Vacation Time?

Well maybe not vacation time but definitely some time off.   After a very hectic year and a stressful 4 weeks of dealing with the lawyer, financial statements, calculators and the outrageous bills that come attached to a lawyer, it's time for a break.   I haven't taken much vacation time this past year and as a result work has been threatening to take it back and cash me out.   Not if I have my way!   So I'm taking a pile of it over the next week and the boss will sign off that I will take the rest early in the next fiscal year.   Didn't get to Bermuda this past year and that definitely had an impact on my left over vacation time.

Not going anywhere, besides Jen's place.  Just going to take it easy, relax and recharge the mental batteries.  Also going to try and motivate myself to get out there with the camera.  Suppose to be sunny the next few days, although cool but spring is on the way and it's getting nicer each day.  Lots of Canadian Geese flying around, flooded fields from the melt and patches of snow.   If I can get away from the mud I should be able to find some cool pictures if I get motivated ;-)

So here's a few from this past week.  Nothing special but at least I'm out there shooting!

Click image for bigger view.

 Actually these pictures are upside down ;-)   The birds were at my feeder and hanging upside down to eat.  The tree in the background is a bit distracting.  These guys pick out the seed looking for the sunflowers and drop the rest on the ground for the other types of birds to eat.  Went away for 2 days and they have almost emptied the feeder.

I've had Color Efex for some time but have never played with it much.  I'm not much of a filter person.  Have tried them in the past and was never all that successful with them.   Since the pictures weren't all that special I decided to look at what the program can do.  Found this Polaroid effect.  Original on the left, Polaroid on the right.  Kinda cool. 

A rather boring sunset tonight, so tried out the Colour Efex again and put a "glow" on.  Neat look, not something I'd do every day though.

Biggest Moon in 20 years

BULLSHIT!   hahaha

News article - 'Supermoon' to loom large

Well ok, mathematically yes it was but I have seen much bigger with the optical illusion of the harvest moon.

Jen and I stood on the deck and watched the moon rise through the trees and burst into the sky.  It may not have been the biggest moon I've ever "seen" but it was definitely bright.   But to add to the show, the local coyotes started to howl as the moon came up above the trees, that was pretty cool!

Looking around facebook this morning I see a few people tried shooting the moon with their cameras but made the same mistake that I did the first time I shot the moon many years ago.  They let the camera do the work.  Normally I am a believer in using the P or automatic modes (why by a 1k camera and turn off it's brains?) but this is one of the few times where you need to use the manual or shutter priority.  If you don't the camera looks at the night sky and assumes it's night and gives a long exposure that turns the moon into a fireball.  The reality is that the moon is actually very very bright and you treat your photos the same as if you were shooting during the day.   During the shots below, as the moon was rising I started to play with different speeds.  1/200, 1/320, 1/400, 1/500, 1/1000 etc....    For me and my equipment I was using 1/200 as the moon came up and later in the evening when it was at it's brightest I was around 1/2000th!   Those are speeds that you use for race cars, definitely not night time speeds.  You can get away without using a tripod.  I used one as I was at a full 200mm and not all that steady ;-)  

(click for bigger version - but not for you to steal Dale! ;-) )

 An example of letting the camera pick the speed, but I wanted to show the "fireball" coming up through the trees.  Was around this point that the coyotes began to howl.

 Coming up out of the trees.

Later in the evening at it's full brightness.

Pink Sunset

This just happened a few minutes ago (6 Mar @ 6.10pm).   A lovely sunset.  Was running around outside in shirt sleeves to make sure I caught it ;-)   Froze by the time I got back inside, it's -6C out there.

All were shot HANDHELD with the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 on my old D200.   I am liking low light lenses!

(click image for bigger version) 

Old Bermuda

This will be of interest to my photographer friends, Bermuda friends and just about anyone else.  I followed some links from the Royal Gazette to come across these 1930's photos, that have been redone in colour, of the island.   Just amazing.  To the Bermudians, read the comments, some of them are fascinating in the discussions as to where the photos were taken and there are comparisons to today.

Old Bermuda in the 1930's

Enjoy, I know I did.

Still Alive!

