Cayman Brac

I have arrived on the beautiful island of Cayman Brac. After some much needed rest after a long day of travel yesterday I am ready to begin exploring the area above and below the sea. Cayman Brac will be my home for the next two weeks ☺

At dusk on the day before I left Ontario the snowy owl that has been over – wintering in the fields behind my house finally landed on a more suitable perch, instead of the usual barn roof or hydro poles. Below is my favorite of the many images I created of the owl. I photographed her until my fingers were numb from the cold, won’t need to worry about that for the next 14 days ☺

More Fun With Winter Details

Winter Details at Hatchery Falls in Muskoka, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 180mm
ISO 100, f16 @ 0.6 seconds

I am looking forward to departing this bitterly cold winter soon for the warmth of the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac, but thought I would share a few winter detail images that I recently processed while I finish-up on some of my much needed tasks prior to my departure. Some of these photos were created last winter, but I did not have time to edit them until recently. For each of these images I used my old Nikon 80-400mm VR lens to zoom in on some of the interesting details that can be found within the winter landscape.

One more week of cold temperatures to endure :) I have been in contact with some of the folks I met last year on Cayman Brac and can’t wait to get down there to photograph the Brown Booby’s with chicks as they have been hatching over the past week!

Winter Details Along the Skeleton River in Muskoka, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 185mm
ISO 100, f16 @ 0.5 seconds

Frozen Details on Lake Ontario at Humber Bay Park, Toronto, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400 mm VR lean @ 135mm
ISO 800, f29 @ 1/125 sec. Handheld

Frozen Lake Details on Lake Ontario at Humber Bay Park, Toronto, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 135mm
ISO 800, f16 @ 1/640 sec. Handheld

Frozen Lake Details on Lake Ontario at Humber Bay Park, Toronto, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm
ISO 800, f16 @ 1/250 sec. Handheld

Frozen Lake Details on Lake Ontario at Humber Bay Park, Toronto, Ontario
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 240mm
ISO 800, f16 @ 1/800 sec. Handheld

 

Ontario Landscape Photography Presentation

On Tuesday February 17th at 8:00 p.m. yours truly will be presenting the ‘A Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape’ lecture for the Country Images Camera Club. This presentation will be held at the Art Ferguson Building located at 16195 Bayview Avenue in Newmarket, Ontario. I have previously presented for Country Images Camera Club so I am looking most forward to meeting these great folks again. As usual I will have copies of my eBook for sale at the low presentation special of $20 each.  A Photographer’s Guide to the Ontario Landscape is the only extensive guide available for landscape photography within the Province of Ontario.

Songbirds on a Cold Day

Female Northern Cardinal
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec

This morning when I awoke, I made my way into the kitchen to check the outside temperature on the thermometer by the kitchen window – it was reading -27 degrees Celsius. This temp would normally be fine with me but here in the land of the windchill factor the winds were making it feel more like -42 degrees Celsius. Now that’s getting a little chilly :) Nonetheless, I knew the cold and wind would make for some productive songbird photos from my heating blind that is set-up by the backyard birdfeeding station. After a quick protein shake for breakfast and a hot cup of coffee I made my way out to the blind. As predicted the birds were quite active as they filled up on the variety of feed that I put out for them to offer them a varied diet. The only problem that I encountered was that my aging portable heater that I use inside the blind was not able to contend with the brutally cold wind that was howling outside and my blind is by no means wind-proof. I last about two hours before I was forced to head back into the house to warm up. Here is a selection of my favorite songbird images from this morning’s time inside the blind.

Female Northern Cardinal
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec.

In the female Cardinal image above the vertical orientation was cropped from an original capture that was in the horizontal perspective. I felt that the vertical crop represented her better here. Doesn’t she look at tad chilly herself with the frosty build-up around the eye.

Blue Jay
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/400 sec.

The Blue Jays never seem to disappoint at the feeding station, although this morning they did look a touch puffier as they tried to stay warm amid the frigid temperatures and windchill.

Male Common Redpoll
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 360mm (DX crop = 540mm 35mm equivalent) ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec

On the coldest winter days I often get visits from Redpolls that have ventured down south, from the treeline in the extreme northern regions of Ontario.

Female Common Redpoll
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec

And below are a couple of Black-capped Chickadee images. Like the Blue Jays, the chickadees are always present and entertaining to watch at the feeding station, and generally they become quite tame. They will often visit the feeders while I am changing the perches around and they will even take seed right out of my hand.

Black-capped Chickadee
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec.

