This is why I do it. I go out in my little boat, Snoopy, in the summer months and sometimes I come home with a bad back as a result. I drag my camera gear out there and usually come home with some photos of splashes or maybe nothing at all. But sometimes ... I have the best day of my life. One of those days when, in the middle of the action, I realize it is a day I will … [Read more...]
Black Bears Matter Too – My Experience in the Great Bear Rainforest
Photography is a waiting game. A physically demanding waiting game too. Standing in one place, essentially sitting on a scene, waiting for magic light, or waiting for an animal to appear, makes your body stiffen up and leaves plenty of room for your mind to create doubt. In the Great Bear Rainforest, on the coast of British Columbia, I stood at the edge of a river in the … [Read more...]
Heilan’ Coo, Isle of Skye, Scotland
It’s a Highland Cow! But in Scots (which is an actual language and different from Gaelic), they are known as Heilan’ Coo, and that’s what everyone calls them in Scotland. A little tangent about Scots. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know about Scots. I was expecting Gaelic, but I didn’t know there was also Scots. There’s some disagreement about … [Read more...]
Reasons to Love Vancouver Island in Summer: #4 Dolphins
Are you noticing a trend here? Yes, I love my wildlife photography in summer here in British Columbia. My favourite thing to do is go out in my little boat Snoopy and photograph the marine wildlife, should they choose to visit me. You can't just chase them down. Usually I'll see them off in the distance and go towards the general vicinity, cut the motor, and watch from … [Read more...]
Reasons to Love Vancouver Island in Summer: #3 Bald Eagles
We have a bald eagle nest in the estuary behind our campsite in Campbell River, British Columbia. It's too far away to photograph (for me), but with a spotting scope, we can watch over the eaglets. In spring when we arrive here, we see the adults coming and going with sticks. Once I saw and heard one of the adults break a branch off of a neighbouring tree! There was a great … [Read more...]
Reasons to Love Vancouver Island in Summer: #2 Humpback Whales
Another one of my favourite photography subjects in summertime is seen during my frequent boating trips: Humpback Whales. In fact, I'm seeing more and more of them all the time. They are returning to British Columbia in increasingly higher numbers every year. Commercial whaling in British Columbia ended 50 years ago (the year I was born actually). Since that time, the … [Read more...]
Reasons to Love Vancouver Island in Summer: #1 Orcas
Ahhhh, summertime in BC. It’s truly spectacular. The long summer nights, the mountains, the lakes, the ocean, the waterfalls, the beaches, the trees, the wildlife, and did I mention the boating? Even though Ray and I live a nomadic lifestyle now and have the freedom to go anywhere we want, we return to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, every summer because there is no place … [Read more...]
The Orca’s Welcome
My boat Snoopy is all waxed and shiny, ready for the season here in Campbell River, British Columbia. We just had our first day of boating, and our first day of seeing whales too! What luck to see them on the first day out. Just like how the eagles came to greet us on our first land day, the orcas came to greet us on our first day on the ocean. This one even swam … [Read more...]