Project 365 - Day 272 - Another squirrel

Heh.  This one is giving me attitude though.  I like the grey and black squirrels, they're cute and they look cuddly.  But I love the red squirrel.  The red squirrel is such a nuisance to home owners, 9 times out of 10 it's the red that gets into your attic, digs up your flowers, and yells at you when you are in the backyard.  He moves so fast and he's light and small.  His acrobatics are just phenomenal.

This little guy was eating a nut in one of our trees, and when I started taking his picture he decided to climb up higher and peak at me.  He must have been about 20 feet up, which gave him the courage to call me some nasty squirrel names ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 271 - Reflections

Walking around Toronto today acting like a tourist again.  We were walking down University and saw this scene, the CN tower reflected in one of the shinier buildings.  As you know I love reflections, so I had to grab this one. 

Project 365 - Day 270 - Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer

The Road Hockey tournament was today.  I was playing so I didn't get to shoot a lot today.  This is a goalie mask that Sonia pointed out to me, and I thought it was pretty cool. 

Project 365 - Day 269 - Pigeons in the park

I was playing tourist in my own town today.  We are in Toronto for a show this evening and I came out early.  I was walking around city hall when I happened upon this scene.  This woman is feeding the pigeons bits of bread.  They are all well behaved - save for this one bird that has decided to perch beside her to get the "choice" pieces.  I wasn't the only one taking pictures, to the right of the scene is a group of young women filming this with their cell phones.   The woman seemed really happy to be feeding the birds.

Project 365 - Day 268 - The Ugly Duckling

Duck and Swan.  That was the other possible name of this post.  Today at Bronte Harbour I came across this swan feeding in the shallow water.  A young mallard happened by and I got a shot of him swimming right beside the swan.

You can still see the water dripping from the swan's beak as he has just come up from getting some dinner...

Project 365 - Day 267 - That squirrel has a fluffy tail

I mean, look at the size of it!!  :-)

Went down to Coronation park today to get some squirrel pictures.  I had to fend off the seagulls while I enticed the squirrels with peanuts.  The seagulls wanted to eat the peanuts, but they really had no idea what to do with them.

I threw a peanut to one squirrel and it bounced in front of him and over his head.  Then this seagull swooped down to grab the peanut.  I am telling you, I heard that squirrel curse something fierce - although I can't blame him. 

Eventually the squirrels got the peanuts ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 266 - Never too old

Army guy.  That's what this is.  I bought a box of these guys at a recent garage type sale for 50 cents.  They are the old style of army men, the ones with detail and almost no seam - when the people who made them actually cared about the product and not so much about the profit.

These guys are going to become subjects in the coming months, as the weather turns dull and cold, I will have to start thinking of new and interesting things to shoot - and some of these guys may make an appearance.

So keep an eye out, and like this guy says ...  "Look over there!"

Project 365 - Day 265 - Tugboat

So I'm not sure if this is an active tug boat, or if it is one that someone bought and fixed up.  Likely the latter because the tires on the side look way too new.  Whatever it is, it's cool.

I got this shot mainly for the reflection, but the boat is a good subject too.  Used my tripod on this one, as the shutter speed was really low.  I had another shot with the sky in the background, but it was too high up and the conds on the other side of the boat were taking away from the shot.

Project 365 - Day 264 - The Path to the Club

Took this shot tonight along the path to the Oakville Club, alongside their docking area.  I was trying to get the lights in a row along the path.  I used f/22 to get the starburst effect on the lights, and brought it into black and white to deal with the odd colours of the lights themselves - some were blue, some were yellow and some were white.

Project 365 - Day 263 - Rain

Usually when it's raining you keep the camera inside  - or at least under shelter.  I have had this idea for some time and was really going to use a hose to wet down the driveway to get it.  But today when it was raining, I just had to go for it.

Surprisingly it took a bunch of shots to get the one I liked most. 

Project 365 - Day 262 - Duck! AGAIN!!!

This is yesterday's shot.  I didn't have a chance to post it until today, but I did get the shot yesterday.  Long lens on the camera, and I don't really know what kind of duck it is - it was really far out.  I love the way the wings almost touch the water though, this guy was flying low !!

Project 365 - Day 261 - Duck!

Went to Lakeshore Promenade after work today.  Lots of stuff to shoot today so it was tough to pick just one.  I got this shot of a duck as she swam past me looking for food.  The water was glass in the harbour area, and she was just trolling around picking at things in the water.

