April 7, 2014: Spring Leaf Beauty

365 Project, Day 164

Here is my day 164 submission to my 365Project:

I had to get out in the spring sun today so I went for a bike ride around Victoria. My intent was to ride around the harbour and then along the waterfront but I got distracted when I stopped by Fishermen's Wharf and ended up catching up with friends working at Jackson's Ice Cream, Eagle Wing Whale Watching and Kelp Reef Adventures kayaking. Despite the distraction from my ride I still managed to squeeze in a ride and a  short photo session at Beacon Hill Park.

Today's photo is a maple leaf starting to open up with some lovely Bokeh in the background. 

"Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf"

Albert Schweitzer

Maple leaves opening in the spring sunshine   

Bella at work...at Kelp Reef Adventures kayaking which my friends own

Bella and the other kayak dog, Luka. Two perfectly sized kayak dogs :)

Luka keeping an eye on the kayaks

View out to Victoria Harbour from Kelp Reef Adventures at FIsherman's Wharf

Big Leaf maple with daffodils at Beacon Hill Park

More views around Beacon Hill Park

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 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 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 :)

October 15, 2013: On The Move

365 Project, Day 105

Here is my day 105 submission to my 365Project:

I spent another afternoon wandering around Beacon Hill Park to see what I could capture in photos. It was a lot of fun watching the peacocks and squirrels and ducks and the lighting was lovely. Here is a shot I grabbed of this peacock, whose tail and head feather's were just coming in, on the move through the park.  

One of many peafowl inhabiting Beacon Hill Park

Fun fact of the day: 

The term "peacock" is usually used to refer to both male and female birds but, in fact, the males are "peacocks" while the females are called "peahens" and the two combined are called "peafowl".

Read more about Peafowl on the National Geographic Peacock webpage.

 

It was lots of fun watching the Eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) running around grabbing nuts and stashing them

Going down for another nut :)