Paula & Darryl Kennedy Photography

What a difference a year makes...

2010-02-07T08:16:00.001-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a house for the second time with almost a year in between. And can I just say, what a difference a year makes!!

The original photos were shot with a Canon Rebel Xsi and Sigma DG500 flash.

Current photos were shot with a Canon 7D and a Canon Speedlight 580 flash and the house has been staged!

Girl's bedroom before...

Same bedroom after...

Painting was an absolute must for this room, and you can see what a dramatic improvement it made.

Master bedroom before...

Master bedroom after...

The staging changes in the master bedroom are much more subtle than in the girls bedroom above, but I feel these photos really show the progress over the year in the actual quality of the photography.

Family room before...

Family room after...

Again another more drastic change here, but what a change! This house shows infinitely better this time around.

It's scheduled to hit the MLS market tomorrow, so we'll see what the response is to the great changes this house has undergone!

- Paula

Lions, Tigers & Bears...

2010-01-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well, tigers...certainly. Lions and bears - not so much.

Today seemed like a perfect day for a trip to the zoo. If you've never been to the zoo in the winter, you don't know what you're missing!

It's been a long time since I've seen my dear friend Jane, so I've been looking forward to this outing most of the week.

All week, the weather today was forecasted to be sunny, clear & above 0. When I left home this morning to pick up Jane, things looked promising. Although it was still quite chilly, the sky was clear & there was no breeze. It looked like a fantastic day to head to the zoo.

A half hour later, with Jane on board and mandatory Starbucks in hand, we were on our way to the zoo.

The parking lot was virtually deserted when we arrived a few minutes before the gates opened. We sipped our coffees and caught up on news and waited for 9:30. Other cars straggled in. More photographers got out... we are a die-hard bunch to be sure!

At 9:30, we headed in and planned our day. The best tips I can give for the zoo are, 1) arrive early and get in before the families and kids, 2) plan your circuit based on the feeding schedules for best chances to see the most activity and 3) if you're going in the winter, dress in layers - long underwear is a good thing!!

Our first stop was the polar bear exhibit, which had been under construction on our prior visit - but also, no bears...yet. So off we wandered to the Sumatran tigers where we met this lovely lady.

Feeding time for the tigers was some time away yet, so we spent some time in the indoor Australian exhibit while we waited and met a Kookaburra who liked his meals tenderized (he must have smacked this poor mouse on the branch a dozen times!).

Feeding time came for the tigers and we returned to watch as they enjoyed a snack of fresh beef ribs.

1:00 came and it was time for the polar bear feeding so back we went and were pleased to see three bears now out in the exhibit.

After the bears, we wandered the zoo for a couple of additional hours, taking random shots. It ended up being overcast and quite chilly so we stayed in the pavilions as much as possible, which unfortunately meant that our lenses fogged over every time were went inside, so much time was spent standing around waiting for the glass to clear.

Our final stop was the rhino building where mandarin ducks share the water with the rhino. the lighting in the building isn't the best, but I wanted to try to capture the stunning plumage of the ducks.

All in all, a very long, tiring day. No really spectacular shots, but the most important and pleasant part of the day was spending time and catching up with Jane.

- Paula

OMG I'm in LOVE!

2010-01-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

It's NEW.
It's BLACK.
It's FLASHY.
It was freakin' expensive...

You thought it was a car, didn't you?

Is it a computer? Nah uh...

What about the latest techy gadget? Sorry...

Is it shoes? Nope... but it needs one to work most of the time...

Give up?

It's a FLASH!

Yes, I never thought I'd get excited about such a thing either...but necessity forced me to upgrade my flash unit recently and I could KICK myself for not doing it sooner. My trusty Sigma 500DG flash has served me well for many, many years, but I was surprised to find that it didn't work (except in full manual mode and who has time for that??) on my new Canon 7D, so off to Henry's I went with my Christmas money in hand to *gulp* buy a Canon Speedlight.

Doesn't look like all that much, does it?

One of the things I'm (slowly, painfully) learning as I grow as a photographer is that the least important element in your gear seems to be the camera body itself. Upgrading bodies gets you more megapixels, sure, and more frames per second, and, in the case of the 7D, HDR video...but you really want some WOW shots? Get new glass. Lenses make ALL the difference, and now too it seems, so do flashes.

Wednesday, I shot my first house using the combination of the 7D and the new Speedlight but the old Sigma 10-20mm and I was SO impressed with the images. Now, I want to get the Canon wide angle...it's the only thing I'm lacking right now. I had my eye on one before Christmas, but couldn't bring myself to buy it at the time, so that will be my goal this year. When it came time to make a decision on what to get Boxing Day, it had to be the flash, since the Sigma flash didn't work with the 7D at all, but the Lens does for now, so that upgrade will have to wait for a while longer...

So here's one of the shots from Wednesday. There were so many great ones, it was hard to pick just one, but I like this room also. Nice, even light - no halo on the ceiling (I know this is a cathedral ceiling, but there was no halo even in the bedroom shots with normal ceilings!!), the shadows are soft when you can even see them at all. This was shot on a bright, sunny day, in a south-facing room in the winter. Anyone who shoots real estate photography knows that's a recipe for horrible photos with dark rooms and blown out windows, so I am extremely pleased with the results above.

- Paula

Olympic Torch Comes to Oshawa!

2009-12-17T15:19:00.001-08:00

Such excitement as the Olympic torch run passes through Oshawa on December 16th, 2009. Darryl and I braved the bone chilling cold and flurries to witness the historic event not once, but twice. We met 2 of the relay runners in North Oshawa and then watched the final runner, local TV & radio personality, Dan Carter, bring the flame to the outdoor celebration downtown 2 1/2 hours later.

Dispite the fact I had long since lost all feeling in my fingers and toes, I enjoyed watching the flame pass within a couple of feet of me and seeing the sheer joy in the eyes of the runners as they passed with torches held proudly aloft.

GO CANADA!!!

- Paula

2010 Calendars available!

2009-12-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

They're finally ready! Hot off the press! 2010 Photographic Calendars featuring the stunning images of Paula & Darryl Kennedy.

$1 from the sale of each calendar will be donated to the John Nelson Moosedog Rescue Fund (http://www.elkhoundrescue.org/).

Each 8 1/2" x 11" (closed dimensions) spiral bound calendar is $15.00 CDN + shipping.

Sample images below:

Miss January by Paula Kennedy

May Lightening Storm by Paula Kennedy

Bee on Cone Flower by Darryl Kennedy

Northern Cardinal by Darryl Kennedy

Limited quantity, order yours today!! Send an email to paula@remember-me.ca if you are interested in purchasing one, including your mailing address & we will respond with payment due including shipping & payment instructions.

- Paula

Clinic #1 - Oshawa Camera Club 2009/2010 Season - Brags!!

2009-10-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Clinic number one is done for the season and Darryl and I are off to an excellent start for the season with 3 honorable mentions each and one best in category for our division for me!

These are my images - Darryl will have to get off his behind and blog his own. :)

This image is an HDR of a sunset this past summer taken just north of Oshawa and was the best pictorial image in my division!!

Darryl and I are both getting acquainted with new cameras right now, so I have high hopes for our images this season!

- Paula

Second chances

2009-10-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

A few years ago while in Lindsay, I was fortunate enough to come across a red tail hawk hunting by the roadside and even more fortunate that I had my camera with me at the time. I got what I thought at the time were once in a lifetime (for me) shots of it hunting, catching and eating a vole no more than 15' from me.

Today was proof that lightening strikes the same place twice.

Although not in Lindsay this time, I stumbled across another hungry hunting red tail hawk along the side of the road and was lucky enough to have my camera with me again.

- Paula

Learning Curves

2009-09-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

Like the scariest of roller coasters, learning curves can be daunting... but the sense of accomplishment at the moment of enlightenment is not unlike the exhilaration upon conquering a terrifying roller coaster.

Today, I am at an SEO 1 day Bootcamp seminar. I've spent a great deal of time over the last year or so getting educated about websites and search engine optimization, but it continues to amaze me just how much there is to learn about this topic

Just when I think I'm at the crest of a hill on the learning curve, the track levels out and there's another impossibly high hill ahead...

To check out some of the sites I maintain, in addition to this photography website, please visit:

http://www.cornerstonedrafting.ca

and

http://www.dmandzuk.ca/

All three are very much works in progress and I'm always looking for ideas, suggestions and feedback from viewers on any of the sites. Something you'd like to see? Broken link? Please let me know - feedback is always appreciated!

- Paula

Adventures in Time Travel

2009-09-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Ask any of my friends or family what my hobby is and you'll get some puzzled looks and varied responses...I'm not one to stick with something for long, but when I get something in my head, I dive into it with both feet and a hearty "Hell yes!"

I've long claimed to have the attention span of a gnat so it's no wonder I've enjoyed many hobbies over the years, some I still occasionally dabble in...from collecting various items (the most extensive and expensive of which was a 2+ yr craze with beanie babies), clay sculpture, soft sculpture, painting, car enthusiast, and now, photography.

To be fair, photography has been part of my job now for nearly 10 years and a growing passion for much of that, which is really quite amazing - considering photography was the single component of my graphic design eduction in college that I abhorred most...could be because as a broke college student, some weeks the choice was gas to commute to school or pay to get photos printed for an assignment. More often than not, I was present in class, but had no photos to submit for an assignment. It was natural that I would grow to resent that.

Fast forward 15 years later and with the widespread availability of relatively inexpensive digital media, I can click the shutter to my hearts content at a negligible cost. Of course there's a cost, but I won't go into that now - that's not where I'm heading with this posted.

Photography and time travel - whatever could I mean?

Well, time lapse photography, which I am on the edge of diving into with both feet, having dipped my big toe in by doing my first 3 time lapse movies this weekend. They are clumsy efforts, at best, with much room for improvement...which will come with practice, research and the addition of a few additional bits and pieces of equipment.

The biggest negative, I guess, about time lapse photography, is the gross amount of time it takes to create anything of any substantial length. At 20 frames per second (fps), which is actually on the slow side, if you can believe it, this 45 second video took 1.5 hrs to shoot. And I don't have a cable release, a timer or shoot tethered to a laptop...approximately 1500 images...all created by me pushing the shutter release every 3 seconds. Is it any small wonder my index finger is a little tender today? This video is one of three shot yesterday - there was a sunrise, one of afternoon clouds and this sunset. Over 4000 images yesterday alone. My 9 month old Canon 50D rolled over 10,000 shots and climbing yesterday. Whew!

Not sure how long this fascination will last. Given my history, it will be brief, so enjoy while it while you can!

- Paula

2009/2010 Camera Club Season is Here!

2009-09-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome September and the beginning of the 2009/2010 Camera Club Season is upon us.

Next week, I have 2 club meetings, our Port Perry club has it's September meeting Tuesday and our first Oshawa club meeting of the season is Wednesday night.

Tuesday, we are having a workshop on composition, which is really the one and only thing I retained from photography in college - most likely because I also paint and composition is as important in one as it is in the other so I've continued to use it through the years. If there's one thing I struggle with in composition, it's creatively breaking the rules...

