Colleen Byrne | Lake Louise, Banff National Park | Photograph | 2000

The photo of Lake Louise was taken in the late summer of 2000 while my husband and I honeymooned in Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada) in the Canadian Rockies.  The water’s turquoise color is a result of fine particles of glacial silt running from the Victoria Glacier into the lake.  We were so intrigued by this area that we returned in the late summer of 2004 and traveled past Lake Louise to Moraine Lake.  Moraine Lake is at a higher elevation than Lake Louise, and it was cold and snowing that day.  What is interesting about the Moraine Lake photos is that they were all taken from the same vantage point within a time span of 15 minutes.  When the sun shines, the color of Moraine Lake is as vivid, if not even more so, than Lake Louise.