Project 365 ~ Day 36

Finally - Rain!

Finally - this week it has begun to rain. We've needed it badly - the farmers have been nattering and the canola is barely up. I take credit for the local drought - I put new gutters on the house last month, so (of course) the days stayed sunny!

Photo taken July 6, 2009.

Project 365 ~ Day 35

Pink Petals

These beautiful blossoms grow next to my house - I'm guessing they have been there for some time. I'm pretty sure they are Peonies - they start as golfball sized round buds that the ants love, and bloom into these massive flowers that are almost softball sized! The wind gets them pretty quickly, so I was happy to get some shots when the blooms were fresh.

Taken with Sigma 105 macro lens, handheld! - July 5, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 34

$600 Dog Bed

Yeah, I know... I could make the dogs stay off the couch... But isn't she cute??

Photo taken July 4, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 33

Plugged in...

Photo taken July 3, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 32

Canola's coming up...

I just love summer in the Peace Country. This was at noon (I was headed home for lunch,) with sun darting in and out of the clouds.

Photo taken July 2, 2009.

Project 365 ~ Day 31

Happy Canada Day!

Pretty cool fireworks, eh? I wish I had been able to see them in person. Unfortuntely, I live on the other end of the country from Ottawa, and wasn't able to get to our local 3 minute fireworks display! So I watched the national ceremony on tv. These are some of the fireworks over Parliament! (I love HD.)

Photo taken July 1, 2009, 11pm

Project 365 ~ Month 1

June 2009 Mosiac.

Project 365 ~ Day 30

::In mysterious Obi Wan voice:: "These are not the plants you're looking for..."
It's Called Virginia Creeper and it's all over the back of my house. The leaves turn a beautiful red at summer's end.

Photo taken June 30, 2009.

Project 365 ~ Day 29

Afternoon sun.

Auto was sleepy and enjoying the sunlight. No flash.

Photo taken June 29, 2009.

Project 365 ~ Day 28

Proud Pugsley.

We've named our raven couple Gomez and Morticia (you know - Addams?), so naturally the baby is named Pugsley (though I'm not sure what sex he/she is, yet...)

Photo taken mid afternoon, June 28, 2009.

Project 365 ~ Day 27

Flower Bed.

Of all the flowers in my yard - I grow these the best!

Photo taken evening, June 27, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 26

Storm's comin'...

Photo taken mid afternoon, June 26, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 25

The Messenger.

This is a crop of one of the ravens who greeted me when I got home from work today. Ravens are said to be messengers - time for me to listen...

Photo taken June 25, 2009, 5:45pm pst

Project 365 ~ Day 24

Yellow...

Taken about 7am (June 24) in my backyard. I love the delicate veins in the rose bud...

Photo taken June 24, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 23

Beauty.

There is beauty everywhere. You just have to see it...

Project 365 ~ Day 22

Homeowrk.

When I'm not taking pictures I'm trying to learn how to take better pictures. Right now I'd give myself about a C+...

Photo taken June 22, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 21

The iris has always been my favorite flower. I just love them. And I don't see them very much where I live, so I was really happy to find several beds of them on the grounds of City Hall today.

Photo taken June 21, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 20

The Barn

I was driving around this afternoon and came upon this old barn in a newly growing field. The red of the barn is amazing! I really hope the field is canola - the colours will be stunning when it blooms...

Taken June 20, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 19 Friday...

Naps are great - for cats and their humans!

Taken June 19, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 18

After work today I drove to the edge of town and tried to capture the land and sky. It is truly beautiful here.

Taken June 18, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 17

No - not an emergency... Just a fire extinguisher demo at work...

June 17, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 16

These ruins of an old homestead are on the edge of a canola field that I pass several times a week. I'd been wanting to stop and catch the scene for ages - finally did it today...

Taken June 16, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 15

Smiley Dog!

Taken June 15, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 14

I'm still trying to get the hang of lunar photos. They say that to take a great pic of the moon is to prove your worth as a photographer. Clearly, I haven't yet proven my worth.

But I will.....

Taken 2:45am, June 14, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 13 ~ Energy

In the States they may be able to open up a can of Whoop Ass, but up here in Canada we love our Beaver Buzz - it's Dam Good!

