THE BUCKET SHOT

I was more interested in the bottle rockets that we just smuggled across the border and wanting to light those off than do photography skateboarding BMX biking that kind of stuff those are my hobbies was never anything remotely to do with the arts [Music] just kind of funny Here I am and you know this whole film about chasing my dream shot my bucket list shot it's funny how life works out like that [Music] I just keep [Music] I was a drummer I grew up in like a punk rock scene I was kind of my thing I always had a little bit of an interest with the video cameras my dad had cameras growing up and he would be forever videoing us in unsuspecting moments and catching us off-guard filming home videos and skateboard videos now he would just jump into bushes and ride our bikes off ridiculous ramps with he and his friends and they would be on a pipe of some kind it's just like a weird but fun childhood but just had nothing to do with this [Music] [Applause] Photography was so far so far down the road for me it was so much later in life when Peters sister got married he was given a camera as a gift for being part of the wedding party they got me a digital cameras an HP or 607 instead of returning at a bottom a memory card so I could actually use it and I remember the first the first time it went into my backyard this is my childhood home and they let us come inside to take the same photo that I took you know when I was a kid thanks so much for letting us come in here a door I got down on my stomach and started taking macro shots cuz there was a setting I read about of grass right here the first time I ever snapped the photo was here and then looking at the photo on the screen and thinking oh wow being able to see the blades of grass so close the water on them which led to the next shot taking a picture of the old shed the door of the shed and the shingles on top that turn into taking pictures of water pouring out of the sink finding my dad's medication and pouring it out on the floor and just trying to be creative and it hit me so hard so fast so went down to the lower level of the mall so we get some there's construction going on so I think if we go down we'll make a little more sense as we're all carrying a big width so the first time I saw digital SLR is with my friend Mike the moment he took the lens off of his SLR and drie fired it to show me the mirror flipping back and forth I'd never seen anything like that before so the second I took grip of that saved up everything and I got that camera and then this obsession turned into shooting weddings turned into doing portraits and it just kept going and going and I signed up for a stock photography site and made thousands of dollars and my parents were like what is happening it just took ahold of me completely consumed my life from that point I identified as a photographer I love portraits I love street photography I love all the different facets but shooting a landscape there's just nothing like waking up early before the rest of the world heading out when it's still dark you can see nothing but you know that landscape is right there waiting for you it's only a matter of time before like the veil is lifted and the light starts to make it come alive and you're the only one there with your camera and you're capturing every moment of that that's a feeling not only photographers know well it's incredible we went to Banff and there were elk walking down the Main Street and we went up onto the mountain and Peter loved it he loved the mountains he loved the scenery so the moment I saw marine lake for the first time I didn't even know a place that beautiful existed so this was the first time I ever visited marine lake if the water is any bit Ripley it just doesn't work I have a shot on my phone here hey this is just a bit of a bigger bigger version there it is it's been a dream of mine to you know get it in different seasons this looks good but I think it looks better in winter I don't know how I saw the photo that initiated this whole thing I saw marine lake in snow with that water still liquid with that water still blue it just looked like even more impossible and that obsessed me and I wanted that shot I've wanted that shot for like the better part in the last eight years every single year I think about it it's just such a small window to actually be able to capture it so the likeliness of me being able to fly all the way across the country to make that window with you know busy life and a the likeliness as I get older to get that shot just got smaller and smaller it felt so it wasn't until we were just in Banff doing some work and I met this guy his name's Matt sup dude don't compete Matt how long you lived here on and off since 2012 when does it get completely snow-covered hopefully in a week what sir I'm gonna miss it I'm gonna miss it by like two weeks I've wanted the shot of moraine lake completely covered in snow but the water is still being liquid that is a dream shot of mine do you have you ever seen it like that no I haven't how long have you lived here um I moved here 2012 and you haven't seen it like that but you live here and you still haven't seen that we went home was gone a couple weeks later he actually sent me a photo of marine lake in snow with the water at liquid I remember looking at it turning to my wife showing her and saying that's right now and I think it hurt more because I was just there like within the last 14 days I just missed that shot I just missed the opportunity so the gears started tutoring I started thinking to myself maybe I should just go back like tonight maybe I should just go tomorrow morning I have a window I could make it work so I opened up the weather app at the craziest thing of all is that this is the beginning of September the snow usually starts to come the beginning of October and by mid-october you know there's a lot and they close down that road what it looks like was I had a two-day window to make this shot happen if I left the next day so I bought tickets and I left going out west just to take one picture of course yes of course that's where course he had the idea a couple days ago and it's just he's just acting on it a hundred percent no that wouldn't surprise me at all I'm going across the country to take one photo looks like we may be of snow tonight and tomorrow more it's like we have like one or two chances at getting this shot max three hours to announce [Music] checking weather what makes it Ford f-100 less than 48 hours after I saw Matt's photo we touch down in Calgary started making her way into the mountains having seen all these