Baltimore to Washington to Chicago

We had some time before our train, and it was raining, so we (at my instigation) spent a little more time at the Baltimore aquarium.

Then we had a little time in Washington to admire Union Station and the Capital Building.

And then Chicago and the "bean".

For no particular reason, all these photos were taken with my iPhone. I was curious how they'd turn out. Not as good as I'd like, not as bad as I'd feared. I still prefer my big camera, but as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. (I still tweaked them in Lightroom, but not so much latitude as with raw photos from the K5.)

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Baltimore

After Charlottesville, we decided to stop in Baltimore. We ended up an hour behind schedule because of daylight savings, but it didn't matter because the train was five hours late! We decided not to wait and took the Greyhound bus instead.

One of the reasons for going to Baltimore was to check out the National Aquarium. It's definitely an impressive facility but I think we still like Monterey better (for its interactive child stuff and its strong environmental focus). Nevertheless, we enjoyed the Baltimore aquarium and it's certainly worth a visit if you're in the area. The dolphin show (one of their highlights) was closed due to renovations but I have mixed feelings about dolphins in captivity anyway. (I don't worry so much about fish!)

We also really liked the big Barnes and Noble in an old power plant building. Cool old building, nicely restored.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Charlottesville, Virginia

We enjoyed our visit to Charlottesville. We arrived just after a big snowstorm but the weather cleared and warmed up and was quite nice for us, despite the piles of snow! Lots of places in the country were still without power and several of the wineries we visited were making do with candles. In addition to the wineries we had hoped to do the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, but unfortunately the road was closed due to the snow (see the photo). But we still enjoyed exploring the backroads through the hills. (In a rented Prius.) We stayed at The Inn at 400 West High which was a lovely B&B (see the photo of the stained glass window in one of the bathrooms) and only a block from the pedestrian mall with lots of coffee shops and restaurants. This area is full of history - we had an interesting visit to Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello (several photos). We also had a Dave Mathews theme - visiting his Blenheim Vineyards and eating at his Shebeen South African restaurant (and listening to some of his music while we drove around)

(click to view photos)


See also Shelley's Charlottesville post and all my posts from this trip and all my photos from this trip

Charleston

Photos from Charleston, including at the South Carolina Aquarium:

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Adventure is life

"Adventure is life. It’s how we learn - when you’re a little child, adventure is feeling snow for the first time, or climbing a tree and seeing the world from an entirely new perspective. It’s exploration. As we get older our adventures change—maybe they become more sophisticated or more complex—but hopefully we never stop being curious, and we never stop exploring."

Felix Baumgartner
National Geographic 2013 People's Choice Adventurer of the Year

from the National Geographic Adventure Blog

A Puzzle

Pretty much every hotel I've stayed in has a card in the bathroom saying something like "Help save the environment. We'll only wash your towels if you throw them in the tub."

When I first encountered these cards I thought it was great. But I soon discovered that they were universally ignored, not by the guests, but by the cleaning staff. They always replace the towels, regardless of where you put them or hang them.

As you might imagine, this drives me crazy. First because I want to help save the environment and they won't let me. And second because I can't understand what is going on. Does management think the cards work? But how can they be universally ignorant of what's really happening? Or do they put out the cards in full awareness? But that makes no sense, unless it's all just a ploy to appear green?

I can imagine an explanation from the cleaning staffs perspective. They likely get judged by how the room looks when they are done. And used towels just don't look good. So they have likely learnt they get better evaluations by replacing the towels regardless.

Of course, this is just one small example of a bigger puzzle. Why don't these hotels take obvious steps to save the environment in ways that save them money? Leaky faucets, high flow shower heads, incandescent bulbs (instead of CFL or LED), excessive heating or cooling, disposable everything etc. Some hotels do deal with some of these things, but virtually none do a comprehensive job of it. I could understand it if was a straight expense, but all these things would save them money, and still they don't bother.

It bothers me especially because I know hotels are far from green and yet I still use them. So I feel guilty and I wish they'd at least try to do better.

Jacksonville

After our kayak trip we took the bus (about an hour) to Jacksonville, Florida. From here we could resume travelling by train.

We had bought tickets for Nature and Music - the Jacksonville Symphony playing while showing images from the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) and we really enjoyed it. There were some great photographs and the music was a nice accompaniment.

Other than that, we didn't have a lot planned for Jacksonville. The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens caught our eye and it was a nice walk along the river to get to it. We normally don't get too excited about museums but the gardens were beautiful and the featured exhibit was Feast of Flowers by Jim Draper which was wonderful.

We also went through the trade show for the NANPA Summit and caught an interesting presentation on the restoration of the San Francisco wetlands.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Way Down Upon the Suwannee River

(click to view photos)

From a distance the water looked black. Up close it was the color of strong tea - colored by tannin from  decaying leaves and vegetation. Along with all the Spanish moss hanging in the trees it gave the river a a feeling of mystery. With all the bird and insect sounds it felt a bit like being in the jungle, except without the nasty bugs and tropical diseases. (Although historically, Florida did have tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and global warming appears to be bringing them back.)

