Dragons and Clouds - July 23, 2013

On the way home from work found myself driving through Bridgeland. There is a dog park on top of the hill there and I stoped to look for wild flowers. Instead I found that there were dragonflies about. This fellow sat on the twig and was reasonably still. I was using my 300mm lens with extension tubes on it. This was the first time that I'd tried the tubes out after picking them up more than a year ago. After a bit of wrangling with the equipment I was able to get a few macro shots of the dragonfly. In the original pic you can make out the lenses on the dragonfly's eyes which is pretty neat. I enjoy shooting macro shots like this not always for the end result but because I'm able to sit and focus (ha ha.. focus) on one thing for a while and forget everything else, like having a bit of tunnel vision. It's a nice escape from my mind - plus you get to stop, slowdown and look closely at something that you normally wouldn't see.

Then later in the evening it looked like there would be some interesting clouds and maybe a rainbow out east of the city so off I went.. reminds me of that aloof person that's always off chasing butterflies and rainbows. Hey, that's me! Anyway, as I was driving down the gravel road following the rainbow but it wasn't very strong and I couldn't find a composition to put it in on. There was this cool light coming from the west where the sun was making its way down to the horizon. I spotted this line of trees that were creating cool shadows on the ground in my rear view mirror so I stopped made a photograph of it.

Further down the road, I came across this farmers field where they had started harvesting. I liked the curves the hay makes on the ground and the interesting sky in the background. I tried to capture it using a couple of filters to block the light from the sky a bit so the camera could also capture the darker-in-shadow foreground.

I left here and while driving back stopped to photograph big storm clouds in the sky. As of yet, I've not posted any of those photos, but if I do, they'll show up here.

Thanks for looking,
Brad.

Great Grey Owl - April 13, 2012

I have a contact on Flickr who posts lots and lots of bird photos from around Calgary and the surrounding areas. He had posted a few shots of the grey owls out by Water Valley and quite frankly I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go see myself. This was my second time trying to drive down the Grand Valley road to find owls this spring. The first was a couple weeks earlier where I ran out of time and had to turn around and come back. I still had loads of fun driving those curvy country roads!

The second time I went out there I had more time which was helpful because I found a hawk owl perched high on a tree. After spending 30 mins trying to get some shots of him sitting atop the tree ignoring me I left and came across this grey owl just sitting on a tree beside the road. I like owls much more than hawks - sometimes the owls just check you out and decide to go back to whatever they were doing before you came along. The hawks almost always fly away before you can get anywhere near them.

I stopped, got out of the car and actually used my tripod with the long lens cause it was a bit overcast and I wasn't going to get high shutter speeds. I took some shots and moved closer, shots, closer, shots, closer. Eventually I couldn't get closer because he was filling the frame of the camera. He did fly off a couple of times and I followed through the heavy wet spring snow that had fallen overnight. I'd put on my winter boots when I got out to look at the hawk owl so I thought I was OK. The snow was really deep in places and pretty soon my legs were wet from kneeling down to frame pictures. The snow was getting into the tops of my boots and making my feet wet, and stinky. I really need new boots, these ones are about 10 years old and are starting to go. Three weeks later my boots were still wet inside!

Anyway, after getting a bunch of shots I decided to leave the owl alone - not that I felt I was harassing it or anything like that it was just time to move on. I quickly came across ANOTHER grey owl. I parked and watched it for a while in my wet, stinky boots. He surprised me by jumping off the tree he was on and floating across the field like he was hunting. I say floating because at one point the owl was moving so slowly that I thought it was just hovering without moving his wings. It was incredible and I feel privileged to have observed it. The trade off to that is that I was so flustered that I missed the in-flight shot. Still, I felt fortunate to have found two grey owls and a hawk owl.

I've now seen four types of owl this year. Hawk, Snowy, Grey and Horned. I'm fortunate indeed.

Click here for more shots from this day.

Thanks for looking
Brad.

Short Eared Owl - March 20th, 2011

After finishing up with the hockey games earlier in the day I took a short detour on the way home. Actually, the hockey rink is just down the street so from a detour perspective I guess I really went on a short drive.

I was on a road just east of the city looking for birds when I came across a field where there was a fair bit of activity going on. I think there were at least two owls flying around and maybe a hawk or falcon it was hard to tell. I stopped the car and walked into the field to see if I could get close to the owls but didn't have much luck. Soon they were all flying far away from where I was so I left. I figured that I`d found an area where they might be nesting.

Later that evening I thought I'd go back and see if I could find the owls again. So I drove to the same location parked and made my way into the field. I was moving slowly, trying to be quiet. I had my camera, tripod and the remote release because it was reasonably dark and I wouldn't be able to hand hold the camera to make a shot. While I was walking an owl flew up from the ground quite a ways in front of me and landed on the ground again. I took a couple of shots and then tried to move closer. He saw me and flew to a fence post. I followed him taking a few shots then walking about 20 paces and taking a few more. When I got too close he would fly away and land on another fence post further down. This is as close as I could get.



Soon it was too dark for any more photos so I made my way back to the car. I drove down the road a little ways to see if the owl was still around and found him flying low above the fields. I watched him for a while until I lost sight of him in the darkness.

Thanks for looking,
brad.

Coyote - March 4th, 2011

Took a short drive on some country roads and came across this coyote walking through the snow. I stopped and had to go into the back of the car to get the camera out and change the lens. He didn't flee while I was fiddling with my equipment so I was able to get a few shots.

I like this shot because there is a small catch light in his eye. Afterwards I noticed how many of his tracks were all over the place.

Thanks for looking
brad.