"The Crusher"

I've been trying to make a little more effort lately - I have fewer excuses at the moment for not getting out with the camera. I must admit, it felt a little foreign today, and I only took a few shots.

I'm posting this now as I know that if I don't I won't do it later. I'm not particularly happy with this shot - there are focus issues for one thing - but it's more interesting that anything else I've shot in the past 3 months and i'm way overdue to post something.

Post processing is one of the things holding me back at the moment. I still don't have a handle on Photoshop CS5 yet - it's different from CS2 in subtle and not so subtle ways. While I haven't spent all that much time working with it (need to shoot something more often for that), when I do work with it I'm usually left with a feeling that I'm resorting to gimmicks rather than truly creating something myself. There are so many preset things that it'll do, it seems to stifle any individual creativity. In the old version you had to spend more time creating the final product yourself, with the corresponding sense of achievement at the end of the process.

I won't promise that this signals a return to more regular posting, but I will try.

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Spray

As promised, this one's not a bird... It's a long rolling sprinkler in a farmers' field on a windy afternoon. Not quite the shot that I wanted, but to get it would have meant a good soaking for me and the camera, so I settled for this shot instead.

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Regal Eagle

On the search for old barns last Friday out west of Yarrow we didn't have much luck in the barn department, but did a little better in the bird of prey department.

It started with my spotting of a hawk in a field just off the side of the road. The bird was fine as long as I was in the car or walking, but as soon as I stopped walking it got spooked and took off. This sighting was quickly followed by a couple of other hawks, then two eagles who had landed on the side of the road. This time I stopped well back and got my gear ready for shooting from the car. Great idea, but it was initially wasted as a truck went barrelling by and sent them flying away. This worked out okay in the end though, as we were able to follow this one in the car until it landed on a convenient power pole. I pulled up quite close and fired off a couple of shots from the car window then took a moment to add in the 2X extender... and just as I again lifted the camera for a shot it took off again, eventually landing well out of range of even the extended lens (800mm).

I saw several large groups of hawks, and at least one group of 5-7 eagles (not sure if that qualifies as a flock?) in the far distance. Apparently there's lots of prey available in farming country.

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Shed on Thom Mtn.

I spent a couple of days out at Cultus Lake recently; while there two afternoons were passed driving around the area in search of photo subjects, with an emphasis on old barns. Seemed like an achievable task, there's lots of farming going on around there. Prosperous farming, though, it seems, as there were very few old barns around (and even fewer that were accessible without significant trespassing).

This isn't really a barn, more an old shed I suppose, but it's the best I came up with so it'll have to do. I was very tempted to do something a little more adventurous with the processing but have decided on further consideration to leave it as-is.

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Six-Pack of Pumpkins

I was up and out reasonably early this morning with hopes of catching a nice shot of frost at first light. Simply photographing frost wouldn't be that hard (one would think), but with a decent subject/composition was a little more of a challenge. I'd elected to try my luck out amidst the farming areas of Ladner as I hadn't been there for a while and luckily was driving past this field of unharvested pumpkins just as the sun was rising.

When I first got a look at this shot - which I'd thought was the best of the crop (pun intended) - on the computer I was really disappointed, but a little tweak here and an adjustment there and it came out quite close to what I was looking for so I'm rather pleased with it. Photoshop saves the day again.

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Attired Horse & a Tire

Another shot from a Nanaimo-area farm from a couple of weekends ago.

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Steel Wheeled Contraption

Whilst I was visiting my parent this past weekend they were kind enough to indulge my need to take pictures and, on a cold grey day, drove me around the outskirts of Nanaimo in search of interesting subject matter, perhaps something farm-related.

Hence this shot. I think that this piece of machinery was once a plough, though it's not clear what provided the forward motion. Given it's age, I've tried to process it appropriately.

Let me know if you think I was successful.

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Burnin' Up

When I was out at Boundary Bay beach almost two weeks ago I spent a little time watching this farmer burning one section of his field. It was a pretty warm day already, and this guy is riding around on the tractor amidst the smoke and additional heat from the process. Crazy.

I've processed several of the images I took of the farmer doin' his thing, treating each a little differently, but I can't seem to quite get them to look the way I want. D'oh. So you'll have to settle for this. I'm posting it as-is so that I stop spending any more time working on it!

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At rest in the tall grass

Second Picture from Ladner, or at least I think it qualifies as part of Ladner as you have to go through Ladner to get here.

It was taken on Westham Island (where the Reifel Bird Sanctuary is located), a place with very few roads, none of which provide access to the west side of the island, much to my irritation, as that was the part that most interested me. Some other day I'll really have to check out the bird sanctuary too. I did drive into the parking lot (just checking out where all the roads went) but it was only open for another 45 minutes and it deserves much more time than that.

To get to where this picture was taken, just go over the quaint, wood and metal turquoise bridge and take the first left onto Trim Road. Follow this less-than-one-lane road about 800 meters to the end (where it turns into a driveway), and you'll be here.

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