Hope Returns to Jasper

This picture is a culmination of many days in Jasper, Alberta this winter to capture wildlife returning to the fire ravaged town and surrounding area of Jasper. It's before sunrise and I hiked up onto a cliff to get a unique Bighorn sheep picture. With a three second exposure and a timer I was able to get the light trail of a passing vehicle in the valley below. In the foreground I used a flashlight to light paint the young Bighorn sheep so that it would be visible in the exposure. The entire mountain in the background is a black, charred mass of burnt trees from top to bottom and just a slice of the magnitude of the fires that changed the landscape for this generation. Over 80,000 acres was burnt or around 325 square kilometers! This young sheep is a harbinger for future hope with the first Spring since the fires on the horizon.