Two different wildflowers that I really like. The first photo is of pink trilliums. They are less common than the white variety but they tend to grow in bunches which more than makes up for their scarcity. The second photograph is of bladder campions, considered a weed in North America but not to this photographer!
I haven’t been out as often as I’d like with my camera but seeing and photographing this beauty, made up for some missed opportunities. Trilliums are the official flower of Ontario yet I never come across them in great numbers. Their growing period is a short one, this trillium looked like it was celebrating the season.
Taking a walk downtown on a rare sunny afternoon in May, I hoped to see some things of interest to photograph. I had borrowed a wide angle lens (12-24mm) and was trying to get a feel for it. The sharp lines and colour attracted me in both of these photographs.
Canada will be celebrating its 150th Birthday on July 1. There is a multi-year plan to renovate many Federal buildings in Ottawa. You can just see some scaffolding in the reflection of the Parliament Buildings in the first photo. The fencing covered in colourful posters dressed up another construction site and made for an interesting composition.
All the familiar favourites are returning to the reserve. We’ve had a few sightings of Black-crowned Night Herons; never two at once, so I’m no sure if there’s one individual or more. We came across this one in a quiet cove. We watched as he starred at the water never shifting his gaze. He caught a fish so quickly that I missed the shot and only caught him with his back to me as he flew off with a large catfish dangling from his mouth.
As is often the case, spring arrives slowly to my part of the country, the temperature going from very cool to very warm within days. The woodlands remain quiet, but gradually the birds return and the trees and other vegetation begin to bud and then suddenly burst with colour and sweet smells. These flowers were just budding last week, now there’s so much that catches my eye, it’s hard to chose what to photograph. The perfect dilemma!
We returned to the Tulip Festival for a second time on a hot sunny day this week. Many of the flowers were at their peak although not all as you can see in the first photo. The tulips are selected in such a way that there are continuous blooms throughout the three week span of the festival. I plan to get back once more before it ends, the riot of colour is hard to resist.
The photo has an unusual composition that I like. The chickadee to the right of the photo and the leaves to the left provide balance. No Rule of Thirds here or the usual negative space in front of the bird. Some rules are meant to be broken!
I came across the first image when I was looking for some Canada Geese photographs for a recent post. I haven’t taken many birds in flight and hadn’t remembered taking this one. The geese were beginning their fall migration so if you pointed your camera towards the sky there were a lot of opportunities to try and capture them. My 300mm lens at F 5.6 worked in my favour and I was pretty pleased with the result.
The Great Blue Heron was on a fishing expedition and landed shortly after I took this photo. Always a favourite subject of mine on land or in the air.
Canada’s Tulip Festival is a yearly event in Ottawa that takes place each May. We decided to go before the official opening in order to avoid the crowds. There are many varieties of tulips in bloom with many yet to come over the three weekends of the festival. After a break from photography this past cold winter it was a pleasure to get out again with our cameras, coming home with muddy knees from taking close ups of the flowers.
Canada Geese can be unwelcome visitors, noisy, messy and overstaying their welcome. But they can make for wonderful subjects too. I came upon this bird last fall as the leaves were changing and the light was soft. These photos were taken at our favourite reserve, a place I’ve only visited a few times this spring. With the below average temperatures and the flooding this month many of the paths are under water. The nearby river is slowly beginning to recede but it will be a several weeks before we’ll be able to walk the park in its entirety.
This downy woodpecker had been busy excavating some bark but paused briefly in his work, taking a break. Perched on the branch facing a wide open sky gave the bird a rather contemplative look that I liked.
Both of these photos were taken in April on a rare day when it wasn’t raining. The rain and cold is breaking records this spring and flooding is affecting a large number of people in several provinces. I love taking photos of ducks when they appear to be steaming towards me, the first duck looks like he means business while the second one just a bit curious.
It was our first time back to this particular nature reserve since last fall. It has a wonderful wildlife garden and the rest of the property consists of trails and woodlots. As we walked along one of the paths we came across this solitary waxwing out in the open. He sat on the branch in no hurry to leave. He made my morning.
The air was cool but the sun was nice and warm and the painted turtles were out in force. In this sheltered little bay every log was host to crowds of turtles. The spring melt has flooded parts of the park and we had to wade through shin high water to get to the little bridge that overlooked the turtles. What a sight they were for winter weary eyes.
