Saturday, January 31, 2009

Today and Yesterday

From Photo of the day (2009)


Took the dog out this morning on a trail near Harrison Hotsprings - this goes out past the hotsprings source and then around the point dividing lower Harrison lake from its outflow the Harrison river. There is a backcurrent here as the water goes around the point so they put a warning signal up which I included in the photo. I did this as a set of photos turned into a panoramic shot to get the height to include both the point and the sky as well as the width of the water Stitched with ArcSoft Panorama pro and highlights/shadows done in Picasa.


I was out all day yesterday - I took photos but had no time to process and post them. So here they are. I took these on what is normally an island in the Fraser river south of Agassiz. At this time of year, a side channel is very low, so, with a bit of hopping over small streams in the sand and rocks, I managed to get over to this pseudo-island. There were so many coyote tracks I was rarely out of sight of some set or other - I am convinced that a large number of coyotes that are seen in the farm fields on the other side of the river in the early hours spend their days over here as many tracks would lead back to a long treck across the river bed. I'm going to go a bit overboard today and put up three shots for yesterday - some undisturbed coyote tracks (and no they were not from my dog!), the clump of grass in what resembled a moonscape with the rocks and the snow, and lastly - a set of river otter tracks I found on the way back to the truck - there were two sets that came out of one stream walked and slid across some snow and sand and then ended entering another pool. I was a bit dissapointed that I never got a glimpse of the animals as the tracks seemed quite fresh. All these shots are straight out of the camera but for a bit of highlights/shadows in Picasa.


From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Meg

From Photo of the day (2009)


My dog has finally made it to the daily photo! Been long enough, anyways. This was my last day at work before my regular 3 day break and I felt like I had exhausted my inspiration for farmyard photography - at least in the current cold conditions with all the animals inside. I did see an opportunity with a nice mature great blue heron in a field on my way to feed goats at Paul's but I didn't have my long lens on, I was in a rush, and I figured it would spook anyways. Just as I was leaving from Paul's, planning on shooting an old oil drum on the way out, Meg looked out of the gate at me (she takes her sweet time to get back in the truck). I snapped one shot, got inspired, and took a few more before getting her on her way. This one came out the best - I have only adjusted the colour a bit in Picasa to make up for a bit of a blueish tinge - probably a miscalculation in the auto-white balance.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Goat

From Photo of the day (2009)


We have started feeding a larger bale to the goats in the bunker recently - which requires me to walk along the top of the concrete wall (about 18 inches thick) that forms one wall of the goat pens in the bunker. The goats aren't used to this yet, so they get a bit spooked and tend to stare. With the success of my last goat pic in the bunker I thought I'd see if I could get a shot of all the goat faces staring up - but to no avail. Even with the ISO boosted to 800, I couldn't get a shot without half the goats being blurry. Then this one goat stood up on the grain trough and I guess because she held still for a fraction of a second and had her head above the wall for just that little bit more light this shot came out alright. It wouldn't have worked if she wasn't white. I cropped this shot, sharpened and possibly a touch of highlights increase in Picasa.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Bunker

From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)



Well despite my hopes that winter was just about over, I woke up to snow this morning. It still hasn't stopped - just varied in intensity. I had a few ideas in mind for today but ended up not taking any of them. Just as I finished feeding I noticed poor old Karl (the oldest buck goat we have) looking just generally tired and likely fed up with the cold. I thought if I boosted my ISO I might have enough light coming through the windows of the bunker for a shot because of all the snow outside. In the end I had to boost it to 800 (not great) and fend off curious female goats intent on coating my lens in goat spit. I actually like the other photo better but I thought I should post this one to fend off comments about the lack of goat photos I have on here. A bit of fill light, shadows/highlights, and a crop in Picasa to round it out.
I like the snow too, and, after reading some tips on Daily Dose of Imagery on how to make the snow look frozen in the air I was looking for a background to try this out. The bunker wall looked pretty usable. Shutter priority, a high shutter speed, and using ISO if you need it to get the light - though this shot had a fair bit of that. I only played with the shadows/highlights and added a tiny bit of saturation in Picasa.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Boat

