The Most Disciplined Dog in the World?

I doubt that this dog is the most disciplined dog in the world, but it is without question the most disciplined dog I have ever seen.

This dog makes those that appear on The Dog Whisperer look like wild animals.

Bacchus & Mike from 3space on Vimeo.

New Year's Eve 2009 ... 11:30pm ...

Well ... 2009 is almost all over bar the shouting.

In my former life, today was to be my 24th wedding anniversary.

The boys are out with their friends and I stayed home and enjoyed a movie this evening ... the final The Fast and the Furious episode. Made a couple of awesome burgers and had some chips with it and several rum and cokes ... almost as good as turkey or a festive New Year's Eve dinner with friends, yet deeply pathetic :-)

Happy New Year everyone ... best wishes for the coming year.

And this, I believe, is my 400th post on this blog ...

We Rise Again

I really like this song ... I first heard it on a Rankin family CD, and Jonathan really took to it for a while. I believe it is Cookie Rankin who hits that piercing high note that stuns me every time. As an aside, I saw the Rankins a few years ago and Cookie has lost some of that edge. If I remember, though, she saved something for this song and hit the note at least once.

Anyway ... I found a very interesting version of the song on YouTube today ... it is sung by a huge group of Nova Scotian artists, including Anne Murray (the hostess), Rita MacNeil, the men of the Deeps, the Rankins, and a few others I did not recognize. A very nice version of the song ...



Of course, those who follow this blog will remember that I attended the Rita MacNeil and Men of the Deeps Christmas Concert at the NAC on 12 December. And I recorded more than a dozen songs. Here is their version of We Rise Again ...

Trees of Crystal

I wish it were possible to really capture how the trees look when they hold on to the ice that formed onto them during the ice storm a few days ago. I try and I try ... I process hard, I process soft ... it never quite comes out ... maybe one day.

Meanwhile, my latest efforts. Shot on the way home from meeting a friend to give her some prints of her daughter.

On the way down Greenback road, which cuts through the green belt that separates my small suburb from Ottawa proper, I noticed a lone tree glistening in the middle of a snow covered field. I drove a moment and then made a U-turn and another to park at the side of the road. After dialing down the window, I captured these images ...

I like this shot processed for some glow ... looks like it is caught in some blowing snow ...


Another rendering of the tree with only the foreground fence in focus. It speaks a bit to our society that our farmer's fields must be protected by barbed wire ...


As I was driving through the outer parts of my neighbourhood, I noticed a house with several bushes in a nice rising and receding arrangement. I tried to capture it with the lens set to blur the background and then try to hold the background ... unfortunately, either satisfies me much, as the scene was far prettier than this. Perhaps I need to shoot more wide images from better vantage points .... ya think?



And then I turned my attention to a tree across the street that was really glistening in the sunlight. The sun was, in fact, almost directly behind it. Again, I tried to capture this glass-like look ... the crystalline entity from Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to mind ...


Here are my attempts ...


Again with the beautiful layers that don't quite show up ...


I will continue to experiment ... maybe one day I will nail the right combination of exposure and proecessing ...

A Walk in the Monaghan Forest

Not too far from my house is a farm called the Little Animal Farm. This is a small animal farm and petting zoo with play areas for kids, all within the context of a working farm. Hay Rides are offered in summer and fall, and you go out through the corn fields. I really rather nice.

And across the street is yet one more set of walking trails in the Monaghan Forest. These trails are generally kept open in winter, at least until the snow makes the parking lot impassable for four wheel drive automobiles such as my CR-V.

I popped in there today because the sun was peeking out, so I rushed over with my D700 to see if I could capture the sun glinting through the ice that lined the branches. It was reall fun walking through there and hearing the ice falling in showers as a piece or two would break away and then cause a cascade as other branches were struck and gave up their clothing ...

This sound was a constant background and made the time I was there quite musical.

On the way there, I noticed how nice the layers looked today as the sun lit everything and the branches were still holding more ice in certain areas. I stopped for a moment to capture a few images and this one almost captures the look ...


When I got there, I immediately realized that the brain fart of the day was to be my leaving the macro lens at home. Duh. So I made do with close shots using the 70-300VR at 300mm. Not bad, since the long focal length throws the background nicely out of focus.


I am forever trying to capture the way the trails look when covered in a blanket of snow. I just can;t quite seem to nail it, but here are a few more attempts.



