
We are getting close to the end of these harbinger of summer. I like them – pretty simple.
At the end of May Desirée, Karen and I chased the Northern Lights late into the night. It was cloudy in Bragg Creek so we headed west looking for open sky and active auroras.
It was not a powerful geomagnetic storm but cast some beautiful pastels in sky and onto the clouds. I’m never disappointed whenever I get to watch to watch them dance.
We spent a wonderful week in Jamaica earlier this month. One of the highlights was our night swim in the Luminous Lagoon along the north shore. It was an amazing experience being surrounded by the bioluminescence in that bay. We got there as dusk fell. The sunset was amazing and I took a couple of minutes to enjoy it before we headed out on the water.
The Northern Lights were soft on April Fool’s night. There were a number of photographers lined up waiting for the show but the joke was on us with a subtle display. I didn’t mind, it gave me pause to think about the scene differently and try out a few things. This longer exposure, 8 seconds, with a little movement of both the camera and the grass in the foreground had an interesting look.
I spent a morning watching a great gray owl flying over the long grass which broke up the forest. Spring has not yet taken hold so the color palette was rather pale but matched the owl’s plumage exceptionally well. He missed on the first dive into the field but came away with breakfast on two other occasions.
A couple of weekends ago it was a beautiful, sunny morning at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. Ducks were quacking and swimming around the open water in the ponds. Two Canada geese flew in and paddled towards the edge. The scene was hectic but peaceful… up until a nearby goose took exception to them coming into his territory. He flew over and then chased them away. This image is when the defender was attacking his perceived intruders with hissing, splashing and general malevolence.
This image of a diver was abstracted by a long exposure (1/6th of a second) where I panned down as they arrowed towards the water. I was photographing our oldest son at a swim meet at the Repsol Sport Centre last month and took a few minutes to explore some creative images as people were practicing from the dive towers.