Autumn Leaves

Still posting photos from the fall. I haven't been out photographing anything yet since some snow has fallen. It's mostly gone now anyway, but there will be more chances over winter!

I think the red leaves are my favouring of the fall colours, but this year there didn't seem to be many around. Orange was the dominant colour this year, followed by yellow. This photo was taken on a walk in one of the local parks in the city back in October.

Along The Path

This was taken last month in Irishtown Nature Park. At the time, the trees were still pretty full of colourful leaves, even though there were tons on the ground. Now, however, the majority of all the trees in this area (not just the nature park) are bare - though some continue to hold on to the leaves. Winter is coming, and with that the snow. I'm hoping to walk these trails and get some photos of the park blanketed in snow.

Old Tree



The Tree

 I went for a walk with a friend in another of the nature parks in this area. This one is called Irishtown Nature Park. It is a beautiful, large area and has a lake and several trails. I'm not totally sure on the length of the trail we followed today, but I'd estimate about 5 kilometers. The last sign I remember seeing was 3.5km, and from there we still had to walk quite a way to get to the parking lot. It's definitely a beautiful place to go walking, jogging, even biking. I hope to get back there more often, and maybe get some photos there this winter too.

Down A Side Path

A lonely bench in Mapleton Park

This rickety ol' park bench looks as though it has seen better days. It was down a little side path from the main one where I was walking.

Strolling Through The Park



Two ladies walking a dog in Mapleton Park

 This past Wednesday, I took a little walk in one of our city's parks. The main goal was to capture the fall landscape along one of the park's trails. While there were plenty of leaves on the ground, and several trees in colourful dress, I was quite surprised that there was still a lot of green - and I'm not just talking about the evergreen trees.

We had some rain and a lot of wind the last couple of days (today is windy, but sunny), so I expect a lot more of the leaves have fallen off. I'm hoping to go tomorrow or Monday to take some more photos. Hopefully I'm not too late at getting some beautiful scenic photos.

It's A Toss Up



Having Fun

 Last month when I travelled to Fredericton to the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, this guy was down by the Saint John River. He wasn't there the entire time, and came awhile after we had gotten to this spot (at the lighthouse). I'm not entirely sure what he's doing - almost like a form of juggling but using  a string with handles on each end, and three of those cylindar type thingys (love my technical term?), throwing them up in the air and 'catching' them again. The cylindar thingys were spinning around as they flew up and back down along the string before being tossed up again. This guy was really good at what he was doing, and it was fun to watch.

Finished For The Day

Finished for the day.

This photo was taken in Fredericton at the 2010 Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, last weekend. This guy was spray painting t-shirts, and I think (though I'm not totally sure), he did the sign behind him. Here he is at the end of the afternoon, quenching his thrist.

The photo isn't the best - I should have tried to get in tighter, but I wanted to get the whole picture in back of the artist. Maybe if I had gotten a little lower so that I wouldn't have gotten the building in the back might have worked. I tried cropping, but it didn't look right.

Freedom '55



The Freedom '55

 The little community of Peggy's Cove is a fishing village. Here is a boat that is probably no longer used, or is in need of repair. This is such a quaint little community, filled with lots of photo opportunities. I would have loved to do a little more exploring and photography, but the people I was with wanted to go to the lighthouse and the rocky area - which was great as well.


** Clicking on the photos in this blog should enlarge them.

Bag Pipes

Piping at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

My second trip to Peggy's Cove this summer was made even better by the fact that they had this woman playing bag pipes! I had hoped she'd play "Scotland the Brave" (my favourite song on the pipes), but while I was there, she didn't. I never thought that maybe she'd take requests, though! Of the songs I heard her play, I only recognized one - Amazing Grace. That's another song I love to hear on bag pipes.

Hangin' Out To Dry

Taken in the little village/community of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia on a recent trip.

