Wide Angle

 Took the wide angle lens out yesterday instead of the long one. I was hoping to try and fluke my way into getting a shot of a flying grasshopper, but it did not work. At all. The scenery out the back field was nice though and there were a few unharvested oat stalks to give a foreground... then Meg so kindly obliged with her stance. I liked how I could get the clouds and the land to expose properly. Straight from the camera with the 18-70mm lens.

This one I thought of on Monday but only had my long lens with me. There is some shoulder-high grass by the beaver pond in the field behind the house. To get this one I had to lie down on my back and shoot up. I think I rotated this to make it look like the grass was in front of me, but nothing else. Again shot with the 18-70mm lens.

On a walk

 I guess the other critters are benefiting from the plethora of grasshoppers up here - I spied this guy carrying around a hind leg of a hopper on my Friday afternoon dog walk. I liked the texture and contrast of the leg, and just the uniqueness of the situation. I cropped this in Picasa to get rid of some of the foreground blur from the narrow depth of field and bring the focus back to the ant and his cargo. Other than that, it is straight from the camera with the 70-300mm lens.

I took this one yesterday - I had originally spied what I think was a goshawk chasing a pair of ravens around and was hoping to get a couple shots of the hawk, but my camera auto-focus failed to find my targets before I could get any shots and the hawk took off. The ravens came back to check me and Meg out so I took a bunch of them cruising around. I thought I had overexposed all of them, and they were all too light originally, but I could see enough details in this one that I figured some simple post shooting corrections could fix it up. I jumped up the shadows in Picasa to make him come out more raven-black, and really like how the lighting on his body and tail covert feathers came out along with his curious expression aimed at the camera. Who knows, maybe I'll use this one to do some drawing eventually. I also cropped this one a bit in Picasa.

And lastly, again from yesterday, a still life of an opened fireweed seed pod. I liked the textures and the symmetry of the seeds here, and their contrast with the background. I made some minor increases to the shadows in Picasa to bring out that contrast, but otherwise straight from the camera.

Cheslatta Lake

Taken in May 2016 with the D200 and stitched with ArcSoft panorama maker pro just recently. The small size doesn't really do it justice, I have it as a new desktop photo on my widescreen monitor and even there is not quite good enough. I was really impressed how it came out - I guess cloudy weather actually works really quite well for even lighting. Anyways - this was shot from the monument pictured below looking down the hill side. Cheslatta lake became the new route for water flowing from the Nechako reservoir that was created by Alcan's Kenny Dam in the 1950's. They decided against putting a spillway in the rock-fill dam itself, and so instead the water flows out through the Skins Spillway on Ootsa lake into Skins lake, then Cheslatta lake, Murray lake, and out over Cheslatta falls into the old Grand Canyon of the Nechako to supply water to the Nechako river that flows through Vanderhoof. There is a portion of the old canyon upstream from Cheslatta falls that is now dry. All this water supplies the energy required to produce power at RioTinto Alcan's smelter in Kitimat and for much of BC. In the process of creating this elaborate system, the government and Alcan at the time were required to move people out of the to-be-flooded areas - including farmers and First Nations people. The monument pictured below is intended to commemorate the previous home of some of the Cheslatta people and where their dead remain buried. An interesting lake to visit for sure, though the large spans of dead zones along the shore line from changing water levels (associated with being part of the reservoir) made it feel a bit odd.

 The monument to the Cheslatta people, and another shot of it with a view of the boat on the shore below.

A broken headstone with dates and (what I assume is) a different script for writing First Nations mostly oral language.

Front yard photos

On my morning walk with Meg the dog yesterday and spied a bumblebee visiting some of the fireweed along the driveway. When I looked closer I found all his buddies - which resulted in spending a good chunk of time spent trying to get one in focus and in flight, none of which I was entirely happy with. I think I'd have to get out there in brighter light and use a faster shutter. This one came out nicely though, despite the lack of flying insects. I cropped this a bit in Picasa, nothing else, shot with the 70-300mm.

And one from over Spring break in March....

An adult female sharpshinned hawk that was very successful at hunting my (very dumb and slow) roller pigeons that I had let out for the first couple times this year. This was taken with the D200, she hung around and wasn't too scared of me so I got some very nice shots. My limitations on shutter speed because of the grainy ISO with that camera kept me from getting very much for action shots, but not for lack of trying. I think I stalked around after that bird for at least 2 hours, occasionally chasing her off yet another pigeon and returning it to the safety of the loft. She hung around for several days so I couldn't let the pigeons out again until a mink or weasel got into the the coop and killed them all. Nothing much to draw the hawks in around here anymore.

Too long..

Its been a very long time since I've posted here, 3 years - or maybe 4. Anyways - was terribly busy with work and a series of falconry hawks, not to mention getting married. No more hawks - and not returning to teaching this year as we are expecting a child - and wanting to get back into taking photos, so trying to get out more again. I bought a new-to-me Nikon D300s camera body at Kerrisdale Cameras a few weeks ago while down visiting family and am trying to get inspired. I am hoping that putting them up here will keep me at least taking and processing the photos. I might post a few of my more intriguing shots from the interim years as I get caught up. Two shots I got this morning...

We have had another bad grasshopper year (well I guess its good for the grasshoppers), the second in three, and they tend to scatter like a fountain away from your feet as you walk. They also hang out on the stalks early in the morning - I think they are trying to warm up in the rising sun. I liked the sharpness of the details on this hopper somewhat framed by the head of grass in the background. Straight from the camera with the 70-300mm.

This one was unexpectedly chosen - I was trying for the details on the stamens around the outside without blowing out the yellow of the petals. I tried all different angles to add some interest - flowers are not normally my forte - and tried different lenses and small apertures to get more of it in focus. In the end it was one of the first ones I had taken, with a larger aperture, that made the cut. On the full size version the texture of the green sepals below the petals stands out along with the one row of stamen closest to the camera and some of the shadows on the petals are still visible. I liked the pop of yellow against the kind of drab colours of the house in the background. Again, straight from the camera with the 70-300mm.