Welcome to my blog, in which I post photos from recent travels and photography ideas.
These are posted irregularly, so log in at your leisure to catch my latest ramblings.
May 28 - Almost into Summer
Spring was slow to come this year. When it did finally start to green, everything erupted quickly. First a few fresh green buds appeared, and now suddenly the trees have fully leaved out. Here are a few photos from around home showing how we are now in new full growth.
This creek is along the road to my house. Undergrowth still is only beginning to grow.
The pin cherry trees blossomed seemingly overnight. These are along Long Lake Road.
These pin cherry blossoms in front of a grove of birch trees are near McFarlane Lake.
This photo I made just this evening at Robinson Lake, with a lone Trumpeter Swan feeding.
Only in Sudbury do you find rocks for sale.
On Wednesday I will be taking to the road, on a photo trip west with my friend, Ward Isnor. Our destination is Palouse Country in eastern Washington.
I plan to blog about this journey daily, with a photo (or perhaps more) of the day. Please follow us on our journey.
May 22 - Spring Has Sprung, at Last
Spring has arrived here in Sudbury, though it is somewhat late. The warming weather has allowed the leaves to burst out in their varying spring hues. The spring peepers' and a lonesome whip-poor-will's calls at night are sure signs of spring's arrival.
I have made a few images of these spring colours close to my home. Here are a few examples.
I made these images along the roads that lead to my house or at nearby Kivi Park.
May 4 - Last Vestiges of a Late Winter
Spring is finally attempting to emerge. Most of the snow has melted and ice is beginning to break up on the lakes.
Here are a few images that I made this week close to home, showing the last vestiges of a late winter.
This and the next photo show the flooding in the wetland just down the road.
We did get a wet snowfall one day, as shown in this image of an oak leaf.
I made this image at sunset at one of my favourite locations, this same wetland nearby.
This photo shows some ice in a shaded spot by the creek along Chief Lake Road.
These photos all show sections of ice which are usually the last to melt. Once they are gone, summer is just around the corner (that's what my paternal grandfather, who lived here for 50 years, always predicted).
April 25 - Re-editing Photos
This is a quiet period for photography outdoors. So I decided to purchase software (Silverfast) so that I could reconnect my film scanner. This was necessitated because Nikon no longer supports their scanners. I have hundreds of slides filed either in boxes or slide files. This will be a lengthy and tedious endeavour. Undoubtedly I will discard many of these images that I once thought were worthy.
Here is a selection from my first few days of revisiting my files.
Red fox, Killarney Provincial Park
Gray wolf, photographed under controlled conditions in Montana
Black-backed jackal, Masai Mara, Kenya
Lion, Masai Mara, Kenya
Young leopard, Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya
Cheetah, Masai Mara, Kenya
Reticulated giraffe, Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
Masai tribesman, Kenya
This slide from July 1961, with my friend, Eino (now living in Queensland, Australia), my pet dog, Pal, and my Paappa, taken at Long Lake
The older slides have often faded and require more attempts at post-processing.
April 16 - Back Home
We finished our skiing at the end of March. After house cleaning and packing the car, we began our drive home on April 3.
This scene is just west of Revelstoke. Snow and fog were higher in the mountains, but the roads were fine - bare but wet.
This is the Trans-Canada Highway in Albert Canyon, where we passed through two avalanche sheds.
We drove through parts of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, and eventually into Yoho National Park.
This small conifer was poking out of the snow at Natural Bridge area in Yoho.
We spent the first three nights in Canmore, so that we could explore Banff National Park.
Vermilion Lake and Mount Rundle. Unfortunately all the lakes here were still frozen.
This lonely tree was along the route to Kootenay National Park, near Storm Mountain.
Nama Creek, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia.
Back in Banff, we did encounter some wildlife.
This Bighorn Sheep ewe was near Two Jack Lake.
We saw this Gray Wolf along the Bow Valley Parkway.
This huge Wapiti (or elk) was also along the Bow Valley Parkway. We originally spotted him briefly up on a ridge but got no photos. I was able to photograph him the next day after making several circuits of the road. I was surprised that he still had his antlers.
The next morning we began our trip across the prairies. It is always anticlimactic for me in this landscape after the magnificence of the mountains.
These deteriorating but brightly painted grain sheds were near Chestermere, Alberta. I found little else to photograph across the prairies.
In our last four return trips from the west I have had no luck finding piled-up ice along Lake Superior's east shore. These ice-covered rocks were along Pancake Bay - the best I could find.
And this is what we came home to find, as I looked down my driveway. Where is spring?