All the Diamonds

All the diamonds in this world
That mean anything to me
Are conjured up by wind and sunlight
Sparkling on the sea
- Bruce Cockburn

Print of the Week

Two frequent subjects combined - a great blue heron and sunset reflections. I like how the darker water frames the heron on the right. And the wonderful detail in the reflections.

Reflections

People usually look at me funny when they see me taking photographs of empty water. Even when they ask and I tell them it's the reflections they still don't get it. I expected the same when someone came along as I was taking this next photograph. But instead he said "reflections make good photographs, don't they". A fellow reflectionista.

To get color in reflections, there has to be something with color being reflected, like a rusty barge.

The other factor is the ripples in the surface of the water. To get a good abstract pattern you need enough ripples to warp the reflections into interesting shapes. But not so much that the reflections get destroyed.

Sometimes the reflections just make a good background.

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Reflections

Time for another dose of light and color reflected in water.

And so it's not all abstract, here's a harbor seal amidst the reflections.

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Photo of the Day

From one of my pre-work morning walks. I like the contrast of the gray and white gull against the reflected fall colors.

Photos of the Week

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower - Albert Camus

As usual, I took photos of great blue herons. I haven't got bored with them, it's actually good to see them so much because I can work on better, more interesting photos.

One morning I got to combine the herons with my love of reflections. I really like how these turned out. These two were my prints this week. Check them out on a bigger screen.

By moving back and forth along the walkway I could choose the background. It was a beautiful calm morning. The heron was quite far away but I had my biggest lens.

And not to neglect the the other usual suspects

And a pure reflection to wrap up

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Recent Photos

The river otters often (but not always) come out on the shore to eat what they catch in the water. This one had caught a fish that was too large to just swallow. It took a certain amount of chewing to get it down.

The Black Oystercatchers are also searching for food (shellfish).

The Great Blue Herons are usually on the shore, not out on the grass. It flew away as soon as I started to approach closer.

I caught another one just as it was taking off. Love those feet!

This time of year there's lots of seaweed for the Canada Geese and ducks to eat.

And to wrap up, a few more of my reflection photos.

See all 32 photos in this batch

Richmond

Back to the present and I'm heading for Costa Rica for paragliding and nature photography. I had to spend the night in an airport hotel to catch an early morning flight so I took a walk around. It's not a very scenic area, but there was a path by the river. I figure I better post these before I start taking a zillion photos in Costa Rica.

This rabbit was my first encounter. It didn't seem too afraid of me. It looks more like an escaped pet rabbit than a native one.

There was a bald eagle by the river but without my big lens I didn't get very good shots of it.

Otherwise there was just the river bank and remnants of vegetation.

Of course, there were also reflections.