At the start of our trip the water was quite low and the river was quite small - narrow and shallow. They measure the water level relative to sea level and where we started it was about 50 feet. By the end of our trip it was over 60 feet and would probably peak about 65 feet i.e. an increase of 15 feet! This was due to all the rain both locally and in Georgia where the sources of the river are. The river grew as we paddled down, both due to tributaries joining and to the rise in water level. It was all good, but I think I liked the more intimate feel of the upper river. Another benefit was that there weren't any power boats when the river was smaller.

Due to the low water levels when we started we couldn't have started much further upstream. But when the water is higher you can start up in Georgia at the Okefenoke Swamp, the origin of the Suwannee. That would be fun. Lower down the river, closer to the ocean it's bigger and gets a lot more motorboat traffic. So although it would be neat to go all the way to the ocean, I don't think the paddling would be as nice.

As we launched the kayaks our outfitter pointed to the railroad bridge 20 feet above the water. "The water was up to there when it flooded last summer." You could tell how high it must have been by all the debris stranded up high in the branches of the trees.

It was still early in the spring and too cold for a lot of wildlife, but in the first hour we passed an alligator lying on a sandbank. I wonder if he was unhealthy since he looked scrawny and barely moved when I approached within a few feet. If it hadn't moved I would have wondered if he was dead. Later we passed another bigger one that behaved more as I'd expect, sliding into the water and disappearing as we approached.

We also saw a couple of beavers. I tend to associate beavers with the north, it's funny to think of them cohabiting with the alligators. There were lots of birds around but they were hard to spot in the forest. Often we could hear them but not see them. Great blue herons were common. There were a few cormorants and a few skittish ducks who took off as soon as they saw us.

Apart from the birds, the most common wildlife were the turtles. Once the sun was high enough we'd see them out on logs and rocks soaking up the warmth. There were some big ones with shells that looked well over a foot long. I'm not sure where the babies are - we didn't see anything smaller than about four inches. Most of them looked similar to the red-eared sliders we see as pets but with yellow "ears". We also saw a couple of soft shelled turtles.

It was off-season and mid week - we didn't see a single other kayak or canoe. Both the river camps we stayed were empty apart from us. We saw about one fishing boat per day. Even the houses along the river weren't too intrusive since they had to be well above the river to handle flooding. Much of this stretch of the river is a state park.

Considering the forecast was for 90% chance of rain for four out of five days of our trip we did pretty well for weather. Despite the forecast the first day was beautiful - no wind and mostly sunny. That changed that evening when thunderstorms and rain started and continued all night and all the next morning. We were thankful for the roofed shelter at the river camp. It slowed down at noon and we packed up and headed out, but the downpour resumed (accompanied by impressive lightning and thunder) and needless to say we got soaked. The rental kayaks had big cockpits and no spray skirts and we didn't even have rain pants (travelling light). We also only had our ultra-light Black Diamond First Light tent which is ok for rain showers but not extended downpours. But we had planned ahead and knew there were cabins to rent at our next stop. It was a bit of a cop out but we sure appreciated being able to get out of the rain and dry out our gear.

Overall we had a great trip. We only had rain the one day - the rest of the time the weather was beautiful. Since it was still winter / early spring some of the trees were still bare, but there was enough greenery around. Some of the trees were just starting to get their leaves and were a beautiful shade of bright green. The paddling was easy and the distances aren't excessive. The developed river camps with their shelters are great, but if you don't mind camping with no facilities you can camp just about anywhere along the river since it's mostly state park. There are also cabins for rent at a few spots. We spent two nights at river camps, one in a cabin, and one night just camping beside the river. There are boat launches at regular intervals along the river so you can start and finish at a variety of places.

American Canoe Adventures supplied us with our kayaks and transportation. They did a good job of looking after our needs.

See also: Shelley's photos and post: Kayaking the Suwannee River

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

We Need Less Recycling

Amtrak has signs up to "Train Yourself to Recycle - Join us in our efforts to clean up the environment by recycling your waste"

The problem is that they then turn around and use disposable plates, cups, paper table cloths, bottled water, etc. And worse, they use "fancy" plates and cups that require even more materials and energy to produce.

Not producing garbage is far better than recycling it. Not using a disposable plate means not manufacturing it or transporting it or using energy to recycle (some fraction) of it.

And "green" disposable products aren't a solution either. Regardless of what they're made of, or whether they are compostable, a disposable product still means you're throwing away embodied energy after a single use.

And don't forget that "recycling" is mostly an oxymoron. Very few things are recycled into the same original product. In most cases they are "down-cycled" into different, lower quality products.

Often "recycling" is just another kind of green-washing. It lets us escape our guilt and feel better but it doesn't really solve the problem.

Don't get me wrong, if you're going to use disposable products then please recycle. But even better, avoid disposable products in the first place.

Fish and Bugs

Some photos from the New Orleans Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium. Tomorrow we head to Florida, by bus unfortunately, since train service between New Orleans and Jacksonville hasn't been restored since Katrina.

(click to view photos)


I'm getting spoilt with these kinds of places. The aquarium was good, but not as good as Monterey. The insectarium was good, but not as good as Montreal.

