Author: Robb Towns

We went and did two locations today. We went to the Mer Bleu Boardwalk and to the Ottawa Airport to capture a couple of airplanes on approach.

The Mer Bleu Board walk is located in the east end of Ottawa. You can find it here using the what3word app/website (https://w3w.co/shattered.overwhelms.lotteries)

We also went over to the the Ottawa Airport and captured a couple of planes on approach into the airport. We took the picture from the following location: https://w3w.co/vitals.drones.records

The planes we were able to capture were:

• Air transat – TS889 – Airbus 321 from Santa Clara
• Air Canada – AC8866 – CRJ2 – from Washington DC

I recently bought a Cotton Carrier System for my cameras. I got the Dual Camera option as I now travel with two Nikon D5300 bodies to do my photos. I used to just switch lens on the fly, but wind, dust and sand are real issues in that scenario. I have been carrying both camera around my neck most of the winter, and what a pain in the neck/back that is. So this weekend I set up all the gear and we went down to the Ottawa River to take some shots and try it out.

I finally was able to capture a Robin in our backyard. I have seen them around the neighbourhood while I have been out on walks, but by the time I get my camera up, they are flying away.

This brilliant little bird was playing in the trees behind my house. I found out later on that it is a Male House Finch. I have to admit, I know nearly nothing about birds, but I love them flying around the cedars behind our house.

Last week I took a two hour Flash Photography Course from Michael Williams Photo here in Orleans. I found the course very interesting and I am really looking forward to honing my skills in the Genre over the next few months. I think I will need to buy (don’t tell the CFO) a few little things to enhance the Speedlights that I own.

Here are few photos from my first practice session last night.

The warm weather has turned our back yard in something like Heathrow Airport for birds and squirrels. Our neighbour, a couple of doors down, puts out bird feed and peanuts by the shovel full. I was lucky enough to capture a few cardinals in flight. Still need to work on it a bit, but happy with this first attempt.

I had to drive up to Renfrew for a test at the Renfrew Hospital (all is good) so we decided to make a road trip out of it. We stopped at the Swing Bridge, the Power Dam and the Old Mill. We had been there last fall, but seeing it in the Winter was interesting.

It was a reasonable day weatherwise today and I had seen that another photographer had been down to the falls. So we took a little drive down the road. These falls are very close to the Imalaird Headquarters. The snowbanks were rather high, so not idea for taking photos, but I got a few I like. Sometime I think I need to upgrade my ND Filter. Next time I am going to try my Infrared Filter.

I got a new set of filters for Christmas and I thought I would take them out for a test run. They are Star Filters, the length of the star lines surprised me, so I will have to think about how I am going to use them in the future. Hope you enjoy my experiments.

Well, the weather outside is frightful, seriously, the skies are dull for has seemed like weeks and there is absolutely no snow and none in the forecast will the New Year. A few years ago we took a little stroll along the beach on Boxing Day when the weather was very similar, so the Team headed down to Petrie Island so get some beach time.