"Ragamuffin"!

I took this picture of Sunny a couple of days ago as he was playing on the rocks above a nearby beach. Later that evening when I loaded the days pictures onto the computer the first thing that came to mind was when I saw this picture was "Ragamuffin"!

rag·a·muf·fin

ˈraɡəˌməfən/

noun

1. 1.

   a person, typically a child, in ragged, dirty clothes.

   synonyms:

   urchin, waif, guttersnipe, street kid

Lotus land

Today I found this little patch of Crocus flowers poking their heads up to see if it is time to bloom yet. Nice to see the very first flowers of 2015 and it's still only January!

Blending in...

Found this Grouse doing it's darnedest to not be seen by blending in and holding as still as possible. Perfect opportunity for a bumbling amateur picture taker like myself! Eventually after I had taken a number of pictures the bird realized his cover was blown and it slipped away into the thicker undergrowth.

Looking in to the Sun

Keeping with the looking up them. I took a photo of the sun from underneath the water while snorkeling in Maui. I took quite a few of these, I really like how the water distorts and diffracts the suns light breaking it apart. If you look closely you can see the rim of my lens in the bottom right corner. It must be a reflection from the inside of the lens port.

Seeing the moon through the forest

Technically it's just one tree but it has 13 trunks. I took this photo looking straight up through the banyan tree in Lahaina early one morning with the moon directly overhead.

16.8 million colors!

Today's digital cameras can capture up to 16.8 million different colors!

I took this nice color photograph a few days ago, though you'd never know it.

It's always fascinated me how fog and overcast skies can make scenes like this look like an old B&W photograph.

Bobbing for a Sunset

I had this idea of taking a split shot of a sunset with the coral underwater and the sunset above. (Is there any other way?) 

I thought I could swim out to the coral reef, hold up the camera and shoot away, easy peasy, right?

It turns out swimming the 150 yards out to the reef was the only easy part about this. Once I got to the reef I quickly figured out that trying to stay vertical in the water and hold the camera at just the right angle and depth all while waiting for a break between the waves and not getting pushed onto the coral was a difficult task to say the least.

I didn't consider that the camera would loose it's neutral buoyancy once it was on the surface and the weight of the housing would be pushing me down, requiring me to tread water with just my legs for about 20 minutes. 

There is definitely a learning curve to this underwater photography so these aren't the greatest shots in the world. If you look at them as "photos from a day in the life of a novice photographer" then they aren't half bad. Which of course means they are only half good. As they say up Paul's way; C'est la vie.

I will be back and I will try this again, probably several times!

Belted Kingfisher

Ok just for Ron, here are some pictures with a "Real Camera" instead of my cell phone... :)

Took these pictures using the Sigma 120-400mm lens at 400mm. I was able to steady the lens on a railing which helped to get these nice clear shots.

More Turtles

Some of the turtles were swimming pretty close to the reefs when we saw them. I understand now why they have that nice hard shell. Getting dragged onto the reef from the current hurts!

Just a splash

Coming up for air

 

Here come the turtles!

 

I think we saw turtles everyday this trip no matter when we were in the water.

The Airport Beach

Yes it's another cell phone picture...  I promise to post some "real camera" pictures after this.

But I couldn't resist posting this panorama as it came out surprisingly well when you consider that the waves were rolling in even as I panned slowly over the scene and it still managed to stitch it all together and make it look proper and not all chopped up. Must be quite the algorithm they've developed to make this all so seamless!  

Reaching for the Sky

Sunset on a Maui beach. 

 

Take a deep breath and relax. Everything is good for the moment.

Breakfast in Hawaii

 

I found this bird in a palm tree one morning just as the sun was coming over the volcano and lighting up the west side of Maui. I don't know what kind of bird it was but he/she and a partner spent a lot of time flying around the trees near our condo eating the different things they found.

Another rainbow

Another rainbow, I guess it's that time of year. The weather can't make up it's mind so it's raining one minute and sunny the next. 

I'm always curious to see what's at the end of the rainbow so I zoomed in and what do you know... An Eagle on one end and another Eagle right near the other end!

Upways panorama

Just playing around with the cell phone camera again... This time I used the camera's panorama mode to capture a couple of 160ish foot Red Cedar trees. Not the best picture in the world but proof positive that tall things can be captured just as easily as wide things using the panorama feature.

Low Tide

 

We'll be back to the mainland in just a couple of days. I hope you're ready to see some turtle photos because it has been turtle city ever since we arrived.

Late dusk

The fishing vessel in the foreground is tied up at the Seagate Dock for the night and the Ferry on the far side of Hardy Bay is loading vehicles and passengers for the scheduled run up the Coast to Prince Rupert and several stops along the way.

Early dusk

Every evening after sunset the mist begins to form over the grasslands at the head of Hardy Bay, by morning the mist has turned to fog that blankets the landscape until the daylight chases it away again.

Aloha!

Beaver Lake sunset

Last night's sunset at Beaver Lake. I took this picture with my Samsung S4 in panorama mode and touched it up a little in Photoshop.

Serious Stink Eye!

Talk about getting a serious case of Stink Eye! This Hawk was watching my every move as I took his picture a couple of days ago.

On another note I'm not sure what kind of Hawk this is. We have mostly Red Tail Hawks over here on Northern Vancouver Island but this Hawk is quite a bit larger and has much different markings. Any ideas anyone?

 

 

My first day in the water and I was snuck up on by Honu (green sea turtle.

 

We woke up very early our first day and as soon as the sun came out the turtles showed up on the reef and started feeding. Being the enthusiastic photographer that I am I grabbed my camera and underwater housing and headed for the ocean.

 

At one time we had four turtles feeding on the reef in front of our condo and while I was slowing working my way to one to get a close up photo I felt something bump my leg in the water. Needless to say it scared it the crap out of me until I looked down and saw the turtle. He swam right between my legs, not caring at all that I was there.

 

I pointed the camera straight down and took a photo at the same time I was trying to see if I was going to get eaten by a shark. Between the cool temperature of the water and being half scared to death for a split second I can safely say I was wide awake by the time my early morning swim was over.

 

Hey Val, Can you see me waving?

 

My one and only "selfie".

 

This looks like me waving both arms doesn't it?

 

 

Lurking in the waters below.

 

It was super windy our first day on the island but it settled down yesterday and the water cleared right up. I came across this little fellow in the waters in front of our condo.



The very last one...

While out for a walk yesterday I came across a wild Pacific Crab Apple tree. It was completely bare of leaves and fruit except for this one last, lonely Crab Apple. So I took it's picture!

I'm sure that some profound wisdom or life lesson might be gleaned from a happenstance encounter such as this but I'll leave that to someone else to figure out, I'm just the guy with the camera!