This is a scene I’ve been after for some time – the Milky Way and stars reflected in calm water.
In Friday night I was at a small lake, a pond really, at the south end of the Icefields Parkway in Banff. Herbert Lake is small enough it is usually calm and reflective. Friday night was as clear and calm as you could hope for. This image is from the beginning of the night with some blue twilight still illuminating the sky, but no moonlight. The waning Moon did not rise until 11:30 pm. I shot this prior to starting a 3-hour time-lapse from the same position on the lakeshore.
The scene is looking south toward glacier-clad Mount Temple and Mount Fairview near Lake Louise.
This is a single exposure with the Canon 5D MkII and 16-35mm lens.
– Alan, September 9, 2012 / © 2012 Alan Dyer
The Amazing Sky 
“Let the water settle, you will see the moon and stars mirrored in your being….” -Rumi
I saw two worlds last night,
one perfectly reflected in the other;
the stars, so clear in the unbroken surface of the water,
that the distinction between the two was imperceptible.
I knew the moment that a tiny insect or the stirring wind
touched the world below, it would seem to be shattered.
Yet only the reflection would be disturbed.
The reality above would remain
as constant and unchanging
as its Creator.