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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...

Little girl trying to feed a duck - at the Kelowna Canada Day celebration. A photo can be about what something looks like, but it can also be about an event that is unfolding.  It makes me think of Gary Larson's The Far Side , where each panel is about some event that will happen, is happening, or had happened.  The purpose of his work is to elicit humour, while most of us are taking a snapshot of a moment in time that conveys an action or sentiment. While a video shows exactly what happens and leaves little to the imagination, a single image allows one to project cause or effect.  The challenge is in capturing that moment, and there is no better way to do that than to take a series of photos and use the one that best defines the event. There are pros and cons to this, as the perfect moment in time may be only a fraction of a second.  Dozens of images may be captured, each being achieved with a press of the shutter button or choosing a release mode that captures imag...

Left:  Mill Creek Falls.  Right:  My friend, Charles, and his dog, Randy. As falls go, they're not very impressive.  Yet, that's what makes them all the more inviting.  Not too high, not too much current, and a plunge pool just the right depth.  If the water were a little warmer, you would find people jumping into the basin ( click here to see my blog on that subject). It was warm yesterday, reaching the mid 30's.  The path to the falls isn't very long, maybe a 15 minute walk, but it is pleasant and filled with the sound of birdsong.  And then there is the sound of water.  See the video below that I took of the falls, and listen to the soothing sound of water as it cascades over the precipice.  The second part of the video was taken above the falls, with the water tumbling along its rocky path. My friend, Charles, and I have always enjoyed hiking trails.  We have done the West Coast Trail together (twice), the Juan de Fuca Trail, a...

Pale swallowtail butterfly in my garden, taken with my iPhone 15 Pro. Like most insects (except true flies), butterflies have four wings.  Although they appear to only have two, each side is actually equipped with a pair.  You can see it more clearly on the butterfly I photographed a few years ago while visiting Palm Springs. Checkerspot butterfly photographed in 2023.  Notice there are four wings. The forewings are the most important in flight; the hindwings are less important and can take a moderate amount of damage before rendering a butterfly flightless.  Many butterflies, like the swallowtails, have small projections coming off the rear wings that can be sacrificed to help facilitate escape from a predator. While a butterfly may be able to fly with less than 50% of its original wing area, a more important consideration is a balance between both sides.  If the hindwings are both totally removed, a butterfly may still be able to fly.  However, if the lef...

Possibly Athous haemorrhoidalis  - a native of Europe now established in parts of BC I have always enjoyed finding click beetles.  They are small, harmless, and have a fascinating display when they are turned upside down - they flick themselves into the air with an audible "click."   The larvae of click beetles are wireworms.  Like all beetle larvae, they are grubs.  These look similar to ground beetle larvae but without the front jaws, and they have a curled end to their abdomen.  You can find examples of the adult and larval forms here . The click beetle adults themselves are not a problem.  It's the wireworm larvae that cause damage.  They are soil-dwelling grubs that feed on the seeds, roots, and tubers of plants.  Many of them are pests of crops, especially on the prairies.  I have wireworm damage in my vegetable garden, where my potatoes and carrots have holes drilled in them.  If you want to see an example of wireworm da...

Canadian tiger swallowtail butterfly, Leduc, Alberta. Although I love good prime telephotos, the truth is that they can be a little limiting, literally.  The minimal focus point is often five or six feet away.  Not a problem with birds, as they rarely ever get that close to you, but it is a different story with my more diminutive subjects.   I recently acquired a Nikon Z 180-600 mm zoom lens.  I have been shooting a lot with it lately, exploring its features and enjoying the slightly longer reach it has over my 500 prime.  It has a similar shortcoming (pun intended), in that its minimum focus point is almost eight feet away at 600 mm.  However, when zoomed in at 180 mm, the focus distance decreases to just over four feet. According to Nikon, the reproduction ratio of the lens remains the same throughout its entire zoom range.  Now, I take exception to that fact because the distances and the zoom values don't align.  At 180 mm, the minimum foc...