2006 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
Special Mention
Michael Elkan: Dirt Bike Trails
“Early on a mid-November morning on Highway 24, driving towards Capitol Reef National Park, I was awestruck by the majestic, architectural form of Factory Butte rising blue-grey beyond the ochre hills of the badlands characteristic of this area of the high Colorado Plateau in Utah. As I stopped the car to photograph this sublime vista, I was shocked to be confronted by off-road vehicle tire tracks scarring the landscape. I photographed the scene, capturing one dirt bike traversing the low shale hills still wreathed in wisps of dust thrown up minutes earlier by dozens of bikes and their riders.”
Michael Elkan’s visual perception as an amateur photographer has been influenced by his professional experience as an architect. He trained in the U.K. and, after working in London, Tokyo and Berlin, is now based in Vancouver. Elkan’s appreciation of architecture is complemented by visual delight in the natural splendour of the world’s wild places. These passions are combined in the experience of travel and exploration in which photography has always been his primary medium of expression. Elkan is an active member of Vancouver’s North Shore Photographic Society and Photoclub Vancouver.