All My Blogs

The total mass of ants alone on the plant surpasses the mass of humans.  There are about 400,000 species of beetle representing about a quarter of all known animal species on Earth.  Many species of insects are important pollinators and are responsible for the pollination of over one-third of all cultivated crops.  Insects clean up dead plant and animal matter, returning important nutrients to the environment.  The sheer number and mass of insects are profoundly important to the ecology of the planet, they are one of the most important links between plants and secondary consumers. We tend to be short-sighted in our quest to control nature.  We see an immediate goal and do not look into how actions will create consequences later on.  It is similar to playing a game of chess where a player thinks only one move ahead and does not consider how that move will impact later events.  A good example of that is the use of DDT back in the 1940's where, as a gener...

There is something very pleasant about a warm spring day's rain.  The freshness of the air afterward and the enhanced beauty that comes with nature shaking off accumulated dust are compelling.  In the lull that occurred between passing storms, I found myself racing about with my macro gear taking advantage of those elements. I find irises remarkably beautiful but hard to photograph.  Their complex blooms are both large and deep with the pedals both enhancing the beauty and blocking it from the smitten photographer.  They also boast a colourful assortment of pastels and lend themselves to the question that many of us many desk-jockeys pose when post-processing: How much do I increase saturation? Most pixel-editing applications possess a variety of tools that allow the user to alter an image's form and appeal.  I shoot RAW files and convert them later into JPEGs and TIFFs for storage or later manipulation.  I typically pick a select number of shots and put th...

There are few birds in North America that are quite as attractive as the cedar waxwing.  From the bold yellow end of their tail feathers to their rakish mask, they exude a certain elegance.  Even the spots of red on their wings suggest an element of roguishness.  And to top it all off is a soft palette of colours transitioning from yellow to brown and gray. Cedar waxwings are primarily fruit eaters.  They can be pests, as any blueberry farmer would point out, for their love of berries is singular above all else.  You would think that they would migrate with the growing season, but they are permanent residents at mid-latitudes from the US-Canada border down to the central US.  Winter finds a population south of that; I have seen them in Texas in January.  In summer, they fly north and are present throughout most provinces. What business do these fruit-oholics have being so far north during winter?  Many berries are not terribly palatable; these inc...

A brown bear.  Not what I thought I would find as I made my way along the trails that wind through the property I was staying at this last summer.  We were both in a state of shock and disbelief. Every day for a week and a half I would traipse through the country paths that existed on the farm we were staying at.  It was always a pleasure.  I brought my camera and long lens with me and a second body equipped with macro equipment.  There was quite a variety of birds to photograph and a pleasing assortment of insects and other invertebrates just waiting to be digitized. I would explore the farm once, twice, or even three times a day.  Changes in the light and activity of the creatures awaiting discovery were different each time.  Birds, deer, rodents, and a variety of diminutive finds filled my viewfinder and memory cards. Occasionally, my wanderings would yield little in the way of photographs, but the experience was always pleasant; I am always at home...

The belted kingfisher is one of my favourite birds.  Although they are not overly colourful and are honestly very hard to approach, their raucous nature allows easy identification.  They are not shy to perform when being watched, as long as you are at a distance or have been well-positioned inside a blind for quite some time.  They typically have preferred perches along a wooded shoreline; sometimes they will use nearby electrical wires strung between poles where they can watch surface waters for a possible meal.  I have also seen them hove in midair over a hunting spot awaiting the right time to strike. Their method of fishing is well-crafted.  They peruse their environment from a perch located high above a water body.  When they see signs of activity, something typically minnow-sized, they will spring into action.  Diving down, almost vertically, they plunge into the water, typically completely disappearing beneath its surface, only to rise moments l...

  There are few birds present during the winter that elicit a sense of joy more than what chickadees can.  Always active, flitting from perch to perch, they busy themselves with the task of foraging.  It's not only the way that they go about this which embodies a sense of delight, it is the cheerful twittering that accompanies it all.   I was out for a walk yesterday with my camera enjoying a brief hiatus from the otherwise frigid days that have plagued western Canada this year.  It's hard to enjoy nature when you can't feel your face and your fingers are like the icicles that hang from rooflines.  Trekking along a riparian woodland path, I was pleased to hear the familiar sounds of happiness from active chickadees.  They were busy gleaning morsels from branches, taking seeds from feeders, and singing away from their lofty perches. You usually don't find just one chickadee by itself.  They tend to congregate in small flocks when it's not the ...

