All My Blogs

Most of the time when I find great blue herons their chest plumes (the long string-like feathers that come off the lower neck and upper chest) are pressed tight against their body.  They also have back plumes and head plumes that form a crest.  These plumes are at their longest and most dramatic during the breeding season where they are used in courtship displays.  I photographed the above heron three days ago (March 24)  which is the time herons are involved in nest building in the lower mainland.   Great blue herons are monogamous on a yearly basis but find new mates the following year.  Along with courtship displays involving their long plumes (you can see the chest and back ones on the above specimen) they intertwine necks, vocalize with gutteral croaks, and the male will present sticks to the female who is involved in nest building.  Even though the herons are clearly dedicated to nest construction, mating, and egg tending (both sexes do this...

I have thousands of bird photographs that I have taken over the years.  If one was to go through the images by date a gradual improvement would be noticed.  I can safely say that my photos have improved over time.  That's not to say that I have arrived; far from it.  I think that there is still a lot I can achieve and look forward to improving my performance and collection in the future.  I have formulated a number of opinions that have enormous value for the wildlife photographer.  Here are some of my musings. Good glass (lenses) are more important than good cameras.  If you are uncertain where to spend your photography money, put it towards good quality optics.   Spring is an exceptional time for birding.  Migration, breeding behaviours, breeding plumage, chicks and nests, and vocalizations are more likely to produce exceptional images. Parks are good places to photograph birds; they are somewhat habituated to people and that means you...

I have only seen Northern Harriers a few times, but each opportunity afforded some speculation as to its behaviour.  They seem to cruise at low altitude, scarcely a few meters above the ground, and always over marshy plains next to a large water body.  I saw one last year along the Pitt River in Maple Ridge as it surveilled the landscape beneath it.  Yesterday I was out at Steveston in the far reaches of Richmond and enjoyed another encounter. The large size of the raptor, its distinctive white rump, and the banded tail substantiated my conclusion on its identity.  The brown shades underwing testifies to the individual's sex; a female.  She apparently spends a great deal of her day scanning the area of her domain looking for prey.  They mainly consume small mammals such as mice, voles, rats, and rabbits but will take birds and even grasshoppers.  Unlike other hawks, the northern harrier keeps low to the ground.  They have exceptional hearing and c...

In the Lower Mainland, it is unusual to visit a local water body and find turtles.  I have lived here for thirty years and rarely seen them.  Yet, it was only a few days ago that I spotted some in Maple Ridge (click here for blog).  What was extra unusual in today's viewing was the fact that there were two separate species present.  Western painted turtles (left) are native to BC.  Red-eared sliders (right) are an introduced species and not native.  In fact, they are considered invasive. With globalization and the burgeoning pet industry, we have seen a large number of introduced species take hold in environments where they never existed before.  Such occurrences may be beneficial to the local ecosystem, may be neutral, or may be harmful.  Harmful species are often identified as invasive.  Essentially that means that they take food and habitat away from native species.  The two main reasons for the harm they cause are their rapid rate o...

A proud father, a mom that is feeling blessed, and a loved child could well depict the moment in time captured by my camera.  My granddaughter, Nora, turned one year old in January of this year and we were there to celebrate the occasion.  Surrounded by her parents, both sets of grandparents, and her great-grandmother, she was only aware of those who deeply cared for her and the about-to-be demolished cake.  Her basic needs were well tended to.  Full tummy, safe, surrounded by loved ones, and happy.  This is the way it should be. Then Russia invaded Ukraine.  Food became hard to come by.  Loved ones were separated as the men went off to defend their homeland, possibly to never return.  The warm, dry, and hospitable surroundings that were commonplace became rare parameters with uncertainty about what tomorrow would bring.  Over three million refugees, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were suddenly fleeing for their lives.  Many we...

  If you have ever been to Banff National Park there is a good chance that you have been to Morraine Lake.  It is a jewel amongst the amazing peaks and valleys that the area has to offer, but it is not alone.  If you follow the trail that goes southeast from the parking lot you will eventually come to a pair of lakes.  They are the Consolation Lakes.  The channel that drains them is Babel Creek and is the water body you see in the above picture. Like most tourists, I will travel to popular destinations that attract the masses.  Getting there early is always a good idea as the light tends to be better and there are few people to get in the way of photos.  For me, it doesn't stop there.  I like to go beyond the typical experience and explore lesser-known venues.  A good example was the experience I had visiting Morraine Lake.  I did thoroughly enjoy my visit there and came away with some stunning photos, but it was my journey along the pat...