Photo taken June 13, 2009

Project 365 ~ Day 12 Curly Cues

It's been a long Friday at work, and I came home exhausted and not feeling at all creative. I had to let the dogs out, so I grabbed my macro lens and headed to the back yard. Soon I was flat on the ground shooting the dandelions. It was somewhat difficult since the dogs got very excited at the fact that I was on the ground and kept prancing around me, getting in my shot and worse - trampling on my dandelions!!

Taken June 12, 2009

Project 365 - Day 11

June 11, 2009

Project 365 - Day 10

Taken June 10, 2009

Project 365 - Day 9

Photo taken June 9, 2009

Project 365/Day 8 - The Faceoff

Photo taken June 8, 2009

Wind and Macros Don't Mix (Project 365 - Day 7)

There had not been a whisper of a breeze. Not for hours. Not until I got outside with the tripod, macro lens and remote. Then Mother Nature decided it was time to blow... ::sigh::

Photo take June 7, 2009

Project 365 - Day 6

Here is what I did on Friday night. NO, I wasn't in a video game tourney - I was wrestling with putting together the frikin' console table. It looks good, but the holes were the wrong size and in the wrong places - instructions showed incorrect diagrams - it was a nightmare!

But finally I was victorious and now we have a cool looking video game setup. You can't see, but the games themselves are on the built in bookshelf. All in all, I'm happy...

Photo taken on June6, 2009.

Project 365 - Day 5

Study in Darkness and Light

Photo taken June 5, 2009

Project 365 - Day 4

Fluffy and Sam the Gargoyle tried to ignore the frogs, while M&M Luke looked on in abject horror...

Photo taken June 4, 2009

Project 365 - Day 3

"You again? What do you want this time??... ::sigh::

Photo taken June 3, 2009

Project 365 - day 2

Bleeding Hearts...

Taken June 2, 2009

Full moon is coming... (project 365 - day 1)

but not here quite yet.

Taken 11:35pm pacific time June 1, 2009. My first moon photo that wasn't a white glowing blob. I might be getting the hang of this!...

Project 365 is a project to take a photo every day for a year. This one was taken on June 1, so it's my first one. More to follow...

Ahh, Spring in the North...

On the 19th we had a huge snowstorm (see pics in previous entry.) And on the 21st - I'm back in the front yard trying to take birdie pics...

May 19th??? WTH???

I know I live in the north, but this is ridiculous! We got almost 5" of snow. Then the next day was sunny and back up to 15C. Crazy. I used Topaz Simplify to get the painting effect.




Those spots that looks like the sensor is filthy - that's how hard the snow was coming down!!

Snowstorm - May 17, 2009

Living in the north... Well, it's never dull. This is May long weekend - when we plant our gardens and enjoy the first camping trip of the season.

Not this year - at least not at our house...

Hi baby...

This little guy decided to pose for me as I sat on the front steps on Friday. He's sweet, eh?

Storm's Comin'

Evening, and I'm standing in the middle of the street in front of my house taking pictures. This is what I see looking southwest.

The Exterminator

This woodpecker has been having a time of it poking holes in the jack pine right outside my front door. I was worried he was killing the tree, but a neighbor assured me that the the tree was already mortally wounded by the ants that the woodpecker was eating. Im not so sure about that.

In any case, the ants (and likely the tree) is being exterminated as we speak... I know - I should do something to stop the woodpecker. But I can't bear to - the tree was in bad shape before, and I'm really feelin' the whole "circle of life" vibe.

The view from the North...

I had to go to Smithers a week ago for a meeting. I live in northeastern BC, and Smithers is sort of between the middle northern interior and northwestern BC. By standards other than Canadian, it's just a hop and a skip away. But Canada is a frikin big country, and BC isn't so small itself. Smithers is 400k west of Prince George (the "big city" of northern BC.) I'm 400k northeast of Prince George - over the northern pass of the Rockies. Not a drive I want to do in the winter. (And yes, here in the north it's still winter in March.)

Anyway, I had to fly to Smithers. But since I live in a small town, and Smithers is a small town, there are no direct flights. I had to fly to Vancouver in the morning (1200k,) sit around the airport all day, and fly up to Smithers in the evening. What would have been an 800k drive became a 2400k couple of flights. I'm tired just remembering it...

But the cool thing about all that flying was that I got to play with my camera during the flight, and get shots like the one above of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park.

Or this one of the west end of Vancouver. I love the horizon.





And once I got to Smithers, I got shots like this:



Now I remember why I love living in the north, and put up with all day flights from one small town to another...