All My Blogs

 Aperture priority - choosing the correct exposure settings A proper exposure takes place when the camera's aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings allow the right amount of light to fall onto the camera's sensor.  We will look into this more in another section.  The aperture is a mechanical device inside the camera's lens that opens and closes much as the iris of your eye does to form the pupil.  Small apertures, represented by high f/numbers, let in little light but allow more depth of field.  Large apertures, referred to as low f/numbers, let in lots of light but create an image with less depth of field.  Picking the right aperture is an important part in good photography. If you recall from our previous two sections, aperture, ISO, and shutter speed work together to create an exposure.  You can alter each of those three values to obtain the desired results and get the shot you wanted.  Cameras come with automatic exposure modes that make tha...

 Shutter speed and blur Showing the effect of shutter speed on rotating pinwheels. Notice in the above photos that shutter speed was different in each shot, yet each exposure is the same in terms of the amount of light hitting the sensor.  Understanding this is important in working with the variables of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.  You can find different balances between the three parameters to accommodate many situations that occur in photography.  By altering ISO and/or aperture, it was possible to get new shutter speeds without underexposing or overexposing the image. Shutter speed is used to control light, but it also plays an important role in controlling blur from three different areas of motion:  motion of the subject (in this case, the pinwheels), motion of the photographer (or more specifically, the camera relative to the subject), and motion of the background (like in panning).  Altering the shutter speed can blur action, freeze action, or f...

 ISO, noise, and shutter speed As ISO increases, so does the amount of noise affecting the image.   To see the original image, scroll to the bottom of the article. Images from above but enlarged to show loss of details from high ISOs ISO is the setting you choose on a camera to alter how sensitive the image sensor is to light.  Low ISO values are generally preferred over high ones because details are retained.  However, the cost of low ISO values is that shutter speeds are also low.  You can see in the top image that, as ISO increases, shutter speed does too.  The first gnome photo has a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second with an ISO of 100.  The problem with this is that often 1/10th of a second is far too slow for most hand-held shots, especially with long lenses or subject motion.   The solution to low shutter speeds (other than to decrease aperture values) is to increase ISO.  By the third frame, the shutter speed is fast enoug...

Long horned beetle (Cortodera impunctata) on Oxeye daisy. Equipped with my 48 mp (megapixel) camera and a stock 24-70 lens, I forayed into the scrub with the hope of capturing some landscape photos and anything else that appealed to me.  The f/4 Z zoom lens was mounted on a mirrorless Nikon Z7ii body. The minimum focus distance is 12 inches and when fully zoomed it can achieve a magnification of 0.3, or a reproduction ratio of 1:3.33. The camera was set to DX mode, which means the 48 mp sensor was recording a smaller area of only about 20 mp.  Less pixels means less resolution, but it also means that my 0.3 magnification at maximum zoom and minimum focus now changes to 0.45 (a reproduction ratio of almost 1:2).  The sunny day allowed me to photograph insects without a macro flash.  My settings were a relatively low ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/200, and an aperture of f/14.  The combination was more than adequate to obtain a decent shot of relatively large in...

While camping in Sunshine Valley, near Hope, BC, I noticed a pair of barn swallows hawking insects.  They frequently returned to the same spot under the eaves of a small outbuilding.  As suspected, there was a mud nest present that may have held eggs as I saw no evidence of a hungry brood.   My presence seemed to cause them some level of discomfort as they approached the nest but would not go into it.  Instead, they spent time hovering near the area and flying back and forth but still keeping their distance. I backed up slowly until my position afforded them enough comfort so they could return to the nest to continue incubating the eggs. I brought my camera and long lens with me.  I photographed their flight using continuous 3d focusing and my release mode set to high speed.  I was there only a few minutes as I didn't want to disturb them too much.  You can see the nest and doting parent in the photo below. When looking for birds to photograph, es...