Although some days I wonder ;-)

Life has been crazy lately.  Work is insane right now, although it's tapering off a bit, even managed to get some paperwork caught up that I've been trying to do for the past 6 months.   Cathy has finally rejected all offers of mediation so she went off to a lawyer to settle our separation.  So now I'm in the process of hiring my own lawyer at 325 bucks per hour (ouch!) to get this over and done with.  Thus I'm filling out more paperwork then you can image and photocopying every piece of paper imaginable.  It's a good thing I save things like taxes and bills, can't image trying to get all this stuff done without it.   First interview with the lawyer is on Monday so you know what I'll be doing all weekend.

Let me give those few single friends of mine some advice, and this might sound nasty but it's the truth.  Never, ever get involved with someone who isn't a similar pay level or has their own pension plan like your own.  If they don't, many will try and bilk you for it all and by law they will get it.  They will get 50% of your pension and a huge chunk of your pay in spousal and child support.  If your married for over 15 years they will get spousal until the end of time (unless they marry or common-in-law).  They are leeches for life.  Find a woman (or man) who is the same social level as yourself.  Trust me on this one, by the end of this I expect that I will have lost over a quarter of a million in pension and assets.  Spousal could be as much as another quarter of a million over 25  years.  If she would have had her own pension and pay cheque I'd only owe child support and split the assets.  Think about it when you try and be nice and support your family.  For many years I said "that's ok dear, you do what you like, we can make ends meet based on my salary".  I was trying to be nice and let her stay at home because I had a good paying job.  I worked all the hours so she could go on dog walks, the gym, Tim Horton's with the friends and spend her summers running around having a good time with the kids.   I thought I was being so nice letting the kids grow up with "mom" home all the time instead of a babysitter.   Now I get bit in the ass.  Guys and Gals - send them out to work for a living so you don't end up being their income until the end of time.

But Jen has been there through it all being very supportive and keeping me happy.  Despite all the foolishness life is still good and it'll all work out and be over sooner rather then later.  She's my rock these days and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

Beyond that not much new.  We've had a bit more snow but haven't been out snowshoeing in a few weeks or taking photos.  Last weekend was Jen's dad's birthday so we hosted a small dinner and the week before we were out to a friends for a formal diner party.  Thanks John and Jill!    Not to mention some time in front of the 3rd Family Guy Star Wars and 2 of the Robot Chicken Star Wars DVD's hahaha

Hope everyone hasn't abandoned the blog, I'm still here and kicking.  Just the time of year and the foolishness surrounding it all.  We're talking about snowshoeing or going into the downtown core this weekend, but depends on the weather.  So might get some photos this weekend.  Cheers fer now!

Miss My Dogs

Really missing my 2 dogs these days!

Jen sent me this today - Rolo 

I so want to run out and adopt this cutie hahaha.  

And then Jen took off and got another tattoo today, I want one of those too :-(   It's another nice one, hopefully she'll let me post a picture after it heals.  I'm never going to catch up if she keeps getting into the tattoo guy before me!  LOL.

Snowshoeing!

What a beautiful day in the Ottawa region.  Blue skies and temps above 0c.   As a result we had wonderful blue skies with lots of fresh white snow thanks to the storm the other day.   Santa brought new snowshoes to Jen and I at Christmas but we really haven't had enough snow to try them out.  Today was the day!   At the same time it was a perfect day to try out the 2 new lenses.   I've only had the Tamron 17-50mm for 2 days so this was it's first real workout and the more I use the Nikon 80-200mm the more impressed and happy I am with the purchase.  It has to be the best lens I've ever used.   Along the walk we enjoyed the company of 2 of the farms dogs.  Jessy and Monchique (I think I have the names and spelling correct).

Be sure to click the image to see full size.

Make note of the snowball at the top of the image heading
my way.
D200 w/Tamron 17-50mm

Jen showing off the new snowshoes ;-)
Made by an Ontario company called BIGFOOT
D200 w/Tamron 17-50mm

Wanted to see what would happen shooting into the sun.  It works!  Nice star burst at F32
D200 w/Tamron 17-50mm

A couple of shots of my pretty lady ;-)

D200 w/Tamron 17-50mm

A couple of horse portraits.  These are with the big 80-200mm

D200 w/Nikon 80-200mm

Jessy and Monchique (I think I have the names and spelling correct) playing with Jen.  They are her new best friends ;-)    Seems throwing snow for hours is something they enjoy.
D200 w/Nikon 80-200mm

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend as well!