Project 365 - Day 334 - Sunrise with a little surprise

I woke up today for the sunrise, and it was turning out to be un-spactacular.  Yes, that is a word - well it is now anyway.  Besides, it is a gooder way to say not so spactacular or something along those lines.

Okay, back on track now.  It was very cold outside, and I parked in a lot beside the big lot for Coronation park.  This lot looks right out onto Lake Ontario.  When I started shooting, I noticed something in the top right hand corner of the shot.  I re-framed the shot and took it again.  That is the moon there peeking through the clouds, while it still can before the sun comes up.

Neat.

Project 365 - Day 333 - Urban Sunset

After shooting sunrise and sunsets in Tahiti, it was a change to be shooting the sunset in Oakville again.  Not necessarily a nice change - yes, I am happy to be home, but I could have stayed in Tahiti for a lot longer.  I am sure I would eventually get homesick - missing family and friends - but that would take a long, long time.  And besides, I wouldn't really miss this bitter cold we've been having.

The sun sets at 4:30 these days, so I have to get out and shoot on my way home.  Sometimes I have to shoot when the conditions are not all that ideal - but I have made this commitment to shoot every day all year, so that's what I have to do.

Today, an urban sunset - Oakville style...

Project 365 - Day 332 - Grizwalds, this is not...

I wanted to shoot Christmas lights tonight, so I took it upon myself to turn mine on.  I don't take the lights down in the summer - first of all they are white and second they are hidden by the trees at the front of the lot.  They are C5 incandescent bulbs, glass, so they do break and burn out, and I end up having to replace 5-6 of them each fall season.

When I turned the lights on, only 3 were blown this time.  So not too bad.  When I took my shot, you could see two of the blown ones, and by see I mean there was a light missing in the row.  Thank heavens for the clone tool ... :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ....

Project 365 - Day 331 - Footprints

Took a walk in Coronation park today looking for shots that displayed a winter theme.  The park is basically closed for the season, they close off about 3/4 of the park and there's only one entrance open.  The area after the closure is not maintained in the winter months. 

I came across this in the parking lot.  It's a boot print, that has been frozen into the ice.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Project 365 - Day 330 - How do you measure up?

Man, it gets dark really early now - almost dark by the time I get home.  These grey skies are such a contrast from the sunny and mostly clear skies in Tahiti.  And it's cold!  It's really difficult to get motivated for the last 35 shots - yep that's how many days I have left after today...

I wanted to do a macro shot today, as I have not done one for a while - save for the shot of the hermit crab from Tahiti.  This is a measuring tape using my macro lens with all three conversion tubes on it.  I didn't crop this picture, it's basically right out of the camera - but turned to black and white.

Project 365 - Day 329 - Back to the cold cold north

So, we left Bora Bora on Saturday evening and it was 35 deg C.  Landed in Toronto on Sunday night and it was -8 deg C.  You do the math.  And I was still in shorts.  Luckily I am Canadian and I did not feel the cold.  Jumped into the warm cab and made it home.

I took the day off today to get some stuff done around the house.  One of those things was the yard work.  The wind was really strong out front and raking leaves in the wind was just not working for me.  But I did spend a couple of hours cleaning all the dead plants out of the gardens and getting the place ready for the soon to arrive, if not already here, winter.

Today's shot is of one of the flowers in the front of the house, now all dead and dried up.  The garden in behind has some evergreen ground cover in it, and it creates a nice contrast between the dead plantlife and the living evergreens.

Project 365 - Day 328 - Waiting at the gate

As you all know, we left Tahiti and her islands yesterday evening.  We had the red eye flight into LAX.  It was a pretty uneventful flight, but I didn't get a lot of sleep.  We got to LAX just after 9am today. 

We went through customs - one of the biggest lines I have seen in a long time - and picked up our bags.  By the time we checked back into Air Canada for our last leg home, we had 4+ hours to kill.  Not good.

