Mer Bleue

What a beautiful sunny and almost warm day!   Got up around 8c and the sky was a royal blue all day.  Even the wind was light, one of the nicest days this spring.  No way I was going to pass that up, had to get the camera and go somewhere!   Since I seem to have the bug to shoot panoramas I figured I needed someplace open and W I D E!     Did a search and discovered that Mer Bleue is open year round, so I figured what the heck.   Mer Bleue is a Peat Bog/Marsh located just east of Ottawa.  It's about halfway between my place and the city.  Here is a reminder from when Jen and I visited last Sept on a very sad weekend.  The colours are quite different from the late summer to end of winter!

The place was pretty deserted, expect for a few workers and people in business outfits?  WTF?  Strange place to go in your work clothes.  The mud wasn't to bad but was glad I had my boots on.   The trail isn't a loop right now as some of it is blocked for the workers to replace some of the boardwalk.

Shot some normal shots, as you'll see, and a pile of pano's.   Sorry for so many but I really couldn't decide which to post and which not, so said "the hell with it" and posted all the ones that I liked ;-)    I still need to work on my white balance on bright blue skies but I'm getting better.  You can see the blues not blending as nice as they should/could.  Think I might need to start using custom white balance.

Hope you enjoy.  Remember to click the image for a bigger version, especially the pano's!

 No software zooms, this was how close I could get to him.  I didn't bug him at all.

 One lonely stick.

 Ice is rotting fast.

 Spike?  Almost looks like a lizard.

Was trying to climb the small tree to jump to a bird feeder.

10 images blended into one.  As you can see the ice is still in but it's pretty rotted and melting fast.  Not something I would walk on.

 Only 7 images on this one!  This is how it looks in the summer.

 9 images.  This bog has always reminded me of Newfoundland.

 A whooping 15 images blended here.  Yes I was trying to get the symmetry of the walkway.

 8 images.  Going back over the really wet part of the bog.

and finally 15 images.  There were a couple of ducks hanging in the weeds but they wouldn't come out.  So got bored and did this shot while I waited.  Naturally they took off before I could switch the lens back.

Wonder where I'll go tomorrow? We'll see, I have to go into the city tomorrow for a few errands and then staying at Jen's for a few days. If I have time after the errands and the weather is good I might hit Hog's Back park or something.  I still haven't perfected shooting waterfalls and that is the only one I can think of that's close by.  My vacation is disappearing fast - doh!