Photo of the Week 2022-02-21

 

This week, a departure from my foray into infrared, but still something showcasing the wonder of winter because regular followers of my photography know I love winter.

 

' Left at the Birch '

 

 

With every snowfall, a fresh canvas,

 

 on which nature will paint

 

Be it hard cold edged ice

 

or soft delicate flake

 

The beauty is there to be seen

 

You have only you look

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-08-02

When I think back a few years to hosting a couple of friends, Alan and Patrick, at the cottage for a photography weekend, I laugh. Not just because we had a fun time, sketching, photographing, telling stories ...

... but Patrick, who is very knowledgeable about flora and fauna, left me with a comment and observation that I am reminded of annually this time of year. It came after I mentioned that I had not been able to find many of the 40 plus species of orchid that call the Bruce Peninsula home.

As I recall, we had just returned from an outing at Sunset Park where low water levels had allowed us to carefully amble and ramble along the shoreline to make photos. Quite casually, Patrick said something like 'you know you have Helleborine out in your driveway'. I must have looked rather unimpressed until he added 'you know that's an orchid'.

I laughed long and hard then, and smile every year when the Broadleaf Helleborine blooms in a number of locations on our property ...

 

Helleborine Trio

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-28

Well, well, well ...

 

I forgot to get a post out yesterday. I think this makes twice in over 10 years that I've missed making a Photo of the Week post on Monday. So here we go, a day late and backdated to yesterday ;-)

 

' Sleeping Beauty '

 

The back-story: I made a solo trip up to the cottage for a single night just before Christmas to check on things and take some items up so we would have more room in the vehicle the next trip. It also gave me an opportunity to scout around and look for photo opportunities without having to be concerned with passengers.

 

The drive up was mostly unrewarding photographically as the weather was quite blah. After cruising some of the secondary roads north of Wiarton, I managed to photograph a Rough-legged Hawk and grabbed a far off shot of a female Snowy Owl sitting on a fence post out in a farm field, but nothing really noteworthy. That day remained heavily overcast and dull so there were not night sky photo opportunities either.The weather forecast was for rain the next day so I planned to take care of a couple of things and leave early morning with enough time to do some Snowy Owl scouting on the was home.

 

I made a mid-morning departure and about 30 min into the drive I decided to pull off the highway to refill my coffee cup from my thermos. Safely on the shoulder of a side-road, I screwed the cap back on the thermos and looked out the side window to catch ' Sleeping Beauty '

 

 

Sleeping Beauty

Talk about serendipity! I'm not sure I would have noticed this bird as I scanned the area to either side of the highway as I drove along, but there she was. Sitting pretty and completely at rest if not sleeping. I watched for almost an hour and she never moved for nearly 20 minutes when she opened her eyes a bit and shortly after began preening.

I particularly like this image because the owl is perched on a rock in a natural environment as opposed to on a fence post, hydro pole or other man made structure. She stands out well against the darker field grass background.

An there you have it ... a day late and well worth it IMO.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-14

 

frosted tapestry

 Sometimes it just takes frosted highlights to make one notice the beauty

of nature's complex roadside tapestry

 

 

DJE