I’m a Laird

I took my 50mm Prime Lens out to one of my favourite east end nature walks this past weekend. I brought some bird seed with me as I know the Chickadee’s are pretty tame. I learned some stuff on this outing about my lens. It was very cloudy and thinking that I wanted crisp photo’s of the birds, I kept my ISO low at 100. I had my F-Stop as low as I could go.. 1.8 and a shutter speed of 1/160 of a second. The photo’s all came out ok, but the focal point was so thin. Next time, I am going to choose a higher F-Stop and slightly faster ISO so the whole bird is in focus.

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We had our first snow today, but last weekend I gathered a few interesting leaves from our back garden and I brought them in to photograph. I used my 50mm Prime Lens and my macro tubes. I also installed my Light Ring to light up the leaves. ISO was 200, various Shutter speeds and F-Stops. I have also included a couple of random garden shots from while I gathered the leaves.

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For the second weekend in a row, Mother Nature cooperated weather-wise. I took my Camera down to the Ottawa River Pathway System and did a 12km walk (see route at the bottom). The leaves and skies were spectacular. I think we are so lucky to have pathways like this in our city.

For these shots, Nikon D5300, Kit Lens, and Fish-eye Lens, ISO 200

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The leaves were at their peak this past Thanksgiving Weekend. My wife and I decided we would go out to a local favourite of ours for a walk and maybe take some photos of the local wildlife. Mer Bleu Bog boardwalk is a must do at almost any time of year. We knew we wouldn’t be be able to walk around this weekend as the cars were lined up 500 meters down each side of the road outside the generous parking lot. So we turned around and captured a couple of back country road shots and then we took a drive to the Aviation Parkway and we made our way down to Sussex Drive. We parked near Old City Hall and we took a walk around the building. We crossed the Minto Bridges (Circa 1900) and then along Sussex Drive. I used my Nikon D5300 and my Kit lens for all the shots. ISO 100, various F-stops and Shutter Speeds. Have a look below and let the spectacular colours speak for themselves.

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We rented an AirBnB in Golden Lake Ontario, about 2 hours west of Ottawa. We have had a busy summer with family and traveling and a nice weekend away taking photos with friends sounded just like the kind of downtime we needed. Here are a few of my favourites from the weekend.

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The weather turned on us and rain was expected for most of the day. So our drive from Perce to Riviere du Loup while spectacular was not really conducive for stopping and taking photo’s. I did get a few photo’s of Perce Rock from the hotel before we left and from the other side of the bay before the rain started in earnest. I think the route we took through the Appalachian’s would be amazing in the Fall with all the leaves.

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In all, we traveled 3,800+ kilometers on our trip. We had a great time in the Maritime’s and Gaspe Bay. Lots of memories were made and it was so nice to see our friends.

Here is a map of our route – note the starting address is just a random start in Orleans, it’s not where we actually live

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The 2nd part of our holiday was a drive through the Gaspe region of Quebec. Specifically to see Perce Rock. The drive from Charlottetown, PEI to Campbellton, New Brunswick was a bit long and uninteresting. However from then on the drive offered up great views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east and the Appalachian mountains to the west. We arrived in Perce just as the sun was setting and I got a few photos of it before we lost the light. Our hotel had a wonderful view of the Rock from our room.

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There was a little playful 3 month old puppy called Nelson at the house we were staying at in PEI. He was so cute I couldn’t help but try to do a photo session with him. He was so curious about the camera. I think Nelson thinks he is a cat, as the cat walks along the back of the couch and Nelson gets right up there and follows along. I used my 50mm Lens and a very high ISO (hence all the grain) as it was indoors and during the evening. I just used the ambient lighting. Still the puppy is cute and I learned a bit about my 50mm lens.

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We have traveled to the wonderful little province of Prince Edward Island to visit with some friends. Their Children were looked after by my wife in her daycare business. The kids are all grown up into teenagers now. It has been so great to go out and do things with them around the Island. We went and watched Andrew play in his Semi-Final Soccer game and move on to the Finals. We traveled east from Charlottetown and went Kayaking on the Fortune River. After Kayaking we went to Basin Head Beach. We traveled up to the North Shore for a drive and ended up in New Glasgow where we visited the gardens of the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. Very picturesque along the river and great gardens full of bees. We topped our visit off with Andrews Gold medal game which they won!

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A few years ago we started a tradition of going to the Sound and Light Fireworks competition put on buy the Casino Lac Leamy. Tonight we went to watch them from Nepean Point. The country that was competing tonight was Italy. It was the first time trying to capture fireworks with my D5300. I used my Wide Angle Lens and my Kit lens along with my tripod. The settings I used were F16, 6-8 seconds and ISO 200. I did a little post editing with Lightroom. As this is all a learning process, I am happy with some and not with others. But still way better than what I though I would ever take before my A Year With My Camera Course.

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