I'm excited about the Oshawa club this year. I'm a Team leader for one of the six groups for photo essays this season. We have the opportunity to complete five photo essays over the course of the season and have 2 well under way. We have a meeting coming up on the 13th to review where we are at on our assignments.

Our topics this year are street photography, architecture, Windreach Farm, weather & portraiture and this is in addition to our four clinics this season which are close encounters, weather, panoramas & crazy captions.

I'm looking forward to a very productive & informative season!!

- Paula

“Mom, that was the best day EVER!”

2009-08-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

- Little boy to his mom about 10pm tonight at Lakeview Park, Oshawa

Wow – he wasn’t kidding! I don’t know about ALL day, but the last few hours were pretty darn impressive.

At about 8pm, we were just finishing dinner and we were seeing flashes of lightening outside, but it wasn’t raining and there was no thunder…which we thought was quite odd, but we weren’t one to pass up such an incredible photographic opportunity, so, without sparing a moment to digest dinner, we dashed downstairs, literally threw our dishes in the sink, grabbed our camera gear and were on the road in a flash (pardon the pun).

Based on the black, BLACK clouds to the north, we thought our best bet for shots would be to get up on a hill where we had a north west view so off we went to Harmony Road just north of Taunton. On the way there, the rain finally started. Just a few fat drops splatting on the windshield at first, then, only moments later, coming in literal sheets – the windshield wipers on their fastest setting had no effect on the sheer volume of water hitting the glass. It was like trying to drive underwater.

For about five blocks, the rain fell like that – until we got out of the city and away from the light pollution when it finally let up and we were able to find a spot to pull off the road and get the cameras out.

After 10 minutes or so, the storm had moved well away from where we were, but there still seemed to be a lot of lightening activity to the south of us, so we had the brilliant idea to go to the beach!

Where else should a person be during an electrical storm than on a beach? A large, long, flat beach?? Sounded like a great idea to me!

Darryl continued to monitor the progress of the storm while I navigated the wet roads and downed tree branches to get to the lake shore.

I expected to see maybe another die-hard photographer there – perhaps two… but the parking lot was FULL with a line up to get in out onto the road. It appears that watching mother nature put on a light show over the lake draws quite a crowd and it didn’t take us long to see why.

Each time sheet lightening snaked across the sky overhead, you heard “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”, and “Ahhhhhh!” from the appreciative crowd gathered. After a particularly impressive flash, I heard a small voice from behind me excitedly exclaim “Mom, that was the best day EVER!”

It was an amazing and humbling experience and, incredibly, it lasted well over 2 hours. In fact, we could have stayed longer, but the show was moving on to the south side of the lake and it was getting very late for a Sunday night, so around 11:30pm we finally headed home.

The first thing I did when I got home? No, it wasn’t look at my pictures, that was a very close second. I checked the hourly forecast on the Weather Network to see when the next thunderstorm is due to blow through...

- Paula

p.s. next storm due tonight 11pm!

Do You To Suffer From "Cognitive Itch"?

2009-07-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

For much of the trip, I have been suffering from various earworms. Well, perhaps "suffer" isn't the right term...Subjected to? Cognisant of? That's perhaps closer.

No, it's nothing I need to see a Doctor about...nothing that I was infected with on vacation.

An earworm is not to be confused with an earwig, neither of which actually ever go in your ear.

An earworm is a song, or a snippet of a song or music, that gets stuck in your head that you "hear" over and over ad naseum.

We did not have the car radio on at all the entire trip. Literally never touched the power button. It was not typical for us. Both Darryl and I enjoy all kinds of music and usually have something on in the car when we're driving, but we spent most of the trip talking, which was very, very nice. In between conversation though, in the silence while we soaked in the atmosphere of the west, I found myself with the most unusual songs playing in my mind.

Obviously, the sights and sounds of the area were inspiring my mental juke box. The selections included old favourites like "Home on the Range", "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" to the downright silly "Name Game Song" - and yes, it was the verse using "Chuck". Google it, it's a hoot. That one was on Sunday which was a slow day with not much happening and a lot of driving...

Yeehaw!

2009-07-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

Final day...wow - it's been a truly amazing trip and we're sad to know that this morning is our last morning here. We fly out just after midnight tonight.

Corinne and Dalyce arrived last night around 10 and we stayed up to chat for a bit before turning in for the night. We were the lucky recipients of the bed for the night while Ellen, Corinne and Dalyce made do with a pull out couch and an air mattress. It was a snug fit with 5 bodies in a 1 bedroom apartment, but we all managed just fine!

By the time Darryl and I got up this morning, Corinne and Dalyce were gone to Dalyce's volleyball camp and Ellen was gone to work. We got dressed and got our camera gear in order and headed out in search of a Starbucks to get the day off to a good start.

Things weren't really getting under way at the Stampede until 11am, so our plan was originally to go to the zoo for the morning and then to the Stampede, but the weather really wasn't co-operating and the prospect of walking around the zoo in a downpour didn't sound that appealing, so we decided instead to head to the Stampede and check it out early.

A cloudy welcome to Calgary Stampede Park.

Planning our day...

With a lack of people at the early hour, I was able to take the multiple exposures

needed to make this HDR photo of the Cotton Candy vendor.

We arrived at Stampede park around 9am, got an excellent parking spot and with our pre-purchased tickets, breezed right into the park - the deserted park. There were hardly any people there, but that was fine, it gave us a chance to check out the venues. We watched the junior showmanship competition for a while, then the stock dog competition in the Saddledome. We had hoped to see the miniature horse show, but missed it. We still had a little time to kill before the rodeo started so we went through the marketplace where there were some interesting vendors of various western - and not so western - wares...cowboy boots, shamWOW's, cowboy hats, massage chairs, belt buckles the size of dinner plates, air brush nail art...it was an eclectic blend of traditional and "As Seen on TV" wares. We did finally buy some souvenirs - we each bought a rain poncho, a t-shirt and a pin.

Around 1, we headed to the grandstand to find our seats for the rodeo. We'd no sooner found our seats, which were thankfully somewhat sheltered by the upper level of seats, then the Heavens opened up and the rain came pouring down...and the show went on! The rodeo ring quickly turned into a soupy, muddy mess and save for a couple of minor slips, there were no mishaps.

We had come prepared for any weather and had rain sleeves for the cameras so we were able to shoot away in spite of the rain although our photos leave a lot to be desired because we were quite far away and it was so dark with the rain.

This was the view from our grandstand seats of the rodeo ring - it's a testament to the photos
below that were shot with our 500mm lenses.

The rodeo overall was excellent. There were a few times that I was bothered by what I was watching. The calf roping was difficult to watch at times - watching the calves being yanked off their feet - violently in most cases. I'm not sure it's something I would go see again, but I'm glad that I finally went. After being out there so many times and never being there in the summer and having the opportunity to go.

These aren't the best photos, but I just wanted to show how wet it was - the rain teemed down
for almost an hour. The rodeo ring was reduced to soup very quickly.

Uh oh...

Above, the barrel racers still burned up the course - even they were covered in mud by the time they were done.

This was a cute event - wild pony races. The teams were teams were groups
of kids, I think no older than 12. Each had the lead of a wild pony that was
released from a chute. The object was for one of the kids to get on the pony and ride it.
The one able to stay on the pony the longest was the winner. In the last photo,
you see how most of the teams ended up...dragged through the mud!

At 5, we bid the Stampede, and the rain, farewell and, after a minor inconvenient delay in downtown Calgary rush hour traffic, headed back to Ellen's apartment to pick up our luggage and say our goodbye's there.

It was Corinne's birthday also Monday and she, Dalyce and Ellen were heading out for dinner, so we were fortunate to catch them all at the apartment before they went out. We thanked everyone for their hospitality and wished Corinne a happy birthday and left to go meet Lynda Sweet for dinner at the "Reef and Beef" restaurant. I met Lynda online through my elkhound email group (moosedog) and she invited us to go out for dinner when we came west.

We had no trouble finding her when we arrived at the restaurant as she brought Bear with her. It's not hard to spot an elkhound - they stand out anywhere!

We had an excellent meal and really enjoyed meeting Lynda. Actually, I think it was the first time the whole trip we ate beef...prime rib...and it was excellent. After dinner, Lynda invited us back to her house, so we took her up on the offer and spent an hour there before it was finally time to make our way to the airport.

Security was a breeze this time as we now knew what they expected for liquids in carry-on, so we were passed right through - no "random" searches this time, either, thank goodness!

The lounge was comfortable and the wait not too long. We had booked the exit row so were able to board the plane first...only to discover that the exit row seats don't recline. Poor Darryl - he had a broken seat that wouldn't recline on the flight out and now we were on a red-eye flight intending to sleep at the way home and it was about as uncomfortable as it could possibly be. We both tried to sleep but it was only little bits at a time here and there before we got too uncomfortable and had to shift around. By the time we landed at Toronto at 6am local time, we were both all cramped up and very tired, but glad to be home. Our luggage came off the plane quickly and after a short wait for the Park N' Fly bus, we were at the truck and headed home around 7am.

We pulled into the driveway at home just before 8m and my mom was no only already up, but had her car packed ready to go home! The house was still standing, the cats looked unfrazzled and the dogs were overjoyed to see us. We couldn't have done this trip without my mom staying out our house the whole time we were gone to look after the animals and house, so a HUGE thanks goes out to her!!!

I'll add more photos as I have time to process them, I don't know how many I shot yet, but I'm guessing 8000...but for now it's time to have a Simon snuggle and a snooze...

Sunday - Canmore to Calgary

2009-07-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

Calgary bound at 10am this morning after a short tour through the village of Canmore. When we arrived here late last night, it was dark so we were unable to see much of the town. Lots of cute, chalet style hotels along the Bow River Parkway which is the main street through the downtown.
Despite the rains last night, this morning looked promising with only a few clouds and some blue sky. Darryl was anxious to get on the road while the weather was good as the forecast is still calling for storms this afternoon.

Darryl took photos of the low clouds hanging around the crowns of the mountains on either side of Canmore.

Photos for me are sparse today as I'm getting a bit photo'd out. Yes, it's true!! I'm storing up energy for the Stampede tomorrow!

At 10:45 am, we ran into a sunshower as we were leaving Canmore, but no rainbow this time. We are heading back into Banff National Park today and also to Johnstone Canyon.

At 11:30am, we stopped at a bridge near Castle mountain where a pair of Osprey are nesting on the bridge trusses. We got photos of them on the nest, in nearby trees and also in the air (Darryl did with his camera, I was shooting with the powershot so I have video of them, but no photos).

Hopefully, Darryl will also post photos from today as he took many more than I did and should have gotten some really good ones of the osprey.

At 11:45am, we came to “Moose Meadows” – surely there would be the elusive moose here? Ah, not so – according to the signs posted at the scenic overlook, it is rare to see moose even there – you are far more likely to see elk or deer, but rarely moose.

From 12:00 to 1:30pm, we were at Johnstone Canyon – which was obviously the place to be! The parking lot was full, two lots, actually, and there were cars lining both sides of the road for a kilometre in either direction. Busy, busy spot!