Today's shot is of our gate, with the plane being readied, but no one else in the seats.

Project 365 - Day 327 - ... sniff ... do we REALLY have to go home today???

As I write this, two porters are trying to remove Sonia from the room - she has chained herself to the bed, chanting "Hell No I WON'T GO!"  :-)

This has been a magical trip, I will recommend this to anyone who is even thinking of coming down here.  It is really a once in a lifetime trip, and it is a heck of a jaunt to get down here, but well worth it.

Today we slept in until almost 9am.  Well, that's not entirely true - we both got up for the sunrise, but then went back to sleep again for a couple of hours.  Breakfast at 9:30 and then back to the room to get into our sun tanning wear.  Sonia came up with the idea that we go on another kayak trip as the water was really really calm this morning.  So off we went.

Our bungalow is one of the last of the line and it's quite the walk to the area resort/beach area.  We did this without shoes.  That was a mistake, because even at 10:30 am the boardwalk was HOT!  But we made it, jumping from shady spot to shady spot, and got individual kayaks this time.  Off we went.  We went across the lagoon to this motu on the other side - but all the way the water was no more than 6ft at the deepest point.  We wandered over some of the most interesting underwater plant life and biggest fish we have seen in Bora Bora yet.  It was pretty incredible.

We hung out on the kayaks for the better part of 2 1/2 hours, and then headed back to shore for some water (didn't bring any) and to cool off (the lagoon water was just slightly cooler than the air).

Today's shot is from our trip.  I had the camera in the dicipac today to keep it dry, and was taking the lens part off to shoot.  This shot is with the dicipac lens on in front of the camera, and it had gotten wet.

Project 365 - Day 326 - Souvenir means souvenir in French!

So, today was a relatively lazy day.  Up for the sunrise at 4:45 and back to bed by 5:15.  Breakfast at 8am today, and then we decided to go back into Vaitape again to get some souvenirs.  There was a cruise ship in port and there were a lot of people in the little craft market.  I went to take some pictures of the ship transporing people to the port, and Sonia went into the market.  When I had enough shots, I went into the market to look for her.  One of the vendors said "She's over there" and pointed to Sonia.

We are now known to the vendors of the Vaitape craft market ... :-)

Back to the resort by lunch time and out on the deck with our snorkel gear.  After 40 min of snorkeling, we sat out with our books in the sun/shade (Sonia in the sun, me in the shade) and read through our eyelids for a while.

I went back out again to get some more fish shots and Sonia continued to read.  When we were both done, we went around the boardwalk paths to the bungalows to get some scenery shots.  Today's shot is one of them.

This is shot with my Tokina 11-16mm lens with the polarizer on it.  I had to straighten the boards a bit on the left and right due to distortion, and cropped  a bit due to the lens seeing some of the rim of the polarizer and UV filter I have on the lens.  Other than that, straight out of the camera.

Project 365 - Day 325 - 4X4 trip around the island

This morning we went on a 4X4 trip around the island of Bora Bora, and also went into the island at three points to go to areas that we could get great scenery shots.  Today's picture is from one of those spots, looking over the lagoon and various resorts.  This particular spot is up by a radio tower that allows communication from island to island. 

The tour was great, we had some fresh coconut water, straight from a coconut, and saw how they make Pareos - the traditional wrap that some women wear on the islands.  We also got to see a couple of cannons that were placed in 1942, when the US forces came to the islands to keep it out of the Japanese hands after Pearl Harbor.  Our guide was telling us that the US forces were here for four years, and there was never a battle on these islands.  When one of our other tour mates asked how the islanders took to the Americans, our guide responded that the US forces were great to the locals, and helped with building roads and buildings in the area.  The land was appropriated for their use, but they gave it back to the islanders in good condition once they were done in 1946.