Kathryn's mom and dad with our children, Josh and Leanne. A generation, for North America, tends to be between 20 and 30 years.  During that time a couple will give birth and raise children to see them repeat the pattern as they themselves have done.  Each generation has its own set of standards, values, and ideals based upon their experiences and culture, and some of that is passed down to their offspring.  What changes are the life experiences of the following generation and the new customs and ideals that are blended together as a couple becomes a family. Kathryn's mom passed away a few days ago, she was predeceased by her husband several years ago.  Both of them were the grandparents of my children, the mother and father of my wife, Kathryn.  It was my pleasure to know them and to love them as my own, for to me they were Mom and Dad.  And they were there to welcome my children into the world just as my children were with them in spirit when they left it...

While vacationing near Hope, BC (Sunshine Valley), I noticed a sandpiper on a small gravel island in a nearby stream.  I returned later with my camera hoping it would still be there.  I was thrilled to find that it was, with a pair of chicks as well.   While photographing the adult, I noticed it repeated a peculiar up-and-down bobbing motion of its hind end.  This is called teetering; you can see a video of it doing this here .  This repeated tail-bobbing has resulted in some uncommon nicknames for the species including teeter-peep, teeter-bob, jerk-or-perk bird, teeter-snipe, and tail-tip.   What was even more interesting was that the chicks were engaged in exactly the same behaviour.  I almost laughed out loud when I noticed this as I followed them with my viewfinder.  Apparently, they do this nearly as soon as they hatch. There is no understanding as to why these birds teeter, but according to one site I read, they may increase their...

Some sparrows and finches are easily identified because of the distinctive colouration they exhibit.  This is especially true for males as they often boast vibrant colours for display to attract a mate and defend territory.  Females and juveniles, and sometimes males in non-breeding plumage, can be difficult to identify.  It helps to know what group a bird belongs to as it greatly increases the likelihood of identifying it. Yesterday I was paddling on Lake Ellison, a small lake near my home in Kelowna.  I photographed a small bird on the shoreline trying to get a drink of water.  Back home later, I attempted to determine its specific breed, and I wasn't sure if it was a sparrow or finch.  The dull brown markings gave me reason to think it was either a female or juvenile. This confounds identification as sometimes the young bird doesn't look like either of the adult sexs. I started with sparrows and couldn't find any reasonable matches.  Then I noticed ...

I am pretty sure this is the three-toed woodpecker, probably a juvenile, that is about to send a berry down the hatch.  I got quite a few shots of it, and although it isn't quite like the images I see in my birding book or online, I think that this is the only identification that works.  It was clearly a woodpecker as I saw it vertically climbing a tree trunk by leaping in short bits at a time.  The white line beneath the eye is also somewhat distinctive of the species, although the back feathers did not have the white stripe clearly seen in others.  You can see some of the white back feathers in the image below. The tree that it was on may have been a favourite.  There were lots of holes in it; these birds apparently do not make deep excavations the way some woodpeckers do.  They also tend to spend a lot of time on a single tree rather than flitting around from one to another.  I don't know if the holes on the tree were from it or from a sapsucker....

I always enjoy seeing hoverflies, aka flower flies, during the hot summer months.  There are many species (I wrote about one yesterday exhibiting lekking behaviour) and you will likely see one if you are out amongst the flowers.  Many of them mimic bees or wasps with the intention of giving themselves some protection from predators that would otherwise consume them.  They bear no stinger or form of chemical defence.   These are remarkably beneficial insects.  Aside from the fact that they are pollinators, the larvae feed on aphids and their kin.  Found near wetlands with deciduous vegetation, the adults are active from mid-July to late August.  Eggs are laid in or near aphid colonies on trees or shrubs a few meters off the ground. The hatching larvae immediately get to work on consuming the pesky little insects. The black-horned smoothtail flower fly is Holarctic in distribution and can be found in the northern climates of North America, The Briti...