One thing I enjoy is trying to capture a single small point of interest and a pattern in the background that holds your interest for a few seconds ... like this, only better :-)


Off and on, I will see a branch that is isolated and covere din ice ... also trying to replicate some great shots I've seen in the past. But those tend to be with macro lenses, really close. This is the best I can do with this lens.


It should be obvious by now that I like the forest as backdrop, out of focus, for branches when I can get that shot. This is also similar to the branches shot in Morrisburg where I used the shoreline as backdrop.


And another ...


Another shot at a single point of interest ...


And those who read my post on my walk on the Beaver Trail last week will remember my fondness for the contrast between wood and snow ... the classic snow covered stump image.



And finally, the sun peeks through with some authority. For a few minutes, anyway ...


Here's a shot I am fairly pleased with ... the ice looks pretty real here ...


And another opportunity arose to shoot a stump. I crouched a bit here in order to compose with the two stumps in the background. Looks like this area got cleared out a bit.


And what's this? The evidence that some dog owners take the view that the whole world is a toilet. It takes just one rotten apple ... (read: lazy jerk that needs a beating with a stick.)


I switched to the 85mm f/1.8 portrait lens for another attempt ...


And the forest as background again ...


And a shot of what I think are thistles, although a bit different looking from the species that inhabits my yard :-)


This lens has a nice smooth background, but the short focal length means that the background remains fairly busy.

The sun was really spotty and I got tired of waiting ... since I had things to do, I cut this walk short at this point.

Just to make a point, the sun out in all its glory for five minutes as I got out of the car at home. But then is started snowing ...

A Christmas with Good Friends

This is my first Christmas alone in 27 years .... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Just kidding. About the crying anyway ....

The boys were scheduled to go to their Aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner (I ordered a pizza and got the last delivery :-) and to their mother's house for Christmas Day dinner. I was contemplating a movie and popcorn ... not being one to go to a bar and get hammered.

But then my good friends Sue and Don invited me to their house in the town of Morrisburg for Christmas dinner and I was so pleased to accept. I arrived a bit late as I had slept through my alarm. Sue's mother was already there and Sue was cooking up a storm. A wonderful British meal of Yorkshire pudding, roast beef, roasted potatoes, yams, turnips and carrots, and Christmas Pudding. Awesome ...

While all that was happening, Don offered me a taste of the new Chocolate Egg Nog ... I had seen it in stores but thought it a bit of a gimmick. Well. was I ever wrong :-) ... the 'Nog became my new friend with the addition of some smooth Lamb's dark rum ... wow.

Don gave me a tour of the house, which they have renovated themselves over the last 8 years or so ... a lovely job. I was pretty impressed ... it gives me hope for mine to look good again one day.

After a while, we sat down for dinner and it was all superb. We topped that later on with the Christmas pudding, a dark and rich fruit cake smothered in a really nice custard that Don made while we chatted. Before it was served, Don poured Brandy on the pudding and lit it up ... very cool.

It was, of course, really delicious. A great Christmas meal on a blustery day.

After chatting for a while, we went outside for a walk. And I took my D700 with me. The 70-300VR remained mounted from the day before and that was fine with me. The weather was enough to sap your energy a bit, but I had cleverly wore my new super ninja long johns and they did the trick.

We walked the block or so to the St. Lawrence river and started moving west, with the strong east wind at our backs. It had cut through us pretty going to the river, and it was nice to have it behind us for a while. As we approached the docks, I shot through a nice looking tree to get a sense of the shore line ...


The camera remained set for minimum shutter of 1/500s from the day befor ein the woods, so the ISO on this grey day ended up being 2200 already. Wow. And that's with the lens wide open. The docks are next to a pavilion that is heavily used during summer. No one in there today :-)


I notice that the shore line has this tiny version of crashing waves that roll in from the strong winds every 10 or 20 seconds. This looks cool, although it is tiny compared to anything on the ocean ...


The docks are pretty large ... and as you step out onto the pier, you see three benches facing west ... not doubt a fabulous spot to sit and watch sunsets.


And looking from this very spot to the end of the left-hand dock, you can see that I processed it a bit brighter with some foggy glow ... it just seemed too depressing otherwise ...


These benches carry plaques in memorium ... a tribute to the caring nature of the town's inhabitants. They are apparently quite history conscience ...

I then pointed the lens at Don as he and Sue were chatting away further out on the dock.


He and Sue were laughing over something and I caught a nice candid of her as well.


I asked if they would like a Christmas day portrait and while they were getting set up on a bench, I snapped an image of the snow blowing off the end of the dock. Hard to see, but it is there ...


And then I shot some portraits of them together. The best image by far (most natural chemistry) was the first.