So if you're ever in Bora Bora, I recommend you look up Vavau 4X4 Adventures.  Ask for Daniel, our guide.  He was awesome!  www.vavau4x4adventures.com

This is shot at 11mm using by 11-16mm Tokina lens.  I have my circ polarizer on, and it is shot at f/8 at ISO800.   Shutter is 1/400s

Project 365 - Day 324 - Into Vaitape

Today we went into the small village of Vaitape to do some shopping.  I bought a couple of shirts and Sonia bought a necklace from one of the craft vendors.   After the shopping was done, we treated ourselves to snow cones.  The snow cones were so good, after all I think it was the hottest day so far of our vacation.

When we got back to the resort, we went snorkeling again.  Sonia was feeding the fish from our bungalow above, and I was underneath with my camera in the trusty waterproof bag taking pictures.  The current here is slightly rougher than the past places, so it was a bit more difficult to stand but I eventually got the hang of it and was able to get some good shots - although there is a lot of bad ones to go along with the good ones ... :-)

This is one of those shots, from the coral nursery right under our bungalow.

Project 365 - Day 323 - Tern of phrase

Today we spent most of the day in the bungalow.  It rained for a bit, and then let up - after which Sonia and I went snorkeling.  Sonia accused me of trying to get her to touch the stingrays, but that was not the case - you know they/re really not that dangerous to humans as long as you stay away from their tail.

Before we went snorkeling, I was watching the birds flying around the lagoon between our bungalow and the main resort area.  There were so many birds fishing and it was really cool to see.  All of a sudden this one bird flew into my view - he caught my eye because he had light blue feathers on the underside of his wings and body!  It was quite cool! 

I already had my 70-200 Sigma on with the polarizer on the front so I was shooting away.   Unbeknownst to me, Sonia had decided to check out what I was shooting and came up behind me just as the tern (I believe that was what it was) dove in for a fish.  She put her hands on my waist just as this happened and scared the poop out of me!  I missed that shot, but soon recovered enough to get this shot.

I toned down the reds a bit on this, as the fish is almost split in two.  But yes, his wings are that blue.  No photoshop on that part ... ;-)

I tried to research the kind of bird - the closest I can find is the Greater Crested Tern.  But he is a tern of some kind ....

Project 365 - Day 322 - Sunset from sunny Bora Bora

We're on our last leg of our Tahiti trip.  It was really difficult to leave the Royal Huahine resort.  It is a small resort, but the biggest on the island.  You get to know all the staff, and they can anticipate your meal and drink orders.  

Snorkelling around our bungalow also proved very fruitful - we actually went twice yesterday before eventually dragging our butts out of the ocean to go to dinner. 

Going into the town of Fare from our resort required a short 20 minute boat trip - but that was no problem for us.  Fare is a cute little town, but is also the capital of Huahine.  We went to the supermarket there, and also bought fruit from a local grower - Sonia negotiated a fair price for what she though was one mango - it ended up being a plate of 8 mangos!   Man, I have never had mangos like that before!!  They are different from the ones we get in the stores, and super ripe as well!

So off to Bora Bora today, a quick plane ride (15 minutes - quicker than the boat trip to get to our resort) and we were here.  Once we got settled in our over-water bungalow, we went for a walk through the area.  There are many restaurants and shops along the road here and we ended up at a supermarket to get some water and, of course, some beer for me.  On the way back, we were just in time to catch the sunset ... here it is from the public beach across from our hotel.

Project 365 - Day 321 - There's a 4:45 AM now?

Up at 4:45 today to try and catch the sunrise.  Every day, with the exception of the day we left Moorea, the cloud cover has been too heavy to get a good shot of the sunrise.  Today was no exception.  The alarm goes off, I go out to check the state of the sky and set up my tripod, I wait, the sun comes back up, and I go back to bed.  No shot.

Today, however, when I first got up I went to the deck and noted that the full moon had yet to set.  Of course, where the sun was coming up it was cloudy, but where the moon was setting it was nice and clear.  So I set up this shot to get the moon as it reflected on the water.  Took a couple of shots here and then went to the front of the bungalow to see what the sunrise was doing.  So today's shot is of the moon-set - if there is such a thing ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 320 - Did I mention our bungalow faces West?

