Photo presentation follows introduction…

January is my least favourite month. The dislike is doubled when my camera bag is rattling and squeaking and shaking from my gear wanting to get out and about, but kept shut away as January buries us in cloud.

My dislike for the first month of the year stems directly to my upbringing in Winnipeg, a fine city prone to lengthy, snitty Old Man Winter fits. Winter starts too early in Manitoba. You can kiss the nice days goodbye when November tosses aside a partied-out October, so by the time January rolls around, folks are up to their armpits in winter. And January is when winter really gets rolling in those parts.

“Hey, but at least it’s sunny,” Winnipeggers say as they enter the fifth straight week of -20 temperatures.

In our much warmer East Kootenay January, we tend not to have much sun, but ski hills and towns become covered in snow and we all grow a bit wacky from the loss of vitamin D.

As a photographer, it drives me NUTS. I need light – some light – any damned light, damn you January!

And then a day hits where the clouds part. My camera gear rejoices, my soul cries joyfully and the hate for January is lost in the shutterfied frenzy.

We’ve got a pretty large collection of images of life as it is happening in the East Kootenay for January 2013. This is due to the fact we were able to get to every corner of the region and enjoyed a couple of lovely days of sunshine.

This month’s collection of images also feature the work of Jim Webster of Kimberley and Krista Nebloch of Wasa. Jim submitted the beautiful panoramic shot of Fisher Peak and Krista’s submissions include two gorgeous Wasa sunset images and another of a dog at play. We invite photographers to submit their work for this monthly presentation, as long as the images are captured during the month we are featuring. Send good sized digital images, preferably Jpegs, with a brief description of the image and where it was taken, to: [email protected] .

Locations captured this month include: St. Mary’s First Nation; Invermere; Wycliffe area; west side of Lake Koocanusa/Newgate; Wardner/Bull River; Cranbrook; Elko; Fernie; Gold Creek; Panorama Mountain Village; rural Elk Valley; Kimberley; Moyie Lake; Elkford; Wasa and Sparwood.

Also included in this collection are some sad aftermath images of the Kootenay Cycle building destroyed by fire at the close of 2012. The fire has left a hole in Kimberley’s Platzl. That was a beautiful building and a thriving business. Here’s hoping they can land on their tires and get back to serving the community.

Lead image: Sunset over the Kootenay River north of the Wardner Overhead, from the Wardner/Bull River Road.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW & Carrie Schafer/Through My Eyes Photography

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