All My Blogs

Male and female Brewer's blackbirds photographed at Munson Pond, Kelowna. Too small to be crows, ravens, or grackles, these birds may seem hard to identify to some.  The blackbird moniker is somewhat misleading as the males actually have a greenish iridescent tint to the body feathers; it's only the head that is really truly black.  And to top it off, the males also have a bright golden eye.  The females are relatively dull, a flat brown colour with a black eye.   The species is very hardy and can be found in most environments.  It thrives in regions occupied with people and undisturbed nature equally well.  They cover most of the North American continent, with the exception of the far eastern states and provinces.   These blackbirds, like their other kin, feed on a wide variety of foods including grains, seeds, and insects.  They will take protein in other forms too as they have been seen taking frogs, nesting chicks, and small rodents....

View from John's Family Conservancy with (above) and without (below) a polarizer filter. Whenever I am shooting landscapes, especially scenes of nature involving water and sky, I like to have a polarizer filter on my lens.  Although the effect of such a filter is more dramatic when clouds are either absent or sparse, even cloudy days benefit from its use.  Blue skies become more vivid, water loses some of the reflection, and the land loses some of the day's blue cast.  The effect the polarizer has on the image relies heavily on the time of day and your angle to the sun. Photos from Akoara, New Zealand.  Above - with polarizer.  Below - no polarizer. You can see from the photos above that a polarizer doesn't always have the same dramatic effect on a scene.  The images on the left show a significant difference with the colours of all the elements being strongly affected.  The shots on the right show only subtle changes; the most dramatic being the colour...

A shutter speed of 1/3200th of a second freezes the action. If you look closely, you can see where dust is knocked off the ball from hitting the bat.  Yup, the ball is screaming away from the bat after being hit, and it is frozen in time.  The shutter speed is fast; not fast enough to freeze a bullet (1/16,000th of a second - with flash), but still enough to capture the moment in clarity.   The degree of frozen motion is relative.  In the above image, every aspect seems to be crisp, even the end of the bat appears motionless.  A closer look changes that illusion though.  Look at the image below; it is the ball and bat (and dust) enlarged.  It seems that the closer you get, the more motion is shown.  This is true, and you can see it when shooting an image from a moving car.  Foreground objects show motion blur while things in the distance appear in greater degrees of definition.   Close up of the above photo - as you get closer ...

Slow shutter speeds at a creek at John's Family Conservatory - shot with iPhone and Mirrorless Nikon It has been said that smartphone cameras can take photos as good as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.  That is true - sometimes.  One of the conditions required to make the most of your phone's camera is to use the right settings.  This pertains to choosing the right file type, file size, and not over-zooming.  Another is holding the device in a steady manner, especially when doing long exposures or using live view on iPhones.   Of course, the same can be said for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.  The wrong settings will likely produce poor results.  I did discover that the iPhone's vibration mitigation tech does a wonderful job at keeping the camera steady while my mirrorless Z7ii struggles with the 0.8 second exposure.   The advantage of a DSLR or mirrorless camera is that you can pick the desired lens, exposure, and settings while such choice...

Google Maps image of Munson Pond as it currently lies. I have been a resident of Kelowna for almost four years now.  I do a lot of wildlife photography, mostly of birds and insects, and was looking for a local ecosystem where I could capture the kinds of images I wanted.  I was thrilled to discover Munson Pond, a lovely little wetland with an enormous variety of wildlife, close and easy access, and well-maintained trails.  It was everything I could hope for. I have made numerous trips to the park and have taken hundreds of images.  I recently created a Facebook group called “Friends of Munson Pond” that shares some of those images.  The purpose of the group wasn’t to show my work as much as it was to draw attention to the plight of the wetlands.  There is a road to be constructed in the spring of 2025.  The development is called the Burtch Road extension project.  You can view the plans for it at the city’s link given below. My concern doesn’t...

