Back in November 2016, I decided that I would celebrate my 27th birthday outside Costa Rica. I chose to do it in a landscape and wildlife photography workshop at the Rocky Mountains, in Alberta, Canada. I had only participated in a wildlife photography workshop in June, but it was so good that one of my Emerald Toucanet pictures was published in an online National Geographic article featuring Birds of Colombia. Even though I was pretty new to photography, I wanted to step up my game and learn from the best. So I reserved my space and started preparing.

By that time I only had kit lenses and my Nikon D5300, so I equipped myself with a lot of gear. A lot of preparation went on during the year. Getting to know all my gear was essential, in terms of how to use it, its strengths and limits. To learn more, I took an online photography course and participated in five additional workshops in Costa Rica. I got my Canadian VISA and purchased the lowest air ticket and hotel fares I could find.

With all the preparation done and after almost a year of waiting, I landed in Calgary and took my private transportation to Banff Town, the entry to the Canadian Rockies. It all happened on September 22nd at noon, the day of my birthday! I met the group at Elk + Avenue Hotel, the one we would use as our base camp for an entire week. From there we mobilized to every location, most of which were one hour or less away in drive time. The farthest point we reached was Athabasca Falls up to the north, inside Jasper National Park.

It is hard to imagine a place so wild, yet accessible at the same time. Not just the wildlife, but the pristine lakes that take on such vivid turquoise colors, the mountain ranges that surround deep valleys, and the pine and aspen forests that extend until the horizon. The workshop was intensive, so it felt like I spent about a month abroad, exploring a whole country full of life.