All My Blogs

Skutz Falls near Duncan, BC.  I used both an iPhone and a mirrorless camera to photograph them. Making a long exposure with an iPhone's default camera involves using the Live Photo app and converting the 1.5 second video into a long exposure format through software.  The result is often pleasing, but I don't like the fact that I can't do this in iPhone's raw format (DNG) and transferring the emulated image is a pain.  Mirrorless cameras allow you to pick an aperture and shutter speed to create a long exposure image without software intervention. The bright day limited my mirrorless camera to a shutter speed of 1/5th of a second even with a polarizer and an ISO of 64.  The longer exposure, even though simulated, of the iPhone rendered a more attractive image.  However, the fact that wasn't in a raw format limited the dynamic range and ability to extract details from the shadows.  Even if I could have managed to somehow shoot in raw format, the fact is that i...

Which photo is shot without a polarizer, altered in post , or shot with a polarizer? Three photos.  One was taken without a polarizer filter.  That same image was then altered in Photoshop by selecting the sky using AI.  The third was a different photo shot with a polarizer.  Can you tell which one is which? The first one (left) was photographed without a polarizer and the second one was a separate photo using a polarizer filter.  The last image (right) used the original and adjusted it by selecting the sky (AI select) and altering the image using Levels. You can see the differences made using the polarizer.  The bench is a slightly different colour as some of the polarized blue light from the sky was removed.  The tree in the background is he same; the greens are a little truer.  The most glaring change is the reflection off the water as there is less reflection. However, if you don't have a polarizer and want to simulate its affect on the image,...

Juvenile bushtit (left) and adult male (right). I came across a small group of darting birds in Victoria, BC.  They were bushtits, but something was different.  There was a juvenile, one that had just recently fledged.  It wasn't joining the others in their spasmodic ramblings, but rather seemed content perching in place.  I often come across bushtits but have never seen one so young.  The dark eye suggested it was a male, as was the adult I photographed. Bushtits build remarkable hanging nests.  I have never seen one, but they resemble a small, long burlap sack with a hole at the top ( click here to see one ).  It takes them a month or so to build one.  I think it is amazing that a bird so small can construct such a unique and relatively large nest.  The nest is built using spider webs and plant material it finds, including bits from the tree it hangs in.  The same nest is used if a second brood is raised that year. Females have light-c...

Totem pole in Duncan, BC.  I shot these with my iPhone 15 to illustrate perspective. I quite like my iPhone 15 Pro's cameras, all three of them.  Each one (0.5x, 1x, and 3x) offers a different perspective and even a certain amount of ability over the others.   The 0.5x camera has a relative focal length of 14 mm which makes it an ultra wide-angle lens/camera.  It has an increadibly wide field of view and not only takes in a huge amount of scenery, it also causes massive distortions.  You can see that the wings of the totem pole on the left appear much smaller than the two on the right.  The distortion also makes it an undesirable choice as the subject does not have the same presence as in the other two images. The 1.0 camera (middle image) is the default camera for iPhone.  It has a 48 mp sensor and, at full resolution, allows a 48 mp raw image to be taken.  The other two cameras can produce a 12 raw image.  The 1.0x camera has a relativ...

My search to identify this bird came up with numerous false answers. I have to admit, when I see a bird I can't identify, I am always hopeful it is a species I haven't seen before.  Sometimes it is easy identifying the bird, but often checking my books and using the internet proves either faulty or fruitless.  This was the case in this photo.  What bird was this? It was gray, about the size of a robin, and was eating berries.  It seemed to have dark primary feathers, no eye ring, and a dark beak.  I entered those qualities in Google and was rewarded with the answer of a gray catbird.  Except there was no black cap.  I have photographed them before (see below), and that couldn't be it. Grey catbird I photographed in Osoyoos some years ago.  Notice the black cap. So then I pasted the image into the Google search engine and it came back with a juvenile starling.  However, there were also photos of a Clark's nutcracker as other options.  The...

I rotated this counter-clockwise 90 degrees - they climb up a trunk vertically. The brown creeper is a small bird on par with chickadees and nuthatches.  It is similar to them as it often frequents conifers and takes any morsel it finds.  It is also seldom stationary, moving quickly from spot to spot.  The difference, apart from appearance, is that it climbs up the trunk vertically while it forages for food. The three species (creeper, chickadee, and nuthatch) cover the trees completely in their quest.  Nuthatches work from the top downward, chickadees are adept at scrounging through branches, and the creepers go upwards looking for anything the nuthatches may have missed. Admittedly, I have not seen many brown creepers, certainly not in comparison to chickadees and nuthatches, and my photographs of them have never been very good.  The reason for this is threefold.  A low frequency in sightings, the quick and darting movements, and the fact that they always...