Project 365 - Day 260 - Sunglasses

I really can't explain this one.  I was on my way out to shoot this evening and I noticed the way the sun was playing on my sunglasses.  So I shot my sunglasses where they sat.  I cleared off the half wall a bit, but I took about 2 dozen shots at various apertures and angles.  I liked this one best.

24-70mm lens at f/5

Project 365 - Day 259 - Courage

This past weekend was the Terry Fox run.  When I was at Coronation park yesterday, I noticed someone had written words of encouragement on the pavement in the parking loop.  So I checked it out.  Apparently Coronation Park was the finish line for the Terry Fox Run in Oakville, and the volunteers had decorated the pavement to cheer on the participants.

One of the two words that was still there today when I went back was BELIEVE.  It was written in big bold block letters.  And then there was this one.  Courage.

 

Pretty much straight out of the camera here, I did adjust the temperature, but I framed it like this in camera.  At first I was worried about the top of the C, but you get the idea, you know what the word is.  Shot with my 24-70mm at f/2.8 to blur the background and just a bit of the foreground.  The word is readable, and you don't care about the edge of the pavement or the trees and grass over there.  The subject is courage.

In two weeks I am participating in the Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer.  Cancer research is a very important cause to me, as I lost both my parents to the disease.  If you feel like donating to my cause, please follow the link below:

Click HERE to donate!

Project 365 - Day 258 - Seagull

Got this guy today at Coronation Park in Oakville.  The lake was pretty rough today, not sure why as it is only a lake, but the waves were crashing pretty hard.  Not Ocean hard, just different for Lake Ontario when there isn't a storm brewing.

The gull's wings are the same shape as the rolling wave.  Right place, right time I guess ... ;-)

Project 365 - Day 257 - Storing a picture of an SD card ON an SD card

I can't believe I didn't break the space time continuum by doing this, but I took a picture of an SD card and the camera stored it on an SD card.  Not the SAME SD card granted, but you know - close enough.  It is kind of like using Google to search on Google.  Shouldn't that break the search enginge giant and put it into a tight spiral to the depths of the interweb?  Maybe not...

Project 365 - Day 256 - SUBA at FFAD 2013

I shot the Firefighter Appreciation Day again this year.  It was held at Crossfit Firepower gym in Milton this year.  It was a lot of fun to shoot, but was a really long day.  I got a lot of shots of the competitors, and I couldn't just choose one of them, so I settled on this shot of the SUBA tanks.

These are tanks that are used by firefighters to breathe while they are in the building that is on fire.  The competitors today had to wear bunker pants and jackets (flameproof gear that firefighters wear) and one of these tanks.  They don't have to breathe using the tank, but it has to be on their back.  It is a very tough competition.

Project 365 - Day 255 - Reflective Surfaces

I was putting away the dishes from the dishwasher (like a good husband) today and I noticed that our salad tongs are shaped like hands.  Now, this isn't the first time I have noticed this, although I was struck with a bit of creativity.  So I grabbed the tongs and clamped them to a tripod.  Now, I needed something to shoot them with.

I tried holding my hand up in the reflection to make it look like the tong hand had my skin, but I wasn't liking the result of the shot.  I was also always in the reflection in one way or another.  So I re-thought the process.  One of the things I was trying to get was my wedding ring on the ring finger on the tong-hand.  So I took off my ring, put it on the tong, and the rest is history.

For those who want to know how I got rid of the reflections, I put a piece of foam core between me and the tongs, and shot from an angle.  I aimed my speedlight at the foamcore and fired away.  Changing the angle of the camera eliminated most of the reflections, except for some on the back hand.

Project 365 - Day 254 - IR Fun again

I left my D300 at work, and had to resort to shooting with my D50 today.  The good thing about the D50 is it is sensitive to IR light, which means you can put an IR filter on the front and get some cool effects.  This is a flower from my garden.  I had to bring it inside to shoot as I needed a 15 second shutter and it was quite windy out this afternoon.

I think I will experiment with this a little more in the coming days/weeks.... it's actually fun to get some cool effects...

Project 365 - Day 253 - Waveguide

This was shot down a piece of waveguide at work.  I placed a piece of paper at the end with some writing on it that you can kind of see.  The reflection of the paper on the walls of the waveguide is kind of interesting...

Project 365 - Day 252 - Softball

I was at a baseball diamond today and there were a couple of old softballs that someone had just tossed on the ground.  Beside the diamond is a leash free zone, so I guess whoever did this figured the dogs would like something to play with - one actually had teeth marks.  The dog that can bite into a softball and leave those marks is a dog I do not want to meet in a dark alley ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 251 - Night Fishing

Went down to Bronte Harbour tonight, lured by the promise of a red moon.  Well, by the time I got down there, the moon had gone into hiding and I was left with the question of what I was going to shoot.