Pretty Dahlia

This is from my mom's dahlia garden again. This flower isn't fully out yet, but I thought it looked nice - somewhat like a lotus or water lily in appearance. I really like the colours in this flower - God can do such amazing work in His creations!

This particular photo is from last month, however I do have more photos (not just flowers) since then but Photoshop Elements isn't working properly on the laptop again. Every time I try to click to add the copyright notice and/or my name, the program freezes up. I can (so far) adjust colour, contrast, sharpness, etc. just fine, but I don't know what is causing the program to freeze on me. It was working fine for awhile, and then it started acting up all of a sudden again. Might have too much on the computer...maybe need to transfer my photos to an external hard drive (if I can figure out how to do that correctly, and still be able to access them and download them to post, etc. I am so not a technical person...

Checking for danger during the storm

This past Saturday we got the tail winds and rain from Hurricane Earl which hit the Nova Scotia coast. In our area the winds weren't nearly as bad as they had been predicting, and we didn't get as much rain as they had thought. The night before, it has been predicted that the storm would hit our area dead on (which doesn't happen too often), but by Saturday morning, Earl had changed its course and hit Nova Scotia. In that province, about 200,000 people lost power (as opposed to the 1,000 people who lost power in our area), and it was thought that it would take about 2 days to get everyone back on the power grid.

This photo is of one of the female humming birds that has been visiting our feeder this summer. I was surprised to see her out in all that wind and rain. The picture isn't all that great as I was taking it through the kitchen window, and the white tint in the photo is the reflection of the curtain on the glass. Anyway, I just wanted to share the photo of the bird out in the storm.

Flowery Goodness

Clicking the photo should enlarge it.

One of the dahlias in the garden. I took this a few days ago after there was a light misty rain in the early evening. I was trying to capture some raindrops on the flowers, but they didn't turn out too well. Anyway, I'm not too sure of the name of this dahlia, but I like the colours in it - it's a pretty flower.

Sunny Fields

This is the same field of sunflowers where I took the previous photo. I think I may have figured out why there is so much `graininess` to the photos I took that day. I believe I had the ISO dialed too high; if I had gone lower (never thought of this at the time), it might have looked sharper. I`ll have to remember that next time! Since then, I`ve changed the ISO to a lower one. Sadly the sunflowers in that field are pretty much gone now, ready for harvesting.

Sunflowers

Not long ago, there was an article in our local paper about a farmer who had planted his fields with sunflowers. He has seven acres of them. It went on to say that this was the first year he had planted them, and his plan was to harvest them to make sunflower oil (I think that's what he'd said). It's really more of an experiment for him, but if it works out, he might plant them again next year. I hope so! Sadly, at this point in the summer, many of the sunflowers are starting to dye down. If he does plant them again next year, I'm going earlier in the season.

On the weekend, I went with another photographer friend to take some photos of another friend and her daughter. We decided to go to the sunflower field and take some shots (my photographer friend had asked permission earlier in the day). While there, I took some photos of the sunflowers. The above image is one of them.

I know this isn't a unique photo, but I like it. Unfortunately, for any number of reasons, most of my photos didn't turn out (it could have been the time of day - around 6:30pm, - my ISO setting, aperture, the lens I used...anything). I was quite disappointed; however, it was a learning lesson for me.  Looking at this photo, I wish I had gone in closer so that the flowers were more prominent in the shot. But, I still like the photo.

Not sure what these are, but I think they're some kind of decorative cattails. These are in a little public garden along a river, across from the city.

Up The Street

Looking from the Halifax waterfront up one of the streets. Not sure I'd like to have to drive up that hill in the winter if it's even a little icy.

Reflected

I'm still learning a lot about photography, and haven't really focused on reflections yet. I'm sure this could have been done better (like if the sky was darker blue), but I like it. The photo was taken on the Halifax waterfront, and I just liked the way the buildings were reflected in the windows. It kind of reminds me of the type of reflections you see in water, which was where we were - right on the Halifax Harbour.

