Happy New Year!

I'm back in Tobermory after a bit of travel over the holidays... first to visit my Mom for Christmas and then to hang out with my friends on eastern Georgian Bay for new years eve. My holidays have been full of food, wine & socializing... and my camera has not been out much.

There were about a thousand Bonaparte's Gulls in Wheatley Harbour, just a short drive from my Mom's place... so I spent a few hours photographing them around Christmas. The light conditions were fairly dull, but it was a perfect chance to shoot them in flight. It pays to practise your technique on common species - this keeps your skills up so you're ready when a great opportunity presents itself.

Photo 1: Bonaparte's Gull (winter plumage) in flight, Wheatley Harbour, Ontario.
Canon EOS 1DsIII; 500/4 IS lens; Wimberley II head and Gitzo tripod.
ISO 400; 1/1250s @ f/4; Vertical image cropped from a horizontal frame.

It was snowing quite hard today while driving home from my friend's place. I could not resist stopping to shoot this snowy scene on the Nottawasaga River.

Photo 2: Nottawasaga River in snow - near Wasaga Beach, Ontario.
Canon EOS 1DsIII; 24-70/2.8 lens; ISO 200; 1/160s @ f/8; handheld. Converted to Black-and-white in Photoshop.

I've been working on the plans for my upcoming Panama trip lately, and the more research I do the more I get excited about it. Panama has an incredibly high diversity of birds and I'll be traveling with some friends who are excellent photographers... so we're going to have a heck of a trip. Will tell you more about it later.

Wishing you all the best in 2010!

A taste of winter

I've spent the past two weeks in Ontario - a brief trip for which I had grand plans of winter photography. But the weather was damn cold when I arrived (-20C) and snowy.... and I was lazy. So I spent far more time socializing and having fun than taking photos. I'm now packing for my return flight to the southwest and thought I should post a few of the photos that I did manage to get during the past couple of weeks.

Photo 1: It snowed a foot one night while I was staying with friends in Penetanguishene. Here's my friend Andrew clearing the driveway with his new snowblower.


Photo 2: I found this porcupine feeding in young trees near Dyers Bay on the Bruce Peninsula. Although just above head height, the white sky background made it a tough situation to photograph. This closeup of the head and face was one of the more successful shots I manged to make. EOS 1DsmIII; 500/4IS


Photo 3: I did some work with the tourism department at Bruce County photographing a crew from the Snowtrax (snowmobiling) television show..... it was a ton of fun!


Photo 4: For much of the snowmobile shoot, I photographed from the back of one of the sleds. Here's an image of us going through a tunnel, with a slow shutter speed to create motion blur. This is from the camera, with no special digital effects.


I'm looking forward to warm southwest weather again!