Exposure is a key concept in photography.  It takes just the right balance of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to produce a correct exposure.  Although RAW images and, to some point, JPEGs, do allow a certain amount of correction post-shot, it is always best to bring the best image you can into post-production.   Getting the correct exposure is trickier than it sounds.  Cameras come with a light meter that interprets reflected light to generate an exposure setting based on selected criteria.  Those values aren't necessarily right though.  Harshly lit scenes, snow, sand, flash, and a host of other factors can cause the camera-generated exposure settings to be off.  Sometimes by as little as a third of a stop (± 1/3) up to or over five full stops (± 5).  So, how do you know when to alter the settings, and by how much? There is a myriad of answers to that.  Bracketing, creating an HDR image, estimating exposure, using a gray card, using an ...

It's not very often that I get a chance for a shot like this.  While hiking with a friend at Telford Lake in Leduc two days ago, The din of an approaching aircraft got my attention in a way few other things could.  As I looked up I saw an enormous plane passing overhead, literally, and not all that far away either.  It turns out our hike was in direct line with the landing runway at the nearby airport.  It was a good thing I had my camera ready. I was equipped to photograph birds.  I was using my 80-400 mm zoom lens, a favourite of mine, and had my camera set to photograph in a snowy, backlit environment (on manual mode, about plus two stops above metered neutral).  As the plane approached I brought the lens to bear but discovered it was too close to photograph.  Zooming out to its minimum focal length, I managed to get a few shots off before it roared past us. I find it pays off to be prepared when photographing wildlife.  You never know what wil...

 Most people familiar with long lenses will undoubtedly be aware of the value of vibration reduction.  The formula for recommended minimum handheld shutter speeds is 1/focal length.  That, of course, is relative focal length and the actual focal length has to be multiplied by the crop factor in case a smaller-sensor camera is employed.  In case I lost you there, let me explain a bit before I go on. A full-frame sensor is the same size as the negative you got when shooting with a 35mm SLR film camera.  It measures 24x36 mm.  It is the basis for considering "crop factor."  Many digital cameras have sensors smaller than this, the APS-C format is one of the most common.  It has a crop factor of 1.5 (1.6 in Canon), which means the actual focal length of any lens on the camera must be multiplied by that value to determine what the field of view would be on a full-frame camera.  So an 18 mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera would provide the same field...

Looking at these two birds, it would be easy for someone to mistake them for two separate species.  I have photographed song sparrows in the Lower Mainland for many years; their sparrow-like shape, brown and gray feathering, and noticable chest spot telltale signs of identification.  Then, while visiting Alberta, I came across a bird with a familiar silhouette and a definitive chest spot, but its colouring was all wrong.  Could it be a different species? It turns out it was not.  As I researched the varients in the song sparrow, I discovered something fascinating.  It turns out that there are "some 52 described forms" and 24 different subspecies.  Song sparrow are "one of the most regionally variable birds in North America." (Click here for reference).  No wonder there was an element of confusion. Given the variation in subspecies, it made me question if their song was standardized across their range or if it reflected regional differences.  I can...

  I found large colonies of the ant species Formica ulkei , sometimes called the Ulkei field ants or more generically thatching ants, this summer as I was hiking around a farm near Elk Island National Park.  This particular variety of ant seems to prefer marshy environments; it builds large mounds with multiple exit points and are aggressive hunters for foods, most notably insects.  They may be considered either beneficial or pests, depending on the environment they are found in.   The beneficial aspect of the ant is in regard to its ability to control local insect populations.  They also aerate the ground, facilitate drainage, and promote soil building.  The pest side of the equation involves their thatching habit.  Thatching refers to the building up of a nest by adding layers to the structure above ground.  Nests can become quite large and present a problem to manicured lawns such as golf courses.  They "farm" aphids and use the sugar...

  The variety of wasps is truly amazing.  I am not talking about things like yellow jackets, hornets, or even the robust tarantula hawk.  No, I am referring to the plethora of other wasp families and sub-families, one of which is the square-headed wasp.  The website bugguide.net mentions that there are about 520 species of this particular type of wasp (click here ) in the US and Canada.  The diversity is amazing. The particular genus of square-headed wasp shown above was photographed east of Edmonton.  It belongs to the genus Lestica .  The adults collect adult moths and place them in holes it finds in wood.  It lays an egg on the newly stored larder and seals the hole up.  The young larva feeds on the provisions and then pupates, waiting for spring to emerge and begin the cycle all over again. I think most people consider wasps to live in paper nests, to be communal in nature, and to possess a rather potent sting.  Most species of wasp ...

