Photography

Frustration strikes

How frustrating. I was out at a local park taking photos for an hour or so. When I got home, in over 30 shots, there were only one or two that weren’t blurry.

I’m use to a few garbage shots when I get back. That’s the nature of the beast, but holy cow, it was like the image stabilization system had turned off.

OK, perhaps it was just too much coffee.

Better luck tomorrow.

(Note to self: cut back on the coffee, my friend)

Everything is new again

Pink Rose

One thing about moving to a new city is that everything is new again. Sure, it takes time to get set up with all the new stores and services that you need on a daily basis, but that’s good, because it helps you establish some new (hopefully better) habits.

I’ve never lived this close to a downtown before. I can walk almost everywhere I need to go on a daily basis, bus services is frequent, at about every 20 min or so and the city is very bike friendly. Oh, I still use my car now and then, but most of the time, I can just leave it parked. Nice.

Ahem, new cameras are nice too 😉

I found that I was leaving my DSLR at home more and more as I walked around the city. It just seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, so  just over a month ago, I took the step over to a mirrorless camera. The mirrorless systems are much lighter than the DSLRs.

I got a Fuji X-T1 and some lenses. There are others by Nikon, Sony and other folks, and they’re all good, but I really liked the Fuji for its retro look. It reminds me of a Pentax Spotmatic I had as my first camera, back in the day. I’ll keep my Nikons and all the gear for now, but for walkabout shots, I’m carrying the Fuji.

I took the shot above on a photo walk with some folks from Fuji. They came to Victoria on a promotional tour and brought a few different cameras and lenses for folks to try. It was a fun half day at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. Beacon Hill is a much more developed park than Green Timbers Park in Surrey, but there were lots of things to photograph, so it was a good day.

Spring project comes to an end

Lily of the Valley berries

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll know I’ve been trying to document ‘spring’ in a local Surrey BC forest called Green Timbers Park.

One plant that I’ve been particularly interested in is Wild Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum). It seems my reference for the name was a bit old, and it’s now called False Lily of the Valley or Two-leaved False Soloman’s Seal. (Impersonating both, I guess 😉 But the latin is apparently right. Yay.)

That said, they’ve finally finished flowering and the berries/seeds are developing.

It’s been a long time coming. I noticed the first young plants April 2, the first flower spikes April 9 and the first full berries today. That seems like a long time for such a seemingly delicate plant that’s found on the forest floor. I will say though, the plants themselves are now looking pretty battered by various insects and falling debris from the spring bud break on the trees above.

So with only 2 more days until the summer solstice here in North America, that about brings my spring project to a close. I’m thinking about another one to carry on through the summer, but there may be a smattering of posts on more of a variety of topics from here on in.

Blueberry patch

Blueberries

I found these for the first time yesterday. Blueberries (Vaccinium sp.) are not all that common in Green Timbers park, but I’ll have to keep my eyes open for more.

I just used my Canon G10 for this shot, and I was quite impressed with it’s macro setting/automatic exposure. With my Nikons, I shoot in manual mode, so relying on the camera to handle everything seemed weird. Still, I guess that’s what point and shoot cameras are for, right?

Beauty and the beast

Beauty and the beast

Dog lovers are going to have their work cut out for them over the next few weeks. The lovely flowers on the large leaved avens plants at Green Timbers are turning into nasty, hair and clothes-loving burrs. And there are lots of them!

Having been a dog owner in the past, I remember spending lots of time ‘grooming’ burrs out of my spaniel’s hair. Not fun.