Last night I told Ray that I thought I had run out of hope. It’s been over 2 years since I developed an auto-immune disease - one that is supposed to go away someday - and while I am ever so slowly improving, it’s been a long haul. So wasn’t I surprised this morning when I received my “poem of the day” - the first one I received since I signed up for it as a motivation … [Read more...]
Long Exposure Bird Photography
One of my favourite watering holes on the pacific flyway is Whitewater Draw in Arizona. Here Sandhill Cranes arrive by the tens of thousands every winter. It’s a phenomenon I’ve witnessed a few times before (you can see the photos from those trips here.) On my last visit I made over a thousand photos on the first day and, after reviewing them, I realized they were … [Read more...]
Dolphin Acrobatics and Photography in British Columbia
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...]