Fraser River Wreck

I've been on holiday for a little over 4 weeks now, so I figured that it was about time that I posted something!
I actually haven't taken all that many pictures thus far; I was sick for most of the first two weeks (still coughing), then out of town where I only took a total of 5 pictures (all of the same subject and all sucked). I've been a little busier with the camera for the past week but just not overly happy with much of what I've shot - I guess I'm a little out of practise.

Anyway, this was captured on Saturday afternoon, shortly after the start of our little thunderstorm. No captured lightning in this shot (or any of the others I took of the wreck), but you can certainly see the nasty clouds looking east-north-east. It was actually pretty gloomy most of the time I was there - the sun peaked out behind me just at then end of the shoot, producing this image.

This was processed as an HDR (high dynamic range) from a single RAW file using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in the process to bring out the clouds, with a little additional touch-up in photoshop. The regularly exposed shot isn't bad, but lacks the ominous sky present in this result.

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Iona Poles

I was supposed to be doing chores today, being my 1-day weekend, but that didn't sound like much fun, so I went to Iona Park instead and - for the first time - walked all the way to the end of the outflow-breakwater thing. Round trip is a little more than 7 kilometers. It was a nice day for the walk.

I think I managed a couple of post-worthy images which are less repetitive than the lighthouse ones; this is the first. I'm not sure just what the poles were once part of, but they provide nice resting places for some of the many birds in the area.

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Lighthouse #3

One last picture of the Point Atkinson Lighthouse, this time in colour. It's my least favourite of the three, but not because it's in colour. It was taken between the two previously posted pictures.

[It'll be interesting to see how this one looks on other monitors - I'm not sure about the colour values and kind of expect that it'll have a colour cast...]

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Lighthouse #2

Second image from Lighthouse Park.

This image is a little deceptive - it wasn't quite as dark as it appears to be. Rather, this is mostly a result of the processing... I'm not sure I could duplicate it and I don't remember exactly what I did. But I like it.

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Lighthouse Park

I've been meaning to get out to Lighthouse Park in West Van for a while - never been there before - and I finally got there this evening. I wasn't expecting the hike from the parking lot to the area near the lighthouse, so I guess next time, if I go near sunset again, I'll be there a little earlier. Though I'm thinking that this might be a great place to go at sunrise instead.

In the meantime, I'm fairly happy with the shots that I got in the short time I had before the fading light forced me to head back to my car (I didn't have a flashlight and didn't want to climb on rocks and trek through the woods in full darkness).

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Distant Tree

Okay, so this isn't a very stunning photo either... but I thought I better post something to remark on the new look for the blog. I've been wanting to get round to a re-design for a while, this week I finally had to fill some downtime from work (late-season cold) and did a little experimenting.

This isn't a final version, by any means. But I've learned quite a few little things about how to edit blogger templates, with more to go. Most specifically, I still want to modify the template so that pictures appear larger on the page (without clicking on them). I know it can be done as I've seen other blogger blogs that have done it... but I haven't been able to make sense of the code used. I also want to add in the ability to dispay/collapse the comments I write for each picture - to give more focus to the pictures. Again, I've seen the code used for this but haven't figured out just yet how to include it in my template. A work in progress...

As for this picture, it was also taken last weekend at Boundary Bay. The tree left of centre - way in the distance - is the same tree as the one with the horseback riders two posts ago. This picture shows a little better just how far away the tree actually was (okay, I was a little closer for the horseback shot). And it's sunny in this one too.

Comments - good or bad - on the new blog design are welcome!

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Swollen River

All the rain we've been getting has really put a crimp in my desire and ability to shoot lately.
There was, however, a brief dry spell late yesterday afternoon.

I'd been out on some errands and was just headed home when things started to brighten up, so I turned left off the bridge instead of right and headed for Fraser River Park. Good timing, as there was only about 5 minutes of very, very nice light and then it was gone. If I'd tried to go anywhere else, I'd have missed it.

Today there's been no break at all in the rain, and none forcast until late tomorrow night. But I'm really going to try to get out and find something to shoot tomorrow. Really. :)

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