Tag: winter

Wings over water.

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The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Wings.

I thought about swarms of insects but decided that while you can see the insects you can’t see their wings while they’re flying in the swarm.

Then I thought about some of the photos from when I was a member of a small group of birders surveying and recording a winter roost of Gull species on an inland reservoir in south Cheshire, England.

A photo of Black-headed Gulls in winter roosting on Hurleston Reservoir at night. If something disturbs the birds on an edge of the roost they will fly to another side of the roost which is what they’re doing in the photo.

Black-headed Gull winter roost.

Some Best Buys.

David M3 Comments

The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Best Buy.

An unusual post for me as I don’t normally talk about camera equipment regarding it as tools used to get the image. I stopped following equipment trends long ago so most of my gear is a decade or more old and now discontinued.

Then I thought of this photo from last winter. It features some of my best buys in camera equipment, all of which is long discontinued.

  • The camera bag is a Tenba P895 purchased in the 1980s. Tenba discontinued the range about 15 years ago.
  • The tripod is a Gitzo G340, the tripod head is an Arca-Swiss B1, both from the 1990s and both now discontinued.
  • The camera is an Olympus E-3 from 2008 so around a decade old at the time the photo was taken and also discontinued.

I should add that since the photo was taken I have swapped out the Tenba bag for a canvas Domke. The reason for the change was two bad shoulders and deciding to try a bag that has a reputation for being easier on the shoulder. So far the Domke does seem easier on the shoulder but I still miss some of the features of the Tenba having used the range for decades.

The photo was taken with an old tablet I sometimes throw in the camera bag. It has an app that shows sun rise/set, moon rise/set times and locations along with a note taking app I use for recording dates and locations for future reference. There’s also an app for calculating long exposure times when using neutral density filters and an app for editing photos. Maybe the tablet should be on the best buy list.

Some best buys.

Mural, signs and a snow bank.

David M4 Comments

This week’s Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge is Murals.

I was amused by the parking signs and the thought that anyone would be parking on top of a metre (39 inch) high snow bank which is partially burying the mural.

The mural is on the side of the Sparkles Laundromat, Southampton, Ontario and celebrates the 150th anniversary of the town.

Parking signs, mural and snow bank.

Spotted, Giant Red Butterfly.

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A giant Red Butterfly garden ornament over wintering on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. Taken on a walk earlier in the week when we saw some blue skies and sun between the snow squalls.

Continuing a bit of a theme from this winter as I have photographed some of the relatives of this butterfly previously and also because I gave it a film type border.

Red Butterfly garden ornament.

Snow, Ice and Clouds.

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Monochrome Monday is going down to the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline at sunrise. One of those mornings where there was some interesting clouds over the bay but very little colour in the sky as the sun came up.

I noticed the similarity between the patterns in the snow and ice on the bay and the patterns in the clouds and tried to find a composition that balanced the two with the idea of a monochrome conversion.

A frozen Colpoy's Bay at sunrise.