Photography

Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.

Baby geese! Baby ducks!

I’ll post the full gallery tomorrow (it’s getting late), but here are some shots of the first baby geese and ducks I’ve seen this spring at Burnaby Lake. The coots may be gone, but the fluffballs have arrived.

Baby goose! Fluffy and adorable. No hint of the hissing horror to come.
Baby duck! Not as fluffy as a baby goose, but also doesn’t grow up to be a poopmonster.

Birding, May 7, 2023: Herons and more herons

Where: Sapperton Landing, New Westminster
Weather: Partly sunny, 17C

The Outing

With the weather being perfectly spring-like, I stretched my legs and spent an hour or so strolling along the path at Sapperton Landing, taking in the scenery along the Fraser River, and shooting what birds I could see.

I spotted a heron early on, which was nice, then realized there were at least four others with it. It was a heronfest, a bounty of herons, a heroncopia.

I actually got several decent shots of robins–score! And a terrifying shot of a crow cawing directly at my camera. And speaking of creepy, I shot a passing boat and when I zoomed in later a guy in the boat appeared to be staring back at me with a “I’ll git you!” look on his face.

Surprisingly, I saw a pair of gadwalls in the river, still not interested in migrating north, apparently.

In all, it was a fine little outing.

The Shots

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Song sparrow

Waterfowl:

  • Canada goose
  • Cormorant
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Mallard

Common:

  • Crow

Non-birds:

  • A few well-behaved dogs
  • A spider

I have purchased sunscreen in April, let summer begin!

With the forecast calling for sun tomorrow (weird, I know) and expecting to spend some hours in said sun, I have purchased sunscreen because as I’ve learned, if you spend any time in the sun, it will burn you. This year, I’m ready! As long as I remember to put it on. Which I will. For sure.

Also, speaking of summer, they have already filled the swimming pool at Hume Park, even though the pool normally doesn’t open until late June. It’s not actually open now, but it looks like it could be. Maybe it’s a test run. Or maybe a family of adorable otters will live there until late June.

I’m not sure what the tent is for, but it looks somewhat festive.

Abstract photography or what you do when you run out of time

I have an arbitrary rule that I must take at least one photo a day. It’s just a silly little challenge and most days I usually get a scenery shot or sometimes, if I’m feeling fancy, a bird.

But some days, like today, I either don’t go out, or just plain forget, and that’s when I have to get creative, because I’ll never just take a selfie (ugh) or a shot of whatever is in front of me, I need to at least make something out of it.

An extreme close-up of my Blue Yeti microphone:

And a top-down view of the same microphone:

The other objects seen: USB backup drive, USB connector for a wireless mouse, a yellow model of an AMC Pacer, a toothpick, some keys, and a coaster.

Glass photo art

Most days I get out and aboot1This is, of course, a reference from the South Park movie Bigger, Longer and Uncut, and is how all Canadians say the word “about” and meet my daily photo requirement taking a shot of trees or water or birds or something all nature-like.

But occasionally I stay indoors because the weather is grossbuckets2And while I’m explaining references, this is from the old Bloom County comic strip or I otherwise don’t get out. And to keep uo with the photo-per-day thing requires me to find something indoors to shoot. Since I abhor selfies (I think I look weird in all of them. Not ugly, just weird. I have some goofy features.) I have to improvise with the objects scattered around the condo.

The past two days, that object has been the glass I keep on a coaster next to my keyboard.

In the first shot, I’m aiming the phone camera straight down into the glass, which is partly filled with soda. This one you can identify pretty easily.

In the second shot, I held the phone camera right up against the side of the glass, which was filled with a fizzy berry pomegranate flavour mix. This one, complete with unanticipated window reflection, is more akin to abstract art. It’s completely unlike what I was expecting. I like it!