Weekly photo of 28 February 2016
Just a teaser for you, more photos coming soon from our visit to the Butterflies in liberty at the Montreal’s Botanical garden. I went there with my family and my brother Dominic to take photos, it’s a great event that is fun for everyone !
Rice Paper butterfly. Taken handheld with my Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro, 1/400 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 800.
Ducks on a cold Canadian morning.
Yesterday it was -28°C (-38°C with the wind chill factor), a good occasion to go to the St-Louis river in Beauharnois to photograph the Mallard Ducks that stays there all winter. At these temperatures it’s important to be well dressed if you want to stay warm and keep shooting, especially your hands, i did put hand warmers in my mitts to keep my fingers warm.
First, here is some photos of the river to show you the habitat:
Here is a photo taken at the base of the waterfall, down the river there is less ice and the Ducks have access to open waters and foods. Taken with my Canon 7D and 10-18mm STM at 12mm.
Taken with my Canon 7D and 10-18mm STM at 11mm.
Since it was very cold, there was a thick layer of fog over the river and it was difficult to get accurate focus on the Ducks.
Canon 7D with my 70-200mm/4 L.
Canon 7D with my 400mm/5.6 L.
This Male is trying to stay warm in the water. Canon 7D with 400mm/5.6 L.
Time to eat to get some fuel to stay warm, it’s tail was covered with ice. Canon 7D with 400mm/5.6L
I also found Cedar leaves in the snow in the forested area along the river, so I took close-up shots.
Canon 7D with my 24mm STM.
Pentax K50 with DA 40mm XS
Always carry a camera with you !
I try to carry a camera with me as often as possible, you never know when a good opportunity will happen in front of you. This was shot tonight, I just ordered a Pizza at a local restaurant and I had to wait 20 minutes for it to be ready, so I decided to see if I could find something to photograph along the old Canal that is not too far away. After walking along the edge of the ice I finally found those 2 leaves surrounded by ice bubbles. Keep a camera with you and open your eyes.
Taken with my Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro, ISO 100, f/11, tripod.
Weekly photo of 17 January 2016
I went to a frozen river to play around with an old lens, my Soligor C/D 80-200mm/3.5. I finally got that shot with a 1 second exposure at f/9.5.
Weekly photo of 18 October 2015
This morning it was -4°C when I woke-up, I headed to a field near my home that I knew that will have a lot of frost. But the most interesting subject was Clover leaves caught in ice in a waterhole.
Taken with my Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro, tripod.
Weekly photo, 04 July 2015
Taken with my Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro at f/8.0.
I took the following shot on a morning just before going to work, at first I was looking for Frogs but came back with that backlit shot of a Fly. I liked the fact that it was upside down.
Weekly photo of 21 June 2015
This week it’s a photo of a Rose Chafer that i found on a walk near a pond. there were a lot of them i just had to choose the one who was best positioned and most photogenic.
Taken with Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro with some fill-in flash with the in board flash.
Weekly photo, 30 May 2015
This week photo is more abstract than usual, I found a Fern that was underwater and also liked the trees reflected on the water surface. So I used a Polarizer to cut off some reflection to be able to see the fern but not too much polarisation so that I could still see the reflection of the trees.
Taken with Pentax K50 and 16-85mm WR with a Polarizer.
Weekly photo, 24 April 2015
Last week I stopped a couple of times along a lake shore to see what I could found, I was able after 3 encounter with a Canada Geese couple to take an interesting
photo of one of them last week with my 400mm lens.
This morning I went again
But I saw this Canada Geese couple swimming among the long weeds to find foods. They kept coming closer and closer, in the end they were too close for my 400mm lens. To my surprise the got off the water and walked directly in my direction, I grabbed my K50 which was equipped with my DA 16-85mm, they walked just past me and I had time taking some shots. The light level was very low and I didn’t had time to change my settings and I forgot to turn off the SR ( the shutter speed was fast enough to stop the camera movement but not the birds movements).
I got one shot that is sharp enough (no bird movement) and a good pose by one of the Canada Geese. It’s the first time that I saw Canada Geese coming so close to me, usually they swim or flew away when i’m at around 300 feet !!!
Taken with Pentax K50 and DA 16-85mm WR set at 28mm, ISO 800, 1/80 sec. at f/8, handheld.
Canada Geese are back !
Finally the Canada Geese are back here in Canada, it’s just the beginning but it’s one of the best sign that spring is here. I visited some places i knew where they like to stop during their migration to see if i could get some photos. I come home with not so interesting photos but always fun to be out and observe that spring migration after a long winter.
The most interesting photos i made were taken with my 90mm Macro lens of the carcass of a dead Canada Goose. In the coming weeks i will be concentrating my photography on Canada Geese while waiting for the frogs to come out. This year i will try to show them in their habitat when possible to show how much they are during the migration.
BTW, all the photos were taken with my Pentax K50 and Tamron 90mm Macro.
Frosted feathers.
Close-up of a paw of a Canada Goose.
Another frosted leaf.
Weekly photo, 22 March 2015
I didn’t post much lately, not much time and the temperature or subjects didn’t cooperated. Went to test my new Pentax K50 this morning, it was -15°C (-23°C with the windchill). I like to go to a local old canal to try out new gear because of the details in the canal.
Taken with Pentax K50 and SMC Takumar 55mm/1.8 at f/11, ISO 100, tripod.
