October 27, 2013: Mallard In Flight

365 Project, Day 110

Here is my day 110 submission to my 365Project:

We are nearly done the DP200 photography workshops with Mike at Clocktower Images...one week to go. This weekend we met as a group at, of all places, Beacon Hill Park (since I never get there, ha ha!). The purpose of today's class was to practice taking photos of birds in flight. So we planted ourselves on the old bridge at Goodacre Lake in Beacon Hill and waited for the action to begin. It took some time for the  birds to start flying back and forth past the 7 of us with our cameras but once they did the shutters were going full force! I managed to grab a few photos I liked of some ducks and gulls in flight. I especially liked the look of this duck's tail feathers fully spread out.



Fun fact of the day:
Beacon Hill Park was designed by, John Blaire, a Scot who immigrated to Canada in 1851 and eventually moved to Victoria in 1881. He was trained as a landscape gardener and in 1889, at the age of 69, he entered a competition to design and build Beacon Hill Park. Blair's design for the stone bridge over Goodacre Lake resembled the bridge he designed in Colorado Springs and another Union Park in Chicago. This bridge still stands today and is one of the main focal points of the park.

To read more about the history of Beacon Hill Park check out this University Libraries, University of Washington webpage.

The stone bridge on Goodacre Lake 1889

The stone bridge at GoodAcre lake today
Source

Juvenile gull feet :)

This young gull was a bit curious about what we were up to

After practicing some shots of birds in motion we discovered this spider so spent a little time practicing our macro photography

Yet more photos of peacocks...they're just so photogenic, especially ones as mellow as these guys were!

October 26, 2013: Playing with water

365 Project, Day 112

Here is my day 112 submission to my 365Project:

I am currently taking a digital photography class (DP200) with Mike at Clocktower Images in Victoria and for one of our assignments we were to take photos of water frozen in motion and blurred. I ended up taking a water fountain photo for my assignment but one of the women in my class did something quite simple and fun...she ran water over a mug in her sink which resulted in some pretty cool photos. 

After that class I decided I would like to do the same to see what results I would get. It wasn't very difficult since I just had to set the camera on a high shutter speed (1/1000s or higher and high ISO 800+); the hardest part was to get lots of light on the subject with the high shutter speeds to get these results. As you'll see below the results varied depending on the glass used and how fast the water was flowing. I also played a bit with post-processing and the colour of the photos. 

Fun fact of the day:

According to Zeiss the largest SLR lens made is the Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar T. It was custom-built for an anonymous customer who had a particular interest in wildlife photography. It weighs 564 lb/265 kg and has a focal length of 1700 mm and was designed for use with a Hasselblad 6x6 medium format camera!

Read more interesting photography facts at this digitalcameraworld webpage.

October 25, 2013: Fall Decay

365 Project, Day 111

Here is my day 111 submission to my 365Project:

I ventured out again this morning to see what was lingering around Beacon Hill Park in the early hours of the day. It was a damp, foggy and cool October day and while on my walk I found one of many leaves starting to decay on the ground. I liked how photographing it with the grey sky for the background made the colour  pop and the details of the leaf stand out. I love this time of year...energy in nature in transition into something new!

Fun fact of the day:
Longer nights and cool evening weather of fall results in great conditions for stargazers. Also, fall is considered "aurora season" according to NASA because geomagnetic storms are twice as frequent at this time of year compared to the annual average. 

To read more interesting facts about fall check out this LiveScience webpage.

Here are some more photos from today's October morning photographic wandering:

For the following four photos I was playing with depth of field and focus to get the dew drops on the pine leaves. I was pretty happy with the results :)

Pine dew

Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna)

The small forested area on Beacon Hill

The small forested area on Beacon Hill

Mushrooms with spider webs and dew

Mushroom Dew

October 21, 2013: L90 Ballena

365 Project, Day 110

Here is my day 110 submission to my 365Project:

Even though I only work occasionally in whale watching in Victoria, I still have many friends working in the industry...which is a good thing for getting out for boat rides when I'm not looking for whales and dolphins offshore and overseas :) This afternoon I went out on King Salmon, Great Pacific Adventures' larger cruising boat. It was good timing to get on the water, especially for this time of year when the weather worsens and things tend to get quieter, because both 'Resident' fish eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaengliae) were around. 

After departing the Victoria Harbour we drove south past Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and then along the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Juan De Fuca to the waters just south of Sooke. We arrived just in time to catch up with the stragglers of the Resident killer whales as they were making their way out west towards the open Pacific Ocean. Although we saw a small group inshore of us we spent most of the brief (but quality) time we had with L90 Ballena a 20 year old female resident killer whale.

L90 Ballena surfacing 
Note: these photos were taken under local whale watch guidelines using a zoom lens and then cropped in.

Interesting fact of the day:
In September 2011 the Centre For Whale Research received multiple reports that L90 was struck by a passing private recreational vessel. Upon hearing this news the staff immediately went out on the water to check on her status. Fortunately, although she was doing very short dives and traveling quite slowly behind the rest of the pod they could see no evidence that she'd been struck by a vessel. Although it was not obvious she was struck there was something troubling about her behaviour.

L90 has been of concern to researchers for a while now. She was always one of my favorite whales as  she is a bit of an underdog often overlooked by both those of us doing the research and those in the whale watching community. She is small for a female whale her age and has an unusual body condition of which we are unsure might indicate illness. Obviously she is still around today, 2 years after this incident, but researchers continue to keep an eye on her. 

To read more on the story of this suspected vessel strike check out these webpages:

• The Centre For Whale Research's account of L90s Alleged Vessel Strike 
• This Huffington Post article
• To see L90 and the rest of the members of her pod in clear photo ID photos check out the Centre For Whale Research L pod ID webpage. You can also become a member and support the fabulous research they have been conducting on this Endangered population since the '70s :)

L90s distinct saddle patch - these are markings researchers use to identify individual killer whales

Race Rocks Ecological Reserve in the October fog

Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeagliae)

If you read my previous post from October 19th you might notice this is the same individual humpback whale, still hanging out near Race Rocks, we observed that day 
Hint...look at the white patches but also notice the dark spot in the white on the left side of the whales fluke

More Steller sea lion (Eumatopia jubatus) action!

Wouldn't want to mess with one of these guys...check out those teeth! Basically they're like bears in the water

October 20, 2013: Baby Peacock!

365 Project, Day 109
Here is my day 109 submission to my 365Project:

I spent some more time today wandering around Beacon Hill Park (it is just across the road from where I live!) to see what sort of shots I could get. You'd think one could get tired of going to the same park most days but it seems I always come across something new or interesting. Today I came across a group of peafowl...peahens and their baby peacocks or peahens. Surprisingly this was the first time I've actually seen peahens with their wee ones walking around the park and it was quite a pleasure! 

Baby peafowl...so cute with the little feather tufts emerging from it's head!

Fun fact of the day:
Peafowl are related to pheasants with the main difference between the two being the plumage. Peafowl are very hardy birds and, with proper care, can live forty to fifty years! This means it's possible that some of the peafowl inhabiting Beacon Hill Park can have been in the park since the 60s or 70s! 

To read more about peafowl check out the United Peafowl Association webpage.

Fall forest floor

In Beacon Hill Park it's dead, old trees like this one that are preserved as a 'wildlife' trees...many wildlife species need old, dead trees for nesting, food, shelter,roosting and perching

A mother peahen keeping an ever watchful eye out to protect her chick

Time to cross the road

Waiting to be sure it's safe to cross

Always look both ways :)