Fish on a line.

For work the other day we took our clients fishing up at Ellison Lake. We caught three fish that I believe were trout. Managed to get a photo of this guy while he was fighting being reeled in.

A Few Shots of Summer

Just to keep you on your toes while in logging country.

Surf Schools Out!

Long Beach.

Deserted surfboard on Long Beach.

Wickininish Beach.

Sunset in Parksville.

My poor pink runners after one of our hardest summer hikes. The left one actually came off my foot and Chris spent 5 minutes digging it out of the mud for me. It did not feel good going back onto my foot after being filled with mud.

Clouds over the beach at Campbell River.

The water reflecting on a yacht.

This one was taken while I was in Durrance Lake. Trying to keep steady while treading water, keeping the camera out of the lake while getting the shot that I wanted was an interesting challenge.

Peacock Feathers

Have proved to be a challenge to shoot. Trying to get the colours right, the shimmer and the texture all while the subject is moving has meant lots of bad shots in the quest for the great one.

Rock Star Rooster.

OK. This rooster totally cracks

me up every time I see him.

He has earned the title of Rock-Star Rooster.

He's got the Mick Jagger strut down.

And he has the 80s rock hair perfect too.

And when he doesn't get his own way,

he can throw a barnyard fit rooster-style.

Bee!

I was out playing with my newer lens (the 35mm f3.5) and I was really having fun with the macro. I was pretty happy with these-especially considering that the bee had no interest in staying still for more than a few moments at a time.

Forest Mushrooms

This afternoon Chris and I went for a walk through Mt Doug Park.

When I looked down at the ground, I noticed these small mushrooms. I couldn't help but think that they could be interesting to try for macro shots. I had chosen to not bring my camera but luckily I had thought to grab Chris' point and shoot and throw it in our knapsack.

More Fences...

So I thought that I would share a few of the fence shots that I didn't use for the photo contest.

I really like the effect with this one but, as it isn't really a fence, I thought it would be cheating to use it.



Love how the bricks look in this shot. The fence, not so much.

Love the rails here-especially the rounded ones on the top level.

My Neices Birthday

So these pictures are a bit older but I just never got around to posting some (oops!). They are some photos I took during my neices birthday in August. We were at my Dad's extended care facility for our family party. The girls were getting bored inside so Chris and I took them outside to the playground that is there. Then we decided to try our hands at basketball...

Alycia loving the swings.


Malena getting into the swing action.


Alycia. The dresses that they are wearing are ones that my Grandma hand smocked for my sister and myself when we were their age.


Alycia peeking out over the top of the climbing platform.


Alycia walking through the flower gardens. I think she was trying to find Chris and Malena as they were playing "Monsters".


Malena just loved these lizard-eye glasses that my Mom gave her.


Chris and Malena playing "Monsters". Other than making faces, holding your hands in weird positions and stomping around, I'm not sure what exactly this game entailed-but they had fun.


Malena practicing her jump shot.


And getting her first basket ever!


Alycia trying to get the hang of dribbling.


Chris getting into the basketball action too.

Malena taking a breather. Gotta love the classy way to sit in a dress.

We Have a Jumper!

A few weeks ago, Chris and I stopped up in Coombs. Anyone who has been there knows that the thing they are most famous for is the goats who live on the roof of a store there.

The goats happily pose for pictures and give you this look trying to get you to feed them. Of course they may have better luck if they didn't hang out by the "Please Do Not Feed The Goats" signs. Guess they just didn't think that one out very well.

Totem Poles

A few weeks ago I took two of my clients up to Duncan for the day. While we there we went to the Native Cultural Centre. Of course I had to bring my camera and took the opportunity to shoot some of the totem poles that are on the grounds.

The Bright Side of Insomnia

So I have found one good side to having insomnia on vacation and waking up at 3:30am.


Beach sunrises!

Saturday in Parksville.

What a tough week-end I tell ya. Sun, beach and being a couple of goofs.

Our first view of the beach that day. I don't think that I really could have asked for more.

My toes digging into the warm sand.

This is the same three posts sticking from the sand as in yesterdays sunset photo. Think the tide has gone out just a bit?

I love the wavey texture of the sand on the beach. It felt so neat under bare feet.

Wakeboarders.

Kite Flying. I may have over-processed this one a bit but I like the HDR effect on this photo.

A clam shell half buried in the sand.

A stranded buoy. Just a bit away from the water at that point.

Three boats. I thought it was bizarre that if you look at the front boat (on the far right side) it's not even in any water.

A funny little crab scurrying along the beach.

Chris being a goof jumping in the water.

Me after a mud/sandball fight. Lucky it washes right off.

In case you hadn't seen enough of my feet, here's one with seaweed on my toes.

The tide coming back in.

Parksville

Last week-end Chris and I went up to Parksville. It was so beautiful and relaxing. The perfect week-end away.

On the Friday evening, we arrived a bit late-darn slow dinner in Nanaimo. We arrived just in time to head down to the beach to catch a gorgeous sunset.

Stunned Bird

This afternoon I was in our living room when I heard this loud bang on the patio doors. When I went out to investigate, there was a poor stunned bird on the deck that wasn't moving. Not quite sure what to do, I asked Chris to put on some gloves and gently put the bird onto an old dutpan and put it on the railing. My thinking was that when it was no longer stunned, it would fly away quickly and I wanted to keep it from getting trapped on our deck-or flying into the doors again.

So, after placing the bird on the railing-and I swear that the bird was looking right at me-I noticed that I was in an unique position to get some very close bird photos. So I grabbed Chris' point-and-shoot and this is what I shot.

Sorry to all you non-bird people.

Oh! After about 45 minutes, the bird did come out of it's daze and flew away. So I didn't have to bury another bird who was confused by our doors.

How We Spent BC Day.

Last Monday was a holiday, BC Day. There was a lot of things going on in town that we had thought about doing. There was a huge free concert on the grounds of the Legislature that was our original plan. Unfortunately the day before, Chris spent the entire day outside painting-without sunscreen! So we needed to find something a bit more shady to do.

So I came up with the idea of going to Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. Tall trees=a lot of shade and it beats staying home all day. The park used to be the Victoria Portland Cement Factory (1904-1920) and there are a lot of ruins from the factory in the park (more great photos of these are coming).

But I am a klutz. Just as we were nearing where we were stopping for lunch, I could hear the Snowbirds getting near us. So we started to look up to try to find them. They flew right over our heads and in my quest to get some photos (they were still quite low because the airport wasn't that far from us and they would have been great photos), I lost track of where I was on the trail and, well basically, fell off the side of the trail and down an embankement. Oops.

Luckily I saved the camera (again), and only have a bit of road rash on my right leg and rolled my ankle a bit. I am glad that my ankle didn't start to really hurt until later that night so I was able to get back to the car with no problems.

So on to the photos.

Looking up the trees.

The sun poking out through the bottom of the trees.

Our scenic view from lunch.

Chris and I taking our photo together after eating lunch.

The wood poles that, at one time, were part of a pier.

Even Chris is starting to get in the action with his Olympus Stylus 850SW.