Finding My Expression

Lately I’ve been a little less than inspired by the landscapes here on the Island. Until things begin to grow again and the birds return to nest, I don’t go out and take as many photos. What I do do at this time of year is go through a lot of my old photos and “play” with them.

I’m trying to find my “style”. Letting myself go wild in Photoshop in hopes that I might find the secret recipe to make my photos uniquely mine.

This is my latest one. I had a photo of this young Common Yellow-throat that had a few too many branches for my liking but the bird itself seemed pretty good. What could I do with that? Well, I could soften the branches and lighten them up, add a slight texture and fade out to the edges creating a light vignette. What do you think?

Common Yellow-throat

And a few more…

I Prefer To Photograph Small Birds

While most photographers like to go after the large birds of prey for their dramatic poses and overall regal presence, I prefer to shoot the small birds. The tiny little Warblers and insect eaters like Kinglets and Flycatchers.  Large or small, they both have their challenges.  It can be difficult to locate large raptors and they tend to keep quite a distance. It is, needless to say, quite exciting when you do spot one. However, if they see you first, which they usually do, they don’t hesitate to fly off which tends to leave you with yet another shot of a large bird’s rear end in flight.

Is this Seagull hiding from the Eagle?

Looking for dinner

The small songbirds birds are more my style though and I always look forward to their spring arrival. The little ones seem to be everywhere in the summer and they can be just as challenging to photograph, if not more so, than the large raptors. They rarely sit still, but they also have this curiosity for new things which brings them considerably closer to investigate your presence.  Of course close is a relative term depending on the length of your lens.  I like their charm and their cheerfulness. They seem so delicate and yet they are able to survive some very harsh conditions.

Common Redpoll keeping warm by fluffing it's feathers

This Common Redpoll is a tiny finch that is able to withstand bitter cold. They fly south to spend the winter here and then return to the North for breeding.

Northern Parula

It won’t be long now before the little Warblers are back here singing their summer song and I’ll be out in the woods or on the pond looking for them. Can’t wait.

I guess if I had to give a photo tip for capturing small birds it would be… Walk softly and carry a big lens.

One Of Those Days

Sometimes photographing wildlife is very frustrating and more often than not the reward is not worth processing. Then there are days when everything is just out of reach of your lens.  For me that seems to be the case quite often.

I’ve been wanting to photograph a coyote for quite some time. It’s one of the few larger mammals here on the Island and I have rarely seen one let alone had a chance to photograph one.  This week I saw one AND I had my camera with me, but it was a field away from me and a 400mm lens just doesn’t have enough reach for that.  (Heavily cropped)

Coyote

After that disappointment I went over to the National Park and it seemed there were Eagles everywhere. I saw at least a dozen of them.  Again, they seemed to stay just out of reach of my lens.  (Heavily cropped)

Eagle In Flight

Eagle on the Marsh

Eagles Fighting

And the best shot of the day…

Common Crow

Oh well tomorrow is another day.

Seal In The Harbor

I was driving over the bridge at Covehead Harbor yesterday and spotted a little black blob in the water. At first I thought it was just a lost bouy but it disappeared for a few seconds and then re-appeared so I knew it must be a seal. I drove down to the harbor to have a look and noticed that it was eating a fish.

Interesting to watch how it maneuvered that flat fish around with it’s flippers while floating on it’s back.

Harbor Seal

The Kodak Hawks

My parents did not take a lot of photos.  We had a camera.  An old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye that Mom would take out on special occasions like first communions and any other day when we were forced to dress in our Sunday best.  There were also times when it was used to take photos of us at our worst, like when we were camping in Northern Ontario for weeks with only two changes of clothes.  But most of the time the camera sat on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. In fact all of the photos ever taken with that camera fit into one cigar box and a small album.

Then there was the Kodak 8mm Hawkeye 8 movie camera with it’s 13mm f2.3 lens.  Wind it up, press the button, and shoot.  Wow, what a familiar sound; that 24 frame per second sound of the camera and the projector.  It reminds me of every time I ever had to get dressed up, or down.  Again, this was kept in the top of the closet and only taken out for holidays and special occasions. Of course the movie projector was taken down for special visitors. Those lucky devils likely appreciated that we only had a handful of films for them to watch.

The Kodak Brownie and Hawkeye

Funny how not only the photos but the cameras that took the photos can bring back such vivid memories.

Windows 7 (64 bit)

So far the best that I can say about Windows 7 (64 bit) is that I’m not totally frustrated with it.  As with any new operating system, particularly Microsoft products, it takes a few weeks to tweak things to just the way you like them.  But it also takes a while for the glitches to start showing up.  So far I have only had a couple of quirky events where I had to restart my browser or reset some options, and one major freeze up where I had to I had to reboot the computer.

I was tempted, at first, to switch to a Mac but as it turns out it would have been a monumental task for me to at this particular period in time.  By staying with PC I manged to get away with not having to upgrade most of my software.  I’m now using Open Office which I’m liking a lot so far, and because Windows 7 will let you run a virtual copy of XP I’m able to run my current accounting software which is great.  I was very surprised that some applications like WordPerfect 10 actually installed with no problems at all even though the MS website said it would not run.  (They wouldn’t be pulling my leg now, would they.)

So in celebration of Windows… here’s a window.

Old Windows

Squirrels Amusing or Annoying

Is there anything more charming than the face of a squirrel?  They are one of those things, much like a laughing baby, that will never fail to make me smile.  Little clowns in a furry outfit that can maneuver their way into any bird feeder to steal a meal.  They’ll sit there eating all the best peanuts while looking in your window at you to make sure you’re watching their performance.

Red Squirrel

Now the dog… he doesn’t get the same pleasure from watching them as I do.  They seem to be his nemesis. His life-long mission; the pursuit and conclusion of that seed thieving, good-for-nothing, tree devil. If he ever caught one he would likely not know what to do with it.  It would just be one point for him against the thousands of points the squirrel has already accumulated.  What fun!

Grey Partridge

Also known as Hungarian Partridge, these chubby little fellows were introduced to North America for the purpose of hunting. They normally inhabit agricultural areas that contain hedges and bushes. I spotted these in the National Park in a place where I frequently see a Rough-legged Hawk.  (Now I know why the hawk has been staying around that area.) They’re plumage makes them quite difficult to spot when there’s no snow.

Grey Partridge

I didn’t realize, until I saw this one, that they will burrow under the snow to get at the seeds on the ground.  It was quite a surprise to see this little head pop out of the snow while I was looking through the lens.

Too Cold For A Fence Post To Be Out

It might be too cold for a fence post but it’s not too cold for the Blue Jays to be out.  I’m so impressed with how the birds flitter about in this stinging cold just like it was any other day.  They don’t appear to even notice the cold.  I, however, am not so hardened to the bitter temperatures. My tolerance for nippy weather is rather minimal and my mind quickly turns to running inside with another arm load of firewood.

The Reject Pile

This is the time of year when I like to go through some of my older photos that I didn’t quite like at the time they were shot but I couldn’t delete them either. Often I will look at older shots with a new eye and reconsider their potential.

This is one of them.  I shot this in May of 2006 just after lobster season opened.  After having a second look at it I wondered why I put it in the reject pile.  Perhaps I’m not as picky as I used to be? Or perhaps I wanted more colour in my photos back then.  I kind of like the lack of colour in this one, now.

I’m beginning to wonder how many photos I deleted over the years that I might have liked after re-visiting it.  Oh well, they’re just little specks of digital dust now.