Sunday, December 31, 2006

ICICLE and SNOW WEEDS



#1 - Taken Dec 6th of snow on a bush after the snowfall we had December 5th. I was in a bit of a rush and took this handheld not being as careful as I usually am with what was lurking in the background.

#2 - This is a picture I took last February in uptown Saint John. I was heading to St Joe's hospital for blood work and since I had some time to wander around I took my camera and tripod along. I stopped on Coburg Street where the melting snow was dripping off a roof and building up on this unfortunate shrub/weed. It was beside a blue house and the reflecting color in the snow and ice was what caught my eye. Several people passed me as I got into position to snap this picture. Every one that walked past looked at me, at what I was photographing, and then back at me and walked away shaking their heads. Most looked at me as if I were photographing dog dung. Not that day.....already did that earlier...

This is an Orton's Montage, a combination of an in-focus image and an out-of-focus image, of the exact same subject. The two images were combined/blended in Photoshop and this is the result.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Ducks in my pond






I spied my daughter's ducks taking a bath in my pond this morning and decided to take a few pictures. Seemed the right thing to do to convert the pictures to black and white. Gee I had a shower this morning and couldn't get the water hot enough!!! Glad I am not a duck. When they are done bathing they will snooze on the ice. Sometimes a few of their feathers freeze to the ice and are left behind when they return home.

Speaking of ducks and ice, a few weeks ago during our last cold spell I still had the waterfall running. There was a huge chunk of ice on the bottom stone and the surface of the pond was completely frozen over. I wasn't aware but the ice jam had caused considerable water to drain out of the pond. So much so it had lowered the water level by about a foot. Carolyn heard the ducks raising a ruckus but could only see two of them. I bundled up to check it out and could see one duck under the ice frantically trying to get out. There was only one thing I could do and that was to break the ice to let her out. The danger I saw was the collapsing ice might fall in a large chunk trapping her underneath. I gave the center of the ice a whack and sure enough it broke off in a single huge chunk. Ms duck still trapped under the ice went to the bottom of the pond and stayed there. I quickly gave the ice another whack but the center was much thicker than the edges and nothing happened. So I went for a coffee and to warm up and think what I should do next....no that is another story.... I quickly calculated where to break the ice and the second whack was successful. Ms duck was quickly reunited with her family scolding me all the time for being so careless. Sadly I think I learned more from this than she did.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Meenan's Cove in the cold



It has been very cold the past couple of days with wind-chill temperatures in the order of -20 and lower. Needless to say with the 48 km winds I didn't stand around looking for the best possible angles to take these pictures. The Cove is almost completely frozen over except for a few remaining open spots. Not anywhere near thick enough to walk on yet though.

Saint John December 17 2006









Here are a few pictures from Saint John. Not quite what many of you are accustomed to seeing in downtown Saint John. Comments are always welcome.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Hammond River




Here are a few early morning pictures I took of the Hammond River a mile from home on December 17th 2006. We now have even less snow than there is in these pictures.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Recent Photos






Here are a few odds and ends from the last few days. It has been a pretty busy time around here so I have not had much chance to get out and take pictures. I did get out with Jason for a while yesterday and wll have more to post a little later.

#1 - My Christmas tree. I was playing around trying to take a handheld time exposure but they looked terrible, of course. So I decided why not enhance the camera movement.

#2 - Candle at our Camera Club's Christmas party. Handheld @ 1/8 second.

#3 - Another of Darlings Lake from Dec 17th.

#4 and 5 - Vacant house in Rothesay. Taken yesterday, December 22 2006. No snow yet.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

It's Cold out



Here are two pictures.

Picture #1 was taken this morning at Meenan's Cove Beach. It was very windy and the windchill temperature was around -20 degrees celsius, even though it felt much colder. It was cold enough for me not to spend too much time wandering around looking for photos to take.

Picture #1 caught my eye as I drove down Mellinium Drive in Quispamsis yesterday morning. I was on my way to meet Bruce for breakfast at Sessions Cafe. Needless to say I was late.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Early This Morning (December 17th) Revised






Here are more sunrise pictures, including two that were posted earlier. I was having some difficulty getting the colors and contrast in the images I posted the other day to match what I was experiencing when I took the pictures. I bracketed the pictures and merged them using HDR in Photoshop but that, to me, left a lot to be desired. Finally I choose the picture with the best exposure, opened it with Nikon Capture 4, jumped to Photoshop and made minor adjustments to the shadows and highlights. Much more pleasing. They were so different I had to post them again.

I realize I do not have the high dynamic range I had before but I much prefer having the the more accurate colors. When I get time I will revisit HDR and see where I went wrong. That will have to be a day when I don't have dozens of projects on my plate.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Early this morning






I was up early this morning. Since the sun had not yet risen I decided to try and get a few pictures before it did. It is amazing the color changes that occur in just a few minutes at this time of the day.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Guess where?

Mrs Rule of Thirds just won a $5.00 gift certificate to Tim Horton's for knowing where this picture was taken.....

I took this picture in Saint John yesterday. Do any of you know where I took it? Sorry to make it so easy but I was in a hurry. No need to have a blog name, just type your comment, choose anonymous, and then click the login and publish button.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Falcon



Here are a couple of snapshots of a Falcon that has been harassing the birds and squirrels in my yard the past few weeks. I had just put my 50 mm lens on and taken some pictures of the kids when Carolyn called me to say a Falcon had just barely missed a large grey squirrel in my front yard. It looks like the crows that we have been feeding saw him coming and attacked him just before he was able to hit the squirrel. I quickly changed lenses and took these two pictures before the crows chased him away. I know these pictures are not award winners but it is not every day a Falcon lands in a tree a few feet from my house.

Friday, December 08, 2006

December 5th Snowfall








I finally have my computer working - sort of. Here are some pictures of the snow we received on December 5th.

I was up early to catch the moon setting over the Kingston Peninsula as the sun was rising in the East. The next day, December 6th I took some pictures of the Hammond River. It has been quite cold and the river was frozen over.