Upon moving to Kelowna, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a female praying mantis.  While exploring my backyard, I felt a peculiar sensation on my leg; looking down I found it was caused by one of my favourite insects crawling about on my shin.  Somehow I had managed to pick it up as I was surveying my newly acquired kingdom. As a boy in Ontario, I regularly saw them and would collect and observe them for long periods of time - one of the few things able to hold my somewhat narrow attention span.  Their size, agility, and relative calmness when being held were all-captivating.  The males are green and have wings; the females are brown but are devoid of any flying appendages.  Mantids have a singular ability to capture and devour prey, usually other insects, another behaviour I frequently observed in my youth. The European mantis was brought to New Youk by accident in 1899.  Like so many other introduced species, it thrived and spread throughout the eas...

An initial glimpse might lead the casual viewer to mistake a grackle for a crow.  Their silhouette and size are remarkably similar and it takes just the right light to pick up on the bird's purple sheen during the breeding season.  Whereas crows are ubiquitous, the common grackle is found in northern climates only during the summer and is not present west of the Rocky Mountains.  The greatest single morphological difference between the two is the pair of yellow eyes grackles boast. Grackles are related to blackbirds.  Brewer's blackbird resembles a reduced version of the grackle and shares similarities in eye colour, purple sheen, and central North American range.  However, these blackbirds are common west of the Rockies and are not found in the eastern states or provinces. Grackles have a greatly varied diet.  They are very fond of grain and are significant pests of corn crops.  They take invertebrates typically found on the ground or just under its s...

While walking in a wooded area bordered by marsh, I heard an unusual bird call.  It was one I was not familiar with but it definitely held my interest.  Like following an animal wearing a tracking collar I zeroed in on the oft-repeated sound.  My camera was at the ready.  I have learned that taking time to set up a shot the moment you need it often results in missed opportunities. There in front of me was a marsh-loving bird I had never seen before.  I always find such creatures captivating; I think the long curved bills are what do it for me.  I thought it was a snipe, and as I contemplated that identification I photographed it as best as I could through the vegetation.  I didn't want to scare it from its roost and so left it in peace after the encounter.  Later, back in my RV with the images at my disposal, I verified my find. I should mention that the only reason I could identify it in the field was because of the number of times I have glimpse...

The above photo was taken by me in 1991.  My wife, Kathryn, and I were on our Canada trip and hit nine of the ten provinces (missed Newfoundland).  It was a whirlwind event which took us some 21,000 km and allowed us to some of the country we love and grew up in.   My career as a teacher was just starting out.  We had been married for three years and the idea of children had not yet entered our minds.  At this point I had a Nikon FE2 camera and a single lens.  The above image was made on slide film.  We were living in a townhouse just recently purchased and paying a mortgage of 11%, something that seems ludicrous today.  Our only pet was a hamster. Fast forward to 2022 where I am now retired from my profession of choice.  My children have both left the nest, so to speak, and my granddaughter just celebrated her first birthday.  I haven't shot a roll of film for almost 20 years but still use a Nikon camera, albeit it's a wee bit more...

 Ichneumon wasps are those strange-looking insects with thin waists, long "tails" (females only), and long antennae.  There are thousands of species and many different genera.  The one I photographed above belongs to the short-tailed ichneumons, genus Ophion.  It is estimated there are somewhere around 48 species in North America, many of them with a range covering that entire region.  Worldwide there are over 1000 species. Ichneumons are insects whose larvae parasitize other insects.  As such, they are important organisms in the control of pest insect populations.  Ophiods almost always parasitize caterpillars.  The female lays a single egg into the body of its host.  It uses an egg-laying appendage, the ovipositor, to do the job.  The ovipositor in this genus is very small for ichneumons; other genera have ones that are longer than their bodies (most notably stump-stabbers).  Short-tailed ichneumons may actually "sting" humans, al...

