studying music there. (He’s know to his friends as “Tom ‘YouTube Sensation’ Grosset“) I liked Toronto, and will visit again sometime – when it’s not raining, and for longer than the 36 hours we spent there. Here’s the night time view from my hotel room window:

Tags: Canada | Photography | travel