The trails there were not that clearly marked and Darryl and I took a wrong turn and although we were following a trail, it wasn’t the one that lead to the waterfall. After about a kilometre, we came to a rock cliff and we could go no further. We did take a lot of photos of the stream and of each other climbing through and over rocks and branches, but we could not get to the falls. So, back we went to locate the proper trail, which we did. Darryl took the walk up the trail to the falls while I checked out the gift shop in hopes of finding a book I had been looking for since Radium…no luck.
I sat outside in the sun and watched a woman with a beautiful border collie while each had their own ice cream cone.
Darryl came back and said the trip was really worth it and he wished he had more time to go further. There are several falls in succession leading to a spot called “paint pots”. It was a 3 hour hike in to the paint pots, so we’ll have to do that on another trip.

At 2pm, we came into the town of Banff, and again, as we had at the last half dozen information centres, I went in in hopes of finding the book I’ve been looking for since Radium – and I found it!

In case I haven’t already explained in a previous post (I can’t remember and I don’t want to get online right now to check) – when we stopped in Radium earlier this week, I bought a book called “Wildlife Watching” by Michael Kerr which has become our bible the past week as we travel through the various parks. The book is interspersed with Kerr’s unique brand of woodsy humour and I noted at the back that he has authored another book called “When Do You Let The Animals

Out? A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Humour”. When I bought the first book in Radium, I know I saw this book there as well, but at the time had no interest in it, now, however, I’m kicking myself six ways to Sunday for not buying it on spec. I have gone into every Information and Visitors Centre in every town, village and park we’ve been in since looking for it to no avail until I finally scored a copy in Banff. The staff in the visitors centre were giving me odd looks when I walked in and spotted it across the width of the entire building and dodged and weaved my way through the other tourists and displays to snatch up the copy off the gift store shelf!

At 2:30, we took a short detour outside of Banff to the Vermillion Lakes, where Darryl spotted a bald eagle in a distant tree but otherwise, there wasn’t much to see. After which we detoured through Banff Springs Golf Club where occasionally elk are seen but again we came up empty handed, and so we left the beauty of Banff and the mountains behind and headed for our final stop of our vacation, Calgary.

Along the way, we drove through a horrendous downpour and thought perhaps we might even see a funnel cloud – the clouds on our left were black and very ominous looking with occasional flashes of lightening, while on our right, they were white and fluffy with lots of blue poking through.

At 5pm we arrived at my cousin Ellen’s apartment where we will spend our last night here. She informed us that my cousin Corinne and her daughter Dalyce are on their way here from Hays to spend the night as well as Daylce has a volleyball tournament in Calgary tomorrow – that means there will be 5 people in a 1 bedroom apartment for the night – should be cozy!

Ellen made a delicious stir-fry with rice for us for supper which we enjoyed with a glass of white wine made by my cousin Joy and her husband, Randy. We’re just sitting here now having tea and waiting for Corinne and Dalyce to arrive although I’m not sure I will last much longer and might soon be heading off to bed for the night.

Tomorrow will be a very full day as we are planning to spend the morning at the Calgary Zoo and then have tickets for the Calgary Stampede tomorrow and then are meeting a fellow moosedogger, Lynda, for dinner tomorrow night before we have to go to the airport at 10pm to catch our flight back home.

- Paula

A Howlin' Good Time in Golden & Today we have WEATHER!

2009-07-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday July 4, 2009

Yet another somewhat late start to the day. We got up at 7am local time, of course, we were still up at midnight the night before watching some coverage of Day 1 of the Calgary Stampede until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer.

We had a light breakfast of cereal, toast, fruit, coffee, juice and milk. Aunt Helen is lactose intolerant and had bought milk for us to have so we each had a glass to finish up what was there so it didn’t go to waste.

At 9am we left to go to the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre just outside of Golden heading towards Revelstoke.

The Centre has 4 resident wolves in a 2 acre enclosure, but the wolves are taken out daily to run in a large field 10 km away from the centre. This is where they allow photographers to walk with the wolves without fences (for a price, of course!). We debated doing that, but time, and funds, did not allow us to. We listened to the educational talks about both the wolves and bear conservation and relocation with the use of Karilean Bear Dogs – the centre has several of those as well. I believe that their dogs come from Dawne Deeley, who is a breeder in BC of Karilans.

While we were there, the wolves got into howling for a few minutes which was pretty cool to see and hear as I’ve never seen or heard that in person before.

We’re driving through Kicking Horse Canyon as I type this and looking at the sheer cliffs all around us with rock fall nets, stone parging and anchor ties in the rock – all an effort to hold back the rock from careening down on to the cars passing through here.

We left the wolf centre and had some time before we were due back at Aunt Helen’s for lunch, so we headed back towards Invermere to Parson through the stretch where we had previously seen so many osprey in our prior trip through on the 1st. There were plenty again today, but when they are up on the platforms in the nests, it is difficult to see much more than the bird’s head as is scolds you from above for being too close.

One of the nests had at least two fairly large chicks in it that were being fed by one of the parents, but once we stopped and got out of the car, the adult bird’s warnings to us were enough to get the chicks hunkered down in the next out of sight.

We also stopped near a roadside marsh where I spotted an old, and hopefully long abandoned, small house slowly sinking into the marsh so I could take a couple of photos of it.

At 12:30pm, we made our way back to Aunt Helen’s and actually ended up following her through town for a bit – she had gone out to pick up cold meats and buns for lunch. Lunch was out on her back deck in the sun listening to nature around us and more pleasant chatter – Aunt Helen tells some really great stories and knows a lot about the area and the people in and around Golden.

After lunch, we took a quick trip over to the Golden Museum, which was actually closed for renovations, but it just so happened that Aunt Helen is on the historical society and was able to get us in. Even though many of the exhibits were put away to protect them during the construction of a new ceiling and painting in the main building, there were still many interesting things to see. Many of the larger farm implements had been donated to the museum by my Aunt and Uncle from their farm in Spillimacheen. She also said there were a few things, like a thrashing machine, that had to be left behind when they moved from the farm. It needed tires and Uncle Vern had passed away and Aunt Helen couldn’t get the help she needed to get it ready to move before she needed to move off the farm herself, so it got left behind and is still there. Hopefully, someone somewhere down the road is able to donate it somewhere where it will be appreciated and visited as a piece of local history.

The museum is also now home to a recently reconstructed one room school house originally from Briscoe and the local original train station, which although currently in a state of great disrepair, they are hoping to restore to it’s former glory and house more museum displays.

After the museum, we took Aunt Helen back to her house and reluctantly said our goodbyes.

We are currently on our way to Kootenay National Park right now to see the half of the park that we weren’t able to see on the 1st, after which we will head for Canmore for the night. Our trip is winding down – we are scheduled to fly out in two days and head back to life and reality.

At 4pm, we stopped in Field in Kootenay National Park to get another Park Pass for today and tomorrow and we were on our way into Banff National Park, which we entered shortly after crossing into Alberta around 4:30pm. At 4:45 we stopped at Corbett Creek for a quick photo opportunity.

We are taking the Bow Valley Parkway on this trip, which is a less heavily travelled route by cars, but with more potential for wildlife sightings. The speed limit here is only 60km/hr, whereas on the Trans Canada highway, the speed limit is 110 km/hr, so the going is slower, but we aren’t in a hurry today, as long as we get to Canmore by 7pm or so we’re happy and we’re just going to settle in for the night once we do get there, so taking the “scenic route” this afternoon is perfect and will take us by all of the same stops we wanted to make today just as well as the Trans Canada would have.

There are train tracks everywhere here – even places where you would think it would be impossible to lay track, but I guess, where there’s a will, there’s a way and a hundred some years ago when a way through the rockies was needed, people found a way – whether it was by blasting or building – we have seen some amazing tunnels and astonishing bridges in our travels here in the last week or so.

Aunt Helen was saying earlier today that she heard there is a forest fire on the BC coast today and it seems that some of the smoke from that is coming into Alberta as the air is very hazy here today. We have been incredibly fortunate on our trip thus far having nothing but sunny blue skies and comfortable temperatures the whole trip. My mom, on the other hand, who is house/dog/cat sitting for us back home, is waterlogged at best as it’s been raining steady there since we left with some pretty scary storms, I hear. I have been getting daily emails from her with reports on how things are going at home, up until yesterday when there was no email. A little concerned, I sent her an email asking if everything was all right or if perhaps she’d built and ark and sailed off with the animals in search of higher ground?!

I believe she has been totally smitten by our recently adopted foster failure, Toby, and really, I can’t say I’m surprised. Anyone who spends any length of time with him falls head over heels in love with him.

I’m anxious to get home, not for home itself, but to see my parents and the animals. I miss my Simon snuggles before bed every night and the dogs being happy we’re home – whether we’ve been gone for 2 weeks or 2 minutes – they are still equally overjoyed to see us come back through the door! Ah, it’s so nice to be missed!

Still on the road in Kootenay National Park, it`s now about 7pm and we`ve just left Numa Falls.

So far on our drives through the various parks, we`ve only seen one dead animal – a deer – on the side of the road, but we have certainly seen signs of lots of animal/vehicle collisions which by then are just large red stains on the highway… L I understand that they are very quick to remove road kill to prevent further collisions between vehicles and any scavenging animals that may come to feed on the carcass.

Back around 4:30, we were on the boundary of Alberta and B.C., which is also the boundary between Banff and Kootenay Parks AND the continental divide – where water on one side flows to the Pacific and water from the other side flows to the Atlantic. We took photos of each of us standing half in one province and half in the other. J We were also at that time in the vicinity of Storm Mountain – aptly named I might add, as we were experiencing our first real rain of the whole trip. By the time we stopped at our next destination, Marble Canyon, it was really raining and thundering. Darryl donned whatever gear he had to protect himself and the camera from the rain and trekked into Marble Canyon and once again it seems to have been worth the trouble as he got some great photos.

A little more about Storm Mountain – according to the sign at the viewing platform at it`s base, Storm Mountain is so large and so sheer in height, that it creates its own microclimate. Fog from the morning rises up the steep cliffs of the mountain with the heat of the day and forms denser and denser clouds at the summit which in turn creates rain storms late each DAY, regardless of the surrounding weather in the area. While we were there, there was blue sky and white fluffy clouds all around, but above Storm Mountain, there were dark grey circling clouds and heavy rains.

At 7pm we stopped at Numa Falls, which although small, was very impressive with large, smooth ``bowls`` carved out of the sides of the stone walls on either side of the river by the sheer power of the water over time.

At 7:30pm, we stopped at the Kootenay Park Lodge store, which was supposed to be open until 8, however, the proprietor walked up and locked the door in front of me just as I was about to step into the store. Now, in a time when businesses are hurting for paying customers, does that kind of behaviour make sense? I didn’t think so either, and I’m seriously considering contacting them about it when I get home. They closed half an hour earlier than their posted closing time when there were several customers in the parking lot. Darryl and I and another family in a van were making our way to the store when he locked the door and flipped the sign to closed. He was even nice enough to smile at me while he did it. Prick.

We’re nearly now to Kootenay Crossing where we will turn around and head for Canmore.