 Squirrels are a huge group of rodents divided into 14 different genera in North America.  These include the tree squirrels, the ground squirrels, and the flying squirrels.   Ground squirrels have 8 of those genera and can be divided into chipmunks, prairie dogs, and marmots.   I took the above photos while visiting John's Family Conservatory a few days ago.  The Columbian ground squirrel, sometimes called the Louisiana marmot, is a different species from the golden-mantled ground squirrel.  The former are larger and tend to live in less mountainous regions.   I saw quite a few of these marmots/ground squirrels on my walk in John's Family Conservatory in Kelowna.  They live throughout the region; I often see them while walking along the banks of Mission Creek in town.  They are only ever seen in warmer months as they hibernate throughout the cooler ones.  I saw my first one of the year only last week.  In the spring t...

Yellow-rumped (Audubon) warbler.  They have finally arrived. I can remember seeing my first yellow-rumpted warbler just over 30 years ago.  Actually, there was a flock of them, and they briefly alit on a tree at the confluence of two streams in the town I lived in.  It was the bright yellow patch on the birds' rumps that caught my eye and led to their identification.  Since then, I have seen them numerous times, but have only gotten poor shots of them.  My luck turned the other day. I have only ever seen the birds near water bodies.  Mostly, it is fresh water, although I saw one way out on Portland Island once.  Last year, I saw a number of them flying around capturing insects on the wing at the pond on the back-side of Knox Mountain.  While visiting Munson Pond on Tuesday this week, I saw another small group.  This time, I managed to get a few nice shots. There are two variants of the Yellow-rumped warbler.  The one above does not have ...

Photo of an osprey flying above Munson Pond today in Kelowna, BC I have photographed osprey many times, maybe dozens, but the photo I got today ranks up there with the best of them.  So much about photographing wildlife is dependent upon many variables.  Being at the right place at the right time is essential, but where and when is that?  There's experience, helpful tips from others, and just plain luck. I have benefited from all three of those for both aspects of that question.  Today, it was a bit of the first and last components.  Munson pond is a favoured location for photographing wildlife.  Not only did I get a great shot of an osprey today, I also got the best photo of a yellow-rumped warbler in my collection.  Both of those was also based on luck as you can never predict where birds will be.  It just so happens that both species have recently arrived. What I love about the shot is that the osprey was flying towards me; I must have gotten a...

A pseudo scorpion - about 6 mm in length - living in a room near you. Although relatively common, you hardly ever see them.  The pseudoscorpions are members of the Arachnids - relatives of spiders - but are harmless to anything bigger than a grain of rice.  They do carry venom, but the unusual fact is that it is found in the claws at the end of the pincers.  They feed on small creatures like mites and tiny insects.  Springtails are a favourite. Another interesting fact about them is that they can produce silk - webbing material - that is used in the construction of nests and in mating.  These fascinating, tiny creatures are never bigger than 8 mm, about a third of an inch, and are common throughout the world in temperate and tropical areas. I photographed this using a DSLR camera and 105 mm macro lens with a reverse-mounted 50 mm lens (filter to filter adapter), the first and only time I have ever tried this.  It's not a preferred way to do macro as it inco...

It's hard to take a bad photo of the male goldfinch.  Especially in the spring when the feathers and colours are in their peak condition.  Add to that some fruit trees in bloom and you get a wonderful mix of shades.  The above photo has a further enhancement with the pleasantly blurred background.  It is not the best photo of a goldfinch I have ever taken, but I still think it's pretty good. Last year, I got a great photo of a male goldfinch on a salsify plant (left) near Winfield, BC.  In 2017, while camping in late summer, I photographed one at a feeder at Cultus Lake, BC (top).  The last photo (bottom) is of a male eating fennel.  It is interesting to notice that the feathers become duller and ragged as the season progresses.   Colour and quality of feathers decline over time.   Finally, after summer has fled, the birds shed their breeding plumage and replace it with their winter wear.  I photographed goldfinches late in the...

Birds I saw today in my backyard. I photographed all these birds today that were in my backyard.  The only exception was the junco as the photo was out of focus, so I used one from an earlier shoot.  It was taken from my yard, however. I have had backyard bird houses and feeders for well over 25 years.  I get quite a collection of birds, today I saw no less than 7 species within an hour.  Recently, I have also seen house finches.  I have 4 feeders with a squirrel baffle that prevents rodents from absconding with the seeds.  There is also a suet feeder.  Seeds that fall on the ground are consumed by some birds (quail, doves, sparrows) while those in the feeders are feasted upon by others (gold finches, house finches, house sparrows).  It's just a matter of putting them up and filling them. I use three different types of seed.  Sunflower seeds are a favourite of many birds, including chickadees and grosbeaks (both of which have visited recently...