From Photo of the day (2009)


Day off today, spent the morning following Dr Clegg (a large animal Veterinarian) around to a few farms - interesting but no photo-ops. Came home to take the dog out and finally found how to get to a section of shoreline that is visible (and clearly should be accessible) from the Agassiz-Rosedale bridge; though I swear the road I walked down was not there the last time I tried. I wanted to get some photos of the ice floating down the Fraser river but I couldn't find quite the right way to do it - that and the dog kept wandering out on the bit that looked more solidly frozen and I was paranoid she was going to fall through somewhere and be lost forever. There was all kinds of junk and old car wrecks in the bush (ironic as there are many 'No Dumping' signs all over) which I considered, then I found this boat tethered in the area visible from the bridge. The line and the icy river behind it just worked really well. I used a large F-stop (something like 13 or more) as I had the light and wanted to have a really large depth of field. I did a bit of sharpening in photoshop to get just the boat and its rope, cropped in Picasa.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Birch bark

From Photo of the day (2009)


Nasty cold this morning - yesterday wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be and I presumed today would be similar so I did take my camera to work. It wasn't cold enough to freeze stuff in my truck (as it was in December) so things were okay, but it was a lot colder than yesterday. The wind howls down from Harrison Lake and can be enough to take your breath away. The automatic watering systems have started to freeze again, as well as the cow parlour - noooo! We just got out of this! Anyways - thought I might see something photo-worthy on the way home, then got the idea of stopping in Pioneer Park in town to find something - I am not keen on going back outside until I have to. I wanted to illustrate the wind somehow but couldn't come up with anything other than the flags and the shots weren't what I was looking for anyways. The light was nice on this old birch tree, and the park is home to many century old trees. Came out alright - I cropped it after I decided the background did nothing for the photo and to enhance the split in the bark as the main subject. Other than that, I did a little bit of highlights/shadows in Picasa and nothing else.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Cactus

From Photo of the day (2009)


Left my camera at home this morning as the forecast was for -7 C and I didn't want to leave it in the car at that temperature. The one time I tried bringing it into the goat dairy to keep it a little warmer, it did some very strange things and I lost all the photos I took that day. Now that I get home earlier I figured I could find something in town when I went to return my library books and buy a new comb (my old one now has no less than 7 broken teeth, 5 of which are missing entirely). Anyways - I got most of the way home from town when I realized I hadn't found a photo yet. So I set this one up in front of my sliding window with one of my terrarium residents - the only place in my north facing apartment with any light. I used my new tripod and my wide angle lens (it has a lower available F-stop so I could blur the carpet background better, and my long lens wouldn't focus close enough even when I was standing on tip-toe). The tripod helped with my low shutter speed (lack of light) on the low ISO I used for a clearer picture.
Touched up the saturation, shadows/highlights, cropped and sharpened a bit in Picasa.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Swan

From Photo of the day (2009)


Took my walk along the dyke today after getting a new starter in my truck yesterday. Had fun with the dog and took some pictures of her, and a pipe and some scenery which could have made the cut for today, but on the way home just off the road was a flock of about 6 swans. I had my wide-angle lens on and as I slowed they started to walk off - I waited a bit to see if they would fly away or give me enough time to switch lenses again. I swapped over and managed to shoot a few pictures past the dog's nose through the (dirty) passenger window glass. At some point I rolled it down so I'm not sure if this shot was through the glass or not. They were still eye-ing me uncertainly so I drove up a bit slowly and stopped to get out. I took a few more before they figured they should fly - I would have had some decent shots of that if the darn dog hadn't jumped out the now open passenger window after they took off - just couldnt resist those giant ducks! Oh well. This one came out pretty nice.
I cropped it in Picasa and then used Photoshop to sharpen only the swan (Picasa's sharpening applies to the whole photo and picked out the corn stubble too much).