"Mobile blogging" :)

7:45pm Darryl wins the eagle eye spotting award for the day for spotting a small herd of elk laying off the side of the highway. We stopped and took several photos and were delighted when one of the elk got up and began grazing and walked in our direction. We took photos for about 15 minutes of the very co-operative elk, all were either female or it’s too early in the season for them to have antlers yet? While we were sitting there on the side of the road happily shooting away, a vole or perhaps a shrew ran across the road right beside Darryl.

Poltergeist elk! Actually had been resting for a long time so was just having a good stretch before getting up. This is the same elk moments later below.

At 8:12pm, we finally reached Kootenay Crossing which marked the point where we had come to from the other direction and tuned around the last time we were at the park, so we turned around and are now heading back to get on the main highway and get to Canmore. We are very behind schedule and I have a lot I want to accomplish tonite so I think sadly it will be yet another late night for me. Tomorrow should be an easy day as we make our way in to Calgary for our last night here.

"Weather" in Kootenay!

A rockey mountain rainbow on the way into Canmore.

An animal overpass - there are many over, and under, passes specifically for animals to cross the trans Canada highway safely.

8:20pm Darryl does it again spotting another elk grazing right along side the road (I was typing on the laptop, or I might have seen that one first!). This one was not at all concerned about the car and continued grazing as we inched up along side of it allowing me to get an excellent close up of its face when it stopped to look at us.

I would love to take a video in here of all the birds you hear whenever you stop and get out of the car – only problem is the traffic whizzing by every minute or so. I did make a sound memo about 30 seconds long of birds signing at one of the stops – I hope it works out and people are able to hear it. Will know more when I set up my equipment at the hotel later and download today’s photos.

If Darryl's forte today was elk spotting, mine was deer spotting. Here are a couple that we saw on the way out of the park in the late evening light.

We arrived at the hotel in Canmore around 9:30pm and it was quite dark already due to the storms coming in, so we weren't able to see much of the town, and besides, we were quite tired and glad to be in one place for the night. I got on the hotels wireless access and did some work for the office and posted a couple of over due blog posts before turning in at 2:30am! So much for going to bed early!

Our plans, as I've mentioned before, were to stay on our Ontario time schedules, which would have meant we would be up by 4 or 5am each morning and in bed by 8pm...sadly that has not been the case and we are finding that we are up all hours and sleeping in disgustingly late!!

- Paula

Anxious to see Lake Louise...

2009-07-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

July 3, 2009

We made a concerted effort to get up early this morning so we could be at Lake Louise before the throngs of tourists…

We were up (some of us under protest) at 6:30am, had bacon & eggs for breakfast and were on the road by 7:30am. Darryl drove all day today as I was very, VERY tired – not sure if it’s all the fresh mountain air or the fact that I’m only getting 5-6 hrs sleep each night or that I haven’t taken my thyroid medication in a week or perhaps a combination of all three?!

We arrived at Lake Louise around 8:30am and it was already PACKED with tourists. It is a stunning spot – there’s no arguing that. There were lots of critters – very friendly critters – around too. Darryl no sooner sat down on a bench overlooking the lake and had a chipmunk up on his backpack…which was still on his back!

Lots of Clarks Nutcrackers looking for handouts. Landing on car roofs as people parked and proclaiming loudly “FEED ME!!” Had we known how common, and how annoying, they are here, we wouldn’t have been so excited about getting photos of them a few days ago!

Lake Louise got too crowded, too fast, so we left and made our way to nearby Moraine Lake and we were much happier there – although not as big as Lake Louise and lacking the impressive chalet hotel on the bank, it is no less spectacular and in fact, we much preferred it. There were fewer tourists and a lovely café over looking the water where we had a morning snack in the company of a very forward Clarks Nutcracker before leaving for our next destination.

We detoured through the town of Lake Louise and didn’t find much there – we stopped at a strip mall and went through the Bow River Trading Company and a Candy Shoppe then made tracks for the Icefields Parkway.

Our first stop was Herbert Lake, which was right beside the highway and a good introduction for us to the emerald green glacier lakes in Banff Park – we stopped at several over the course of the day, each one seemingly more spectacular than the last.

At 12:30pm, we stopped at Bow Lake and saw our first glacier, the Crow Foot Glacier – even from a great distance, you can appreciate how massive they are. A short way down the parkway brought us to the Bow Glacier and then Waterfowl Lake.

Peyto Lake was a bit of a hike for us, 1000 ft uphill, but it too, was worth the effort although the viewing platform was overflowing with people and getting a clear shot of the lake for a panorama was difficult to say the least.

Darryl took up the challenge of the hike to Mistaya Canyon while I took a siesta in the sun in the car as my knee isn’t holding up to all the walking that well and after the hike in and out of Peyto Lake, I needed a rest. 45 minutes later a very sweaty Darryl returned to inform me that I should be glad I didn’t go with him as he even found the hike difficult, but worth it. He informed me that there is quite a canyon formed by the Mistaya River in addition to the lake and he took some spectacular photos. The mist from the fast flowing falls created a rainbow just above the rocks when the sun is shining just right. The other nice thing about that is that he has photos of something I don’t – so that makes it a little more special for him too.

Darryl was disappointed that we didn’t see any animals on our trip today – with the exception of the chipmunk and various birds. He was desperately hoping to see a moose, but would have settled for an elk, bear, or even a deer, but alas, likely due to the heat or perhaps that most animals have young now, none were down near the roads or glacial lakes.

At 3:30pm, we turned around to head back for Golden at Rampart Creek just north of Saskatchewan Crossing. We hustled it back as we had Very Important Dinner Plans with Aunt Helen. We had arranged to go out for supper at the Golden Rim Inn in hopes of watching mountain sheep from the windows while we dined. Well, there were no sheep, but the view made up for it and the food was excellent (and far too much!!).

After dinner, I also found a place on the main street of Golden where I can hop on a wireless internet connection to do the office work I haven’t been able to do the last couple of days, however, we are scheduled to leave Golden tomorrow and make our way to Canmore for Saturday night where we are supposed to have free high-speed internet in our hotel room, so I’ll play catch up there. I heard from a little bird that Lori got the new listings up on the website today, which helps me out a great deal. I still have some work to do, but it’s at least well started!

My mom reports from home that there is a chance of a half-nice day tomorrow. She must be ecstatic. I hadn’t had any news from her since yesterday morning, so I sent her an email asking if no news was good news or if perhaps she had built an ark and drifted off with the dogs and cats in search of higher ground. She has had to put up with rain solid since we left, which I know she didn’t sign up for when she agreed to house/dog/cat sit for us. I hope she gets some nice weather to enjoy the gazebo and the lounge chair!! She seems to be taking a real shine to Toby, which shouldn’t surprise me. Anyone who spends any length of time with him falls head over heels in love with him and his nutty antics.

- Paula

Golden Days - Day 1

2009-07-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

We woke this morning to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee at 7am and after a quick bowl of cereal, Darryl, Aunt Helen and I were off to ``the mountain”.

Aunt Helen really enjoys taking people up the mountain to show off the incredible view and the resident grizzly bear, Boo.

At 9am, we headed up the winding mountain road to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which is a fairly new ski resort that also has a thriving summer clientele who come to see “Boo” at the Kicking Horse Bear Refuge or to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views and the dining at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant.

Riding up to see the bear, you take an open chair lift, which Aunt Helen wasn’t feeling quite up to, so Darryl and I left her in the café at the bottom of the hill while we took the chair lift up the hill.
We had been told that the best time to see the bear is in the morning when he is most active, and he did not disappoint!

After the 1 hour guided info session about, and with, the bear, we took the chair lift back down the mountain and met up with Aunt Helen who joined us in the gondola ride to the very top of the mountain for breath-taking vistas and lunch at the Eagle's Eye restaurant.

Lunch was excellent and surpassed only by the view and the company. Although Aunt Helen claims to be getting a little forgetful, she certainly remembers a great deal and has a lot of really wonderful stories to share about the area and about our family. She is obviously very proud of her children and grand children – and the area in which they live.

She mentioned to us on the gondola ride up that she used to plant trees for the forestry 30 years ago and pointed out the mountains where she did that.

After lunch, we made our way back down the gondola, which is about a 20 minute ride, watching mountain bikers take to the hill (full body armour is a requirement!). It must be a thrill for them, but it sure looked terrifying to me!

We dropped Aunt Helen off at home and Darryl and I left for Yoho National Park for the afternoon where we searched in vain for a moose (Darryl wants to see one before the end of our trip and zoo’s don’t count!).

Our stops included a place called “Natural Bridge”, Emerald Lake & Takakkaw Falls (the highest falls in Canada, I think?) and then a quick stop in the cute village of Field in the park for a new park pass and finally back here for dinner, but before we arrived back, just outside of Golden, we were treated to a close encounter with a battle worn big horn sheep on the side of the transcanada who cared little of cars and people with big cameras while he made himself comfortable for a little late day sun bathing.

Dinner and a cold beer later and I’m nearly ready to call it a night. I had planned to go to bed early tonite as we have another big day on the road planned for tomorrow, but here it is 1:19am and I’m still typing away like an idiot (according to Darryl, at least), but I did take a break for a hour to flip through some old photo albums Aunt Helen dug out. I was delighted to see photos of my dad as a young boy – the youngest I have seen of him, I think!

Until tomorrow…

- Paula

Leaving Invermere for Golden

2009-07-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

Up and at ‘em early this morning – earliest start for us yet. I think we were both up, dressed & down for the continental breakfast before 7am and we were on the road shortly after 7:30am. Good thing too – as what would have been an hour and forty five minute trip driving straight through, took us 8 with detours and stops for wildlife spottings!

Today was my turn to drive and my knee is starting to give me a lot of grief earlier and earlier in the days now as it’s not getting any rest between either driving or walking every day. Oh well, it can rest when I get home. As long as I can keep moving for the next week or so!

At 8am we were driving along side the Columbia River Valley – which we were beside off and on most of our drive throughout the day – what an incredible sight it was in the rising sun this morning. Vast and lush with colour in front of the mountain backdrop.

By 8:30, we were in the town of Radium, waiting for the local info centre to open so we could buy our pass to get into Kootenay National Park, where we were planning a stop at Radium Hot Springs. The info centre didn’t open until 9, so we wandered off to see if we could find a road down into the valley for a better view of the Columbia valley. We found a service road that led to a lumber yard and train tracks and followed it for some time. We saw white tailed deer, a hawk we weren’t able to ID as it was in the shadows of a trees some distance away and a snake that Darryl startled when he stepped out of the car on one of our stops.

At 10:15am, we entered Kootenay National Park and passed through an immense and impressive rock cut right away, which we had to stop and take lots of photos of, of course.

From there, we stopped at the Radium Hot Springs Pools and wandered the grounds there for a while taking photos. It looks much as a last remembered it, except that when I was there 23 years ago, there were no fences on the steep hill above the hot pools and that is where we saw goats and snow (it was March last time I was here). We didn’t take the time to go for a dip in the pools, kinda wish we had, but another time, We were anxious to get further into the park and hoped to spot all manner of wildlife.