different photos from all these photographers with everything covered in snow but what I see it is raining rain is gonna melt the snow so stop raining it's the last thing I want to see right now see any snow so it's like okay don't worry all the weather apps say there should be snow tonight tomorrow morning is the only time to get that bucket shot it's tomorrow morning you missed that your windows gone that literally just texted me he's like conditions are looking stunning I think I'm looking around how good they're literally be snow up the street like at the top of this hill that we're driving up right now is Lake Louise and it looks like it looks like California I just want snow that sucks it's getting snow here I have butterflies okay Marine Lake Road they always see this they always block it off when it gets full there's like a whole little battalion of like a Canadian dudes that just stand here look at this and then block it off bluesy parking lot full they don't let you turn left and they don't let you turn right it's like how do you get in so we checked in Lake Louise they gave us a beautiful room overlooking the lake open the blinds [Music] completely covered in fog insane I can't have never seen it like this what do we what do we do with this it's all snow covered and it's foggy like that you still lose you see water in the mountains I didn't even think of fog didn't even occur to me that that would be something I would have to deal with it could still be snowing they could still be white but if you can't see any of the landscape because it's covered in fog then what are we even doing here he did FaceTime his mother and I and showed us the picture he was looking at and all you can see was white fog I need to show you just the beautiful way on oh and the beautiful Lake Louise see you later the only thing you can do at that point is hope the Sun comes out and cuts through the fog burns it away and you're left with something you know some sort of visibility that gives you that landscape that you're there to capture so we met up with Matt if you guys remember Matt good on who jumped in the lake twice he did it again after he left which is just insane I understand but this is Matt's this is his home you actually have everything you need in here yeah we need fridges in there clothes more storage yeah this is sick hopped in his van it started heading up the mountain it is raining pretty hard right now so it's right here it should be set on something Lake Louise sits at the bottom rain lake is considerably higher so the weather up there can be completely different from the weather down below halfway up the mountain that rain turned to snow the higher we go up the mountain the rain is turning to snow look at these big fat beautiful chunks and then they just stop hitting and start falling and when we got to the top it was actually snowing snowing so close it was moments away the excitement I was literally five minutes away from making this happen I almost think the feeling of knowing I was about to get that shot was better than the feeling getting the shot it was starting to set the sermon starting instead of starting to look exactly how I wanted it to look - the fog okay so it's raining a little bit right now the fog came back so we did get here just in time but there's not much snowfall it's not as white and now I'd like you'd like you can't even see the mountains like that they're supposed to be like technically there's there's ten Peaks here so we're just gonna keep our eye on that weather because tomorrow morning that's the day that's the day we flew here for so I still feeling good knowing that tomorrow morning I had a chance to make it look even better with even more snow called it a day ready to wake up super early to tackle this thing at first light before anybody got there [Music] good morning it's 5:30 a.m. it's still dark outside father's snow all over the trees it looks way thicker on the ground so way better so I just made accurate coffee does the trick got everything I need charged on my battery's cleared my cards so I'm gonna head up to the mountain now and fingers crossed this is the moment let's just get in the truck and head towards marine lake it's pitch black so it's hard to even tell what conditions are like but we know that parking lot gets full by 7:00 a.m. and they closed that road so I want to be up there by 5:00 I want to get my spot figure out what the conditions look like so I can be ready to snap that we headed up the mountain pitch black you know the problem with Marine Lake is it's the most photographed spot in Canada and that's because it's so accessible you can just drive right up to it I think sometimes the payoff of getting a beautiful shot a beautiful landscape shot is when there's a lot of trial and tribulation put into it you know you got to hike like 20 miles you have to stay overnight canoe across a lake and then wait for like a day until the light looks great so that you got that perfect frame you went through something to get that and nobody else for the most part has that same shot it's the complete opposite here we got to the top and within 10 minutes it's like an entire photo workshop just showed up people just walked right in front set up their tripods and just waited it's like 2 minutes to 7:00 and it's just like it's like that's why I just opened their doors on Black Friday and everyone ran in for like the TV deals not only was the place packed it was completely covered in fog again you could not see any of the peaks and that's the whole point you can't see the mountains why you gonna take the shot the whole Vista needs to be clear it needs to be visible the fog was the most difficult aspect to deal with which was the least likely thing I expected to be of making this so difficult I always thought it would just be snow there's snow where there's not you know due to the amount of people all waiting to get the same frame we just decided to go down in the water's edge just scale down the bottom of the mountain and do what I would obviously do which is make coffee and what better way to make coffee then using the actual glacier water from moraine lake itself which I get so good I'm gonna do it again I felt so good I'm gonna dump it out do it again [Music] sir [Music] it just [Music] yes and the giver of coffee tastes like I'm drinking the lake it's like absolutely phenomenal well that's one for the bucket list drinking Marine Lake coffee at Marine Lake with a bunch of sweet friends that was an experience and it's these random things that happen that are unexpected when you're doing photography when you're