I look forward to the explosion of yellow that happens every year here in the Okanagan.  The arrowleaf balsomroot, locally known as the Okanagan sunflower, blooms mid-April even while frost is still a certainty.  The hardy plants, perennials, cover hillsides and barren slopes with their ephemeral beauty.  They will be here for a few weeks at best and then will disappear until next year. The photos above and below are from last year.  The plants have just started their streak of colour and so I have a little time to get out to photograph them.  I hope to travel to John's family conservancy in the next few days to photograph the display.  I haven't been there during the blooming season and don't know what I will find. The trick will be to get there early to take full advantage of the low angle of the sun.  The last time I was there I only had my iPhone for shooting landscapes; this time I will bring my Z7ii and be prepared for whatever I find.  I ho...

Poured 2 yards of concrete yesterday, I have two more coming tomorrow. Yes, it's true.  I am at it again.  In the winter, we paint and do indoor projects.  In the spring, we dig and do outdoor projects.  My current project is to pour a concrete pad beside the house for playing games like basketball, ball hockey, and maybe even a little pickleball.  The front of the house is sloped, the road is sloped, and the bottom is half a block away, meaning that a wayward ball will disappear and cause who knows what carnage.   So, this year the big plan is to put in a 25 foot concrete pad.  I had a mini-concrete truck come yesterday and pour 2 yards of the stuff in the morning and I finished it off with a bull float I rented.  It looks fine, although I wouldn't think it would win any awards.  It is about four inches thick.  Tomorrow I have another 2 yards coming.  My job today is to finish the rebar and forms. We have put a tremendous amou...

Three of the four North American Sapsuckers I have photographed. Sapsuckers are a variety of woodpecker and are fascinating birds.  They don't quite "suck sap" as their moniker suggests.  Rather, they drill superficial holes in the barks of trees so that sap comes out.  They will have many dozens of holes in any one tree and have numerous trees that they repeatedly visit.  The sap itself holds some nutritional value, but the best part happens when insects become entangled in the sticky substance.  The sap contains sugars, some amino acids, and a few other nutrients.  Older trees are preferred as they have higher concentrations of said chemicals.  Water, of course, is also a welcome addition.  They will also take insects that are not caught in sap, especially for their young as the growing birds are greatly in need of protein.   I have never seen a Williamson's sapsucker, although they are found in this area (Kelowna).  I spent most ...

A 50 mm prime lens allows all kinds of macro capability.  Above:  with extension tubes. As you can see, a prime 50 mm lens, reverse mounted, with extension tubes provides great macro capability.  The more distance you put between the lens and body (macro tubes do this), the greater the magnification.  Although this system allows for excellent magnification, there are a few caveats.   First off, your focal distance is always the same - for all reverse mount lenses.  This distance, called the flange distance, is around 45 mm.  That's just under 2 inches.  It's not a lot of working distance; you will have to be inventive on how to illuminate your subject.  If you are using natural light, you want to be careful not to add shadows.  Natural light means long exposures or multiple exposures with focus stacking. The second issue comes with getting your image in focus.  Since there is no focusing ability with a reversed lens, the only w...

Macro photo of Garden Tiger Moth Photography stuff is expensive.  If you buy new, proven equipment, it can set you back thousands of dollars.  But what if I told you that you may already have most of what you need and that, for only a couple of hundred dollars, you can set yourself up to do some serious macro work? High-end equipment is always nice and offers the ability to capture stunning photos, but many of us budding photographers can't afford it.  We tend to have a few basics that allow us to shoot in many varied situations but nothing that may be found in a professional's bag.  And yet you can do a lot with the stuff you have, with maybe a few simple additions. Do you have a prime 50 mm lens?  A standard f/1.8 or f/2 lens is fine.  You can buy one used for about $150 Canadian.   Do you have any extension tubes?  Most people don't, so you can order a set.  You may find a set of three automatic extension tubes for around $100.  ...