I then found a group of fishermen that were lined up along the curved line that is the pier.  This was cool in itself, and in more light would have been a pretty good shot.  But with the low light, I was forced to resort to a slow shutter - thus blurring all the fisher-people on the pier.  Except for one.

This guy, at the front, was casting and waiting, then casting and waiting.  He would sit still for about 2 minutes at a time.  That was plenty for my 15 second shutter.  Set the apeture to f/22 and got this shot.

I had to fix the colour as the camera did not know what to do with the yellow lights.  Even putting the camera to tungsten only took care of some of it.  So a bit of WB fix, and crop for content, and voila.

Project 365 - Day 250 - Touch the line ...

We were invited to the Season Seat Holder BBQ at Toronto FC's Kia Training Ground today.  It was pretty cool to get to walk on the pitch and take a tour of the grounds.  They have a great setup there.  I got this shot of one of the lines around the 18 yard box.  I once again had to lie down on the ground to get it, but I did get it ...

The pitch is artificial with cork scattered in it to make it bouncy like grass.  So when I got up, I had cork in various places on my legs and arms ... it was amusing ...

Project 365 - Day 249 - No ... NO ... NO!!!!!

Out for a walk on the pier this evening looking for a good sunset shot - was going to try my hand at HDR.  The cloud cover was too heavy at the horizon, so the sunset was a bust.  So I was walking back to the car and noticed this bush - the leaves were beginning to change.  For crying out loud, it's only SEPTEMBER!!  I know, Fall is the most beautiful season, but not when it is still actually summer!  And after fall comes winter.... Ugh.

Project 365 - Day 248 - Fishes

Outside of Morden public school in Oakville you can find these fishes.  They are attached to the fence.  It makes a really cool pattern and brightens up an otherwise drab and dull chainlink fence.  Each fish is hand painted by a student that researched our effect on our waterways, from pollution to fertilization to usage of the water itself.

It is pretty cool.  I have tried to get this shot on numerous occasions, finally I got something I can work with.

Project 365 - Day 247 - Welcome back ....

Yeah, so I'm a couple of days late for the back to school shot.  But I saw this the other night coming home from shooting downtown Oakville.  The trouble is that it was very dark and the shot would not have worked out well.  So I went back this afternoon and got it.

Outside a public grade school in Oakville.  This is a sign that they put announcements on, like hot dog day and report cards being released, and so on.

I really wanted a shot of kids in the foreground, but not having a real reason to be on school property during school hours negated that.  Besides, that's a little creepy!  :-)

Project 365 - Day 246 - Abstract

Sad news today, we put our dog Brodie down.  He was old and his hips had totally gone - he kept falling down and was really not having a good life anymore.  He just didn't seem interested in anything anymore, and to keep him around was selfish of us.  He was in pain.

Today's picture reflects my mood.  More of a blah - lacking focus kind of mood. 

This is an abstract of some lights in downtown Oakville.  I took the lights right out of focus and took some shots as cars were driving by.  I have seen these kinds of shots before, and I have tried to recreate them at times.  This is the closest to a successful shot that I have come.  It still needs work, but then again that's what this project is about - extending yourself.

Project 365 - Day 245 - Moth-Ra

This little guy was sitting beside me as I took off my work boots today.  Yard work was done and I was sitting on the threshold of the shed and putting on my running shoes.  He was watching what I was doing. I went inside, grabbed my camera and brought it and my flash outside.  I set the flash down beside the moth and got up nice and close with the macro lens.  I took about 20 shots, moving the flash to different positions to get the light I wanted.  When I was done, I thanked the moth and then moved him - as he was in the way of the door closing - after all he was a good model I didn't want to end up killing him with the door.

Project 365 - Day 244 - How do you like your ribs?

Burlington Ribfest today.  It was a great way to cap off the long weekend with friends and family.  And ribs.  And roasted corn.  And Gelato.   Need I say more?

This is a shot of just one of the dedicated people who worked all weekend to keep everyone well fed.  You can see the care he takes with the ribs, to make sure each and every one is ready to serve.  He will serve no rib before it's time...

Off to the self induced food coma now...

Project 365 - Day 243 - Deep Fried Mars Bar

We were at the CNE tonight, and Randy got a deep fried mars bar.  He put it down to shoot it, and I just had to get my own angle on it.  People must have, once again, thought I was nuts.  But if it was nuts, it would have been a snickers ... :-)