At 11:30am we came to Olive Lake – I’m not sure how it got it’s name, but I suspect it might have something to do with it’s colour. In the early morning light, the water was crystal clear and the palest green colour. It was stunning. We walked around the lake and took photos for a while, reading warnings of recent bear sightings in the area with a mix of fear and excitement, but we didn’t see any.

We stopped for lunch, such as it was (Doritos and coke) on the banks of the Columbia River. As we were leaving the car to walk around the rest area on the banks of the river, Darryl and I were discussing the prospects for lunch, and he asked me “Did you lock it?” (referring to the car), and I, thinking we were still talking about lunch, replied “We don’t have any chocolate.” I’m going to blame it on low blood sugar, but Darryl says I need to get my ears checked again. It was an honest mistake – when you’re hungry “lock it” could conceivably sound like “chocolate”, right?? We had a pretty good chuckle over that.

I dipped my toes in the Columbia River and immediately pulled them back out – it was as bitterly cold as it was beautiful in icy blue tones.

We continued on our way deeper into the park, spotting the occasional white tail deer in the brush along the roadside. Ahead, we could see several cars pulled off the road and Darryl told me to slow down and stop – it was a sure sign that there was something happening – and wouldn’t you know it, he was right! There were 2 black bears grazing on the side of the road!

At 1pm we turned around at Kootney Crossing – our plans for today were only to take the road into the park halfway – later this week we will travel the other half coming from the other side.

As soon as we had cell service, we called my Aunt Helen to let her know we were on our way and we headed back through Radium and turned north to make our way to Golden.

En route, my mom had asked me to make a couple of stops for her, which I would have made on my own anyways. I have 2 uncles buried in a cemetery near Briscoe. One I never met; my Uncle Ken, who passed away long before I was born, and my Uncle Vern, who passed away in 2001.

We had been told that the cemetery was south of Briscoe and that if we got to Briscoe, we had gone too far, so we drove up to Briscoe without seeing the log cabin church and cemetery. So we back-tracked and drove the stretch again, detouring down several side roads in case it might be down there…no luck. Finally, Darryl told me to stop at the Briscoe general store and ask for directions. As he went in, his cell phone rang, it was my Aunt Helen calling! While I talked to her and got directions, Darryl went into the store and asked the clerk, and an elderly patron who asked him who we were looking for at the cemetery, where it was, Darryl told him “My wife’s Uncle, Vern Bryant,” and he said “I knew Vern!”; small world, huh?!

At 1:30pm, we finally found the cemetery and the graves of my two uncles. It was hard to find even with the correct directions – the driveway is very overgrown and steep down before a long gentle slope up to the century old log church at the crest of a gentle sloping hill.

At 3:30pm, we made it into Spillemacheen, where my Aunt Helen & Uncle Vern used to live. They had a farm there where my uncle had cattle and he also led guided big game hunts in the mountains. We found their old house and took some photos of it and the mountain in the “back yard” with the bear cave near the top. Of course, it’s not actually a bear cave, but that’s what I called it when I was little and visited with them on a previous trip.

We took a road nearby for a detour and found ourselves in Bugaboo Conservation Area, which was a pleasant surprise. There were many, many areas where we hoped to spot moose, but saw nothing but sparrows, ducks, kingbirds and finally a pair of osprey although they just passed through and landed in trees too far for us to take photos.

We left Spillemacheen and continued north going through various small towns along the way, always with the Columbia River Valley on our left side. In Herrogate, we started spotting what was to be the first of many, many nesting osprey – so many so that eventually we stopped stopping to take photos of them and just pointed them out to each other and carried on. Although there was one we did stop and take photos of as the light was excellent and it was close to the road.

A couple of small falcons or kestrels rounded out the days wildlife sightings.

We arrived in Golden at 5:30pm and Aunt Helen and her friend Karen had a wonderful roast beef and corn on the cob supper ready for us. The four of us sat down to supper and a nice long chat to catch up as I haven’t seen my Aunt since we got married.

Dinner was wonderful and relaxing with excellent company. We stayed up far too late chatting, catching up and looking at photos from the day and got to bed for the night far too late.

June 30, 2009

2009-06-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

The day started with an early continental breakfast at the hotel, then on the road by 9am – so much for the early start!! All of our best intentions to stay on our home time schedule have gone completely out the window – mostly due to all the late nights visiting here. What my family here doesn’t seem to realize, is that when it’s midnight for them, it’s feeling like 2am for us and we’re bagged!! This is something that gives my cousin Coreen’s husband, Terry, much delight. When I started yawning at 10pm, the ribbing started and lasted well into the night!

Today marked another milestone for us as we made our first Timmy’s stop of the trip for what turned out to be one of the most horrible cups of coffee I’ve every had from there, and so, it will also be our last stop at Timmy’s on the trip.

Our plan for this morning is to make our way to the mountain skiing village of Kimberly, which is modeled after a Bavarian alpine village. We took Hwy 93/95 to Ta Ta Creek, then went southwest on 95A to Kimberly.

This is a big day for wildlife spotting – just in the am alone, we saw:

9:15am soaring bald eagle
9:29am bald eagle hunting in Kootenay River
9:49am 2 turkey vultures
9:50am white tailed deer
9:54am nesting bald eagles
10:00am 2 kingfishers
10:12am great blue heron
10:30am bald eagle
10:40am red tailed hawk
10:42am white tailed deer
10:56am mule deer (buck)

11:00am we arrived in the village of Kimberly and it was as quaint as we expect it would be. Most of the town looks like any other but they have two cobblestone streets (The `Platzl`) that are closed to automobile traffic and are lined on both sides with Bavarian style buildings, shoppes and restaurants. Darryl and I wandered the streets and browsed in the shoppes for a couple of hours before sitting down to lunch on a patio at the Gausthaus am Platzl restaurant where Darryl had a glass of their Bavarian pilsner beer (Warsteiner) with his lunch of pulled pork & brie sandwich and I had garlic sautéed prawns with rice and a Corona.

It was another sunny, warm, gorgeous day – absolutely perfect patio dining weather, and we were loathe to bring it to an end, so when our waitress suggested homemade strudel and coffee after lunch, we were more than happy to take her up on the offer. Darryl had strawberry rhubarb strudel and I had the more traditional apple – both were delicious.

By 2:30, we had made our way to Elizabethville and the Elizabethville falls. A short hike off the road took us to a scenic lookout over the basin at the bottom of the falls.

By 3:10pm, we had completed the loop and were back in Cranbrook where we began that morning.

Out afternoon wildlife spottings included:

3:22pm white tailed deer
3:51pm osprey fishing
4:30pm osprey on nest at Wasa Lake

At 5pm, we arrived in the area called Canal Flats, which is known for its variety of wildlife, but I think someone sent out a memo we were coming and told all the animals to hide, as we saw none. Even still, with no animals, the scenery was incredible – the colour of the water was unbelievable. Shortly after, we got our first glimpse of the Columbia River and then were at our hotel by 6pm for the night.

Monday June 29, 2009 - Leaving Lethbridge

2009-06-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Monday morning, we got up, showered and packed up our suitcases before heading upstairs for breakfast with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Elwood, who was feeling better after laying low the day before. We took photos on the front lawn after breakfast with everyone and then Aunt Shirley took us to the Vauxhall Cemetery to see where Grandpa and Grandma Bryant are buried.

After that, we dropped Aunt Shirley off at the house and said our goodbyes and headed off towards Retlaw.

Aunt Shirley & Uncle Elwood had lots of these types of birdhouses around their house - various types of footwear enjoying a second life! These were on the back fence by the driveway.

Retlaw is where my grandparents settled when they moved from Whitby, Ontario to Alberta. When they moved west in ’31, they already had my Uncle Alan, Aunt Norma and Uncle Vern with them. My Uncle Elwood was the first son born in the west, and my dad of course, was the last, being the youngest. The rest are scattered in between.

My dad may or may not be named after Retlaw (Walter spelled backwards is Retlaw), but he also had an Uncle Walter that he may have been named after. I’ll have to ask him. Several of his brothers were named after uncles they had, so I suspect that is the actual case, but still, it’s interesting to note the correlation between his name and the town.

I had been advised by my Uncle Elwood that there really isn’t anything at Retlaw anymore – most of the town is gone and only farm fields, the cemetery and the church remain. The church has been restored by past residents who come out each Christmas for a once a year service. They dress warmly as there is no heat in the building! The farm house that my dad’s family lived on is no where to be seen – it is now just a farmers field.

This is not my photo of the Retlaw church, as I didn't drive over to it (saw it in the distance though and it looked very quaint)

So, after a 45 minute detour down a very loose gravel road in our new car (!!) we realized that what my uncle said was, in fact, true, and sadly there really is NOTHING to see in Retlaw. Darryl was very happy to say “I told you so” (several times) and was unhappy that we were going to be very late to meet my Uncle Denis in Lethbridge where he had invited us to join him for lunch.

We met him at Humpty’s diner at 1pm but he wasn’t at all worried. He had talked to Aunt Shirley who had told him we were late getting away from Vauxhall and were going to make a stop in Retlaw, so he was expecting us to be somewhat delayed.

We had a long, leisurely lunch with Uncle Denis before finding the local Starbucks to grab a drink for the drive to Crow’s Nest.

Leaving Lethbridge, we were treated to the sight of a train crossing the famous bridge – the largest and oldest of it’s kind in Canada. Darryl took a couple of photos of it. In the distance ahead, we can see mountains and are getting excited!

Gradually, the flat plains gave way to more rolling terrain…we were in the foothills…and the mountains were getting more distinct but still quite a ways off in the distance. The transition from plains to foot hills to mountains takes a short amount of time and is somewhat gradual so that you don’t really realize it until you notice that suddenly you aren’t seeing much green anymore, and a lot more grey and brown.

I have been looking forward to coming back to Crow’s Nest for many years – the place and the story captivated me when I was last here in 1986. It is a surreal scene of utter catastrophic devastation, yet the town rebuilt and carried on amid the rubble of the slide. I have told Darryl about it many times and was really anxious to show it to him and take in the new interpretive centre. We knew we had until 6pm when the interpretive centre was scheduled to close, so when we arrived in Frank and it was 5pm, we figured we had an hour to take in the interpretive centre. Imagine our dismay and disappointment when we got to the door and saw a sign posted that said that yes, they were in fact open until 6, but they lock the doors at 5!! We were at the door at 5:04pm!! I was furious, but Darryl wasn’t too worried. He peeked through windows and felt we weren’t missing much so we just walked around and took photos of the slide, of Frank, Frank Slide and of Turtle mountain. I was able to tell him most of the story as I remember it well.

After we left Frank, we made one more stop at Sparwood to take photos with the Titan – the worlds biggest truck, then drove from there straight through to Cranbrook to our hotel for the night.

Along the way we saw two bald eagles just west of Sparwood, white tailed deer, a heron and a red tailed hawk in Fernie. Rocky mountain sheep just past Fernie. 2 more white tailed deer in Jaffray and at a scenic overlook, we saw several cedar waxwings, a northern red shafted flicker and a wild turkey.

Dinner that night was sandwiches and cheese from the local Sobeys in our hotel room while I got caught up on some website work – I finally had internet access!!