Peggy's Cove

A scene from the picturesque village of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada. It's such a beautiful spot here, and I absolutely loved it. If you've never been here, and you are up in the Halifax area, make sure to take a side trip (about half an hour from the city) to this spot.

Along The Waterfront

There are several dolphins, similar to this one, painted with various colours and scenes along the waterfront in Halifax, NS. This one, was perhaps, my favourite...probably because of the colouring and the sky and sea painted on it.

Sailing, Sailing...

In Halifax Harbour

As I mentioned in my previous post, this past weekend I visited the lovely city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is lots to see and do in this old city, and one of those thing is to walk along the waterfront. This particular day, it was sunny and hot, and the Buskers Festival was going on in several places along the waterfront (and in other locations as well).

Strolling down the waterfront in the late morning sun, I spotted this little sailboat out on the harbour. I zoomed in as close as I could (it was actually quite a distance away) with my 300mm zoom, and snapped this shot. I adjusted colour and contrast in PSE, as well as added a vignette around the edges to give it a bit of a frame.

Danger!

Lighthouses, as we all know, warn ships of the dangerous, rocky areas from which to stay away.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit the city of Halifax, and the village of Peggy's Cove (both in Nova Scotia). I hadn't been to Halifax in probably 20 years, and I had never been to Peggy's Cove. People around here find it hard to believe that, after living in this area for 30+ years, I had never been to this awesome place. I took over 500 photos of both places, and will put more up here as the days go on.

The photo above is the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove (the link is to a live webcam of the lighthouse; check it out). I've played around with the colouring, to make it black & white, and try to give it a bit of a sepia colour as well - to make it a little old fashioned looking. I don't think I've quite got it down, but I kind of liked the result.

I was hoping to get some photos of the waves crashing against the rocks, however, the ocean was quite calm and there were no waves. In fact, we were able to climb over all the rocks around this area and get quite close to the ocean. If the waves were crashing, it would have been impossible for us to get to far out because we could be pulled out to sea, and have the strong possibility of drowning because of the undertow. I guess I am very thankful for the calm waters that day, since it allowed me to explore and take many photos I might not have been able to get if the waves were pounding the rocks. I'm going to go again, maybe towards fall, or in the fall, and hopefully the waves will be rolling in and I can get some great photos!

Up Close and Personal

This is another shot from King's Landing. I used my zoom lens for this shot and tried to focus on the eye. It was hard to get good photos since they kept moving around, and there was wooden fence (a little high) around them, which they kept standing in front of, looking the other way. I lucked out when this one came in my general direction.

In The Barn

This is another photo from my trip to Kings Landing Historical Site near Fredericton, NB. This photo was taken when we were near the house and barn near the field where the man and boys were throwing the rocks from the potato field (see previous post).

I believe the baskets contain lunches because I saw the boys carrying them later on to another destination, though I could be wrong. It just made sense to me that they would contain food.  There were a couple of cats in the barn (where this shot was taken) and this one got curious about what might be in the basket...maybe something that smelled good.  I assume the container which is what the shot is focused on would have been used for milk...but again, I could be wrong. There was no one nearby who could have told me one way or the other.

A Walk Back In Time

Earlier this month I went to King's Landing near Fredericton, NB. We were there for a few hours and never made it through the entire place - mostly because it was so hot and humid that day. Another trip in the fall is a possibility to visit the rest of the historical site.

Two women in authentic garb from the time.

I was wondering what these guys were doing in the field/garden. I watched for a short while to see they were throwing what I thought might be potatos...though I don't know why they'd do that.

As I got closer and could observe, I discovered they were throwing rocks!

One of the people working at the site. They all dress up in clothes from the era and they actually do jobs and housework, etc. as it would have been done at that time.

Daisy

I had no idea that little bug was on the daisy, nor the two water droplets on the petals, until I uploaded the photo to my computer.

