Photo of the Week 2025-03-31

 

 

' on the lookout '

After finding and photographing a Snowy the previous day, I came back to the area in hope of another encounter ...

Quite far from my position, I shot this with the owl in centre frame and then cropped in post keeping much of the remaining barn structure for context. Even with 800mm focal length you can still be too far away for a portrait close-up.

 

Shooting from the car window along the side of a busy roadway, I wanted to work quickly so not to attract too much attention or be a distraction for passing vehicles as there was not a full shoulder with the snow left by plows. Hand holding at 800mm in an uncomfortable position turning to the side is an art that I will be practicing more. As it was, I managed enough sharp frames to pull a couple of keepers from.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-06-03

I hadn't processed any images after the ones from my recent visit to Algonquin, so I randomly picked one from a collection of candidates set aside fora time just like this ...

' GBH from behind '

This was captured around 5 years ago, one morning at Wilson Flats.  As I recall, I was making my way through the waist high growth on the flood plain between branches of the Grand River and startled this heron from it's fishing in the shallows.

I would rather that I had been more stealthy and noticed it before it saw me ant took flight, but it was what it was ...

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-05-27

 

Sticking with images from my recent Algonquin excursion, I've chosen a couple of the iconic Algonquin Moose. What trip to Algonquin is undertaken without fingers crossed in hope of seeing one of these large wild animals?

 

' late for dinner '

' late for dinner II '

Fingers crossed or not, we had not seen a moose since the very brief (too brief to get a photo) encounter with a skittish male very early that morning. It was late in our day and we were heading across the park on Hwy 60 and back to the hotel with minutes left in our window of opportunity. Sun was officially setting, it was within minutes of 8:30 pm when the excited shout of "moose" resounded in the vehicle.

 

At a roadside marsh pond, a decent sized male with sprouting antlers was having a late dinner. He allowed us to approach while continuing to munch away, looking up only periodically to check that we were still there.

 

The light was poor requiring me to shoot at ISO 6400 handheld with a shutter speed of only 1/40s in burst mode to get anything resembling a sharply focused shot. We were close enough that I zoomed back out to less than max 400mm of my EF 100-400 L II and pulsed away with short bursts whenever there was an opportunity for something different which wasn't often as this big fells just wanted to dip his snout into the water for another tender mouthful.

 

Hit rate at ISO6400 f/5-5.6 and 1/30-1/40s exposure was low as to be expected but I had to try. Thankfully these couple were good enough for some follow up processing with Topaz DeNoise AI and some finishing touches in PS/ON1

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-03-06

 

' A visit from Oakley '

Almost 9 years ago to the day, I had my first close encounter with Oakley on the ice of Hay Bay. Today, Oakley made a return visit, or it could be Oakley Jr. given the time gone by. In any event, it was a great experience to see and observe the activity of this critter.

 

Lynn and I had just finished out morning walk with Murphy, which he concludes with a trip "down to the water" (or ice as it is in winter). I hadn't always joined them but since seeing an otter far off across the bay a couple of days before, I made a point of following to see what was going on.

Looking out over the ice, I noticed a far off dark spot and watched it for a while until I saw movement. That was enough to send me back to the cottage for a camera with my longest lens mounted on a monopod. When I returned, I framed up on the spot and made a number of shots from the treeline before moving closer and potentially spooking the whatever it was. I could see it was an otter and wanted to get closer. I re-positioned out on the shoreline where I was quite visible, framed up again and could better see the otter grooming as it lay near what I assumed was an opening in the ice.

It seemed quite content to continue with a wary glance now and then to keep an eye on me. EXIF data from the first series of captures at the treeline showed I was focusing to a distance of more than 150m. After repositioning twice more, I managed to get within 100m but that was as close as I could get in a direct line between me and my subject. I was at the edge of thin ice along the shoreline and took my eye off the subject to assess other options to get closer. When I looked back to the otter it was gone, off under the ice heading somewhere else on the bay. I remained there for several minutes scanning the ice from left to right, near and far without any sign of my subject.

Thinking the encounter was over, I collapsed the monopod and trekked back across the ice to our place, always looking down, my footing (no time to put on ice cleats). As I approached the snow covered shore at our place, I glanced to my left and there was the little bugger had come out of an opening in the ice in front of our neighbour's. Unseen, I froze, raised the camera and grabbed a few hand held shots. Trying to keep stable on the uneven spot where I had abruptly stopped rather than look for something flat, less slippery and risk losing this closer photo opportunity, I cautiously extended the monopod, framed the subject, zoomed in to the max and fired off frames at maximum burst speed. Unsteady and trying both to keep my balance and capture Oakley bounding towards shore at our neighbours, I was spotted. It froze for just a second, turned to stare at me, then hurried back to the safety of water, keeping one eye on me. Stopping for one last look before slipping back below the ice, I was able to grab some final shots with the subject well lit by morning sun over my left shoulder.

 

What a great encounter! Another for the memory bank.

 

Note: EXIF data from this last series of shots indicated a focus distance of just over 40m. I was shooting at 400mm with a 1.4x converter on full frame for an equivalent focal length of 560mm to get the lead shot for this post. I cropped the image about 5% to remove some foreground for better balance but that's about it.

 

DJE