I find there are at least two parts of me that wrestle with each other every time I get behind a camera.  First, there is the creative side that wants the photo to look good; applying compositional axioms that have been tried and tested over the years.  This would include things like framing, rule of thirds, pointing with lines, and so on.  This usually means that I am searching for a meaningful frame of reference while assessing light and what position to photograph from.  This often requires time and forethought; something that many of my subjects cares very little about.   Then there is the scientist part of me that wants to record an image reflecting some aspect of an organism's life history, appearance, and environment.  The photo should convey information about the nature of the subject.  Often it involves simply about what it looks like and capturing fine details about its morphology.  It is always nice to incorporate behaviours into t...

The western painted turtle is native to British Columbia and is found at irregular intervals in freshwater bodies throughout the southern half of the province.  It was not the only native species of turtle present, as the Pacific pond turtle used to exist in western waters as well.  That species is extinct now in Canada; its demise very possibly attributable to human activities.  One of the greatest threats to native populations of any variety is the introduction of foreign species that out-compete and/or are aggressive towards them.  Such organisms are called invasive species; the red-eared slider is one such example. The red-eared slider is a freshwater turtle found in the Mississippi basin of the southern US.  Robust and easily bred, they have become the foremost choice for pet terrapins throughout the world.  Considered cute by many, the young can be reared with little effort.  They eat almost anything, including scavenging, and grow quickly. ...

  I have been blessed with many friends, but there are a few in particular that I consider life-long buddies.  These are people that I have absolute trust in and whose families are intertwined with my own.  My friend Bert is one of those, an individual whose friendship goes beyond commonplace and surpasses even family.  I think we all have someone like that. The above photo is of Bert's dog, Hunter.  I was out yesterday with him as the pair exercised the time-honoured tradition of fetch.  I took a similar photograph many years ago of his previous dog, Speedy; that image still adorns the walls of his house in memory of a beloved pet whose time has come and gone (click here to see that blog).  I wanted to provide another photo of his dog in action as a legacy photo that would be there for years. We were out as the sun was just setting and dusk was weighing heavily in the air.  The dimming light required that I shoot at an ISO of 3200 in order to ob...

For birders, spring is the quintessential time for photographing the objects of their passion.  Breeding plumage is in its full regalia, new arrivals from the south stream in and across migratory pathways, and nest building has begun.  Soon, eggs, and later chicks, will be produced and the busy parents will tend eagerly to their needs.  With the snow gone and the ice in full withdrawal on lakes, spring's arrival is imminent. I have recently visited the Lower Mainland in BC and returned to my old stomping grounds.  Jerry Selina Park in Maple Ridge boasts a wide variety of birds including kingfishers, hawks, ducks, herons, and perching birds.  I was pleased to find a number of great blue herons busily constructing nests, some being fully completed.  The photograph above shows one such accomplishment and the inset reveals the rookery where it was found. A rookery is loosely defined as a breeding ground for gregarious birds.  Herons breed in colonies, rang...

  In January of this year we traveled to Leduc, Alberta to visit my granddaughter and celebrate her very first birthday.  When the weather permitted it, I slung my camera over my shoulder and head out to nearby parks looking for whatever wildlife would present itself.  It was at the end of a trail I had discovered, near a senior's complex, that a Townsend's solitaire showed up. Leduc is in central Alberta and well away from any of the winter range maps I found for this species.  Although migration paths show its transition through the area, the fact that it was a resident piqued my curiosity.  Alberta had suffered from a significant cold snap and yet the bird was doing well.  How did it survive? Solitaires are a variety of thrush and eat copious amounts of invertebrates and berries.  Insects, worms, and other soft-bodied creatures being in short supply at this time of year meant that they would be feeding on mostly berries.  Fortunately, there was...

