I’m a Laird

Took a sort of surprise visit to the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The other half of the Imalaird Team flew over on April 1st to be with her Dad and see our daughter who lives in Kirkwall. Coincidently, our daughter took possession of her 1st home on the day my wife arrived in Kirkwall.

My wife’s best friend Karen had made plans to join her in Orkney a week or so after she arrived as a 60th birthday present to herself. She asked if I would like to travel with her and I agreed. I am still not sure I would want to travel that far (2 hour car ride, and 3 flights) on my own just yet due to my health concerns. But together we did it and arrived with no incidents.

You don’t come to Orkney for the weather, so I haven’t been able to get out every day, but I have gotten some rather nice Photos.

The Parish of Orphir and my favourite abandoned croft house.

The Ring of Brodgar

The Ring of Brodgar is large stone henge that is generally thought to have been erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC. The very impressive stones have stood so long that people no longer remember what their purpose was for.

The Stones of Stenness and the Barnhouse Settlement

Just a little drive down the road from the Ring of Brodgar are the Standing Stones of Stenness. They may be the oldest Henges in all of the UK.

Something I have always wanted to do was visit the Vantage Point Viewing area at Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport (YUL) in Montreal, Quebec. I have seen amazing photos taken from this viewing area just off one of the active runways. On Monday night I finally had the opportunity to stop by and capture a few photos. Unfortunately between my leaving for and arriving at the viewing area, they switched to the more northern runway, so while no real close up photos, I got a few interesting shot as the sunset was just amazing.

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.