- Paula

Halaluja...I can blog again!!

2009-06-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

5 days into our vacation and we finally have highspeed internet access!!

Turns out there's a cell tower in Lethbridge..causing a "dead zone" in my Aunt and Uncle's house. Who'd of thunk it??

Anywho - we are a little punch-drunk today on too many late nights, an emotional roller coster the last couple of days and A LOT of sudden stops on the trip here for wildlife spottings.

But, before I get ahead of myself, I have been keeping a journal, so will post the last 4 days before getting in to today...

- Paula

Sunday June 28, 2009

2009-06-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

Another lazy late start to the day with breakfast around the kitchen table with Uncle Elwood, Aunt Shirley, cousin Ellen, Darryl and I. This time sausages, eggs, homemade jams and banana chocolate chip muffins made ‘specially for me by my Aunt Shirley.

We chatted over coffee about our plans for the day and realized that we wouldn’t have time to go to Brooks or Drumheller before we were to see my Aunt Norma and Uncle Denis in Lethbridge early in the afternoon, so instead we went to "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump" – yeah – not kidding.

Really interesting place even though we sort of ended up going through it on a run – even running down 4 flights of stairs, jogging through the gift shop and dashing down hill to the car to get to Lethbridge on time.

At 3, we arrived at the seniors nursing home where my Aunt Norma, who is also my God mother, lives. It was eerily reminiscent of the lifecare centre my grandma lived in just before she passed away. The rooms were furnished the same, they had little placards outside each room with the residents photo on it and their name with a cherrily painted mail box below.

I haven’t seen my Aunt Norma, who is my dad’s second oldest sibling, since my wedding when she and several other of my Aunts and Uncles flew to Ontario. I knew she wasn’t well as she has Parkinson’s and had had a stroke last August and had been told that she has “good” days and “not so good” days. Fortunately, today was a good day and she knew right away who we were. She speaks very softly, but still smiles a lot and had some good stories to tell. Uncle Denise says sometimes here stories are true, and sometimes they are not, but she always thinks that they are. We stayed for about an hour and I could tell she was getting tired and her mind was wandering – she thought the shadow of tree branches on the window was a window washer at one point – so I had a photo taken with them and we took our leave.

Uncle Denis has invited us for lunch tomorrow so we will be back in Lethbridge one final time this trip on our way through to Crows Nest Pass and on to Cranbrook for Monday night.

Much of this trip is bitter-sweet for me, as I am seeing relatives I haven’t seen in many, many years, and some of them, I know I won’t likely see again.

Enough doom and gloom – it’s a beautiful sunny southern Alberta day right now and we are driving down highway 3 heading back to Vauxhall (yes, I’m typing as we drive!) and we have a roast beef dinner waiting for us that`s been in the slow cooker all day. Yum!

- Paula

Alberta Birds of Prey & All In The Family

2009-06-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

We had a very late start this morning as a result of oversleeping (nice) followed by a huge homemade breakfast (very niiiiice) with blueberry and strawberry pancakes, homemade maple syrup and eggs from cousin Corinne and Terry`s farm. Cousin Ellen packed a cooler for us with water and fruit and we left for Coledale to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre.

We took a backroads tour to Lethbridge down what we were told were oiled roads, however, they were freshly graded - so fresh in fact, that we met the grader on the road. That nice, clean, brand-spankin' new rental car? Yeah, not so nice & clean now.

American Avocet

Killdeer

We weren’t sure what to expect at the Birds of Prey centre – this is a place that rescues and, if possible, rehabilitates raptors of all kinds and releases them back into the wild. They had birds of all shapes and sizes there – all raptors though – from the adorably tiny burrowing owls to the unbelievably massive golden eagle, and all out in the open. The birds are not caged in aviaries here – they are tethered on the ground, which they say is better for them? Each of the birds is free-flown daily – those that are able to fly, that is. We had hoped to see them do this, and they were scheduled to at 1:30, but there was a delay and they weren’t going to do it until 2 and we had to leave before that to be at my cousin Bryan’s where a family reunion was planned for the afternoon and evening.

Bryan and Annie have a really cute bungalow in Lethbridge with an amazing back yard and a newly built garage that Bryan is obviously quite proud of – and in which hangs a drawing of a wolf I did for him in the late ‘80’s!

We were thrilled to see many relatives at the bbq Saturday evening, including Uncle Alan, my dad’s oldest brother. Uncle Denis, my Godfather. My cousin, Ray Bryant, who is not only my oldest cousin, but also the Mayor of Taber (!!). Cousins Cheryl, Jen & her son, Darren & Jackie and their girls, Jordan & Dani. Bryan & Annie, our hosts for the evening. Blair and his girlfriend, Darcy (Bryan and Blair are my infamous twin cousins). Corinne, Terry & Dalyce. Velma & Gene. Cousin Neil. Aunt Shirley & Uncle Elwood. Cousin Ellen. Cousin Joy & her husband, Randy, and, we can’t forget, Smilie, the dog!

We had a wonderful evening catching up with the family and hearing stories, both new and old – from Bryan reminiscing about Charlie Brown the wiener dog and selling turtles at a road-side turtle stand with his brother Blair when they were kids in Port Perry to “city folk” out in the country for the weekend. “.25 for the little ones, .35 for the medium ones and .50 for the big ones!” to educating us about “prairie oysters” and telling us about a local bar called Bob’s and the shirts you can get that say “I had a ball at Bob’s” during their testicle festival!!

Cousins Bryan and Cheryl bbq'ing Bryan's awesome home-made shishkabobs!

Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator - a functional tribute to my late Grandpa Bryant (it encases an unsightly rain barrel!)

Cousin Neil, Uncle Denis & Cousin Dale

Cousin Darren, Uncle Alan, Uncle Denis & Uncle Elwood in Bryan's new garage.

We also heard a story that my great Uncle Ross was a merchant marine in the first world war and settled out west at the end of the war, saving money to bring his family over. He sent money for the boat fare and his wife and 7 children were to come over on the Titanic, but the tickets didn’t arrive in time, so they missed that boat and came on the next!

Another late (but great) night again (and more ribbing from Terry that we were wussies for being tired so “early”) and we made our way back to Aunt Shirely & Uncle Elwood’s for the night.

Todays tally:

- American avocet

- Killdeer

- red tail hawk (not counting the ones at the Birds of Prey Centre)

June 26th , 2009.

2009-06-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

Paula and I had a wonderfully restful sleep for our first night in southern Alberta, considering the two hour time difference. We managed to sleep in until about 7:30-8:00 am. Alberta time. WOW that’s 9:30-10:00 Ontario time! We had a nice relaxing breakfast while listening to various birds in the front yard birch tree. I think there was a couple of birds hiding in the “cowboy boot birdhouses!” (LOL) After breakfast, we headed to Paula’s cousins, Corinne and Terry’s farm for the day in Hayes, Alberta.

Fresh farm eggs from the Unruh farm - these were breakfast the next morning!

Along the way, our tour guide, Aunt Shirley, took us past some old Bryant family homesteads, although many are not as they were then, with newer homes and no sign of what was once there when Paula’s family owned them.

We heard stories about “Lease Riders” and “Ditch Riders”, and saw where Paula’s Uncle Elwood was a “Ditch Rider”.

There we had some terrific conversation over morning coffee with Corinne and some of the neighbours, who, we understand from Corinne, are regular drop ins. In fact, we had morning coffee with them…and lunch…and dinner at 9:30pm! After morning coffee, we got the grand tour of the farm, which included the chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, rabbits, pigs, horses, goats and cows. Did I miss any animals? Oh yes, donkeys, llamas & doves. And did I mention the goats? HUNDREDS of goats…that all come when called! EEK!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed to “the forks” with Corinne and one of neighbours, Ron, who was needed for directions. The forks is where the Bow River and the Old Man River meet and join to become the South Saskatchewan River. It was absolutely beautiful countryside and somewhat reminded us of the Grand Canyon, albeit on a much smaller scale.

While there, Corrine “guarded” the truck (read: scared of snakes, so stayed with the truck), while Ron, Paula and I explored the river bank, ancient Indian tepee rings, and flowering cacti – we looked in vain for an old arrow head without success. We did however, see a whitetail dear on the river bank, however, the brush was too thick to get a photo.

Our back roads country tour next took us past a deer farm, where dozens and dozens of white tail deer grazed in fields like cattle behind 12’ fences.

Corinne remembered that when Paula was out 23 years ago, she liked her fellabella horse, so she called a friend of hers, Bev, who has miniature horses and a fellabella. We spent about a half an hour with 6 mini’s and 2 colts – who were incredibly cute.

After the grand tour, we went back to the farm in Hayes for a BBQ dinner, where we were joined by Paula’s cousin, Dalyce, who had been judging sheep all day for her 4H group.

After a very long day, we made our way back to Paula’s Aunt and Uncles house and her cousin Ellen had arrived from Calgary for the weekend. We visited briefly but were very tired so turned in for the night.

- Darryl

Today’s tally

Half dozen wild ring neck pheasants
2 white tailed deer
3 or so hawks

Successfully, and thankfully, back on terra firma...

2009-06-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

It was an uneventful flight to Calgary, and, when it comes to flights, uneventful it what you want to be sure. We were both incredibly tired and had counted on sleeping through most if not all of the flight, however, Darryl’s seat was broken and wouldn’t recline and I didn’t do anything but doze.

We landed in Calgary at 10:30am local time, got our luggage and rental car…a brand new (and I do mean new – only 800km on it) Impala – which those of you who know me will know I wasn’t thrilled about, however, I (grudgingly) admit that it has thus far been a nice, quiet and comfortable ride.

We spent a couple of hours at Spruce Meadows shooting show jumping until the wind got to be too much to handle – it was incredible!

We’re on our way to Vauxhall now, where we are due for dinner at 6pm this evening. It’s about 3:30 now, but at the rate we are going, the 3 hr drive is going to take MUCH longer as we’ve already had one detour for a coyote spotting and eagle-eye Darryl spotted a red tailed hawk on a fence post along side the highway. It’s a true testament to how tired we are that we didn’t go back for the hawk…I hear a pillow calling my name. It’s 6pm at home now and we have been up and on the road since 5am and had very little sleep the night before, so I think we will get this drive out of the way and tuck in to unwind for the night and get serious about getting out and doing things tomorrow. I feel naked without a blackberry on my hip…although I can hear it buzzing away in my purse…I’m having to conscientiously wean myself from grabbing it to see what’s happening every time I hear it buzz. By the end of my vacation, I hope it’s “Blackberry? What blackberry?”

We will be in and around Vauxhall for the next 3 days visiting with family I haven’t seen in many years – some since our wedding 12 years ago, most not since I was last out here 23 years ago!! I am looking forward to renewing family ties!

- Paula

Today’s tally:

Saw –
1 coyote
5 hawks
1 near miss with a prairie dog in the middle of Hwy 36 (saved at the last possible second by Darryl’s dexterous driving – no doubt gleaned from his Mosport Race 2000 training – I knew it would come in handy some day)

Winging Westward...