  Both birds are Canadian geese, but why is one of them white?  It happens because of a loss of pigment and is attributable to either albinism or leucism.  Which one is it, and what's the difference? Albinism is a term most are familiar with because of pet mice, rats, and rabbits.  The gene that codes for melanin, a pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes that produces colour, is faulty and either is not transcripted at all or, if it is, does not cause a change in colour.  Albino birds are stark white and have yellow, or at the least, very light coloured bills and legs.  Unlike the mice noted above, birds with albinism have dark eyes, although they may be lighter than a bird without the condition. Leucism is a condition where there is a reduction in pigment in part or all of the organism.  Leucistic birds have dark eyes, bills, and legs.  They may have patches of white or may be white throughout.  Birds with patches of white are sometimes called ...

Imagine it is a sunny day and you are taking your camera for a walk.  There, somewhere in front of you, is a subject you want to photograph.  Plying the eyepiece home, you find that there are undesirable shadows that compromise what would otherwise be a great shot.  So you move, hoping that you can get better light, and repeat the process.  Still not great.  After several attempts to get in the right place your quarry flees without a decent image of it being captured. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just go to the best spot right away instead of applying a hit-and-miss strategy?  How do you find the best spot to shoot from quickly so as to minimize shadow on the subject?  The answer is rather simple. Point your shadow.  This is a little trick I learned when trying to find the best place to photograph a subject when shooting in sunlight.  Simply revolve about the focal point of the image you want to capture and pay attention to your shadow....

Photography is about capturing light.  Light falling on the subject (incident) and light being reflected by the subject (reflective) are both important aspects of it.  It is the incident light and the camera's position relative to the subject that captures the reflective light.   The nature of light falling on a subject varies widely.  Direct light from a point source (the sun, direct flash) is typically harsh and produces shadows which can be very harsh if there is little fill (secondary light source) available.  A broad light source (cloud, diffused lighting through vegetation, softbox) offers soft light that produces little or no shadows and is often preferred over harsh light from a point source.   The reason is that features on the subject can still be sharp but are muted with lower contrast.  Colours typically aren't as rich but can be boosted using vibrance and saturation settings.  The big advantage is that the subject, besides b...

I usually use macro lenses and associated accessories such as extension tubes, bellows, or even close-up filters when photographing insects.  The simple truth is that sometimes I am in the field without my macro gear.  My normal MO is to stroll about a natural area with a single camera and lens; on this particular day I was photographing birds and had my 500 mm Nikon PF with me. I have to say, "I love this lens."  It is everything I always wanted in a wildlife lens.  It is relatively small and light (for a 500) and is incredibly sharp.  In fact, of all the telephotos I have owned, it is by far the best.  The image above proves that point.  It does not focus as closely as other long lenses in this range, but the exceptional clarity allows significant cropping with still stunning results.  I know from experience that I could not get an image this sharp from any of my previous telephotos. Some might come close, but this eclipses them all. Lenses are ...

Think for a moment about being in the water.  You and I can bob about in a lake with 2% of our body sticking out of it (I checked - it's true).  It's slightly better in saltwater where its density gives us a little more buoyancy.  Now consider ducks or any other bird that takes to a liquid environment.   Birds have numerous adaptations that allow them to float with about 75% of their mass above water.  Feathers trap air and repel water; they also have hollow components that facilitate a very low density.  Most birds (not all) have hollow bones (pneumatized bones).  There are numerous air spaces throughout these structures that maintain their robustness.  Add to that the presence of nine air sacks within their abdominal cavity and you have a creature that can practically walk on water. In fact, given a bit of speed, they can.  I photographed the lesser scaup last year as it sped across the water preparing to take to wing.  The webbed...

 The morning cloak butterfly is native to both North America and Eurasia.  It is unusual for a butterfly species to be native in both areas.  An even more unusual fact is that morning cloaks are known as the longest-lasting butterfly (adult), often making it to a ripe old age of 10 months, some even making it up to a year.  Even monarch butterflies do not live this long. As larvae, they feed on willow, elm, birch, and a few other deciduous trees.  Adults, like most butterflies, will visit flowers to obtain nectar.  Another remarkable thing about this butterfly is that it also gleans nutrients from sap, favouring maple, popular, oak, and birch.  It is also a puddler, a term referring to the tendency of this butterfly to spend time on the ground collecting moisture and salt from damp soil, puddles, carrion, and rotting vegetation.  The broad range of adult food sources is one of the reasons the butterfly lives so long. I photographed this individual...