They look great together, don't they?

We walked back to the house, fighting the wind all the way, and settled down for some Christmas Cake. Sue and her mother made this and it is one serious cake. Wow. The icing is half an inch thick in two layers ... I always forget the outside layer's name, but the inner layer is marzipan.



To shoot the cake, I had put the Tamron 28-75 on the camera and shot at f/2.8 ... this allowed some nice shutter speeds at 6400 ISO ... not super fast, but fast enough to hand hold without stabilization ...

While eating the cake, we had a fun visit from a friend of theirs, Lena. She popped in and brought a nice CD of her daughter singing and exchanged a few fun stories before she had to leave. The three of us sat around for a while longer, and I took some images of two of their cats. Freya is a black long-haired cat who is simply beautiful to look at. This image is shot at 6400 ISO, as the lighting in the house is rather subdued and comfortable.


I did a second version of that image because I noticed that I left the shadows unrealistically light, which allows too much noise to peek through ...


Ting is a New York cat that is playful and yet will grab you and claw you at random if you put hands on the wrong place. I stroked Ting's head and back a couple of times, and she definitely feinted at me :-)



My final image of the evening was one of Sue playing with Freya. I went black and white because it allowed me to open the tones more easily ...


And then it was time to leave ... a lovely day in the company of friends.

A Walk in the Woods with the D700

Christmas Eve was the last day of sunshine that we would have for a week, so I thought it might be nice to take a walk on the Beaver Trail at the Stony Swamp area. This is a short loop, perhaps 1km ... maybe a bit more, with stops at a beaver pond and the swamp itself.

I like to go there most winters to shoot the Chickadees, as they are very tame and can be shot really close. The only issue with this little trip was that I went a little late in the day and the light fell more quickly than I expected. I was looking to test my D700 and having the light fall, I certainly got an eyeful of noise from ISO rising quickly to ridiculous levels. I shot only the 70-300VR, a wonderful consumer grade lens that is also very slow at 300mm ... f/5.6.

On the way from the car to the bird sanctuary building, where sick birds are healed and nursed back to health, I encountered some seeds on the ground with several birds flitting back and forth from the bushes on the trail. It's ok to feed the birds here, as there are containers along the trail for them anyway, so they already have a dependence on man.


The light is very soft here, and yet still strong at this time, so I got this shot at ISO 360, which provides me with outstanding detail, helped somewhat by my stopping down to f/9.

Although I had the lens stopped down quite a bit, I was still able to get nice images with trees in the foreground isolated. A small sapling at center-rght in this case.


In many cases, I have chosen to process black and white because the colors in the forest shadows did nothing for me. Kind of a sickly brown ... plus I managed to overexpose the direct sun a bit more than I wanted to ... not as well handled this time as the sunlight in the last round of ZS3 versus F70EXR tests.


I do love to see leaves hanging and try to get a nice sharp image of them with the background quite blurred ... this particular image does that quite nicely.

As I walked along, I stopped at another pile of seeds and of course there were more birds around. I caught this little fellow sitting there for about 5 seconds :-)


Since we're now in the words, ISO has gone from 360 for that first Chickadee to 3600 here in the deep woods! What a difference. Still a decent image, but at this point I'm going to have some reduced dynamic range.

The next bird was caught at take off and I quite like this pose. This was shot at 1/500s, as they all were ... it surprises my how fast these fellas really move.


As I walked along, I noticed that the sun had come out from behind misty clouds and was putting on a bit of a show, very low in the sky.


In that image, you can see the sun dancing along the snow ... and you can see the trail markers that show the direction to walk plus the seal of the National Capital Commission, the big land owner in the city for these public parks and trails.

I'm a bit of a sucker for piles of fresh snow and the contours you can capture if you get the exposure just right ... around stumps you can see some nice images.



And through trees ...


And as I passed the sanctuary building, I came to the tall stump at which I photographed that cute little squirrel a few weeks ago during round 2 of the ZS3 versus F70EXR tests. The baby squirrel was there, but he was skittish and retreated to his favorite tree the instant I came into view.

He moved up to about 15 feet, so I shot upwards with the lens at 300mm and then again at 200mm. I wanted to see if there was any significant difference in sharpness, and while there might have been some difference in micro-contrast, it was not enough to make up for the magnification difference.



I continued towards the pond and stopped to admire a long leaf on the path. It looked pretty nice ...


Shortly thereafter I came to a spot where a lone sapling stood at the side of the trail. The lighting was nice so I shot that too ...