 While visiting Leduc, where my son lives, I came across a jet on display at a local park.  Always enthralled by such aviation displays, I photographed it from a variety of angles using different lenses and focal lengths.  Later on I processed the images using Photoshop and decided to create the illusion of flight. The bottom left image shows the actual placement of the jet.  It took me about an hour of careful work using the eraser tool to separate the aircraft from its background.  I do this using a small eraser tool with soft edges; the shift key allows me to make straight runs to ensure clean cuts.  It is precision work.  Afterwards, using the selection tools, I removed the undesired elements of the shot.  The result was the second image in the bottom panel. I then needed to find a burner flame for the tail emissions and did an image search on Google.  I found one big enough and in the right orientation to qualify and pasted the image ont...

  Backlit situations are common in photography.   If the background has more light falling on it or coming from it than the foreground (subject), we say that the subject is backlit.  The degree of backlighting really depends on the situation. The culprit is almost always the sun, this is especially true when your camera is facing this celestial giant and the shadows it casts are headed in your general direction.  Corrective measures are needed. The changes I am referring to involve changing one or more of the three variables of exposure.  Those would be shutter speed, aperture, or ISO.  When shooting in automatic modes this means using your exposure compensation button (+/-) and estimating the amount of compensation required.  Most cameras allow variation in the exposure by three stops, and I find that a setting of +1 or +2 is often enough to effectively counter backlighting.  When shooting into the sun, however, a value of +3 or higher may b...

I have lived in the Lower Mainland (BC, Vancouver area) for over 30 years and have never seen a blue jay there, in spite of the distribution record saying that they are present.  I have, on occasion,  seen them in Alberta and other areas of BC but have never captured an image of one, that is until now.   While visiting a park in Alberta this winter I came upon one as it flew from tree to tree, no doubt foraging for food.  Blue jays eat a wide variety of food stuffs and in the winter will take seeds and nuts where it can find them.  They have been known to store caches of acorns for later retrieval.  They are also frequent visitors of bird feeders and suet. I managed to snap off two dozen shots as I followed it moving from perch to perch.  The bird always had its back to me and I could not get any profile or head on shots; this was the best image I managed to get.  When photographing birds I will come away with a lot of photographs, many or al...

The image to the left was originally captured on a full-frame mirrorless camera sporting a 50 megapixel sensor.  The original image was approximately 5500x8300 pixels in size.  The downside of such large photos is the amount of memory a single image takes up; the raw file is about 72 megabytes.  It doesn't take many of these to fill up a memory card or even some of the smaller hard drives. The advantage of the massive pixel depth comes in resolution.  A full-sized image allows significant cropping.  The progression of images to the right shows a gradual enlargement part of the scene.  Examine the third image; you will just see a hint of the woodpecker near the top of the frame.  You can see it relatively clearly in the fourth panel.  The image farthest to the right clearly shows a male harry woodpecker (you can just make out the red crown).   Most of the images I have captured over the last half-dozen years have been with 20 and 24 megap...

The Muskrat - Ondatra zibethicus  Ondatra is the genus to which muskrats belong.  What's amazing is that they are the only species present in the entire genus and that the rodent that they are most closely related to is the vole.  Rats (Rattus) have about 20 species while mice (Mus) are represented by hundreds of species.  Muskrats are a new world species, having an original distribution of Canada and the US (with a trace of presence in Mexico).  They have been introduced to South America, Asia, and Europe where their populations are expanding.   The species name, zibethicus ,  refers to the musky odor these creatures can produce from anal glands originating near the base of the tail.  It is interesting to note that the musk produced by these creatures is used in marking territory; its production is at a zenith during the breeding season.  A similar musk (castoreum) is produced by its larger relative, the beaver, and has been used in a s...

Sphaerophoria - flower fly common in Alberta  Flower flies, also known as hoverflies, are common throughout North America.  The one above was photographed in eastern Alberta.  Their name comes from their fondness for pollen and nectar, something they have in common with bees, and for their ability to hover effortlessly in one place for extended periods of time. This particular genus (Sphaerophoria) is also a bee mimic.  The black and yellow abdominal stripes are reminiscent of their sting-equipped cousins.  Although harmless, would-be predators often give it a wide berth because of the risk of incurring a violent physical and chemical assault.  Mimicry is a common practice in nature where a defenseless organism (the mimic) gains some protection by posing as another species (the model) with serious defensive capabilities.  Usually, a colourful display warning predators off is involved. It turns out that many flower flies have other attributes that make ...

