CHILLIWACK

FROM HARRISON HOT SPRINGS TO CHILLIWACK LAKE

 In the early summer of 2019, I borrowed a Canon EOS R from work and drove to Harrison Hot Springs for a quick gateway. The following day, we decided to go to Chilliwack Lake, but instead of taking the main road, we explored Chilliwack Valley's secondaries road.

The dusty road furrowed between a thick forest of pine trees and was carved on a mountainside. On a few occasions, openings in the trees revealed the valley below us, and you could see the snow-capped mountains on the other side, the vivid green high meadows and below the lush valley. A river ran through it and formed an oxbow that reminded me of the many photos I had seen of the exotic swaths of the Amazon in South America.

We continued along the forest service road that once again disappeared in the thick woods. The dusty soil would sometimes turn to mud and unveil mountain springs where cold but delicious water slid on small yellow pebbles.

As the car's windows were down, we heard the soaring rumbling of rapids across the woods. After a quick walk between the trees, we reached the rough river. It was a fierce stream of piercing blue water. A few intrepid kayakers were riding the rapids - the waves splashing on and all around the colourful crafts. The Chilliwack river led us to our final goal: Chilliwack Lake. This deep and narrow lake was surrounded by mountains, and some peaks were still sprinkled with snow. In front of such clear and shallows water, I could not resist but to taste these waters.

So I undressed to my swimsuit and walked down into the lake where I swam to the last remaining patches of sun that made the water warmer. But the sun soon disappeared. The lake and nearby mountains quickly shifted in an early blue hour. We gazed once last time to the pink hue, backlighting the surrounding mountains before heading back on the dusty road, this time heading west towards home.

This was the first time I used the EOS R for video. I was quite excited to get back to the days where one camera body sufficed for shooting both photos & videos - the days of the Canon 5D Mark 2. And if the Canon EOS R wasn't the video Revolution that Canon marketed for, I still enjoyed the C-Log features as well as the ability to shoot 60 fps at the resolution of 1080p. Although the C-Log on the EOS R is locked to 8bits for internal recording, it still gave me beautiful colours once graded with Film Convert Nitrate.

Most of the film was shot with the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II along the 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.8. The main thing I lacked was stability. None of my lenses were stabilized, and the EOS R was missing the beautiful feature that is IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization, also known as sensor-shift technology.) Fortunately, Premiere Pro's Warp Stabilizer saved the editing day.