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Horse

From Photo of the day (2009)


Thought about taking my dog out to the dyke for a walk to find something to shoot but my truck has been having issues starting lately and that would be the last place I wanted to get stuck. I managed to get to Paul's and started for the way home so I figured I should find something along the way to the shop. I found two horses grazing out by the bed and breakfast and took a few of both with my wide-angle lens but they were too far away for the composition I was looking for. I swapped to my longer lens but then they had moved and were too far apart. Took a few of both individually this way and liked this one the best. I think this horse has a brand...
A bit of sharpening, saturation and a crop in Picasa for post processing.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dust

From Photo of the day (2009)


Went to get some hay down for the calves and found this wonderful slab of light coming through the holes in the back of the barn. After I threw the bales it was even more inspiring with the illuminated dust. Went for my camera, came back and threw some loose hay about to get some more dust. I had to play with this a fair bit afterwards, in retrospect I should have used a larger f-stop to get the dust sharper and possibly a faster shutter speed (boost my iso to make up for it). Once I thought of that though the sun had moved and I my slab of light was rapidly disappearing. Anyways, here it is.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Shed

From Photo of the day (2009)


Wasn't sure what to take today as I am back at work, there have been some changes though so I was starting to think about pictures around 9:30 or 10 in the morning. George asked me to take some photos of his equipment for sale so he could send them to potential buyers but of course none of those were up to snuff. On the way out to Arend's to photograph the sprayer and some other stuff I noticed this shed way out in a field. I doubled back when I went back that way to feed at Paul's a little later to get this shot. I used a polarizing filter to bring out the blue in the morning sky and dampen down the glare a bit. A bit of highlights and colour temperature (towards blue) in Picasa.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Pigs

From Photo of the day (2009)


Came to work same as usual. Milked the cows, half way through the goats when Anita comes back from the flat-roofed shed and tells me I have to come see what George bought at the auction. My first two guesses were an angora goat and a second donkey. Nope - pigs! Apparently "Rufous" and "Molly" are to be added to our growing crew of pettable critters available for viewing by tourists. Cute now, but I'm sure they will be quite large by June. To be honest I like them more than the goats - for now anyways.

Had to play with Dad's old flash with its swivel top as the barn was dark. I am not very practiced with any sort of flash photography but I managed to use the top one to bounce off the wall of the pen as a bit of fill light, but I think I need a book on how to do this. Came out not bad though. Touch up of fill light and highlights in Picasa.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Chuckit

From Photo of the day (2009)


Today was my lazy day off and so I didn't get out much. Took the dog out to the sports fields in Agassiz and saw this opportunity - pretty simple but it looked kind of neat. I knew I wasn't likely going to get out again so took it. Came out pretty well - simple.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)


Made a day trip out to Ladner for my birthday to meet a friend I hadn't seen in a few years and see the Reifel Bird Sanctuary which I haven't been to yet. Chuck brought his Canon Rebel XTi and I was armed with my Nikon. I was disappointed by all the fog - and how tame the ducks were - almost like a zoo. We had a train of them following almost constantly. I did like the tame Coots though as it is usually so hard to get decent shots of them. Towards the marsh end of the park were signs warning of the aggressive Sandhill cranes which can be dangerous in spring when they defend their nests. I was not expecting to see any in the thick soupy fog, but my studying for the bird call parts of my exams at UVic paid off when we heard a chorus of them off to the left. They got quite loud before taking of and doing a circle right over us and a few other onlookers before disappearing back into the fog - I managed to snap two shots, one of which, remarkably, came out quite well. I also liked this shot of this male pintail duck - they are not common visitors to city parks so to get such a close shot was nice. A bit of highlights/shadows editing to make up for the poor light and some sharpening brought both of these out pretty well.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Early morning

From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)


Went for a walk early this morning with the dog (8am) along the dyke by the Fraser. Sun was just clearing the mountains on the way back. We spooked a lot of eagles but no good shots of them. One macro and one panorama.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Orchard in snow

From Photo of the day (2009)


Got some sun again which made this shot work. The snow added some reflected light which helped a lot. Wasn't sure what I was going to take today as I've been on the farm for 14 mornings straight and have exhausted my creative inspiration there. That and George locked the cows in because of the wind. A bit of shadows/highlights and a closer crop in Picasa to finish it off.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Kestrel, twice

