Joy of Spring — Jon's Photoblog

Welcome back! It’s been an eventful month behind the camera. The weather has ranged from hot and dry…crispy, even…until it finally took pity and hosed us down with a fair measure of rain. Everything else flows from this shift, from the feel of the land, to the behaviour of animals both feathered and human.

And now at the end of May we expect a frost, which means it’s a good time to grab a cup of something hot, crank up some music, and put together a new blog.

I have a new favourite photo, and without further ado, here ‘tis:

What a happy accident for me. The day was warm, the sun bright and hazy, the sky just a bit dusty. As the sun drifted lower it was backlighting all the willow flowers and poplar buds, turning them luminous. I had no idea that the view looked over one of the hiking trails (though I heard people talking), and just as I was about to snap, this kid runs into my shot. First instinct: stop and wait. I don’t “do” humans, normally. But the kid’s joy was infectious, so I started snapping instead of stopping.

This is the shot was I initially going for:

I just really liked the textures and how the backlighting helps create contrast to emphasize the subtle changes in foliage and terrain.

A technical note: to emphasize the haziness of the evening I went with a very shallow depth of field, so that the nearby willows are sharpest, and the focus fades in the distance. With the shot that includes the kid, this is definitely the right choice, as the focus is on him. But I’m a bit divided on the landscape version, the “haze” effect might be overdone. Still, it was worth the experiment.

We’ll cap off the “backlight” section with some slight amusement: from the bushes to the right of the above shot, some small birds kept leaping into the air to catch insects, giving a new meaning to “fly fishing”. After a lot of shots (they move so fast) I managed to catch this:

Not long after this dusty day, the Crispy Times promised to end. Here was the first sign, a black and white of the title shot:

Same promise, different direction::

Last year at this location the water was a good half metre higher, so I, and no doubt many birds, are hoping we get back to that.

Speaking of birds, I’ve been both more lucky and less successful than last year. Lucky, in that I managed to witness some drama amongst our feathered friends. Unsuccessful, in that, while trying to new focusing settings and techniques, I completely missed focus on a ton of awesome shots. Still, a few were close enough, and the drama clear enough, to post.

First up, a pair of Lesser Yellowlegs fussing over a small patch of sand. I like the shape of their wings in these:

On a different lake, on a different day, one male Blue Winged Teal got just a little too close for comfort, and a duck fight broke out. I took dozens of shots, thrilled at at the scene, only to get home and find 95% of them were effectively useless because of my own mistakes with the focussing system. Still, a couple were salvageable:

While all this was going on, a Red-winged Blackbird got itchy and just had to scratch:

Meanwhile, a Western Sandpiper, ignoring—or maybe taking advantage of—all the fuss, quietly made his way among the remains of last year’s reeds:

The final bird shot, on a gloomy day, a female Red-winged Blackbird gathers nesting material. She was moving pretty quickly, but I was grateful she rested for a bit so I could reframe and catch the full length of the grasses she’d gathered:

I’ll end this blog with a few flora-shapes…patterns I stumbled across and just happened to like the arrangement of.

The first shoots of spring, backlit by the sun…and for which this blog was going to be named, until the accidental kid shot settled the matter:

Meanwhile the first bud of a prairie rose emerges, protected by a thorny fence:

And finally, whatever the heck this is…

This is one of those I can’t really explain why I like it. Something to do with the lines, angles, triangles, weight and balance…which is hard to articulate and might even be destructive trying to do so 😄

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see what early summer has in store.

Cheers!

May 26 Joy of Spring

Jun 25 Simplicity

Apr 26 Panos Flurriosos

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