Today Sonia and I went on a tour of Huahine.  It was pretty cool, seeing all the
archaeological sites around the island.  Apparently this is why Sonia chose this island, to
see the restored sites from the time before Europeans came to Tahiti.   Our guide was
originally from Los Angeles, but went to the University of Hawai'i to study polynesian
culture.  His father was a French national and he first came to Tahiti when he was seven
years old and fell in love.  He studied Archaeology and hotel management, as he had always
wanted to get into this field.  Now he is working for himself.  The tour was great, and he
had a lot of knowledge to pass on.

In the afternoon we came back to the resort and snorkelled a bit.  When that was done, Sonia
lay out in the sun and I took a nap.  She woke me in time for the sunset, which was pretty
spactacular.  This shot is from tonight's sunset.

Project 365 - Day 319 - Underwater camera

So I bought an underwater camera at the camera shop in Papeete for $2300. Not a bad camera,

and it takes really good shots! Okay, it is not April Fool's day, nor is it backwards

Friday - I didn't buy a new camera. I did, howerver, buy this product called DICAPAC.

Yeah, it has an unfortunate name, but what it does is allow you to put your camera in a

ziploc bag and bring it in the water with you. Really. That's what I did! No, seriously!!

This bag is made of a thick plastic, and some of it is clear. There are ports where you can

stick your fingers in to fire the shutter and to adjust the lens and so forth. There is a

hard plastic piece that goes in front of the lens so the pictures are resonably sharp. You

can see the back of the camera and adjust any setting on the camera as well through the soft

plastic. You can shoot through the viewfinder (I recommend auto-focus as the scuba mask and

extra plastic will not allow you to focus accurately so you'll have to rely on the camera to

make the decisions on what to focus on.

I took it snorkelling, and kept it at the top of the water, but it was completely submerged.

Letting most of the air out of the bag is a good idea, as it will allow you to hold it

underwater better.

Now, it is not as good as getting a real underwater lens, or putting your camera in one of

those $2500 cases, but it does the trick. It has a ziploc seal that is really good, and

then you roll the end of the ziploc down and velcro it closed. Then another roll and velcro

and you are set.

The thing that I have to remember is to set the ISO high, 1200 or 1600, as light dies

quickly underwater - I followed this one really cool fish around for a while and got lots of

dark pictuers, then when I adjusted the exposure they were pretty blurry.

But this shot is from the trip today. It's of the plantlife that is growing on one of the

piers of our overwater bungalow.

Project 365 - Day 318 - Sunrise in Moorea

Sonia set the alarm today for 4:30 so I could get up to check the sunrise again.  When the alarm went off this morning, I opened our curtains to find some cloud at the horizon, but it looked promising.  I started to get ready, gathering all my stuff, but unfortunately I woke Sonia up in the process.  As I was puttering around the room, I was planning my shot and Sonia was asking questions about what I was going to do this morning.  Finally, I dragged my lazy butt out to the deck of our bungalow and looked over towards the sunrise.  It had already started!!!  Abandoning my shoes, I ran with my tripod and camera all the way over to the bridge that connects the overwater bungalows to the rest of the resort.  I didn't have time to set up in my planned spot, at the end of the dock in front of the restaraunt.  I was able to get a few dozen shots off, varying angles and details.  This is just one of them. 

I'm going back to bed for an hour ... :-)  Mornin everyone!! :-)

Project 365 - Day 317 - Hotel pool at night

We went back to Tahiti to Papeete today to do some shopping.  Sonia was looking at the pearls and the clothing and I was taking pictures of the town and surrounding area.  When we got back to Moorea I took a short nap, but left Sonia with strict instructions to wake me at 6pm as I wanted to shoot the sunset.  The sun actually sets on the other side of Moorea, but the light hits the clouds and it is quite spactacular - I got a great shot of it last night. Alas, there was no light over the mountain as the cloud cover was far too low.  So what's a guy to do when plan A fails?  Plan B of course.

