Monday, February 29, 2016

Dog gone!


This was supposed to be a nice portrait of my dog. This time instead of shooting a quick handheld snapshot I took the time to get out my tripod and setup for a proper picture. Needless to say by the time I took the picture the dog was long gone... Dog gone!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Trumpeter Swans


Don't often see Swans up here on Northern Vancouver Island. So it was a nice surprise to see five all together at the same time. So I took a few pictures.

A quick search on the internet tells me these are a Cob, a Pen and three Cygnet Trumpeter Swans.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Look up, way up!




A couple of recent bird pictures from over here on the West Coast... 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

It's officially unofficially Spring!


Found these growing merrily away in an old flower bed. Guess that makes it unofficially Spring over here on the West Coast. The only down side of course is the many grueling months of lawn mowing that lies ahead...

Monday, February 22, 2016

It's just water under the bridge


And a couple of tripod legs. I didn't notice these until I was re-sizing the photo but I liked the photo so I posted it anyway.

Friday, February 19, 2016

It's "5 - 0" Clock somewhere...




I think it's time for a cocktail!

Monday, February 15, 2016

Just a little bird...


...hidden in the palms.

As usual, I have no idea what kind of bird this is. I know it's small and green and likes to hang out in the palm trees.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

One more surfer






The high surf this trip had surfers out everywhere on the island.

These shots were taken at Honomanu Bay along the road to Hana.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Just a wave


While watching the surfers I took a few wave photos because they were looking pretty "knarly" on occasion.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

I don't think I'm doing this right







Hmmmm, maybe learning to surf isn't such a great idea!

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

FV Tenacious






72 foot Fishing Vessel Tenacious coming into Hardy Bay on a windy afternoon.

Sharpness of the Nikon 200-500mm f5.6 lens


I know there will be a lot of people that don't find this interesting but for the ones that are thinking about a new zoom lens, this is for  you. (And for Paul since he was playing with his zoom lenses!)

Just out of curiosity one day I took a photo of a woman sitting on the beach reading a book. I had a Nikon 1.4 teleconverter on the 200-500mm f5.6 lens so this first shot is at 280mm and I was about 100 feet away.

I took the second shot at 700mm and cropped it 50% just to see if I could make out any of the words.


Needless to say, I was impressed with the results! Even with a teleconverter I can zoom in on this photo and read the words on the page without any problem. 



If you are thinking about one of these lenses you won't be disappointed.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Look really, really close...

This is my friend Patrick fishing on the far side of Hardy Bay... 7012 feet away.

After I got home I Google Earth measured the distance from where I was to where he was. Not bad for handheld, thank goodness for image stabilization and vibration reduction.

The first picture is with the Sigma 10-20 at 10mm, The next 3 are with the Nikon 18-300 and the last 4 are with the Sigma 120-400 and crops thereof. 









Barrel Ride


Also known as being in the "tube". It is said that it is one of the most difficult and fun things to do while surfing.

One of these days I'm going to have to learn to surf if for nothing else just to be able to say I can surf.  Little tiny waves probably but still...

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Sproing!



Sproing and there it was. the birds are chirping, flowers are growing and the temperatures are almost too warm to use the wood stove all of a sudden... Hope Mother Nature doesn't pull a fast one and clobber us with three feet of snow before Winter actually over!

Shooting a Pro






Even though we didn't get much snorkeling time this last trip to Maui because of the high surf it did bring out the surfers in droves.

As luck would have it, Aaron and I were driving around the north end of Maui looking for photographic opportunities and stopped where some surfers were to take some photos.

We met a professional videographer that was filming the surfers and he gave us the run down of  who was in the water.

One of those surfers was Bethany Hamilton-Dirks, a world class and world famous surfer who lost her left arm in a shark attack about 12 years ago.

I have to say she is truly an inspiration for pushing through hardships and getting on with your life.

From Wikipedia;

On October 31, 2003 Hamilton, aged 13 at the time, went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai, with best friend Alana Blanchard, Alana's father, Holt, and brother Byron. Around 7:30 a.m., with numerous turtles in the area, she was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14-foot tiger shark attacked her, severing her left arm just below the shoulder. The Blanchards helped paddle her back to shore, then Alana's father fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash and wrapped it around the stump of her arm. She was rushed to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. By the time she arrived there she had lost over 60% of her blood and was in hypovolemic shock. A doctor living in a hotel nearby raced to the rescue. Her father, who was scheduled to have knee surgery that morning, was already there, but she took his place in the operating room. She spent a week in recovery before being released. During subsequent media interviews, she confirmed that she felt normal when she was bitten and did not feel much pain from the bite at the moment of the disaster, but felt numb on the way to the hospital.

When the news broke out of the shark attack, a family of fishermen led by Ralph Young presented to investigators photos of a 14-foot-long tiger shark they had caught and killed about one mile from the attack site. It had surfboard debris in its mouth. When measurements of its mouth were compared with those of Hamilton's broken board, it matched. In late 2004, the police officially confirmed that it was the one that attacked her.

Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Three weeks after the incident, she returned to her board.

Initially, she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker than standard and had a handle for her right arm, making it easier to paddle, and she learned to kick more to make up for the loss of her left arm. After teaching herself to surf with one arm, on January 10, 2004, she entered a major competition. She now uses standard competitive performance short-boards. The broken surfboard that Hamilton was riding during the attack is on display at the California Surf Museum.

Friday, February 5, 2016

It's a rainbow!


A rainbow eucalyptus tree that is.

Just something else you find along the long and windy road to Hana on Maui.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Sunrise on Olowalu Beach




I'm more of a sunset kind of guy, mainly because I don't want to have to get up early for the sunrise but in this case I was already up.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

My version...


...of Aaron's lighthouse.

This sits on McGregor Point on Maui. It's a great place to sit and watch for whales as long as you don't need to be very close to the whales.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

A tree and some rocks...




,,,and a few birds too.