Black-capped Chickadee
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/500 sec.

Winter Detail Fun

Icy Shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 400mm, ISO 800 f25 @ 1/800 sec. Handheld

On Friday, February 6th I decided to make the drive down to Humber Bay Park along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Toronto. I often find this to be a very productive location for over-wintering waterfowl, in particular the arctic species such as Long-tailed Ducks. I did not however, anticipate that much of the inner bays of the park would be frozen over. Usually there are open sections of water amid the frozen surface that hold lots of waterfowl, but on this day there were none and the ducks were much too far out in the lake to attempt photographing them. The solution: change gears and photograph some winter details because they can be a ton of fun.

In the image above the large boulders along the shoreline that protect against erosion from the incoming waves are coated in thick and treacherous ice. In the photo below I photographed this thick ice as it was back-lit by the sun to reveal the beautiful turquoise color of the rippled ice pattern created by the waves as they crash into the shoreline.

Rippled Ice Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 240mm ISO 100 f13 @ 1/13 sec. Nikon Polarizing Filter

As I made my way further along the shoreline exploring the interesting textures of ice I came upon a spot along the shoreline where it looked like the beach was made of ice cubes. It was difficult to steady myself for this handheld photo on the super slick ice, but I did mange to get a few interesting images. Below is my favorite of the ice cube beach.

Icy Details on Lake Ontario Shoreline
Nikon D800, Nikon 24-85mm VR lens @ 85mm, ISO 100 f16 @ 1/160 sec

Next on my list was to check out an area at Humber Bay where one of the small inland, man-made ponds flows back down to Lake Ontario to photograph some miniature landscape scenes of winter stream details. There was just enough cloud in the sky to diffuse the bright sun, yet allow the ice to reflect back the blue in the sky. Below is a selection of some interesting ice formations from here.

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 230mm ISO 50 f36 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 240mm, ISO 50 f36 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 230mm, ISO 50 f40 @ 0.8 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 230mm, ISO 50 f40 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Please do remember to click on each image to view the larger, sharper version.

Recent Edits

Georgian Bay Rugged Hiking Trail in Autumn
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 22mm ISO 50, f16 @ 1.3 sec.

Sorry for my absenteeism during the month of January folks, but it was a rather hectic month. I am still quite busy moving into February as I work towards finishing up various projects and submissions to clients before heading to Cayman Brac in early March, not too mention getting my BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year entries prepared and submitted before the contest deadline on February 18th.

Here are three recent edits that I thought I would share with you. Each of these images were created during 2014. The two scenes from Georgian Bay were captured along the Georgian Bay Rugged Hiking Trail in Parry Sound, Ontario during what was a rather windy and stormy evening, which worked out very well for the rugged terrain along the Georgian Bay coast. I am hoping to make a trip to this location later this winter for a round of winter landscapes. The Bullfrog image was created from my canoe in the wetland on Horseshoe Lake at dusk when the Bullfrogs tend to become more active and thus easier to locate.

Please click on each image to see the larger, sharper version.

Bullfrog
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens, ISO 3200 f18 @ 1/80 sec. Handheld

Georgian Bay at Sunset
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 18mm, ISO 400, f16 @ 5 sec. Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Duchesnay Falls, North Bay, Ontario

Looking up at a frozen Duchesnay Falls
Nikon D800, Sigma 15mm Fisheye Lens, ISO 50, f16 @ 1/25 sec.

I have completed much of the processing of the image files from my trip up to Duchesnay Falls in North Bay, Ontario and thought I would share them with folks here on the blog. Each of these photographs were created on Wednesday, January 7th on what turned out to be a bitterly cold day, with the outside temperature hovering at -26 degrees C. I love being outdoors in such weather creating photographs. Think about it now – at these temps you are almost guaranteed to have such destinations all to yourself and there are no mosquitoes to contend with :)  As long as I dress in in multiple layers and wear appropriate footwear (Sorels rated to -40) and head-wear I can stay out all day if need be.

Please do remember to click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions.

Duchesnay Creek
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 18mm, ISO 50, f22 @ 0.3 sec.

Duchesnay Creek
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 22mm, ISO 50, f16 @ 0.4 sec.

In the final image below note how the river’s brownish water has created tea-colored ice formations within the river. At first I was disappointed when I discovered this darkly stained ice, but the longer I looked at it I thought that it was rather interesting and created some interesting color to what otherwise be a typical winter river-scape.

Duchesnay Creek
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens 20mm, ISO 100, f16 @ 0.6 sec.