This was a shot that I wanted to get regardless, so I went and got it after exhausing the "sunset" options.  This is our hotel pool at night.  It is lit from below the deck, and it overlooks the ocean and the overwater bungalows.  It is quite cool.  Enjoy.

Project 365 - Day 316 - Introducing ... Hermes

Spent the day at the beach today, enjoying the surf and the lightly salted water.  When we first got down to the beach, the towel counter was not open.  While Sonia got us settled, I went to get the towels.  When I got back, Sonia was intrigued with something at her feet.  Thinking she had stepped on a piece of coral or something, I became concerned.  When I approached, however, she looked up and said "Hey, come here!"

I meandered over slowly, expecting now that she was going to get me to clear out some of the miniscule amount of seaweed that had gathered in front of our sun beds.  But instead, she pointed to a shell in the sand.  "Check it out! - Meet Hermes!!"

I looked.  I saw a shell.  One of ... well I am not exaggerating when I say hundreds of other shells on the beach.  But just when I was going to make a smart alek comment - yes, I have been known to do that from time to time - the shell moved.   Inside, was a hermit crab.

So, off I went to get my camera and macro lens, while Sonia babysat our new friend and made sure that the young man who was raking the beach did not rake him up as well.  I got a lot of shots of Hermes, but not a lot of useful ones - as these guys are pretty quick for crabs, and he liked to fall off things that I wanted to photograph him on.

Well, here's Hermes!!

Project 365 - Day 315 - Moorea at night

Today we made the trek to Moorea.  The trek involved a half hour ferry ride from the island of Tahiti to the island of Moorea.  The ferry ride proved to be a great source of images, and they will be displayed once I get home and can create the panoramas by stitching together the required images.

Tonight, after dinner, I dropped Sonia back off at the room and I went back out to shoot.  We had eaten dinner at the pool bar, and it overlooks the pacific ocean - with a great view of Tahiti.  Having this view all night I wanted to share it with you guys.

After I shot this view a bit, I was headed back to the room and found this shot below.  This is one of the over water bungalows in the foreground, and far in the background you can see the island of tahiti all lit up.  Also, there are stars... lots and lots of stars.  There is light polution here, but not nearly as much as back home.

Project 365 - Day 314 - Tahiti Day 2

Today we went on a 4x4 tour of the island.  We got very wet, and saw a lot of waterfalls and great scenery.  I have a lot of work to do when I get home, stitching together panoramas and some major HDR work.

When we got back, it was almost time for the sunset.  Sonia went back to the hotel room while I went to our "backyard" and got some sunset photos.  I think I took about 30 shots, one of which is today's shot.

This is the same catamaran as yesterday's photo.

Off to Moorea tomorrow, but not before a quick trip into town to the market.  Apparently they have pearls here?  And vanilla.... :-)

Project 365 - Day 313 - Hello from Tahiti!

So, after a marathon of flights yesterday we finally arrived in Tahiti at 05:30 local time.  We left Toronto at 2:00 eastern, and we are currently 5 hours behind eastern time.  So we landed at 10:30 eastern - meaning we were travelling for20 hours.  Let me just clear one thing up - travel time was totally worth it.  This place is gorgeous!

We got our room right when we checked in this morning and we set about getting into our swimwear.  Then we headed down to one of the two infinity pools after taking a quick stroll around the grounds.  This hotel is really nice, and the weather is perfect.

After getting slightly crispy, I went back to the room for a nap and Sonia, ever the sun worshiper, stayed out for another two hours.  When she came back, we took the camera out for a walk.

This shot was taken basically in front of our room.  This is our view, and the sun sets right in front of us.  No sunset tonight, you can see the clouds are way too heavy for that - but I did get this shot of some sun rays.

