Photography

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

Birding shots from November 11, 2023 are up

The light was often not great, but you do what you can, then fix in post.

A highlight:

Steller's jay perched on a branch
Steller’s jay perched on a branch

The gallery:

Down the sewer we go…

In Japan, decorative sewer covers became such a thing that people actually make trips to see the covers in various cities. The sewer covers here are just sewer covers, but sometimes the location or weathering causes them to grab my eye.

This one is located along the Brunette River Conservation Area1Or as I usually slightly-less wordily call it, the Brunette River trail and is surrounded by soil, rocks, moss and some fall leaves. It’s also very orange, so it’s in theme right now with the season:

A few shots after the Friday, November 10, 2023 windstorm

We had a windstorm blow through the area (as windstorms do) on the night of November 10th, a few days ago as I write this.

I went birding the next day and captured a few shots of the destruction while walking down the Brunette River trail.

First, the pretty. The wind yoinked a bunch of leaves off the trees, making the trail resplendent in fall colours:

A jogger in red heads down the yellow leaf road

And the destruction. This was the largest piece of debris on the river trail I saw, and definitely not something you would want clobbering you on the head at 70-90 km/h:

This was right near the entrance off North Road, so I saw the worst right up front

This rare non-run day shot from the top of the Cariboo Dam shows that the morning after the storm was actually pretty decent:

All quiet now, save for the mad dashing of squirrels gathering food for winter

Hair nostalgia

While looking for something unrelated in amongst the many backup CDs/DVDs I have dating back as far as 2000, I found this photo I apparently took of myself around 2003 or thereabouts (20 years ago as I type this). I was still in my 30s! I look wistful here, as if I knew the hair wouldn’t last. Or that the beard would shortly turn white, like Gandalf’s.

Also, dig those old school monitors. I think their combined weight was equal to mine.

Fun facts:

  • The photo is a self-portrait taken with a Kodak DC280 Zoom Digital Camera (box pictured to the left of me), taken at a then-crazy resolution of 1760×1168.
  • The date stamp claims it was taken on May 3, 1999, but I did not move in to the place pictured until September 2001. The “modified” date is October 26, 2003, which is probably the actual date taken.
  • mytechbuyer.com no longer seems to be a thing, which is weird considering how SEO-sounding the name is.
  • This was the end of my Big Glasses™ era.
  • I was probably north of 180 pounds when this was taken. THICC, as they say.
  • It was the only time I ever had two PCs set up side-by-side (old and new). I never ended up using the old one and eventually removed it.
  • The window was at ground level (basement suite), which let anyone walking by peek into my living room, so I always kept the blinds shut, hermit-style.
  • The house was sold recently and will likely be bulldozed to make way for an apartment or condo complex. I lived there for 10 years.
Ah, to be young again. Except without those super heavy old monitors.

But is it art? October 19, 2023 edition

On the way back from my run yesterday, I took a few photos, as I often do. It was raining steadily at the time. When my iPhone gets exposed to the rain, it can do weird things (as did my old Apple Watch, though that was actually much worse than the phone has ever been). One of the weird wet things the phone does is take random photos. According to the EXIF info, the image below was taken along the paved path just before exiting Burnaby Lake Regional Park.

What is being shown in the photo, I can’t say. But it is rather jazzy looking for an accidental photo.

But is it (spider) art?

Before every run at Burnaby Lake, I stand atop the Cariboo Dam in the same approximate shot and take a photo of the lake. This morning, I was starting to lean against the railing, as I do, when I looked down and spied a…spider!

I’ve cropped the resultant photo to make it maybe more artsy or something.

A spider, hanging around upside down, as they do.

I did it, I made a photo gallery!

Yes, I finally got off my lazy butt and actually went through the photos I took on Saturday (October 7) and put together a gallery, which you can observe by looking right below:

Brunette River, October 5, 2023

A few shots around the Brunette River, taken in late afternoon light at Lower Hume Park.

Mirror-like reflections and an apparently abandoned beaver dam
Looking to the north, fall colours coming in

And a bonus heron. It left before I could get a closer shot, alas.