Metro Toronto Zoo - NDPA Outing

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

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

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


- Darryl

Winter sunrise

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...

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 ?

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...

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?

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

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

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?

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 !

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!

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