Project 365 - Day 312 - Sunrise in Mississauga

Okay, so this is going to be my last post from Canada for about 2 weeks, maybe my last post for a while.  We are going on vacation and the internet will be a little spotty at times so I may be posting sporadically.  Rest assured, I will be shooting and hopefully editing as I shoot, although I do have a whole day off when I return to go over my pictures.

Today I went to Lakeshore Promenade as I was dropping my wife off at work.  I missed the actual sunrise, but the sun moved behind some clouds to create this scene.

Project 365 - Day 311 - Mean skies mean HDR time

Today I went down to Lakeshore Promenade in Mississauga again.  This is a good place to shoot when I have something after work to do in the Mississauga or Toronto area.  Today was no exception.

When I got to the park, nothing was happening.  No one was around, and there was a smattering of canadian geese just wandering around.  My main focus was not to bore you with another goose shot - not that I didn't get a couple close shots in of course...

I shot this scene with the intent of making an HDR.  This particular HDR is a little over cooked for my liking -  but I was able to pull off the basic principle.  I am getting better at the HDR stuff, I just need more practice setting up my own profiles...

Project 365 - Day 310 - Closed for the season

Oakville harbour in the rain tonight.  I was trying a new technique that wasn't working.  I will get it, and blog about it, but it was taking time and it was raining pretty hard.  I started driving home, thinking about what else I could shoot when I happened upon this scene.

This is the docking area at Oakville Harbour.  It is usually full of boats - in the boating season that is.  Tonight, all the boats are gone and all that is left are the docks.  I am not sure if they pick the docks up or not ... I think they might ... but for tonight at least, the docks are still there.

With the rain falling it made the water pretty soft and the docks reflect the lights.  I had to clone out some rain spots on my lens, but other than that not a lot of work was done on this shot.

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 30s shutter f/14.

Project 365 - Day 309 - Last of the fall colours

What originally caught me about this scene is the vibrant orange against the almost bare trees in the background.  Also, the scattered leaves on the ground out front.  This one orange tree is almost full of leaves, whereas the one right next to it is almost bare - only the smallest amount of leaves is showing to the right of the frame. 

Project 365 - Day 308 - Coronation Tree at night

Wow.  Is it ever dark early now.  I didn't notice how early it got dark last year - 5:30 and it's already pitch black outside.  As I was leaving the gym I had  a sinking feeling it might be tough to get a shot.  But I went by coronation park to look at my trusty tree, and I noticed the Toronto skyline in the background.  So I shot that.  30s shutter at f/2.8 and ISO 100.  It was all I could do to get a usuable exposure... everything wide open.

Project 365 - Day 307 - Sunrise in Oakville

Got up for sunrise this morning.  No one told the sun about daylight savings time ending, so the sunrise happened at the same time it happens every day, which by the clock is an hour earlier than it had on Saturday even though we got an extra hour to sleep.

Silly sun.

This is an HDR shot.  The HDR was challenging because of the moving clouds, I had to get all three epxosures very close together to avoid smudging the clouds across the sky.  Also, the lighthouse took  a lot of work to recover afterward, the HDR process didn't treat it as the main subject.  I need to learn more about using this program.

Project 365 - Day 306 - the sharp edge

This shot started out as an attempt to shoot the little metal edge on a roll of giftwrap tape.  Well, I couldn't find a roll of tape with a metal edge, so I ended up shooting one with a plastic edge.  Not the exact shot I was looking for, but I think even better.

I lit it off camera with a blue gel in front of my speedlight.

Project 365 - Day 305 - Perseverence

Was out shooting tonight and noticed this little guy growing in the road on 4th line, north of the rail tracks but south of the QEW bridge.  Shot it down low with my flash aimed to mimic headlights - the cars weren't co-operating.  I wanted to get the traffic lights and cars in the background to illustrate where it was growing. 

I can't get grass to grow on my lawn but apparently this guy can grow where there is no soil... :-)