All My Blogs

Photographed in Hobart, Australia, October, 2018. Here, in Canada, we see trumpeter swans, tundra swans, and the invasive mute swan.  Black swans may be kept for exotic purposes, but there are no actively breeding populations at the moment.  Some were released in Ottawa in 1967 as a gift from Queen Elizabeth II, but that population has reduced significantly and the remaining individuals moved to a Safari park in Quebec. They are native to Australia; we saw dozens of them while visiting Hobart as part of our cruise.  They live up to 40 years of age in captivity, making it to only a third of that age in the wild.  Large individuals may weigh as much as 19 pounds, larger than even the biggest bald eagle.   Like all swans, they are monogamous and mate for life.  They both care for the young that are precocial at birth and become independent around the age of nine months.  They become sexually mature at two to three years of age. Swans are remarkable b...

It looked like it was going to be a wonderful day hiking to the falls.  But then ... It turns out that the trail for Canyon Falls is closed, at least from this end. I was very much looking forward to hiking the trail down to Canyon and Crawford Falls.  I had read about them, seen numerous reviews and photos on them, and was enjoying the 8° C weather that had finally come our way at the end of January, 2026.  The view at the top of the canyon was terrific, there was lots of parking, and there was no rain in the forecast.  This was going to be fun. We saw the sign for the trailhead - it's always appreciated finding a clear marker for where you are or are going.  The anticipation grew; my camera was ready and our dog was relishing a hike with his humans.  All was well, until we descended a little further along the trail.  Then reality hit.   The trail was closed. I talked to some local people who said that some just ignored the warning, jumped t...

I photographed the falls at Mill Creek near Kelowna on January 28, 2026.  We know that water freezes at 0° C.  But it is possible for water to exist in a liquid state when the temperature falls below the freezing point.  Liquid water below 0° C is supercooled and has some very interesting properties. Supercooled water occurs because of the lack of nucleation sites in the liquid.  Generally, this requires pretty clean water with little suspended solids.  You may see this when freezing purified water in your freezer at home - there is a video here showing the effect.  When disturbed, or if nucleation sites become available, the water will instantly freeze. Another form of supercooled water is called frazil ice.  Fast-moving water can become supercooled and form tiny needle-shaped crystals.  Frazil ice can attach to cold rock or an icy surface and become part of the frozen mass.  Waterfalls can build up a substantial layer of ice when supercoole...

I photographed this in 2013 when my friend and I visited Arizona. I had always wanted to visit the land that you see in some of the old westerns - you know, the buttes and spires making up the background landscape.  Many of the films were made in Sedona, and we were not disappointed when we arrived.   We visited Red Rock State Park ( link here ), where we found a well-maintained trail that led us throughout the park's interior.  I took quite a few photos, many of which I use in the PowerPoint slides that I teach my photography courses with.   The rock is mainly sandstone that is rich in iron.  Sandstone is a sedimentary rock; much of it has been eroded away, leaving the existing formations.  I have given a list of some of the more noteworthy formations that can be found in the area. Key Vertical Rock Formations Cathedral Rock :  A prominent landmark with towering spires. Bell Rock :  A highly recognizable, pointed, and vertical formation...

Photo taken in the year 2002 with my Fuji S1Pro - how did the camera capture the ghost flame? I can still remember taking this image and wondering to myself, "What the heck is going on?"  It was a very long time ago, over 23 years now, and I took it with my first DSLR camera.  I used the lenses I owned at the time, Nikon lenses made for film cameras.   It turns out that digital sensors are highly reflective, unlike the film that they have mostly replaced.  An image projected onto the camera's sensor will, to some extent, be reflected back towards the lens.  This wasn't a problem when using film with its lower reflectance, but issues started to develop where bright spots were present in a scene, especially if they were surrounded by darker areas. The lenses made for film cameras had rear elements that did not take into account the reflective nature of digital sensors.  Newer lenses were made with this effect in mind; the solution was to place anti-refle...

Bird photos I have taken over the years.  Top:  Kestral, Anna's hummingbird, Common yellowthroat. Bottom:  Female American goldfinch, Splendid Fairywren, Gold-crowned kinglet Although a brand new, top-of-the-line camera is desirable and fully able to meet all the needs of an avian photographer, the truth is that you don't need to spend that much to capture decent photos.  If you think about it, good photos have been around for a long time, and the modern technology, although impressive, may be more than you actually need. The things that are important in photographing birds relate to buffer size, rapid frame rate, fast and precise focus acquisition capability, and a decent pixel count.  Each one of these tends to be bigger and better as models go up in price, but often you can do well with good functionality instead of the best. Buffer size:   The buffer is short-term memory storage, allowing photos to be temporarily held until data can be stored in the mem...

Sea otters (central) and river otters (insets) of the Pacific coast in Canada There are 13 species of otter in the world, two of them in all of North America.  The North American river otter lives throughout most of Canada and Alaska, while sea otters live exclusively along the Pacific West Coast of America, along the Aleutians, and along the coastline of Japan and its islands.   Sea otters are very uncomfortable on land as their large flipper-like feet are positioned and made for swimming.  They spend by far most of their time in the water, coming out rarely to avoid predators or storms.  The interesting thing is that sea otters may wrap themselves in anchored kelp to keep from being tossed about by the waves.  Sea otters sleep in the ocean by floating on their backs and may form groups called rafts that are kept together by hand-holding. River otters (which is what we will call the North American river otter from now on) prefer fresh water but are well ad...