I shot straight down the trail from here and ended up going black and white again because the sun and colors just didn't do it for me.


As I approached the pond, I spotted a cute little pine bough (maybe it was a baby tree) in the snow.


And right next to the junction to the boardwalk that overlooks the beaver pond is a stream and swamp area where bull rushes grow like weeds, which I suppose they are :-)


With the beaver pond on my left, I face the extension of the boardwalk that crosses the swampy area and connects to the Kingston Trail, which -- you guessed it -- goes all the way to Kingston, Ontario on Lake Erie.



Up on the platform over looking the pond, I see a lot of rushes on my left. Poking the lens through the fence, I am able to get down to their level and get this shot ... with rushes receding into the distance. I like the bokeh on this ...


Looking out onto the pond, you can see where the beaver lodge is .... right center. Most of it is under the ice of course.


You only see a bit of grass outlining it, so here is a closer look.


Along the near edge of the pond, quite a bit of grass has stayed upright despite its hibernation and the snows.


There are a few conifers around the platform, in fact the right side of the platform is all trees, with no view of the swamp in that direction.


There's more of that beautiful snow again ... I'm pretty addicted to trying to capture nice images of snow.

On the way out now to continue around the trail, I photograph the rushes on the north side of the trail.


The little stream that crosses under the board walk is frozen and covered with a dusting of snow. Looks kind of pretty ....


And then I turn left to continue around the trail ... moving north now. I come across a nice stand of logs that create a nice composition just as they are.


There are quite a few logs along the way that appear to be hollowed out ... by animals perhaps, insects or disease are other possibilities. I'm sure someone mor ein tune with nature would recognize the cause instantly ... but I don't.


I reach the main swamp viewing area a while later. In summer, this is a large shallow pond ... almost small lake sized. But only a foot or two deep. It grows a lot of bull rushes, which survive into winter, creating kind of a cool landscape.


As I approach the boardwalk to the main platform on the swamp, I note the prominence of Birch trees. I am presuming Birch because they look a little big to be Poplar. But I could be totally full of crap here :-)


A fallen tree gives me the chance to capture the snow yet again.


And from the raised platform on the swamp, I can get an image of only rushes going off into the distance.


That's ISO 5600 by the way ... it's getting pretty dark. Of course, at this point I am brain farting and have not dialed the aperture wide open ... I pay for that later on ...

Just after the swamp, I came across the telltale signs that some animal or other was brought along to walk in the woods. I don;t think they are allowed here, but apparently that did not spot someone ...


I again walk by a nice leaf hanging there screaming to be shot ...


And nearby there are some Chickadees doing their thing. One stops on a branch about 10 feet above my head ... this is too tempting to resist, so I get a nice shot of his underbelly. And he does not even make me pay by bombing me :-)


On this part of the trail, there are a lot of trees that have been felled, and not by beavers. This one was cut down it looks like this past summer ...


This one is more typical ... probably felled by weather ... maybe with a bit of help from the beavers, although I see no chew marks.


As I near the end of the trail, I come upon a feeder that is no doubt kept stocked through the winter for the Chickadees. They are so cute :-)


Now ... that Chickadee image was shot at the rather stunning ISO of 12,800! I shoot on auto ISO and I allow the camera to go that high right now because I am still in testing mode. The issue here, though was that I left the lens stopped down to f/9 ...

Had I dropped it to f5.6, that would be 1 and 1/3 stops, which would push the shutter speed from 1/320s to about 1/800s. But since I tell the cam that my minimum shutter speed is 1/500s with the long lens, it would have dropped ISO by about 2/3 stops to around ISO 8000. And I could have dropped the minimum shutter to 1/250s and got that to 6400 ISO ... as I said earlier, this is the price of a brain fart.

Still ... the image is not too bad. I did a bit of heroic processing with ACR and then Topaz Denoise 3 though ... and one thing to note is that this high ISO messes with dynamic range quite a bit so the whites on the face have lost some tonality.

The next image is one of my faves from this walk ... a Chickadee at the beginning of a takeoff ... so cool ...


Also 12,800 ISO ... but the blur comes from his fast movement ...

And then I was walking again ... 30 feet from the feeder, I turn a corner and there is the bird sanctuary.


As I walked out I stopped to capture an image of the icicles on the edge of the roof ... and I caught an image of two droplets that happened to fall in sync ... that has to have some pretty low odds.

So ... a lovely walk in the woods. Not much wildlife, but enough to have some fun. I need to either shoot on brighter days or get myself a fast long lens ... perhaps an 80-200 2.8 ...