Electronic media must be stored, well, electronically.  This means it has to be written in a format that a program can both write and read.  The kind of data (text, image, sound, video, etc) is one important factor.  A file for text cannot hold graphical information and a sound recording cannot on its own manage a database.   Software creating, saving, and reading files is done through recognition of a file type.  The three letter code at the end of a file, preceded by a period, denotes the file format.    For images, there are a half dozen common formats that are used including jpeg, tiff, heif, and a few others.  Typically, you see these as .jpg, .tif, . heif, and so on.   Digital images are saved by using pixels, tiny blocks that are used to create pictures.  An image may use hundreds of thousands or millions of these pixels.  We use the term megapixel (mp) to denote how many there are in an image.  More pixels mea...

Photos I have taken of caves.  From top left:  Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Drumheller, West Coast Trail (Vancouver Island), Zion National Park. As a boy, I had a fascination with caves.  I had books on them and watched shows on them (National Geographic specials were the best), but had never actually seen one.  Then, in grade 11, we did a field trip to a limestone cave.  Truthfully, it wasn't much, but it was still cool, and it fueled my desire to see more. Limestone is the rock we all point to when considering where these voids exist.  Limestone is a sedimentary rock and has horizontal layers, but vertical cracks also form between them.  Water, always searching for a lower point, finds its way through these bedding planes and fissures, chemically dissolving small amounts along its way.  Over time, the hollow spaces expand.  Eventually, the system of  caverns may extend for hundreds of miles.   Limestone isn't the only ro...

April on Ellis Lake last year. April was born on this date and shares her name with the month.  It's a good thing she wasn't born in February; that wouldn't be a good moniker to carry around.  Instead of being associated with Tulips and other spring flowers, you would be associated with brutal winter storms and freezing your assets off. I appreciate my friend April.  In spite of the many challenges she has faced growing up, she has managed to achieve a great many things.  She has a beautiful family and really enjoys the outdoors.  She and I go on walks together and play games together.  I have helped her become a much better cribbage player. I know her mom and knew her brother and father, both of whom have passed.  Although they all had serious problems, she showed unconditional love for them.  She has a way of looking at someone's heart and not how they present.  I really appreciate that about her. All the best for you on this day, April....

Female Red-winged blackbird with nest-building materials.  Inset:  male. It's the males of most avian species that get the glory, both visually and auditorily.  The red-winged blackbird male, with its bold epilate patches on the wing, shows its presence in both manners to stake out and defend a nesting territory.  The female of the species, on the other hand, is well-camouflaged and is responsible for building the nest.   She does "sing" though, but not anything like the familiar call of the male.  Instead, she utters a series of chirping sounds ( click here to see a video with sound ).  Their purpose is varied but often involves territory, warning, or location calls.   The female builds a cup-shaped nest out of grasses and reeds.  Courser grasses are woven together on the outside with finer ones lining the inside.  They may also use cattail seed fluff to provide some degree of softness and insulation.  You can see a photo...

Baseball game I played in - this is a team member with a great hit.  Shot at 6 fps. When shooting continuously, why does the camera body matter?  Well, it depends on what you want to get.  When events are occurring slowly, you don't need a high frame rate.  If I am photographing wildlife where nothing spectacular is happening, I can often shoot at 3 fps.  I used to do this when shooting film with my Minolta XG-M with attached motor drive, and it allowed me a certain degree of success. Yesterday, I enjoyed playing my first game of softball in 5 years.  I brought an older DSLR and a long lens with me.  The D7100 can shoot at 6 fps, but it only has a small buffer in it.  The buffer fills up quickly, and when shooting large raw files, it takes time to store them on the memory card.  Every sequence I shot allowed me a maximum of 5 photos, as you can see above.  At 6 fps, I get about 1 second of shooting. I have a D7200 that shoots at 6fps as ...

Redhead duck - photographed 2 km from where I live in Kelowna, BC. I have seen redheads before, but only ever in Alberta.  I lived there for 10 years and discovered that they were fond of pothole lakes - those small bodies of water found throughout the grasslands.  I remember hearing that some redheads appeared on Vancouver Island, their presence causing quite a stir among the birding community.  I didn't expect to find any in BC, little lone only 2 km from where I live. If you look at a range map ( click here ), you will notice that they can be found along the entire Okanagan.  They also breed in the Kootenays.  They are dabbling ducks, meaning that they will bob, head down, in the shallows eating aquatic vegetation.  Among the plants they also take snails, small clams (zebra muscles), and a host of aquatic insects attached to their fodder.   I photographed the duck with a crop sensor Nikon camera, a 1.4x teleconverter, and my cherished 500 mm PF...