This is the very first sandpiper I have photographed. I have seen a few shorebirds along the river but they were never close enough to get a decent shot. This bird flew into a quiet inlet and was at the limit of my lens. I thought the rocky ledge he was perched on made for an interesting background and compensated for the fact that the bird could have been just a bit closer.
It’s too early to see goslings in my part of the country. It’s cold and grey outside so I went through my catalogues from last year for a bit of a spring lift and came upon these two. The goslings were taken within a day of each other last May. The first little goose looks just a bit younger and more tentative than the second who seems to be fixing me with a curious stare. I’m so looking forward to taking photographs like these again!
I was very pleased to come across this nuthatch earlier in the month. I’ve only been to the reserve a few times over the winter, so seeing this colourful character after such a long absence was a welcome sight.
This photograph was taken in Montreal just off St. Lawrence Boulevard. This area of the city has plenty of street art; the play of light and shadow makes for interesting photography. I used Macphun’s Tonality Pro to convert the photo to Black and White. My main interest was the B&W version and working with contrast, detail, and tones.
I’ve featured black eastern grey squirrels before. They’re particularly attractive subjects in the fall with the autumn leaves as backdrop. These squirrels are usually skittish. Although he kept a watchful eye on me, nothing was going to disturb him from his snack. As winter was fast approaching and food was harder to come by every bite counted.
The Anemone in the first photo was taken in its prime. The New England Aster in the second, though still lovely, was beginning to fade. It is a more durable wildflower and was around to enjoy and photograph for weeks longer than the first. I used to prefer photographing colourful flowers over the white varieties. However, lowering the exposure brings out the fine detail in white subjects, as in this example, revealing a subtle beauty that holds its own against its more colourful rivals.
I saw these ducks a little removed from a large group of noisy mallards. Throughout the summer I noticed a few pairs of these ducks at the lake. This particular afternoon they were enjoying a solitary swim. Less boisterous than the mallards, the calm water and the muted colours of the late fall seemed made for them. Although the same size and shape as mallards, their colouring makes me think they might be a mix of mallard and American Black Duck.
Spring sunshine and temperatures are slow to return this year. Green shoots are slowly pushing their way through the soil and I’ve seen a few blackbirds and robins at the reserve but no nest building yet. Instead of trudging through the snow melt on the trails, I took a walk in a neighbourhood not far from where I live. I liked the display in the shop window and took this photo. Another shot that lends itself to black and white.
American Wigeons visit our region in the late summer and remain until the first frost. These photos were taken in November. I thought the reflections in the water were as central to the first photograph as the wigeon, so I chose to do a modest crop. In the second photo the swirls in the water framed the male duck nicely though he was definitely the star in this shot.
A neighbourhood bike shop got creative. The bikes suspended from the colourful wall look like a wonderful piece of art. A simple idea yet full of imagination. The owner even took precautions against theft as the bikes are locked into place. I liked the vibrant colours but with all the detail and texture in the wall I thought the photo would work in black and white as well.
The first green heron arrived at the reserve last June and was joined by several others during the course of the summer, so we had many opportunities to photograph these beautiful birds. They seem to be solitary birds and we never saw them paired up at the lake. We’ve yet to see a nest. I enjoy watching the movements of the green and all the other herons as they transform their appearance when they strut, stalk and fish.
These are two of only a few photographs I took all winter. It was just (still is) too cold for my taste. Chickadees are extremely hardy though and were very obliging that day last December. I adjusted the white balance in Lightroom to remove the blue cast to the snow. It also brought out the brilliant white in the birds.
It’s a bit soon for tulips here. I took these photos last May at the annual tulip festival, a very popular event in Ottawa. The colour and variety and sheer number of flowers is extraordinary. It was difficult to move for all the people and I was limited to closeups of the tulips. Not a bad thing but I had also wanted to try some wide angle shots of the flowerbeds that seemed to stretch on forever. Maybe this year if I get up really early before the crowds…
Summer is truly underway when water lilies begin to appear on the lake. These beautiful aquatic plants decorate the surface of slow moving waterways between June and September. Their broad leaves often provide landing pads for dragonflies and weigh stations for frogs but stand out equally on their own. I try to expose for the lily’s white petals so that I retain some of their detail. This can be easier on a cloudy day when the light is more muted.
