Dog Walks

Just a couple shots from my dog walking and other outings over the last couple of weeks.

From Photo of the day 2011

I took a trip up to the Crow and Gate pub outside of Nanaimo last week. The food was pretty good, the gardens were great. Lots of hummers, mostly Rufus hummingbirds like this guy, I took around 30 pictures of them but this one was the best. I like it because it looks a lot more natural than the usual one with the feeder in the shot and I managed to (almost) freeze his wings. Shot handheld with my 70-300 lens, cropped and (can't remember) I think I might have tweaked the shadows.

From Photo of the day 2011

This was an on the spot shot. I walked down to McKenzie bight yesterday with the dog and a friend. The tide was out, but coming in, and the foam was trickling in among the rocks. It must have woke up all the shore crabs hiding under the gravel because everywhere you looked there were crabs poking up or crawling in the water underneath. You could hear them there were so many - I liked how some were emerging from the foam so you couldn't see the whole thing. I was crouching for this shot, again with my long lens. This is cropped for aspect ratio and framing only.

From Photo of the day 2011

This guy I found today on my walk at Elk Lake with Meg. He was only about 4-5 inches long and he didn't look like the typical garter snakes (red or yellow stripes on the side) so I thought I would brave the snake stink and grab him to see if he was something different. He coiled himself firmly around my fingers and actually let me swap my long lens for my wide angle with him there! I wanted a bit more zoom but the focusing distance on my long lens is further than my arm length and I'm awful at trying to shoot without aiming through the viewfinder.

Anways - this is straight from the camera. I think he's just a young garter, but all my vertebrate ID books and notes from school are packed so I can't check.

From Photo of the day 2011

And another find from Elk Lake today - a red squirrel. Actually - it could be a douglas squirrel - one has an orange tummy, one white. Anyways, I spotted him as he scampered to the far side of the trunk as I was coming up the path so stopped and got the camera all ready. He came around and went up the tree - I have some shots of that too - but then turned around and was glaring at the dog in this one. I liked his stance - it just oozes squirrel. I did have to tweek it a bit - a fair bit of shadows in Picasa 3, nothing else.

Scaley

From Photo of the day 2011

This is a European Wall Lizard - introduced into BC. I though they were alligator lizards until 5 minutes ago when I looked it up to make sure. They are all through my friend's rock garden in Brentwood and, yes, they do crawl up his walls (the outside!) This was shot through a lot of grass, so I was impressed with how it came out. He is quite sharp, and I had to be sneaky. As you can see he is watching me, any quick moves and he would run down a hole. This guy was about 5 inches long. I cropped it a bit to get rid of some of the more distracting grass, sharpened (a touch) and gave it a little bit of highlights to bring out his colours and brighten it up a bit.

From Photo of the day 2011

Also from my friends garden - a swallowtail butterfly on mock orange flower. I cropped and sharpened only in Picasa 3. Technically butterflies have scales too, hence the title.

From Photo of the day 2011

And not the best photographic quality - but Mr. 6V was back at my place today, so I thought I'd throw this in. I had a few of him preening but they are a lot darker. This was cropped only. Maybe he will find a mate for next year and nest near here.

Bee and the bird

From Photo of the day 2011

The bee beats out the shot below for top spot for photo quality, as opposed to subject. The full size version of this is remarkably sharp, and could easily be printed quite large. I took the dog to Elk Lake again on off chance of seeing the red-tails again in better light. I hadn't heard them at all where I usually do and was in a photo taking sort of mood. The light was nice and the bees were pretty close. It was harder than I expected, they move quickly and unpredictably and I was working at the end of my zoom. I took several of a couple of different bees and this was the best. I sharpened a touch and cropped a bit in Picasa 3.

From Photo of the day 2011

And then I did manage to find one of the young red-tailed hawks from the last week. He started soaring over top of me, and did a couple of passes. Evidently he was curious as he's looking right at me in this shot - cool! The evening light helped me out a bit, and its way better than the last posts shots in terms of quality. I did a little saturation for the sky, a bit of highlights/shadows, sharpening and a crop in Picasa 3.

Fledgelings

From Photo of the day 2011

This is the "official" shot for this post. It makes the cut for this size, but it is cropped and a bit over worked (some saturation, sharpening, and cropping) for viewing large size. It is good for the light available (bright overcast) but not a great shot quality-wise. It looks cool here with the white background, the bird looks like it is not framed.

The story behind the angry adult red-tailed hawk above follows:
I found a number of early fledgling red-tailed hawks yesterday while walking at Elk Lake. Of course, I hadn't packed my camera (or binos!) so was left squinting at them and listening to their calling. Today I packed my camera and headed back out as they were young and likely to be found in the same area. It took me a bit but I did find them in the end - two - and just learning to follow mom around a bit on their wings. I got a few pictures of the babies hanging out and flying, but I was shooting towards the sun in bright overcast conditions. Quality not so good - the bird watching very cool. I included one of the babies in flight below.

From Photo of the day 2011

Catch-up and Merritt

I have spent more time away from home in the last week and a half than I have here. I've taken a number of good shots, just no time to put them up. So here are some of the more interesting pictures I shot in the last couple weeks:

From Photo of the day 2011

This shot is actually sharper than it appears at this size (maybe it's just my monitor) - all the details are pixel sized. You can view the large size by clicking its link. I took this at Island view beach on the 19th of June. The dog spooked a couple of herons towards me so I got a mass of shots of them flying by. This is one of the best ones - the hill in the background gave it some perspective, and the bird was in breeding plumage. I like how smooth the back of his wings look.

From Photo of the day 2011

This is a marmot hiding from my dog - the things I would miss without her! A friend and I decided to head out to Merritt to do some kestrel trapping again this year. I think the cold spring set everything back - we did catch one adult male kestrel, but we didn't find any active kestrel nests. While we were checking out a likely tree, Meg found this guy. I took some pictures and hauled her off.

From Photo of the day 2011

Again from Merritt - the lighting wasn't great so I metered off the tree to make sure the bird didn't come out a silhouette. The tree had a bunch of these mountain bluebirds in it. Not sure if they all had separate nests in it, or just liked the tree and were nesting in the bluebird boxes on the fence posts by the road.

From Photo of the day 2011

I believe this is straight from the camera - possibly a little sharpening. Large aperture to blur the background and a step back with the long lens to get as much zoom as possible. A wild columbine - the overcast kind of morning light really worked. Taken outside of Merritt on the hike back from another fruitless nest check.