A variety of male blackbirds I have photographed.   The chances are very good that you have seen at least half of these birds.  The two most common ones are the red-winged and Brewer's blackbirds.  Grackles and yellow-headed blackbirds are modestly common, although I rarely see either of these unless I am on the prairies.  Brown-headed cowbirds are brood parasites and seem to be increasing in number, much to the malignment of many passerine species.  I have only seen a boat-tailed grackle once, and that was way down in the southern States. Blackbirds belong to the family Icteridae, which also includes orioles, bobolinks, and meadowlarks.   I have included the only species of oriole and meadowlark I have ever photographed. Other birds belonging to the Icteridae, the same family blackbirds belong to. The family Icteridae are also called "New World" blackbirds.  The term New World refers to species that are endemic to the Americas, whereas "Old ...

Lacewing larva and adult (inset). The little green insect you occasionally see in your garden - a long body with even longer, finely netted wings, is the scourge of aphids.  The larva is the same, a vicious killing machine that dispatches plant parasites with rapidity, although it looks totally different from the adult form.  So it is with insects that undergo complete metamorphosis.  Butterflies, beetles, and flies all go from larva to pupa to adult in three distinct stages.   I can remember catching the larva and carrying it back to photograph it in my trailer.  Those jaws you see are not just for show, they have serious pinching power.  It started to dig into my hand and I had to desperately find another way to hold it.  The adults do not have the same tools for destruction that the larva have, but they too are consumers of aphids and their kin.   So, why the difference?  How is it that the larvae are basically conveyer belts of ...

Photos of birds I took while visiting Lac Bellevue in Alberta in 2016. Water.  Every creature needs it.  It also happens to be where a tremendous variety of life exhists, much of which is food for others higher up the food chain.  A lot of those carnivores happen to be terrestrial in nature, and many of those happen to be birds. The variety of birds in North America is amazing.  Around 1000 species call our continent home.  And many of them can be found in or near water.  This is one of the reasons I like to be near water when photographing nature.  I have photographed a lot of wildlife in places where surface water wasn't nearby, but I tend to have more success when around water bodies. What's in the water that is a food source for our avian friends?  Fish is the obvious answer, but insects and other invertebrates hold the key to the entire ecosystem.  Dowitchers probe the mud with their long bills looking for fossorial food.  Swallows ...

Leanne at Christmas 15 months ago against Hobbiton in New Zealand (2018), she was never there. I have to admit, the AI selection tool is remarkable.  It took me all of two minutes to put this together.  I used a photo from our New Zealand trip in 2018 as the background and found a photo I took of Leanne (my daughter) two Christmases ago and combined them.  Easy, effective, fast.   Doing it the old way would have involved a great deal of toil with careful selection, feathering, erasing, and other laborious editing to get the right image for merging with the background.  The great thing about this is that you can now take just about any background you like and the photo of anyone you choose and make it look like they were actually at that location. If you look carefully, there are a few things you may be able to pick at regarding the inset photo.  The lighting is different - which isn't too unusual when using fill flash outdoors, but there is just someth...

Morning cloak butterflies are fairly large and may have a four inch open wingspan.  When their wings are closed, the butterfly appears to be a bit of bark or perhaps a leaf.  When open, a unique and easily identifiable pattern emerges.  Morning cloaks may overwinter by hiding under leaf litter or in well-hidden crevices.  These are among the earliest butterflies to be seen; it was the first butterfly I have seen this year. The butterfly was flying around in my neighbour's back yard.  Although there are few flowers about (besides snowdrops, primroses, and such), they can obtain nutrients from sap and decaying matter.  They will also take nectar from flowers, although this is not their primary food source.  The butterflies will mate early and lay their eggs on quite a variety of plants including willow, elm, and poplar. The morning cloak is not considered a helpful insect in that it isn't much of a pollinator.  It can be harmful to small trees where...