Surrey

Testing a link to Flickr photos

Bright Yellow

For the most part, I prefer to link images for my posts from my Flickr account. It helps keep the file size down if I need to move the content somewhere else. I know that some hosts provide an export file, but many seem to be just text. If I use links, rather than the photo itself uploaded to the site, my shots come with me in a text file.

How cool is that!

However, like all of the other blogging platforms I’ve used, WordPress and Flickr make it less than intuitive to share that way. I’m posting this via MarsEdit to see if I can figure out the right link and code to use.

We’ll see.

Back to riding to get some exercise

The new ride as of this summer

After some mandatory down time this winter and early spring, the doc says it’s time for more exercise; specially cardio. Sooo…, it’s out with the ride for another year. Got the bike all tuned up earlier this month, and I’m slowly getting back to it.

Last year I was riding my bike at least 30km/week. I have a couple of routes over to Green Timbers Park, around the park and back that each give me about 10km. I was doing the ride 3 times a week for the better part of the late summer and early fall, and I felt great.

Occasionally, I’d ferry the bike down to Mud Bay and ride 10-15 km along the dike as well. I even took in some road work down there and across to parts of the Delta Greenway.

It’s tough to bike in the winter though. I live in an apartment and keep the bike in a “den” of sorts. Unfortunately I need to trudge the bike through the carpeted apartment to the carpeted den for storage. Things can get messy really fast with water and mud, so I’ve avoided rainy riding. Silly maybe, but true.

Over the winter, I tried a Trek Cycleops indoor trainer, but didn’t do very well. Riding the trainer was pretty boring, even with the TV right in front to watch. I won’t say I didn’t use it, I just didn’t use it as much as I could have. Mostly I just went back to walking whenever I could, but unfortunately, that wasn’t much.

Time to get back to the bike now. I’ve had it out a few times, and I’m building up to longer rides. My trips have been about 5 km on park trails, and I just started testing myself on the roads again today. I want to get back to the ‘at least’  30 km a week again and perhaps get in some cycling done in other areas of Metro Vancouver. The Richmond dike comes to mind right now…

Anyway, just an update for the blog. Perhaps I can get some illustrated, touristy type posts going over the summer. We’ll see.

Trying out an Olloclip attachment for the iPhone

Back at the end of March, I picked up an Olloclip lens set for my iPhone. The attachment consists of 3 lenses in a neat package that includes a case and attachment mechanisms for the iPhone 4 and 5.

The lenses included are a macro, a wide angle and a fish eye. The fish eye is on one side of the attachment, the wide angle is on the other, and the wide angle screws off to expose the macro lens behind it. Quite clever, actually. All you need to do is put the lens you want in front of the camera you want to use; front or rear facing.

Other than wishing there was a telephoto in there, I’m really quite impressed so far. Given my rudimentary iPhone camera skills, the lens set seems quite forgiving. The glass seems sharp, the set is easy to use, and the only real downside is that the camera case has to come off to get the lenses on.

I haven’t used it all that much yet, but here’s a couple of samples from the flickr feed:

<Garden>4

 

<Reproduction>3

 

<Marigold>1

Fall colour

Fall foliage

I don’t seem to be getting out as much as I’d like to this year. That’s especially true about this fall. Not all that sure why, but that’s the way it is.

That said, back in October I did get over to Green Timbers Park with my Nikon D3S and the 28-300 lens. I walked around for a couple of hours and took a few shots, but nothing really fired me up in terms of autumn colours. There were just dull yellows, faded reds and dead greens in the trees.

I had just put my gear back into the car in the parking lot and was closing the door, when something caught my eye. Right behind the car was this lovely tree in full fall colour.

It’s interesting that I didn’t notice it when I arrived, nor again when I came back to the car from my walk. It was just as I was closing up and getting ready to leave.

Anyway, rather than take out the big Nikon guns, I snapped a couple of shots with my iPhone. I was impressed again with how much better the iPhone 4s camera is compared to the 3Gs. I’d forgotten, and I’ll have to spend more time learning to take photos with it.

I was also reminded about being open the world around you. I often tend to get focused on what I think I want and hunt for that, rather than notice the beauty that’s already right there around me. How about you? Does that world sometimes go by without you noticing too?

How did you start the year last year?

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One thing that’s fun to do in January is to look back and see how things started off the year before. It seems that on January 2 last year, I was still processing and posting photos taken in 2010.

January 1, 2011 was clear, but very cold (for me). I was quite unprepared out at Crescent Beach in Surrey, and remember scooting back to the warm car after just a couple of shots. Nothing postworthy from that trip.

However, in early December I did catch this cold shot in the Serpentine Fen. Clear, blue sky and cold blue water contrasted nicely with the water fowl resting in the Fen. The photos got processed and uploaded on January 2, so I guess they could be considered last year’s photos 😉

We haven’t had much sunny weather so far this month (year?), but the weather folks are actually predicting some blue sky over the next week. If I can push myself out the door, I might just make it up to the Harrison River or Squamish to catch the eagles as they feast on the last of the salmon.

Left Over

Red Berry

I found this little berry in the park at Green Timbers the other day. The red of the berry and the green of the moss really stood out from the dead leaves and logs around it.

I used the on-camera flash to give me just a little catchlight to draw attention to the berry. What do you think? Did it work?

The forest seems pretty dead at this time of year, but if you look, you’ll find patches of fungi coming to life in the rotting logs and leaves, and an occasional berry patch here and there.

I must have seen 5 or 6 different fungi, ranging from the usual conchs to jelly-like species on old logs. Actually, that might make an interesting project in the future – to photograph as many fungi in the park as I can find. But that’s another day.

Most of the berries seemed about done, but this one berry seemed to be in its prime. There’s always one, right 😉

It’s easy to lose track in these fast times, and I find that there is nothing like a slow walk in the woods to help me reconnect with nature and centre myself. It’s a nice start to the new year, and it usually results in at least a few pictures.