……thanks to Cee for hosting the Which Way Photo Challenge
Now that spring is finally here, I’m back out for my walks. I headed towards the parks west of my house to see what kind of damage the recent wind storm had caused. Fortunately most of the debris and downed trees had already been cleared away.
As I continued toward the pond I was treated to a wonderful gift.
….15 day ago we experienced a severe storm with freezing temperatures, high winds, ice pellets and freezing rain
It’s almost incomprehensible to imagine that less than 15 days ago we were witnessing a severe winter storm here in southern Ontario. Today all traces of snow have disappeared, the sun was shining and the temperatures soared to 20 degrees celsius.
On Sunday, April 15th, Lake Ontario looked liked an angry sea with strong crashing waves and many areas that were level with the lake took on water. Luckily where I live most homes and parks are situated high above the lake but the waves were so high and powerful for three days that a lot of debris from the bottom of the lake was washed ashore and sand, gravel and large rocks and boulders were tossed further inland.
Today I took a walk to Col. Samuel Smith Park where there was considerable damage to the man-made beaches on the eastern side of the reclaimed peninsula. I had seen photos of the area soon after the storm and it was evident that the Parks department had already been by and cleared away a lot of the garbage and gathered up the tree trunks, branches and large pieces of rebar and construction materials used to build this park in the first place. Much of the grassy areas are still covered in stones, gravel, bricks, asphalt and concrete remnants.
…..thanks to Cee for hosting the Which Way Photo Challenge
….thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees
….something I’d like to get better at
Not just watching people but taking pictures of people going about their normal lives. I’m somewhat hesitant to take pictures of strangers but I getting better at it. As for the quality of the photos, well that’s another issue. I’m not likely to try to get a shot more than once if the first one isn’t to my liking. I’ve tried cropping some but sometimes using the zoom on the iPhone doesn’t always produce the best quality photo.
….an exceptionally beautiful day
I knew that I would be indoors for most of the day trying to clean-up the two rooms upstairs so I went out for my walk early today. Frances and I headed out towards Col. Sam Smith Park. It was a glorious morning and the runners, dog walkers, nature photographers and cyclists were out early as well. With my iPhone in hand I took as many photos as Frances would allow.
….more like playing with my camera
Usually when I approach birds of any kind they tend to fly away. I was hoping that my new zoom lens would allow me to get closer without actually having to physically approach my subjects.
A few day ago, when I left the dog at home, I walked into the Col. Sam Smith Park hoping to find some birds to capture with my camera. Despite the bitter cold, I found a gaggle of geese along the first beach as I entered the naturalized area of the park. To my surprise the geese did not fly away. Instead a couple of them walked towards me as if looking for something. I don’t know if it was curiosity on their part or if they were looking for a handout.
At one point they got so close to me that I found myself actually backing away from them. One thing I know about geese and swans is that they can be rather nasty and they will bite if they feel threatened. Clearly these two weren’t threatened by me or this big black contraption hanging from my neck.
I’m pretty pleased with the photos I managed to get. In fact, I didn’t have the zoom lens with me. I used the macro lens. These birds were way to close to me for the zoom lens anyway, unless I wanted pictures of their eyes. I’m sure that an expert could find plenty wrong with them. The day was overcast, Canada Geese don’t have a lot of colour and the beach we were standing on was also void of a lot of colour. Consequently there’s not a lot of contrast and everything seems a little muted. None the less, it is what it is and I finally got a close-up even without my zoom lens.