 And now for something completely different ... We moved last summer from our home of 30 years in Maple Ridge to Kelowna, both in British Columbia.  July and August were unbearable as our backyard faces west and we get full sun exposure most of the day.  We decided to build a deck cover for our 2nd-floor deck.  It also needed a set of stairs as the original ones were removed by the previous owners and never replaced. I thought about it and came up with a plan.  I went to Home Depot and bought all the necessary supplies to construct the cover and stairs.  I had planned on starting in on the task the very next day.  It was only after that I discovered that I needed the city's approval before commencing.  I knew at that moment I was getting into something I was going to regret. Yesterday I spent an insane amount of time drawing up plans.  They had to be to scale, they had to cover various details and perspectives, and they had to be clear. ...

I photographed the above moose in 2012.  At the time I was using a Nikon D7000, a reasonable camera at the time and still viable today.  The inset is the original image I took from the RAW file.  At the time I used Photoshop CS4.  Today I dug up that original image and processed it using Photoshop CC (newest edition).  That wasn't the only difference.  In between the two images is ten years of extra experience.   You may initially think that the two images are identical.  Yes, they are the same image, but processed differently.  If you look closely (click and zoom in) you will see that the sharpness, colour, and shading are better in the newer iteration.  The reason, as pointed out, is using a better pixel editor and being able to fine-tune the results due to more experience. If you have done any amount of photography over a span of a decade or more, I am willing to bet that you can find an old RAW image and produce a better shot wi...

Have you ever found a delightful scene that you wanted to photograph and snapped an image of it without putting much thought or effort into it?  I know I have, and I suspect that most others would repeat that procedure ad nauseam without hoping to capture a better shot.  Most of the time people take a picture because they want a record of where they were, what they saw, and who they were with.   Photography, for those interested, can be about recording information but it can also be about doing the best you can with the medium at your disposal.  It becomes about making the best photo you can with the time, knowledge, and equipment currently available.  Looking at photos others make can be somewhat depressing in that so many of them are better than anything I can produce.  Often it is because they have the time, knowledge, and equipment that allows them to do that.  BUT, and this is important, it is not about getting the best shot overall, it's ab...

I have always had a love of the Earth; for both its surface features and the life it embraces.  In spite of our self-eradicating tendencies and unsustainable molestation of the environment, there is still a great deal of beauty to be found.   I took the above photo at some friends' place.  They had the advantage of living at the peak of a subdivision in Victoria, BC.  It was an early morning with nary a cloud to be seen and the sun was announcing its imminent arrival by casting wonderful hues of red, orange, and yellow in the sky.  In front of that was Mount Baker, some 123 km away, by far still the most prevalent landmark around.   The lights in the foreground are most likely street lamps.  The give-away is the singular colour associated with them.  Occassionally you can pick out lights from other sources; a window here and a few cars there.  The effect is almost a reverse astrological sign, akin to the starry host being reflected ...

Flycatchers.  The name says it all.  They catch flies, but really all flying insects, which means you won't find them anywhere too cold to allow insects to take to wing.  There are quite a few with the word "flycatcher" in the name, but many are of the same group but with different monikers. The Tyrannadae is the largest grouping of birds in any family of birds.  There are over 400 species.  North America alone has about 36 different species.  These include not only birds named flycatcher but also the phoebes (pronounced fee-bees), kingbirds, kiskadees, tyrannulets, and pewees.  To see a list with pictures and links, click here . They are small to mid-sized birds ranging from chickadee-sized to robin-sized.  They all catch insects in the air but will also hover with great expertise and pick off insects adorning easily accessed parts of trees and other plants.  Catching an insect on the wing is no easy task; I have romped after the odd butterf...