2009-06-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Terminal 3 – Pearson International Airport

What an eventful morning thus far!

Only a couple of hours into our journey and I’ve already been the lucky recipient of a “random” body search!!

I know my mom is laughing reading this – the only other time I’ve been “randomly” searched was on my last trip to Calgary when I was 13…my mom said it was because I was wearing too much makeup then…wonder what the problem was this time?? I asked for our cameras to be physically searched rather than go through the xray?

They sent everything through x-ray anyways, including my shoes.

Security is a good thing… security is a good thing…security is a good thing…but why did they have to take my bottle of water away??

Thirstily…

Paula

Four more sleeps...

2009-06-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

I always thought that counting "sleeps" was silly, however, even I find myself doing it lately. I've long been an advocate of calendar countdowns...where you have a date in the future as a goal, and, starting on that date, you write numbers backwards on the calendar back to the current day to see just how many days you have to wait until that "special day".

Brides are notorious for it, and I was no exception. Another great time to do it is when you are looking forward in anticipation to a much needed vacation, as I am now.

40-some days ago, I started the calendar countdown, but in the last week, I find myself actually counting sleeps...officially, it's four more as I write this and I'm looking forward with a mix of equal parts dread and anticipation.

Darryl and I are going west to visit my family - most of whom I haven't seen in 23 years since I last went out. It will be like meeting strangers for the first time in some cases - cousins who were just children are now grown with families of their own. It's difficult to wrap my head around it at times.

I'm coming to terms with leaving work for 12 days. After the spring I've had with working the hours I have, I need a break. I am getting worn out and burned out and just plain tired. I hope I've left things organized enough here for the girls that they will be ok while I am gone, but I still worry about unforseen problems that I didn't think of in advance.

So, four more sleeps until we are winging westward...I will be blogging during the entire trip and we are making lots of photographic stops, so check in often for updates!

- Paula

Playing with HDR

2009-06-13T05:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll admit, sometimes when I'm working, an opportunity presents itself that can't be passed up and I'll take a few recreational shots. I finally got around to processing some shots I took at a house a week or so ago of an old dump truck. I thought it'd be fun to try some HDR (high dynamic range) photography on this old jalopy.

Cool? Not cool? Not sure? Let me know what you think!

- Paula

Irene's pups

2009-06-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

This is my dear friend Irene. Irene is an incredible dog trainer and has 3 1/2 of the most well-trained dogs I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Why 1/2? Well, because her newest dog, Ouch (below) is still a work in progress :) But he's well on his way to making it an even 4.

Recently, Irene found out that one of her dogs, Sera, (Registered Name of Dog : MOTCH Goldencol Moonlight Seranade, WC, JH, American UD, retired SJA Therapy Dog) had achieved
Top Ten Placement #9 all breed, #6 sporting group, #3 golden retriever for Canada in 2008.

As a result, Sera was going to be featured in a couple of magazines, including Dogs in Canada.

Irene asked me to take photos of her and Sera for the magazines, and, as usual, I dragged Darryl and our friend Jane along too. All three of us took photos of all 4 of Irene's dogs.

Here is the shot that was submitted for the magazines.

This is the newest member of Irene's pack, Ouch. Isn't he gorgeous?

This is dear sweet Mia with her grey specktacled face.

And we can't forget grand gal Fudge.

Congratulations, Irene & Sera on your most excellent accomplishment!

- Paula

2009-05-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

I had last weekend off work, so Jane, Darryl and I headed to Toronto on Sunday for a day of photography.

We started the day off early at the always beautiful Edwards Gardens where the tulips, daffodils, poppies and helibores were in glorious full bloom.

After that, we went to High Park, where we had heard there was a pair of nesting wood ducks. We did find them, however the pond they were in was very brackish and muddy, not to mention it had gotten cloudy. These guys will warrant another trip for sure!

There were lots of other things to shoot at High Park
- various ducks, small birds, gulls, cormerants, and people...oh the people! Busy place! Of course, after a short walk along the edge of the pond, we saw why. Fields of flowering trees in bloom and hundreds of people walking or picnicing beneath them.

Our last stop of the day was in Mount Pleasant Cemetary, where we've had good luck before with red tailed hawks. We did see one, but it was in flight and quite high up, so no chance of a photo. However, I did spy a tiny guy on a magnolia bloom. He sat in the sun for quite a some time while I took his photo.

No photo outting this coming weekend...need to get organized for an upcoming trip!

- Paula

Better (really) late than never!

2009-04-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the photos from April 10th, finally! I'm finding that I'm getting more and more picky about what I keep and edit each time...I shot nearly 400 photos and these are the only 4 I would even consider sharing.

Sparrows and a grackel. I do really like grackles. They sort of remind me of corvids. I've always had a fondness for ravens and crows...and Poe...but that's fodder for another post.

No BIF photos...yet, but I was out again this morning for a couple of hours, so here's hoping. I also still haven't even looked at last weekends photos yet. Where do people find the time?

- Paula

Postscript to previous post...

2009-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

...I think I got one! Maybe two!

What did I get?

BIF shots! Maybe...I don't want to get too excited as I'm still just previewing raw images so keep your fingers crossed.

If all goes well, I will post something here soon!

- Paula

Expensive Equipment Does Not a Good Photographer Make

2009-04-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say "I just don't get it", but the truth is, I do get it. All the fancy camera equipment in the world can't make up for bad timing, lousey reflexes, imperfect lighting and just plain inexperience.

Ansel Adams has been quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing here, because I'm just too lazy to look up the acutal quote) 12 good shots in a year is a great year for a photographer.

I guess I'm just getting disillusioned by the money that has gone out the door in the past 4 years on equipment (I've personally put at least 3 Henry's employees through college, including lodging, pizza and beer, I'm certain). I've learned A LOT from the two camera clubs I now belong to but I'm not a patient person, damn it!

My "grail" right now, is BIF, or Bird In Flight, to the uninitiated. I had the most amazing opportunity a few weeks ago, along with a group of other photographers, to shoot a wild red tailed hawk for nearly 2 HOURS (yes HOURS) less than 20' away (and yes, that's FEET) at times. I've seen some of the other photographers photos, and I don't know what the difference is, perhaps it's in the post-processing because I don't have photoshop, but I've yet to post any of my photos because they pale by comparison.

Today, I shot tree swallows, buffle head ducks, canada geese, red winged blackbirds, chickadees, cardinals, etc...I'm still downloading the photos, so check back to see if I post any...

- Paula

Last weekends usual suspects

2009-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Editorial to come :)

I'm off shooting again this morning!

- Paula

I'm back - while I wait for today's photos to download, I've got some time to kill, so here's the scoop on last weekends birding at Halls Road.

I don't know why more people don't like these birds - I think they are amazing. This is a common grackle (bronze phase, as it turns out). I think, in the sunlight, they are one of the most striking-looking birds with their piercing, intense yellow eyes and iridescent chameleon feathers.

You'll notice that the blue jay below is on the same limb as the grackle above. Neat trick if you want to get good bird shots in a "natural looking" environment. Put braches in/on the bird feeder and shoot the birds when they land on the branch instead of the feeder! This branch was laying on top of a tray of seeds and peanutes which was very attractive to many species of birds.

Much later in the day, we were making our way out to where we've seen kestrals several times and spotted this fellow on a fence post on the side of a service road. We are still trying to get an id on him. If anyone knows, please leave a comment or send me an email!

- Paula

Today was a day of damns, darns, almosts and if onlys...

2009-03-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

You'll see what I mean. Read on.

Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, early spring day during which we ran errands under the impression that today was supposed to be even nicer. so, we went to bed early last night and got up early this morning with the intent of going to shoot sunrise photos at McLaughlin Bay.

We (reluctantly) rolled out of bed at 6am to be greeted by heavy cloud cover and not a speck of clear sky anywhere.

Despite the very tempting lure of still cozy bedsheets, we both stayed up, downed breakfast and donned our warm long undies as instead of the forecasted +4 morning temps, it was 0 degrees with a cold north breeze.

Undaunted, we changed our projected morning course and went west instead in hopes of spotting a red tailed hawk we've seen several times recently.

We weren't disappointed...at least, not yet. Predicable as always in recent forays, our subject presented himself in a scrub bush on the side of Bloor Street. Eagle-eye Darryl was the first to spot him screeching "Stop!" "Right there, RIGHT THERE!" "Did you not hear me say stop?!"

Um...yeah, but I think screeching to a halt with gravel flying might have scared him off?

Needless to say, with the early hour and overcast skies, conditions were less than perfect for shooting, however, who are we to pass up such an opportunity?

So, without further adue, here is the first "aw crap" shot of the day.

And no, they're not watermarked. If you really want them, be my guest.

We stalked this bird for the better part of 45 minutes from tree to tree to tree. Each time we'd get just about at the right distance for a decent shot, he'd decide we were a weeee bit too close for comfort and move about 50' away...until eventually he flew into an industrial complex we couldn't get into.

We arrived at the conservation area around 7:30am and were greeted by an empty parking lot. Great - the day was looking up! We could hear nature all around us. Quacking duck, honking geese, trilling red-winged blackbirds...there were almost endless photographic opportunities and not a wayward child in sight to ruin it!

Lets start with something simple...a bufflehead with the landing gear down...from the back...how exciting *yawn*.

How about Canada Geese? They're always a reliable subject and there was no shortage of them around this morning.

This has the makings of a pretty decent shot - good colour, nice and crisp...except for the cat tails in the foreground in front of the geese. *sigh*

Okee...here's a new one. Never seen one of these before. We think it's a common golden eye...or maybe a female buffle head? Not sure. It's a so/so photo. Compared to the rest of the day's haul though, it's gallery-ready. :/

Yes, I am joking.

Look! A Deer!

No, wait! THREE DEER!

Fleeing in the other direction, naturally. Would you believe there were more than a dozen deer in a field??

This is the best we got of them.

Of course, as always, we saw the usual suspects, sparrows, chickadees, red wing black birds...

And then, at the end of a somewhat disappointing morning, we had a golden opportunity. This time, it was my turn to spot the next target. Had Darryl been sitting on a chair he could have fallen off of, rather than strapped into the passenger seat of the van, I've no doubt he would have.

As we're circling through a maze of streets in an industrial complex, I gasp "Kestrel!". Of course, Darryl didn't believe me...but sure enough, it landed in a tree not far off the road we were on and we both held our breath hoping against hope that it would stay put...and it did, if only for a few moments. Long enough to get off a dozen or so shots. Sadly, even with the 500mm lens, there was enough of a breeze and enough distance between us and it, that not one of the shots is crisp.

Oh, and did I mention this mornings festivities also included being questioned by 2 cops??

On the plus side, I got A LOT of exercise this morning, saw 3 different species of birds I haven't seen in the area before, found a new place to shoot from in an old favourite spot and bought myself a camo jacket so hopefully, next time I need to sneak up on a hawk or a kestrel, I can get close enough to get a decent shot!

- Paula

NDPA Barn Exhibition Reception

2009-03-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

It was a terrific evening for the reception of the Barn Exhibition at The Piano Cafe in Port Perry. Many of the NDPA club members attended, along with many people from the community and surrounding area including the Mayor of the Township of Scugog.