 Have a look at the two images above.  They are shot from the same angle at approximately the same time, within a few seconds of each other.  The exposure value on both is the same, although the aperture, shutter speed, and point of focus are different.  The effect on the image of these changes is obvious. Depth of field is affected by a large number of factors, but the main ones that the photographer should be aware of include focal length, aperture, and point of focus.  Long lenses (telephotos) have notoriously narrow depths of field.  As focal lengths increase depth of field decreases; they have an inverse relationship.  Aperture and depth of field also have an inverse relationship, depending on how you look at it.  Larger f/numbers equate with smaller aperture sizes. The above photo was taken with a 500 mm lens.  Since it was shot on an APS-C sensor camera, the relative focal length is 750 mm.  The image on the left was shot at f/5.6...

 The eared grebe - I love photographing creatures while sitting in my kayak, and this eared grebe was an excellent subject to train my camera on.  Both images were shot in manual exposure mode.  This tends to be the rule for me when photographing wildlife rather than the exception.  There are numerous benefits to choosing manual over an auto or program mode.  The key is to understand the nature of light and how it impacts the scene. I would not encourage you to use manual exposure mode if you are not comfortable with its demands.  Simply put, you are more likely to achieve better results on (A)perture priority or (P)rogram mode if (M)anual mode eludes you.  I used these alternative modes for years until I became effective shooting in manual. Notice the two scenes above.  The left image is photographed with the sun at my back; there is little shadow on the bird.  The water, however, is reflecting the bright sky behind the grebe and is throwing...

  Called by many other names, this insect is common throughout North America. Also called the "Wee Harlequin Bug", this individual was one of many hundreds I found infesting the lilac plant it had settled on.  Although they were not superficially visible, it took only a cursory inspection to discover their presence.   Stink bugs are flattened true bugs (order Hemiptera) that can secret a foul odor when threatened.    Scent glands, located on the abdomen and thorax, can release a noxious substance.  Even ingesting a stink bug can be an unpleasant experience for a predator, which explains the vibrant colours present on some species. All true bugs are tube feeders, using piercing mouth parts to draw the fluids out of whatever their food of choice is.  Most stink bugs are herbivorous in nature and extract plant juices from leaves, stems, and other plant components.  The twice-stabbed stink bug feeds on a wide variety of plants and is found throug...

The value of photographic clichés. What makes one photo better than another?  There is no shortage of answers and you will find that everyone has an opinion even though most would not be able to tell you exactly what their criteria are.  This is precisely the reason that traditional compositional techniques still hold their value.  The fact is that they work. If you are a student of photography you probably know about compositional guidelines such as the rule of thirds, framing, using lines, critical focus points, depth of field, and so on.  The above image utilizes many of these devices and, to me, work together to produce a relatively pleasing image. If you are not familiar with such vehicles of image enhancement I would suggest that you take the time to learn their basics.  Others may find that these techniques are limiting in nature.  If you are restricted in compositional endeavors, how is it possible to produce unique works of art, to think outside th...

Canada Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Lilac   © E.Svendsen I will confess that, of the many thousands of butterfly photos I have taken over the years, I have never taken one quite like this.  Part of the reason is that you have to be at the right place at the right time.  There is a much better chance of getting a great shot when there are many subjects to choose from.  The fact that the adult population peaked at the same time the lilacs were in full bloom was an added bonus. Capturing that one-in-a-million photograph requires a certain amount of luck, but the truth is that it usually involves a great deal of time, effort, and having the right equipment.  Having the weather on your side is an added bonus, especially when photographing insects that are averse to rain and the cold.   One of the best ways to improve the odds of getting that image is to spend time in or near gardens endowed with flowering plants that attract insects.  Planting s...

Sexual dimorphism within dragonflies As a child, I used to throw small stones into the air and watch with glee as nearby dragonflies would chase after its plummetting form.  The allure of these amazing insects did not stop there; the aerial aerobics and other antics kept me transfixed for hours at a time.  Even as an adult pushing past sixty years, I still find them mesmerizing. I came across these red (male) and yellow (female) dragonflies earlier this summer while visiting a pond east of Edmonton, Alberta.  The warm spring day produced the perfect conditions for many insect species.  Males and females darted through the air searching for prey and looking for mates. The cherry-faced meadowhawk is a smaller dragonfly.  The males are a deep red in colour with black underparts.  Females and juveniles are yellow.  Both damselflies and dragonflies breed in the same manner.  The male has a pair of claspers at the terminal end of their abdomen.  Wi...