  The striped fishing spider is common throughout much of North America.  Males have a white stripe flanking their cephalothorax (front half of spider) as you can see in the above photo.  They are relatively large spiders; when fully grown they can stretch across your palm when their legs are fully extended.  Females are slightly bigger than males. It is somewhat amazing that something so large can sit on the water's surface without submerging.  Water has a very strong surface tension which is why you can make a paperclip float (if done right - it's a bit tricky) and you can overfill a cup without the water spilling.  The spider can choose to stay on top of the water, but also has the ability to break surface tension and submerge. The spider's legs have long hairs sensitive to vibrations.  They don't have to see their prey to know something is there.  Although they don't hunt with webs as most spiders do, if they sense that something lies undernea...

When photographing most wildlife, especially birds, I keep my exposure mode set to manual.  The reason is simple enough.  If the light falling on the subject does not change, then neither should the exposure.  Backgrounds may change frequently; this is particularly true when flight angles are low or if the subject is in water.   As you can see in the above photos, the bird crosses in front of backgrounds with various amounts of lighting.  The camera's meter was jumping all over the place.  An auto-exposure mode would have rendered different outcomes for each of the three shots.  Manual mode, once properly set up (and assuming there is no change in the light falling on the subject), maintains the correct exposure. Water presents a similar challenge except that the background is often reflections from any nearby shorelines.  My favourite time to photograph birds is early in the morning when light is low, shadows are mild, and the water's surfac...

OK, so you'll notice that the "blue-eyed" doesn't apply to this particular individual.  That's because she is female; only the male is equipped with the ""baby blues."  Both sexes, however, are one of the first dragonflies to emerge in spring.  I photographed this in June (2014) while visiting Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  They are common west of the Rockies in much of North America. Identifying insects is something I enjoy doing although I must admit it is not always easy or even possible for that matter.  For example, I had to search a number of sites before discovering this particular species.  One site I often go to is insectidentification.org .  If you click on the link you will find a site loaded with various ways to figure out what the unbeknownst species is.  In this case, the search came up empty because it turns out that it is not listed as being in British Columbia and that the primary colour is not orange or even brown.  By changi...

 Sometimes, I wish birds carried identification tags.  A streaming banner would be nice, although that would only be useful when flight was involved.  Some birds carry leg rings that identify previously captured birds that have been tagged.  However, these are too small for general viewing and difficult to see when the feet are not easily seen.  Tattoos work for creatures where you can see skin; branding is cruel and would seriously comprise a bird's ability to keep warm and dry.  I think technology would be the best - radio tags, and we all should be equipped with a tag reader ensconced in our cell phones. The idea is simple enough.  When you see a bird whose species or other information confounds you, simply point your phone towards it and press a button to scan it.  The embedded radio tag would release information on that specific individual.  Not only could you identify the species, you could get an entire life history.  Where the bi...

There is a great deal I have always appreciated about Henry Fair.  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of him is that he was kind.  He always had time, always expressed himself well, and always cared for kids.  I think that's the second thing that comes to mind; Henry had a great passion for kids.   His devotion to helping others was best illustrated by his time spent teaching alternate learning at Garibaldi Secondary School.  KOALA (Kids On Alternate Learning Aims) was a program for at-risk youth that Henry ran for many years.  He was compassionate and understanding towards those under his purview and treated everyone with the same degree of care and professionalism.   One of the more amazing things about Henry was that nothing seemed to phase him.  I can tell you from experience that a remedial program will test the patience and metal of anyone, yet he never let it get to him.  Every student was valuable to him and wor...

Wasp moths are a group of moths that exhibit bold colours that suggest it presents a danger of some form.  This is true for both caterpillars and adults of the species Virginia ctenucha.  The vivid blue and yellow is actually a form of mimicry where the insect is harmless but wary predators leave it alone. Many wasp moths are serious pests of crops or trees.  One of the most effective forms of control is biological using Trichogramma wasps.  These solitary Hymenoptera adults lay eggs on the eggs of over 200 Lepidoptera species.  The young hatch quickly and consume the host egg before pupating.  They only need as single caterpillar egg to feed on as the resulting adult is very small. Virginia ctenucha is not a pest of crops or trees; the food source for its caterpillars are grass, irises, and sedges.  The adults, like many moths, feed on pollen and nectar and are important pollinators of flowers. They are common east of the Rockies across the entire con...