Lekking is a breeding behaviour where males (usually) of a species gather together at a place not particularly well represented by important resources.  Rather, it is a place for males to display, to claim territory, and to exhibit their dominance over others of the same species.  The goal is to attract females. A lek is an aggregation of males exhibiting lekking behaviour.  I have seen flies in a lek before, but never understood what I was witnessing.  As I researched the behaviour, I found that flower flies, also called hoverflies (European term), will display in such a manner.  The flies find a sunny spot, preferably near some deep shade so they stand out like a lighthouse beam on a dark night.  It was hard not to see them.  Each one would have its own territory.  They would hover in one place until another would-be competitor came into their zone, then zip towards it and chase the intruder off.  Anything that came within about a four foot...

Although eastern kingbirds are tyrant flycatchers that eat a tremendous amount of insects, they also are fond of berries.  I photographed this one on a snowberry bush and saw it throwing a few down as it rested.  Apparently, they tend to increase their berry diet as summer progresses and when they migrate they may rely on them almost entirely. Eastern kingbirds can be found right across the country, finding their way right to the Pacific Ocean.  Western kingbirds, on the other hand, range eastwards from the Pacific towards mid-continent but no further.  You will find eastern kingbirds in Ontario, but not western kingbirds.  Much of the ranges of the two species overlap; I have seen photos of both species taken by the same photographer at the same location. One of my absolute best photos is of an eastern kingbird holding a dragonfly and feeding it to a nest full of young.  You can see the photo and blog here . Thanks for reading. Eric Svendsen    ...

Gray catbird at Munroe Park in Kelowna The term is almost an oxymoron.  Does the word catbird fall into the same category as single-word oxymorons such as bittersweet and spendthrift?  Perhaps not, as an oxymoron is generally described as two words are used together that have opposite meanings to each other.  Classis examples are jumbo shrimp, civil war, and love-hate.  I suppose you would have to say that catbird is not an oxymoron, but it is kind of funny to think of it that way. This is only the second catbird I have ever seen and photographed.  Yet they can be found throughout most of southern Canada and about two-thirds of the continental US (see map here ).  The bird looks somewhat plain at an initial glance as most of it is in fact a dull gray colour.  The exceptions though are the conspicuous black cap and the cinnamon feathers under the base of the tail.  These are somewhat hard to see, but you can just make them out in the above image. C...

There are few insects that appeal to me as much as dragonflies.  Both the aquatic nymph stage and the adult form have fascinating characteristics that are remarkable, and the adult colouration and patterns are often eye-catching. As I walked around Munson Pond yesterday I came across an area busy with the buzzing of multiple dragonfly species.  The largest and most colourful of the throng was this blue-eyed darner that I photographed.  Dragonflies are highly territorial and will defend an area with great veracity.  Sometimes they perch on a favourite branch from which they hawk prey or drive competitors away, other times they hover in one spot for long periods. Everything was just right for me to capture this male (you can see the claspers at the end of the tail, top image) on camera.  The early morning light lit it up nicely, there were no obstacles in front of or behind to affect the image appeal or focusing function of the camera, and he posed nicely for seve...

  This morning I was walking around Munson Pond in Kelowna with my camera and long lens and came upon dandelion-like flowers that were being visited by small, metallic-green sweat bees.  I managed to get a few pretty good shots even though I cannot get very close to the subjects (minimum focus distance is about 10 feet).  Even so, the cropped images came out well. The bicoloured striped sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens) is somewhat different in the way they build nests.  Unlike bees or wasps that form a colony, they are solitary bees but with a difference.  They are somewhat communal, having up to thirty females in an underground nest site, but each female lays her eggs and cares for her own young.  The nest site has a single entrance used by the group which makes guarding the vulnerable young easier.   As other females go about the business of gathering pollen and nectar to feed their young, one or more bees remain behind to guard the nest from i...