Tiger Lilly

I do believe this is a Tiger Lilly - one of my favourite types of flowers.

Went out on a couple of excursions this week and I am working on fixing up the photos. Sadly, every time I try to use PSE 7, it locks up on me and I can't figure out what is causing the problem. Hopefully I'll get it working soon so I can work on my photos and post them!

Marigolds

Marigolds in the garden. These are planted around the dahlia bed on the edges because they are supposed to help keep some bugs (don't know if it's all kinds or just certain kinds) away from the flowers.

Day Lily

This is one of the yellow day lillies in the back yard. I took this picture not too long ago, and adjusted the colour/contrast a bit using Elements 7.

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada Day!

Untitled 2

Untitled

Thought this looked interesting. It's on a large dead tree used as "decoration" (for lack of a better description).  Looks almost alien-like...

Daisy

Dog Days of Summer

On my little weekend excursion, we went to a little beach. It's quite rocky, so to me it's not the ideal type of beach. However, there were some people there, and it's definitely a good place to walk.  The sun was shining, and it was a gorgeous day (though a lot cooler than it was in the city, but still beautiful temperatures). 

When we first got to the beach, we saw this dog walking around, visiting with people, but being very good (not barking, biting, being a pest, etc.). We assumed he/she belonged to someone who was there.  I took several different shots of this dog, and hoped that whoever his/her owner was wouldn't mind. No one said anything, and as we began our walk along the sand and stone (the water was too cold), the dog began to follow us. He/she walked with us for the majority of our walk, and on our way back would bark for us to play. We would throw some of the sticks or rocks out to the water or further up the beach (no one was around us at that point, though some were quite a way up the beach), and the dog would run after them. Eventually, when we stopped to sit and enjoy the area, the dog trotted over to other people and adopted them for a little while.  He was still with them as we left. We figure he/she belonged to someone who lived across the road from the beach.

I hope he/she got home safely to his/her home!

Wild Iris

I went for a nice drive the other day and in a couple of areas saw some irises growing in the wild. Since I love taking photos of flowers, I just had to capture this one. Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough to get a good macro shot, so this will have to do.

Feathers In Your Cap

Ok, so they aren't really in a cap. We went on a long drive yesterday and one of the little rest areas we stopped had this display. At first, when we were getting out of the car, we were afraid there was a dead bird with the feathers sticking up. Thankfully, when we got closer, we saw that someone had arranged the feathers in between a couple of pieces of wood/logs.

Bachelor's Button...Possibly?

This is another flower in my mom's garden of which I don't know the name. I think she told me the name, and Bachelor's Button comes to mind, but I don't know if she was referring to this particular flower or something else.

Unknown Purple Flower

Same flowers as the one in the previous photo, taken the other day. I used the macro setting on my 18-55 mm lens.

Purple Flower

Not sure what this flower is, but it's out in the back garden. I thought it looked interesting.

Red Tulip

Red tulip taken the same time as the previous photos of the bleeding heart and purple tulips.  I had the camera set to the maco setting, and touched up the photos (sharpness, contrast) in PSE 7.

Bleeding Heart

The bleeding heart plant isn't doing all that well this year - at least so far. It's still early, so maybe it will blossom and grow more. Right now, though, there aren't many blossoms on it.  This is one branch that had a few hanging down. I used my macro setting and blurred the background to make them stand out more.

Purple Tulips

There only a few tulips in the garden, and these are a few purple ones (there are a few red ones as well). Right now there isn't much growing in the garden, but there are a few things starting to grow. I haven't seen these "bloom" yet, and just seem to stay closed up like in the photos. They are still pretty though.

Pansies

This is the lonely clump of pansies left in the front garden. There used to me several other ones, but they didn't come up this spring. I guess they died off. I took this photo the other day, and also got some shots of purple tulips and a couple of red ones. I'll be posting those in the following days.