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Up to 40,000 western thatching ants make up a single colony, and they build quite the ant hill. Formica obscuripes, the western thatching ant, has a red head and black thorax and body.  While a red and black ant is nothing new, the fact that this species' head is the only red part makes it somewhat unique, certainly in this part of the world anyway.  If that wasn't enough, you can always look for what it calls home, a large, dome-shaped mound made of organic material.  I usually see them made of coniferous needles.  If you want to see a good example of one, click here .  Mounds may be up to a meter high, although the ones I have witnessed have been under a foot high. Ants, like most of their species, are foragers, heading out of their nests to collect food or building material.  The building material depends largely upon what is available in the area.  Soil, from the burrows, and plant debris are placed around the colony entrance.  A secondary nes...

My Sekonic flash meter - A strong ally with the Force. I learned about photography back in the late 70s and early 80s.  My first flash was a Metz 402 - powered by a lead-acid shoulder-carried battery pack that had enough power to light up the other end of a hockey rink.  After that came a Vivitar and then a host of Nikon flashes.  Then I got into strobes - big ones, complete with soft boxes and barn doors. I quickly learned that using flash didn't always result in a proper exposure.  As camera sensors began to tie into flash TTL technology, the process became easier, but it wasn't consistent.  Did the flash have enough power to do the job?  You could play with flash output through flash exposure compensation, if your camera and/or flash had the feature.  That always took playing around, and you didn't always know if the exposure was quite right until you got it back to look at the results.   The problem increased significantly when not using ...

How to make your family brighter - use an external flash. Sunny days present a problem when trying to fill dark spaces with flash.  Brightly lit backgrounds with large EV values will demand either small apertures or high shutter speeds, or some combination of both.  If you expose for the shaded areas, you will blow out the background.  Built-in flashes can mitigate shadows a little bit, but unless you are very close to your subject, they just don't have enough power.  The best solution is a powerful external flash. Following the sunny-16 rule, the above photo (shot with slide, I don't have the exif) an ISO of 100 at 1/100th of a second would require an aperture of f/16.  Built-in flashes are only good up to about 2.5 feet at these settings; by 5 feet, the flash is two stops underpowered.  I was probably 10 feet away at the time; the built-in unit would have made no difference (other than catchlights in the eyes).  Even if the shutter speed was increase...

Bush tit nests are unusual.  I photographed this on the Okanagan rail trail near Winfield, BC.   Saturday found a friend and I walking along the Okanagan rail trail near Winfield, BC.  There were several grey-coloured bag-shaped things hanging from several trees beside the path.  I looked at them, wondering what they were.  Possibly debris of some sort that had been blown up into the crown, or maybe some article of clothing that had become discoloured over the years.  Then, it occurred to me.  These had to be the nests of bush tits. The bag or sock nest of bush tits are made from grasses, mosses, and other vegetable matter woven together eith spider webs making them somewhat elastic.  The bowlshaped end is well insulated and is lined with feathers and fur.  The enterance is at the top.  The ones I saw were high up in trees; it would be unlikely for a snake to make its way up there.  The birds take up to a month to make the nest...

Photographed along the Okanagan Rail Trail near Winfield, BC. Have your camera at the ready.  Turned on, longest focal length acquired, focus and release settings appropriate.  Sometimes, you only have a second or two before your quarry is gone. I photographed a Townsend solitaire once before in Edmonton, Alberta.  It was in a wooded area during the winter.  The berries that are left behind by others during the fall are the source of energy.  The above photo is the better of the two shots; partly because I was closer and the lighting was better.  Also, it's always nice to get a side view of a bird instead of a front or rear view. These birds are often found at higher elevations during the breeding season.  At lower elevations, such as where I found this one, they overwinter and eat berries, having a particular fondness for juniper berries.  They tend to switch to insects and other invertebrates during the summer months when they are raising chicks...

Male mountain bluebird on Beaver Lake Road, Winfield. Canada isn't known for having colourful birds.  There are a few that stand out, however.  Red cardinals, wood ducks, and Atlantic puffins are a few of them; here in British Columbia, there is the male mountain bluebird.  The entire male of the species is feathered in sky-blues, darker shades above and lighter below.  And, although not as colourful as the aforementioned species, the sight of one makes you catch your breath.  Anyway you call it, it is beautiful. I photographed this today (Saturday, March 28) along the Beaver Lake road in Winfield, about half an hour outside of Kelowna.  I also saw a western meadowlark, a Townsend solitaire, and a host of other fairly common birds (robins, starlings, song sparrows).  I also saw a female mountain bluebird, although she was farther away and didn't wait around for me to get a photo of her. By next month, the birds should be beginning their nesting, and I ...