Here are a few candid shots from the evening.

"Myself in front of my winning club entry at the top"

" Discussions about the entries "
" A wall full of entries "

" The Mayor making her descision on what to buy "

-Darryl

NDPA - Barn Exhibition

2009-03-02T16:21:00.000-08:00

The North Durham Photographers Association is having an exhibition of prints from March 1st to 31st . The exhibition is based on one of our recent monthly themes, which was barns, and is being held at " The Piano Cafe " in Port Perry, Ontario. I have entered my winning image from the monthly theme named " Enjoying Retirement - Wagon Wheels from Days Gone By "

- Darryl

Metro Toronto Zoo - NDPA Outing

2009-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Even though the animals were not very active and there were a great deal of exhibits closed due to construction, there were some terrific opportunities at all of the indoor pavillions for some great photography.

Here are just a few of the animals I "captured". ( I left the real ones at the zoo )

Mandarin Duck

Sumatran Tiger

Sacred Ibis

Australian Kookabura

Jellyfish

Long Finned Bannerfish

Bald Eagle

- Darryl

NDPA Outing - Metro Toronto Zoo Feb 21/09

2009-02-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Darryl and I joined our friend, Jane, and met up with several members of our North Durham Photographers' Association for a day of shooting at the Metro Toronto Zoo. I've never been to the zoo in winter, but several people had told me it was an excellent time of the year to go - fewer crowds & the animals were more active.

Well, I guess the animals would have been more active if we could have seen them!

Although we paid full price to enter, in more than 3 hours, we saw only 3 different animals outside. We saw Sumatran Tigers (sleeping), Siberian Tigers and a Canadian River Otter. In the distance, down paths that were closed off, we saw deer and bison. That's it. There were more than 20 animals listed on a board at the entrance as off exhibit. What a disappointment. The weather was perfect for the morning and there were very few people there, so overall it was a good outing, but again, how very disappointing that so many animals were not on display.

Here's a sampling of what we did see (mostly indoors, where it was hot and muggy).

At the top of the page, is an Emerald Tree Boa.

This is a cattle egret, who shared an indoor exhibit with a tapir and the white rhino below as well as some Chinese ducks.

Sleeping beauty here is a Sumatran Tiger.

And this striking fellow was a Siberian Tiger, who was short a canine.

A Laughing (and dive-bombing) Kookaburra.

Jelly fish from the Great Barrier Reef exhibit.

Also from the Australian exhibit, an Australian Shoveler.

Last, but certainly not least, was this Canadian River Otter, the most engaging of all the creatures we saw yesterday.

- Paula

Winter Splendor

2009-02-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

The weather forecast was perfect to get up early for some sunrise pictues. It was anything but disappointing.

- Darryl

Winter sunrise

2009-02-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today was a perfect day to get up at the crack of stupid and head over to one of our favourite places to shoot sunrises - McLaughlin Bay.

I thought, rather than just the usual run-of-the-mill sunrise shots, I'd play around a little with a new technique we are learning called HDR (high dynamic range) photography.

The results were less than spectacular, but it's another step in the learning process!

- Paula

I need a new subject...

2009-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

I know this blog is pretty new, so these photos won't have been seen by many people yet, but these photos, or ones similar to, are all I've been shooting lately and I need a change of subject/scenery/whatever.

As cute as chickadees are, let's face it, they really are just the mice of the bird world and this time of year, they're a dime a dozen or, well, insert your own cliche' here.

This might be the last of the bird pics for a while, unless we manage to get hawks or owls...

The mild weather Sunday meant there were lots of puddles around, and the birds were taking every advantage. Here, a chickadee enjoys a brisk bath in some chilly snow melt.

I love listening to these little guys - you often hear their soft little "peep" "peep" long before you can see them. They are quite small and move so quickly circling tree trunks as they travel up and down them.

To listen to a white breasted nuthatch, click here. The latter half of the clip starting about .19 through to .38 is what we usually hear when we're out with this little guys, especially around .29-.38.

This was a first time for both Darryl and I when we spotted about 8 Red Crossbills (this is a female) eating pine cones in a pine tree. Darryl got an excellent shot of a male.

And of course, cute as ever, the obligatory chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dee.

A cardinal in dogwood on a sunny day! I actually had to tone this photo down - the natural colour looked fake, it was so bright!

Scored a couple of good blue jay shots at Dianna & Ron's in their back yard, where we started the day out listening to a chorus of howling and yipping coyotes!

There's a good possibility the next bird photo you see here could be something more exotic as we are traveling to the Toronto Zoo with our Port Perry club in a couple of weeks on an outing.

- Paula

Could Spring be in the Air ?

2009-02-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Another wonderful weekend has come and gone. Of course who couldn't resist a trip out with camera in hand. A few hours is all that we needed. The smell of fresh crisp air, brilliant sunshine and most of all , some picture worthy subjects to capture. It made for a relaxing time, once again, and we didn't come home unhappy.

- Darryl

A bird in the hand...

2009-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

The weather forecast called for rain and +6 today. It was enough that there was a chance that there might be fog along the lake shore for Jane to get up at the crack of silly and meet me at Lynde Shores this morning for a couple of hours of photography. We very nearly had the entire place to ourselves. Everyone else must have stayed home - including much of the wildlife.

We saw the usual suspects, of course, with a couple of interesting exceptions.

There was this poor fellow above who was missing part of his beak. There was a female mallard who was missing a foot, but she seemed to get around just fine and there was a black squirrel with only a third of a tail, although by the girth of him, it wasn't affecting his ability to eat at all! Makes one wonder what happened to the poor creatures...

Then there was this guy - not a sob story, just a strange thing to see. I have never seen this ever before, and I've seen my fair share of chickadees.

This is a white-tailed black cap chickadee. Only one I saw there, and, the only one I've ever seen in my life. Apparently they are quite rare, but are known to happen from time to time from the brief bit of research I did online when I got home.

Here's the rest of the day's catch:

- Paula

Let them eat...steak?

2009-02-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hell yes!

In appreciation of their above and beyond behaviour at Thursday night's Pet's Photography workshop, that too-cute twosome and their not-so-stationary side kick, Toby, will dine on a repast of strip steak, egg noodles and veggies for their dinner tonight.

I just hope they remember why they're getting so spoilled...

Honestly, their dinner looks, and SMELLS, better than what WE had for dinner!

- Paula

I have the most incredible dogs...ever

2009-02-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

Last night was the "Pet Photography" workshop with our NDPA (North Durham Photographers' Association) camera club. I had volunteered Monty & Quinn as models, assuring Jon, our workshop guru, that they would be on their bestest behaviour and would stay put where and when told.

I sensed that Jon was skeptical, but since the only other models offered were turtles and snakes, he took us up on the offer.

Well, my furkids did not disappoint.

Although the photo above is not from last night's shoot - we didn't take any so that we could look after the dogs while others shot - this is a photo of Quinn (middle) and Monty (right) with Toby (left) doing just what they did last night. They were incredibly patient and SOOO well behaved!

All those years of training really paid off!

I'm so thrilled with them all.

What good dogs. :o)

- Paula

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

2009-02-04T11:00:00.001-08:00

This blog isn't really about reading, it's about photography, naturally!

Part of my 9-5 work day includes shooting real estate photography, which I've been doing for about 8 years now and really enjoy it (except for when I have to slog through thigh-deep snow to shoot a rural property, but that's fodder for anyother post another time).

Check out the living room of this house I shot yesterday...

Doesn't it make you just want to curl up on that couch with a good book and a hot cup of tea? All that's missing is a cat sleeping in the rocking chair. :)

- Paula

How Lucky Am I?

2009-02-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

How lucky am I that my hubby and I share an interest in something after almost 20 years together? How extraordinarily lucky am I that we actually share TWO common interests? Now, I don't mean to insinuate that couples together many years have nothing in common, only that I think it's incredible that there are things that we can do together, that we both want to do equally as much as the other and that we enjoy doing them together.

For many years now, we have attended car shows together on summer weekends and have met a great number of wonderful people and spent a lot of time together either driving in one car to a show open to only one brand or the other (here is one area where we differ - I'm a Chrysler gal and he's a Ford boy), or, if the show was one we could enter both of our cars in, we chat on the two-way radios all the way there and back.

Now, in the past year or so, although we have both dabbled in it to varying extents for many years, we have now taken a keen interest in photography, joining a couple of local clubs and becoming immersed in them. When not busy with work, we can often be found out with cameras in hand searching for elusive shots or experimenting with new concepts and techniques. Sharing and working together.

Together. What an amazing thing. I am truly blessed.

-Paula

Architecture or Bust !

2009-02-01T21:00:00.001-08:00

It was a wonderful day for some index finger exercise. We've been hoping for a nice sunny day to get out and concentrate on our O.C.C. assignment, which is architecture. You would think that would be easy for me, but it was trying to say the least. The day was perfect.... Sunny....Warm and we wouldn't have too far to go. I managed to accomplish getting some good shots which should make the rest of our O.C.C. team happy.

After a few hours of architecture, we decided to make it to one of our regular spots for some nature pics.

- Darryl

What a spectacular day!

2009-02-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, after trying for weeks to get out on a nice day, on a weekend, to take a few final architecture shots for an up-coming Oshawa Camara Club assignment, we finally did it today, and what a perfect day - - other than the snow! We have been hammered this year with above average snowfall and it's really showing. Today was a nice treat dispite the snow as the sun shone pretty much the whole day, and the temperature got up to a reasonably balmy +5. Snow was melting, icicles were dripping, birds were singing - it was fantastic.

I didn't get a lot of great shots. I got a lot for our theme and will make a few of them work.

We ended up at Lynde Shores eventually, as we often do.

Here is my "coulda bin" shot, if the bird hadn't pick the exact moment I get him in focus to turn the other way on the branch.

*sigh*

Here's one that on second inspection, actually isn't too bad...

-Paula

An exciting new joint venture!

2009-01-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

Paula Kennedy is an award-winning artist and photographer who's interests span a variety of subjects.
Her life-long love of all nature began at a young age - as did her delight in capturing their images on paper and canvas. With training in both fine arts and graphic design, it has been a natural progression into photography for Paula, who now spends as much, if not more, time working on her photography portfolio as her fine art portfolio.
Paula currently shoots with a Canon 50D and never leaves home without her Canon Powershot!

> View Paula's portfolio

Darryl Kennedy is an award-winning architectural technologist who owns and operates Cornerstone Drafting and Design, based in Oshawa, Ontario. Darryl's curiosity with architecture dates back to his youth. His interest in photography followed shortly thereafter when he received a Pentax K1000 as a gift from his mother.
Darryl currently shoots with a Canon Rebel 450D, but he has his eye on a sweet 5D!

> View Darryl's portfolio

Paula & Darryl are both members of the Oshawa Camera Club and the North Durham Photographer's Association. Additionally, they share their lives and homes with their zoo of pets, which currently are 3 Norwegian elkhounds, 2 mains coons, a persian and a grey DSH tabby.

Paula's & Darryl's personal photos courtesy of Tracy Kendall Photography.