In April of 2019 there was a Great Grey Owl in Ottawa that caught many local photographer’s attention. I went to see if I could find the owl a couple of times on time I got lucky.
Great Grey Owl West end Ottawa
Visit Fort Henry: Summer of 2019
In the summer of 2019 we visited Fort Henry several times. Here is a collection of my favourite images. When you visit Fort Henry have a tour but also make sure you enjoy the other programs they offer. Such as the history of music in the British Army.
The fort is an interesting place with lots to look at so make sure you take the time to explore.
Behind one of those doors at the fort you will find David the Goat’s pen. David is the garrison’s mascot and he has a friend Henrietta. If the goats are not in their pen then you might find them on the grass near the entrance to the lower fort. There is often other things to see near the entrance.
Spend the day and watch some of the programming during the day such as the drill practice and the musical performances.
Each time we visit Fort Henry we always have a tour (usually from our daughter) but we also spend time reviewing the program for the day to find other interesting things that are happening.
Past visits to Special Events at the Fort include Lumina Borealis.
Brain Cancer Research – 2018 Cocktails for Cancer Fundraiser
The annual gala fund-raiser Cocktails for Cancer was held last Saturday night to raise funds for brain cancer research in Ottawa. These wonderful people came together to help raise money for brain cancer research after brain cancer effected one of their friends, Heather Geddie. You can learn more about their fund-raising, become involved and donate at their website: Race for Research.
I have had the pleasure of photographing this fun event again this year.
Last Night’s Fun
The evening consisted of a silent auction, live auction, raffle, dancing, food and drinks and a short speech from the head of the Ottawa Cancer Foundation.
The Volunteers
Working Hard
Having Fun
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
15 Best Bird Images 2017
This is a collection of my best bird images for 2017. For me 2017 was a pretty good year for bird photography.
Canadian Camera Conference 2017
I helped lead a photo outing to visit Osprey nests and Heron Rookeries. I made several scouting trips to prepare and then lead the group to two heron Rookeries and two Osprey Nests.
Best Bird Images from Mud Lake
During the year I made multiple visits to mud lake. I started early in the year and returned many times.
Kanata Pond
I found a new location in Kanata and how I found it is a funny story. I saw posts on Facebook from a local photographer that contained multiple Herons and I send them a private message asking where the photo was taken. They answered back that they did not want to share the location so as to not encourage disturbing the birds. That was a bummer. Then I thought how many ponds are there in Kanata? A Google maps search found nine candidates. I took a day and visited all of them, starting with the most remote figuring if it was such a sensitive place it had to be one hard to get to. Turns out it was the one near a busy intersection with main roads on two sides and the remainder surround by houses and next to soccer fields and children’s play structures. The whole thing has a paved trail around it and a bridge over the middle. The entire time I was at the location there was a constant buzz of traffic, constant joggers and dogs and happy children. I even had dogs off leash come up and visit with me while I was on the waters edge observing the birds. Yeah this is not a secret location that needs protecting. You can find it here: Monahan Drain
A night out to Lumina Borealis at Fort Henry
At the end of January we travelled to Kingston ON to visit family and we took in the Lumina Borealis show at Fort Henry. The weather was not ideal, it rained and we were pretty damp by the end. However the show was well done and we enjoyed it. The show is a series of art created by light and sound displayed along a path through Fort Henry. In some installations, sound from the viewers changes the display. In other cases you walk through the art itself.
Interactive display
There were several installations where microphone allowed the viewers to change the light show. As you sing (well or otherwise) the projected picture changes.
In another location there was a supply of balls you could throw at the picture projected on the wall that changed the image and the music.
Snowy Owls on Wolfe Island 2016
This Valentine’s day the RA Photo Club organized a trip to Wolfe Island (near Kingston). Nearly twenty of us were up well before dawn and on the road by 0600 for the trip to the ferry. We spent a very productive morning moving around the western part of the island we saw many snowy owls and stopped to photograph each one. I lost count of the number of snowy owls we saw. After stopping for lunch we headed east. A few of us were separated from the main group and we did not see any more Snowy Owls but we did see some deer and various hawks. Unfortunately neither the deer nor the hawks were as accommodating as the Snowy Owls were from the morning.
Several times during the morning an owl would sit for a while with us taking its picture and then it would fly a short distance away. We would regroup and it would eventually fly back to its original perch. A few of the owls did not want anything to do with us and just flew away as soon as we stopped our cars but most of the owls were quite content to watch us watching them. The weather was very cold but for some reason there was nearly no wind. That made all the difference, that and the fact that we were very well bundled up meant for as comfortable a winter outing as can be expected. It was well worth the trip.
The photographers in action
This is the view form the other side of the Snowy Owl I was photographing. We sometimes blocked the road but luckily there was very little traffic. I only had to call “CAR” twice all day. This is the group photographing the owl sitting in a tree. We were in the last car and were a bit behind the group so when we caught up the owl had just flown away from the trees and the group followed her to the hydro pole up the road. We just stayed and watched and sure enough she left her pole and flew back to the trees were we were setup and waiting.
One of the Snowy Owls watching us
Aviation Museum 2014
Snow Geese Fall 2015
I spent a day with some other photographers from the RA Photo Club near St. Isidore Ontario taking pictures of snow geese. We started our search near the sod farm near the 417 highway. We watched them fly in overhead but very few snow geese landed on the sod farm. We could see that the snow geese were coming down near by. After some scouting around we found them first in a small field north of the sod farm. After they flushed and left we had a break at the local Tim Horton’s and then headed towards Winchester. We found another flock of snow geese in a field near the road and spent some time photographing them. Then we found a very large flock of snow geese on the water treatment ponds near Winchester but were not able to get very close. Later we did find a large flock of snow geese on the water in a near by quarry.  This time we got much closer. They filled the sky when they flushed!
2015 Fall Challenge Competition
Earlier in October the RA Photo Club held its annual Fall Challenge Nature competition. Each year the challenge is to spend any portion of a single 24hour period at one location and then submit 8 of your best creations to be judged in competition. This year the location was Lac Ramsay and Trail 56 in the Gatineau Park. I was in the area from before sun rise until 3pm in the afternoon. I made 208 compositions with just over 600 frames (some where panoramas, HDR and focus stacking). Here is my working selection from which I will be choosing my eight best.
Protected: 2015 New York City DanceRoots Trip