out there hunting for a shot when you're out there capturing life making artist it's the unforeseen things that end up being the most meaningful things my friend Gabriel said once to me it's not the gear it's not even what I'm shooting it's where photography takes me I've been able to travel to countries all around the world I've been able to meet the most amazing people that I've ever met I get experiences that other people don't get it's not even about the pictures that I get it's the journey that I get to take to get to those pictures and that's the thing that I always loved about photography and that realization is exactly it's everything it means so much more than the actual shot I set out to get there's a fun network of people out now Berta come selves van lifers or they live in a trailer or a bus or a van this is going nice to meet you Peter this is it there's like a playroom yeah you get big high five I love the variety Genet bigger than some of my friends whose apartments yeah that's awesome this looks great guys what made you just decide like I'm gonna live in there with my whole that's that okay let's go into you working visa sell a house give up a lot stuff and just travel say she did that yeah sold your house got rid of everything stuck them all in that and she lives in a bus is this a full on functional home in Tiffany's blue she lives in here too alright yeah I did not think we would meet a bunch of cool people that just lived in buses and fans with dogs it's just such an amazing community like everyone's out there to help each other you know that's really cool this group of people that I met in Alberta the people that I was with that I shared coffee with the moments we shared at that water's edge making coffee each experience of everywhere that you are is completely surrounded by the people that you're with this place is gonna hold a different level of memory for you you come here you make coffee with friends you have a good time and you enjoy it that memory having that experience that's what's gonna be attached to this image that I'm going to take but I think for me photos are a little more like tattoos every tattoo that I have you know is something about me it's a place that I've been to something about my family it's something that means something to me and I think my photographs are exactly the same each photo I take needs to have something behind it you know one of the only awards I've won in photography was a shot that I took of Paris and it got put into a magazine but that photo holds so much value because I took my wife there as a surprise on her 30th birthday and she's an art history major so being able to see her in that environment experiencing Paris and taking that shot it just means so much to me when I look at that I see my wife that's my only photograph that's ever won anything and it's special for that reason because that's awesome but this photograph is my relationship with my wife forever now that spot that image will hold a certain value a certain attachment so having that I went back up the mountain look at this like the reflection is just looking insane mountains are finally like clear like the fog is gone and I got lucky where no one was at the top it was a quick break in the fog I stood there this was the exact moment everything came together everything came together in one moment everyone left my friends were at the base of the lake you couldn't see them it was perfectly still perfectly quiet I snapped the frame and I nailed it it was perfect everything was how it should be everything sounded perfect it looked perfect it felt perfect the weather it was just it was the bucket shot [Music] and we need to get this shot my entire career is photographer accomplished you set out to do this and it's been nine years and you have this experience with these people that you don't even know there's strangers that have become your friends and they just they just poured themselves out into this moment that meant so much and then you were able to capture that shock all within within a very short window you know that's that's why I do photography that is exactly why this art form has a grip around me and I hope you know it never lets go now when we leave looks like summer again so we literally hit the perfect window we got the two days the two perfect days we got it we got it we got it a hundred percent a thousand percent we got it and the fact the sun is shining now is amazing cuz it's a nice drive home but I mean this exact weather is the complete opposite from what we wanted so the fact that that weather came and passed and like melted away and we were able to capture that window I still can't believe it it worked it just kind of makes zero sense to me that we were even able to do it if you want my honest opinion that's it I think we got super lucky super lucky and the snow gods just came together and made that happen so I can't wait to get home and edit those photos to see what they look like printed huge [Music] [Applause] [Applause] every photo that I take every photo that I take it needs to mean something I want to look back on these photos 10 15 20 50 years from now I don't want to just think dope shot sick place nailed it I want to remember the faces that I was there with I want to remember the nine years that I longed for that capture I want to remember the whole process the flight the movie I watched on the way to Calgary the drive-in the truck that I rented I want to remember all of those things those frames need to mean something this shot means something this is the bucket shot I got it his mine it's forever in that Bank and it means something to me photography means something to me what does it mean to you [Music] [Music] this looks it looks so good but you know where I would really love to shoot [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Peter McKinnon

Views: 2,367,219

Rating: 4.9754992 out of 5

Keywords: Peter McKinnon, Peter McKinnon photography, Peter McKinnon Tutorials, Photography, Cinematography, Learn Cameras, Learn Photography, Learn Video, Video tutorials, Camera basics, The Bucket Shot, Peter McKinnon Bucket Shot, Bucket SHot, Bucket Shot Short FIlm, The Bucket Shot Short FIlm, Peter McKinnon Short FIlm, Peter McKinnon Documentary, Peter McKinnon Photographer, Moraine Lake, Banff Documentary, Photography Documentary, Canon, Canon EOS R, EOS R, Canon R

Id: r25IWquxe9s

Length: 23min 17sec (1397 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 27 2018

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Came here to make sure this was posted here. Reddit Lake... Now McKinnon Lake .