Possible sweat bee photographed in my wildflower garden Did you know that there are many different types and species of bees besides honey bees?  It turns out that there are over 20,000 species of bee worldwide and 3600 in North America (US and Canada).  This doesn't include wasps, sawflies, or other insects in the Hymenoptera.  Within the bee taxonomic category (Apidae), there are 7 main groupings.  These include the following: Mining bees (Andrenidae) are somewhat wasp-like. Plasterer bees and kin (Colletidae) have two-part tongues, mostly found in Australia. Swift and comb-bearer bees (Stenotritidae) are found only in Australia. Meltittid bees (Melittidae) are mostly found in Africa. Sweat bees (Halictidae) are small and often colourful. Apidae is the largest family and includes carpenter, bumble, honey, and cuckoo bees.  These are found worldwide. Mason and Leaf cutter bees (Megachilidae) have a special structure called a scopa on their belly to carry pollen...

Plants grow and things eat plants.  It's a natural order.  It can also be annoying when those things compete with your own interests.  Such is the burden of the gardener.  We work hard and pay a lot of money to start and maintain a garden.  Flowers, vegetables, fruit, ground cover, and shade are usually the desired outcomes, yet our efforts are not without problems. Soil, space, sun, fertilizer, water, and time enough are just the beginning of the issues.  Then there is the weeding; something that you could do every day and it still wouldn't be enough.  Undesirable plants competing for light, water, and nutrients try to push choice vegetation to the brink of destruction.  I have filled many buckets with the remnants of weeds. Once the crops start to come you have macro-consumers such as deer, rabbits, quail, rats, and a host of other vertebrates that would compete for the bounty of your toil.  As if that wasn't enough, there is the microfauna...

Anatomy of a harvestman spider. Sometimes it's better not to look at something too closely.  That's the feeling I sometimes get when examining the photos I take using my macro equipment.  The phalangid above is a good example. Although it's hard to see from the dorsal image, the lateral photo clearly depicts the phalangid's eye.  Harvestmen have a single pair of eyes which sets them apart from spiders that usually have eight.  What spiders and phalangids have in common though are eight legs and mouthparts called chelicerae.  You can't see the chelicera in my above photo, although the palps are clearly visible.  Palps are external mouth parts that facilitate the manipulation of food.  So, what do harvestmen eat?  That is very dependent upon the species, but the familiar phalangid are opportunistic feeders taking detritus, scavenging dead organisms, and taking small creatures such as mites.  They possess no venom, cannot make silk, and are in n...

Both bees and flowers have electric fields that guide behaviour. Rubbing two different materials together causes electrons to be transferred from one object to another, making one positive and one negative.  It's why you rub a balloon on your hair.  Those materials don't have to be solids either; air passing across surfaces will also transfer electrons.  Flying insects, by the sheer act of beating their wings against the air, develop an electric charge.  Not the kind of charge you find in a bug-zapper (imagine a fly suddenly popping in the air - a new form of spontaneous combustion!).  It turns out the charge is positive, that is electrons leave the insect. Flowers, on the other hand, develop small negative charges.  The charge occurs because of a process called induction.  The air has a positive charge due to the action of the sun (radiation) and wind (friction).  The positively charged air causes electrons to travel up the plant and onto the dis...

This year I decided to plant wild flowers in a section of garden that I have recently developed.  Many of the plants are in full bloom at the moment and the time seemed right to put my macro equipment together and take a few photos.  I am quite happy with this one. I am using a 30 mm auto extension tube on a Nikon D7100 camera sporting a Nikkor 105 mm macro (Micronikkor) f/2.8 D lens set to manual focus.  I also have three R200 macro flashes attached to the ring on the end of the lens that are wirelessly connected to the camera for TTL metering. When shooting macro I keep the shutter speed set to 1/250 (flash synch speed) and the aperture set to its smallest size (f/36 without Nikon's adjustment or f/57 with).  Shooting in Raw exposure mode lets me play with the exposure and extract details that would otherwise be lost.  My ISO was set to 200; this keeps the noise low but makes it so the flashes have to do 70% less work. The image below shows the uncropped photo...

