Standing Guard

While in Jasper, the goslings were exploring but not far from Mom.  This image almost follows the rule of thirds.  I would have liked to have the goslings looking up too, but they were chomping happily under Mom's watchful eye.

Wild Strawberry

I am always amazed at the way we have domesticated and changed plants.  More recently, concerns over genetically modified plants....  We have been able to 'naturally' modify plants such as this strawberry which basically produces a fruit the size of a pea covered in seeds to a fruit the size of a golf ball or more.  

Politics aside, I love the beauty of plants that are 'wild' versions of what I know.  This image was shot in raw so I was able to crop over half of the image out to frame a much nicer photo.

Catching Water

Something critical that I gained from listening to Vincent LaForet was relating to making photos rather than taking.  This series of images was intended to do just that.  I adjust the shutter speed manually from 1/500 of a second to 1/15 of a second.  At 1/500, the water appears to stop and is in close focus.  At 1/15 of a second the rock can be in perfect focus while the water becomes a white blur.

I am sure that there is a way as a science lesson to use the photo to see how fast the water was flowing at the time.

Powell River Sunsets

These two images are taken within minutes of each other.  The beauty of the digital camera is taking multiple shots and being able to see the results almost immediately.  While I like the colouration of the second image better, the first one is composed better by framing in the sunset.  

In post production, I would also increase the saturation of the orange to make it pop more. Here is what that looks like.  I increased the saturation of the orange sky, increased the blackpoint, and added a bit of exposure as well.

Well Camoflouged

This ground squirrel is well suited for a forest and for the glacial morraine.

I purposed to leave a lot of brown space so that the viewer has to search for the squirrel.  While the squirrel is placed in a third, the tree is also a distractor to the eye.

This reminds me to think about the purpose of making a photograph.  Rather than just clicking, it is important to always think of what you might use it for eventually.

Overcoming Adversity

These belles were growing in the glacial deposits at Mt. Edith Cavell.  The bleakness of the climate is apparent with the sparsity of life.  There were about 8 different kinds of flowers growing in the area and only a few trees.

This image interested me as it has two sets of bells.  The image was made with my 70-200mm lens.

Rose Trio

At the end of last summer, I planted several rose bushes.  They have not been doing fantastic this year.  (One has even died.)

Returning from a week camping trip, this trio is preparing to show.  I set the aperture as high as possible to reduce the focal depth.  Just one of the three is in good focus and the background is blurred out entirely.

Strong Roots

While visiting Mt. Edith Cavell Glacier, we walked to the glacial pond.  The outflow streams appear to not follow a warn path as the material is all the same - glacial deposit. 

This tree was less than two feet tall  and I would guess about 8 years old.  In the cold glacial climate and uncertain soil to grow in, it was amazing to see it surviving.

The image is unique as I made the photo by almost placing the lens in the water.  Looking from different perspectives creates unique images.

Golfing in majesty

As a fun excursion in Jasper, I went with 4 golfers and took photos of the beauty and their golfing.

The difficult part of these locations is that there are too many options to choose from.  I tried to capture the 3 horizontal bands of interest - green space, mountains, clouds.

Twisted Daisy

Along the Willingdon Beach trail there was a patch of tall daisies.  I found the twisted leaves intriguing.

Normally I like to use the rule of thirds; however, I knew that I should break the rules with making this image.  The high contrast nature of the white daisy with dark background draws your eye to the twisted petals.

BC Coastal Sailing

I grew up spending my summers on or near the ocean.  Seeing this sailboat anchored off Willingdon Beach brought back many memories.

This was made at the same time that the previous sun reflecting image was created.  I had to manually reduce the exposure to ensure that the sun didn't wash out all the colours and create a high contrast / low colour image.

Early Evening Willingdon Beach Sunset

My Mother-In-Law believes Powell River has the best sunsets in the world.  I have taken some wonderful shots that I will share in a future post.

Taking shots with high sunlight exposure works best using manual settings.  I was able to adjust the exposure to develop this image.

I most enjoy the horizontal lines of the shore, waves, Harwood Island and clouds.

Glowing Cone Coals

This was exciting to take.  There was a pile of Douglas Fir cones near our campfire pit in Willingdon Beach, Powell River this July.  Throwing them into the fire the initially burned; however, they stayed as formed cones for a long time.

To get this shot, I had to take several shots with different shutter speeds.  I also tried with flash and you could see in that image that they were actually ashen coloured.  When the fire finally died down, these cones were completely ash.

Butterfly in Jasper

Using my 70 - 200 mm Nikor lens, I was able to zoom in on this butterfly in Jasper.  I took several shots; however, this was the best focused.  It is always challenging to get animals to sit still long enough to get a good focus as well as decide on aperture / shutter speeds.

Strong Legged Tree

This amazing tree looked like it was leaning over with outstretched legs on Lac Beauvert, Jasper.  I did also take this shot as two images but have not spliced them together yet to get a different perspective.

Racoon sleeping in a tree

While camping in Willingdon Beach, Powell River this July, this racoon was scampering around.  That same evening we watched it climb the tree and begin to sleep with hands and feet on different branches.  

The lighting was poor so we used a flashlight in on the tree which woke it up.  It was cute to catch it yawning.

I don't often do night photography as lighting is tricky with just a flash on the camera.  Using the flashlight allowed the camera to focus as well.

Bumble Bee on Rhododenron

This image was nice before cropping but even better when cropped to place the bee into the upper right third.

Original image - 

I was shooting in RAW with JPEG but Aperture 1.5 doesn't display the RAW files properly.  I have downgraded to just shooting in High Quality JPEG.    Still the images are 3800 x 2600 - they have been scaled down to max 640 to display on this blog.

Field Lupine

I believe these are called Lupine.  They were in a damp portion of a field at Bear Creek Park.  It was a bright day so it was easy to increase the F-Stop and reduce the field of focus.  Working with the Rule of Thirds can create some amazing images.

Kayaking up Comox River

Our beautiful coast provides many recreation opportunities.  This kayaker was likely out in the ocean for the day and was returning upstream of the Comox River.  The photo was taken in late August 2007.

Butterfly in Prince George

This butterfly was fluttering near us camping in Prince George last summer.  I wasn't able to frame it perfectly in the camera so had to crop it afterwards.  We did have it land on my daughters hand at one point too.