The red squirrels had a good year at the reserve and we saw more of them than in the past. They are smaller than the eastern greys but what they lack in size they make up for in temperament. They often chase the larger squirrels around; are known to be feisty and very territorial. These squirrels make for fine subjects particularly in the fall when the woods wear a similar colour to their own.
The reflections in the water are beautiful in their own right. I didn’t have to wait for long until this handsome pair swam by, improving an almost perfect scene. The wigeons show up every fall just as the leaves start to turn, and remain until the first frost. A regular feature of the season that I look forward to every year.
I had driven by this old gated lot many times before but hadn’t paid it much attention. We were returning from a neighbourhood street festival one day and walked by on our way home. I was struck by these wildflowers pushing through the gate and stopped to take a photograph. I wanted the attention of the viewer to focus on the centre of the photograph. To do this I used an adjustment layer in Photoshop to lower the brightness of the stone, and then again for the entire photo. Finally I painted back some brightness in the flower and lock to make them stand out from the background.
I love coming across these daisy like wildflowers. They aren’t that common and grow individually so having the chance to see and photograph them is always a pleasure. In the first shot I liked the way the salsify formed a natural arrangement with the grasses and plants around it. In the second image, the flower itself is the centre of attraction although the muted background added some interest.
I borrowed the title from the song of the same name by The Foundations, a 60s British soul group (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iol0B-clFFM). Another cold grey day here and a sunny looking flower was just the thing to lift the spirits. Buttercups are common flowering plants and I love to see them carpeting the fields every spring. I applied a radial dial in Lightroom to lower the highlights on the flower caused by the strong sunlight. I thought it would lend itself to a black and white treatment as well.
There weren’t many birds around as we walked through the park and most of the fall leaves had faded and fallen. As I looked about I came across the first scene. I couldn’t have made a better arrangement myself than this naturally formed still life. The autumn light enhanced it all. The leaf in the second photo wasn’t easily given up by the tree. I liked the way the leaves in the background mirrored its colour.
In the spring with their goslings and in the fall when the leaves change colour, these are my favourite times to photograph Canada Geese. The goose here appears to be doing the two-step, the vegetation serving as the backdrop. The reflections in the water and the soft fall light enhancing the scene.
The reserve we go to is left to evolve with little interference from the agency that oversees the area’s green spaces. If a tree is brought down in a windstorm or by decay, unless it blocks the path, it’s left where it falls to break down and eventually feed the forest floor. Insects, vegetation, birds and mammals benefit from all stages of the trees’ existence.
Mushrooms were scarce this year given the dry summer we had but this old tree seemed to provide the perfect conditions for them as well as other vegetation. I liked the “hedge” the mushrooms formed to the hollow in the tree, perhaps it was the entrance to someone’s den.
I took these photos last fall. Many birds had already migrated but this gull had not moved on yet. It was perched so nicely on this fallen tree and shifted positions several times before it flew off. It was doing a fine impression of two bookends. Ring-billed gulls are among the most common gulls in North America, are usually seen in groups and are known to be loud and opportunistic feeders. I thought that this solitary gull, standing quietly, taking in its surroundings an impressive sight. I was pleased to have seen it as I was walking by on that November afternoon.
The first photo was taken in an Ottawa laneway, the second one in Toronto. I liked the shapes and play of light in the first shot. In the second photo the neighbourhood basketball court facing Toronto’s financial centre brought a sense of community to the big city. The colours caught my eye as well. I haven’t done much urban photography but I enjoy it and it’s something I’d like to do more of in the coming year.
These photos were taken within a few days of each other. The brown hues of late fall turned to a white snowscape very quickly this month. These eastern grey squirrels are sporting thick coats and look alert and well fed as they make their rounds of the park. At times you get the sense that you’re being watched as you walk along the trail. Chances are it’s one of these squirrels, as they’re everywhere you look.
We had a wonderful fall, not too cold, not too windy. The leaves remained on the trees for a good long time making for wonderful reflections on the lake. I took the first photo as the mallards swam towards shore; the colour of the water and the patterns they created are as much a part of the photo as the ducks. The second photo taken on a dull day a few days earlier is all about the duck!
