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Top:  Yellow-headed blackbird, Clay-coloured sparrow, Yellow warbler, Hairy woodpecker. Middle:  Bonaparte's gull, American goldfinch, Song sparrow, Double-crested courmarant. Bottom:  Red-winged blackbird, Foster's tern, Franklin's gull, Spotted sandpiper. There are about 270 species of bird regularly present in Alberta at some point during the year, and another 150 or so that are accidental, and another 30 or so that are migratory but not present for breeding or are residents.  There are a few more species not included in the above shot that I have photographed or just seen (including corvids, hawks, grebes, and gulls).  If I go back into my files from previous years, I am sure I could come up with about 100 species or so. The great thing about birding in Alberta is that there is such diverse habitat.  Mountains, large lakes, small lakes, ponds, potholes, prairie, woodlands, and more.  There are also very large parks dedicated as habitat for wildlife...

1. My friend, Charles, in an enclosed mobility aid.  2. Walker with 2 wheels.  3.  4-wheeled walker with seat/wheelchair.  4.  Electric mobility aid.  5.  All-terrain mobility aid. Mobility aids.  They can be anything from a simple stick to a complicated, enclosed electric scooter complete with signal, head, and tail lights.  All of them have one purpose - to help those with mobility challenges get around.  So, why are some of them banned? It depends on the jurisdiction.  The main item drawing attention is the enclosed mobility aid, such as a weather-proofed personal cart that gives extra protection to the user, seen in the above photo (1).  They may be deemed too powerful, too large, or too fast.   A scooter/mobility aid does not require insurance to operate.  They are not legal on roadways, in the same way that pedestrians are not.  Yet, as they get larger, enclosed, or more powerful, their place on the si...

Left:  Praying mantis photos from Oregon (top) and Florida (bottom).  Right:  Kelowna (my yard). My favourite insect is the praying mantis.  As a boy, I caught dozens of them in Ontario.  I never saw any while living in the Lower Mainland, but did manage to get photos of them in Oregon and Florida (insets).  Since we have been living in Kelowna, I have caught three or four, one just a few days ago (right image, taken with iPhone 15 Pro).  I haven't seen them for a while, not since our cold snap a few years back that killed the stone fruit for the year.  I had wondered if the insects had survived. The one I found recently was a juvenile (nymph); it was two, maybe two and a half, inches long.  It had another two moults to undergo before becoming an adult.  Oddly enough, it was sitting beside my front door when I saw it.  I took it to my backyard where it was placed on a raspberry plant.   The colour of an European praying ma...

The Lordco Ladies photographed at Kelowna's Canada Day Celebration, 2026. Backlighting is a constant issue for photographers, regardless of whether your subject is human, animal, vegetable, or mineral.  Averaging light renders the foreground dark.  Exposing for the foreground leaves the background overexposed and incurs bloom.  Exposing for the background and filling with flash is often the best way to go, if you have a powerful enough flash.  But what if none of those options work for you?  What solution do you employ? Exposing for the background, especially when it is significantly out of focus as above, makes no sense, so having it slightly overexposed is fine.  This will leave the foreground modestly underexposed, but there is enough latitude in raw dark values to lighten them using a pixel editor like Photoshop.  Lightroom will do the same thing, as will iPhone editing software (although I find that iPhone raw images do not have the save dynamic r...

Kathryn nestled up inside the "O" of the Kelowna sign by the waterfront. We moved to Kelowna five years ago.  We have discovered the city has a lot to offer, and not just during the summer.  Certainly, Kelowna is known for its vibrant summer life.  Beaches, celebrations, eateries, trails, and easy access to the Okanagan and Shuswap.  But it is the winters that I particularly like. With a climate in between Vancouver's oceanic conditions and Alberta's frozen, 8-month-long winter, the Okanagan has mild, dry winters that facilitate outdoor activities and good driving conditions.  Traffic is better too; the large number of summer visitors often results in long drive times between local destinations.  In winter, the reduced population renders most in-city trips to less than 15 minutes. I have written quite a lot on things to do in Kelowna.  Some of my links are below. Canada Day Okanagan Rail Trail Okanagan sunflowers Walking trails in the winter Knox Mount...

It is always a good idea to pay attention to the backgrounds of your photos.  It's easy to get caught up in the moment, especially when shooting at public gatherings where time and opportunity are fleeting.  Such was the case during the Canada Day celebration in Kelowna when I was photographing people.   Photographers love control.  We love to control light, subjects, camera settings, and activity around our shoot.  The one thing we have the most control over is our own position.  Street photography is all about capturing the moment, the person being in their element, and their story.  Positioning yourself to capture them relative to a desirable background is important. The second thing you have direct control over is the equipment you use and the settings.  For the image above, I used my 135 f/1.8 Nikon Z lens and chose an aperture of f/1.8 to make the background blurry.  There is enough detail in it to give some context as to where the...