Beetle, praying mantis, stonefly larva, fruit fly. If you have been following my photography at all, you would know that I love wildlife.  Much of that tends to be birds because they are everywhere and show an astonishing diversity.  And they are present all year.   The macro world presents a very different picture (literally).  Insects are only active when it is warm.  They do not announce themselves as birds do with calls and flashes of colour.  And they are small; so small in fact that you need specialized equipment to get decent photos of them. It is possible to photograph invertebrates without macro equipment as many of my butterfly prove, but it does increase the chances of getting a good photograph showing lots of detail.  I want more than just a gross image that may facilitate identification but fails at showing the complex beauty of these creatures.  This is where good macro equipment comes in. There are hundreds of things you can bu...

Beaver Lake near Winfield, BC.  Same image, before (right) and after (left). I have written several blogs on the benefits of shooting in raw exposure mode.  One of the greatest reasons to choose raw over jpeg is that you have much detail in the shadows and highlights of an image.  This is especially useful when there are significant differences in lighting between important parts of the shot. The above photo is a good example.  I took the picture by exposing for the sunny areas.  The Adirondack chairs were in deep shade and could hardly be seen.  Adjusting the blacks (very dark values) and shadows (mid-dark values) by increasing their luminosity (making them brighter) made them look as if they were filled with flash or exposed in the same light.  You could get a similar photo using HDR (high dynamic range) which involves bracketing over a wide range and compiling the pictures together, but you don't always end up with a natural-looking shot doing that....

Kathryn and Murphy.  Right - original.  Left - oval feathered crop. Photoshop, Elements, and a few other pixel-editing applications allow you to feather a crop.  Well, that's all fine and dandy, but what is feathering and what is a crop? Feathering involves producing a soft edge to an image.  The left image has hard, sharp edges.  Pixel density is the same throughout the photo, from corner to corner.  The right image has soft, gently reducing edges that fade to nothing.  This is called feathering, and it produces a photo with a dream-like quality that enhances overall appeal and removes background clutter. Cropping is the term used to select only a part of the entire image.  Cropping often involves selecting dimension (length and width), and number of pixels (dpi, pixel density, and resolution are all related).  When cropping an image, I always consider the size I want and what the cropped image will be used for.  This allows me to figur...

If you live in North America, you know what a robin is.  The ubiquitous bird that frequents lawns and hunts worms.  Yet, there are many things about robins that many people don't know.  Below are some of the more interesting facts about this oft-sighted bird. Although males and females look similar, they do exhibit sexual dimorphism.  Males have a deeper shade of red for their breast feathers while the females are duller.  Males have a darker head and more conspicuous eye ring as well - see image above. Robins eat more than just worms.  They are significant consumers of berries, insects, seeds, suit, and take shelled nut meats. - see image (a) below. Robins engage in a behaviour called "anting."  They find an ant colony and land next to it and open their feathers.  Ants will come, crawl over the bird, and remove the parasites on the robin's skin. - see image (b). Females typically incubate the eggs and tend the young, but males may occasionally in...

There are many types of bees, Insects that are most humble. Mason, sweat, and honey bees, And even types of bumble. They fly from hive to flower, Collecting delicious treats. Pollinating as they go, Performing tremendous feats. A thousand blooms they visit, In just a couple of hours. Getting pollen and nectar, Going to all those flowers. Back to the hive they travel, Laden with precious food. To feed the queen and young, All the developing brood. We collect their life's deposits, That they store inside their hive. Leaving just enough for them, Winter's surplus to survive. Pollinating trees and crops, And providing ample honey. You'd think we'd be thankful, For making all that money. We kill them by the millions, Poison chemicals galore. There must be another way, Please search for it, I implore. For without the humble bee, Most food crops, they would perish. The poisons, our own demise, The bees, we should really cherish. Thanks for reading. Eric Svendsen      www.erics...