From Photo of the day (2009)


From Photo of the day (2009)


Finally some sun! Had a feeling when I left the farm that I should put my long lens on in case I found some wire sitting birds to photograph. I figured if I took a landscape shot instead I could always switch lenses again - landscapes generally hold still. I found this little guy on the wire - normally they take off as soon as I slow the truck down but he stuck around. I spent almost 20 minutes watching him as we went from wire to tree to hovering (which I missed - blast!) to back to the wire. He let me get quite close and the long winter light was perfect. I am very pleased with these ones. For those who don't know Kestrels are about as big as a robin or smaller - North America's smallest falcon.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tractor wheel

From Photo of the day (2009)


Saw the option for this shot yesterday actually, but played around with a few other things. Worked out well as I could fall back on this one today in the never-ending foggy weather we've been having. For some reason the big cabbed John Deere tractor at work was a lot cleaner than the rest and the yellow just jumped out from the fog. When you are used to wandering around feeling like you've got a headcold it was a nice break. I used a higher F-stop to make sure the whole thing would be in focus and increased the highlights a touch in Picasa.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Lichen

From Photo of the day (2009)


Another miserably foggy day and wet. I was beginning to think I was going to run out of things to take pictures of before the weather got better. Then I spotted a board leaning up against the side of the heifer barn (which was originally built in the 50's as a two-story chicken barn) with this bit of lichen off to one side. The original idea for the shot was to include the board, but I couldn't get the narrow depth of field I wanted if I did - I tried one with just the planks blurring out with the lichen sharp and was surprised how much I liked that. And here it is - I enhanced the shadows a bit in Picasa3 and that is it.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Trench in snow

From Photo of the day (2009)


Played around with the flash and the heifers for a bit but the light in the barn is so poor and my flash photo skills need practice. Maybe at noon in the summer I could get enough light in there to take a half decent shot. Oh well.

I noticed this crevasse beside the bunker when I was feeding the goats in there. The snow from earlier has fallen off the roof in a pile and now the rain has dripped in the same place for several days - enough to cut a very thin trench all the way along the wall in an undulating manner. First time I noticed it. I cropped this shot to enhance the narrowness and get rid of some of the bunker wall and the extra snow on the sides. Only did a bit of highlights and colour in Picasa - granted I try not to do much more than that usually anyways.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bald Eagle

The weather today was a bit miserable - very low visibility, fog, rain, cold. I was going to try a last ditch attempt at a photo by messing with my flash from the hayloft to get something of the heifers, but then I noticed this guy across the street. At first I thought it might be a very large female red-tailed hawk as it didn't look big enough to be an eagle. I guess it must be a male. I had to retouch this photo a bit too much in both Picasa3 and Photoshop so its a bit grainy for my tastes. I guess thats what happens when the rules are the picture is taken that day and the weather is miserable. The hayloft can wait till tomorrow - the forecast is for more rain.


From Photo of the day (2009)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Cooper's Hawk and Heron

From Photo of the day (2009)

From Photo of the day (2009)

A juvenile Cooper's hawk that was hanging around the farmyard chasing songbirds this morning, and what I think is a Great Blue Heron in the field in front of the house. Today's shots were easy to find.

A new beginning

I was first inspired by A Daily Dose of Imagery (topleftpixel.com), then by a story on CBC radio about a fellow who took one poloroid photo everyday for several years until he died of cancer. I am not sure where, but I know those poloroids are now available for viewing online. Because I cannot practice falconry right now - it is hard without a hawk - I have decided to delve more into my other hobby: photography. I shoot with a Nikon D70s and the daily photo might be of anything - my only rules are that it is a quality shot, and it was taken on the date it is posted under. Occasionally I miss a day, but I try to make up for it. I started in October 2008 and those photos can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gyr.black/PhotoOfTheDay#

I've decided to start posting my daily photos here to encourage more viewers and eliminate the need for them to wade through a large album. Enjoy!