I'm pretty happy with how the K5 II does in low light. Pretty cool to be able to get these kind of photos at 6400 ISO in very dim light. They don't all turn out, but a surprising number do.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

New Orleans Audubon Zoo

Some photos from our day at the New Orleans Audubon Zoo.

(click to view)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Dry, Prickly, and Cold

We paused our railroad journey to do some hiking in Big Bend National Park in Texas. In three words - dry, prickly, and cold.

Dry - The park is desert. We saw water in a few places (e.g. Panther Springs and Boot Canyon) but none of the water sources in the park are dependable. Even the Rio Grande has stopped flowing on occasion. (The Rio Grande marks the border with Mexico in this area and Big Bend gets its name from a bend in the river.)

Prickly - Just about every piece of vegetation here has thorns or needles. At home you get accustomed to just pushing your way through the bush, with the worst you might encounter being a wild rose bush. Here that would be a serious mistake, you'd be scratched, impaled, and bleeding before you got two steps. Within the first ten minutes of our hike Shelley brushed against a branch of a bush and ripped a hole in her pants. (Much to her annoyance) Later she bumped a cactus and ended up picking 30 or 40 needles out of her leg. And then there was the Agave that drew impressive amounts of blood from her shin. I got off lightly - my arms just looked like I'd been fighting with a cat.

One of the worst bushes was called "catclaw" and that's exactly what its thorns looked like. They are amazingly sharp and snag skin as easily as cloth. If you walk into one by mistake it's a slow process to extract the thorns one at a time, often with the help of your partner.

Experienced hikers in this kind of area wear heavy duty pants and shirts, and leather gloves. We're in lightweight travel clothes. The trick is not to touch anything - hard when you're bushwhacking!

Of course, if we'd stuck to the established trails we wouldn't have had any of these issues, but what would be the fun in that! Seriously, I wanted to get off the beaten path to get a better feel for the countryside. Despite the scratches and punctures, I'm glad we did, partly because we hiked through quite different country. Our cross country adventure was lower down where it's just cactus and low bushes, whereas the other hiking we did was up higher in the mountains where it's more treed.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife - a few deer, a few birds (including colourful but noisy Mexican Jays). No lizards or snakes - presumably still too cool. Lots of signs warning about mountain lions but we didn't see any. The closest we came to seeing javelinas (collared peccaries)  was some chewed prickly pear cactus, which is a sign of them.

Cold - Although it was quite pleasant during the day, around +15c, it dropped well below freezing at night. That wouldn't have been so bad except that we only had our summer sleeping bags rated (optimistically) at 0c. We slept in all our clothes, jackets, and toques and it wasn't too bad. However, with the sun going down behind the mountains around 6pm and not coming back till 9am, we spent an inordinate amount of time ensconced.

Although Big Bend is quite far south (about the same as New Orleans), it's also at a higher altitude - we were between 5000 and 7000 feet. It was warmer in Alpine.

If you didn't want to camp, the Chisos Mountain Lodge seemed quite nice and many of the trails start right from the lodge (next door to the visitor center).

We didn't see too many other people until the end of our visit, when it was a long weekend and lots of people arrived. Of course, there was no one around on our cross-country adventure.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Santa Barbara to Tucson

We didn't leave Santa Barbara till 2pm so we took the bus out to the old Mission and the Natural History Museum. See Shelley's post for more details. If you're in Santa Barbara, don't miss the largest Moreton Fig tree in North America, right behind the Amtrak station. (I love big trees!)

The trip from Santa Barbara was uneventful, although it was Friday and the train was busy. I was still under the weather from the cold I was fighting so we stayed in the LA Union station for our five hour layover. It's an impressive old station, but cold weather, no heat, and open doors and windows made it a chilly place to hang out. We were glad for our winter jackets!

We stopped in Tucson to meet up with Shelley's Dad (who drove down from Phoenix). We went out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - definitely worth visiting if you're in Tucson. "Museum" is a bit misleading, it's got live animals, aviaries, nature trails, and even an aquarium. I'm fascinated by the diversity of plants and animals in the desert.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Santa Barbara

We spent a good morning at the Santa Barbara Zoo which is known as one of the better small zoos in America. It was nice that it wasn't too crowded with kids and we got a chance to talk with a few of the keepers.

After lunch at the Harbour Restaurant on the Stearns Pier we stopped at the Sea Center which is also on the pier. It's a tiny aquarium relative to the Monterey Aquarium we just came from, but it was still worth a visit. It was more intimate and we got to see some of the crabs and other creatures that they pull up through a hole in the floor from the ocean under the pier.

We stayed at a Hotel Indigo. It's owned by the same company as Holiday Inn but it's their small funky artsy offshoot. The room is small and the hotel isn't on the ocean (we have a view of the parking lot), but it's conveniently located right next to the train station and we liked it. And when we arrived tired and ready for supper we were delighted to find the recently opened Anchor restaurant next door.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Monterey

Had a great day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium - definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Nice to see the strong conservation message. We spent a couple of hours, went for lunch, and then came back and spent another couple of hours.

Foggy in the morning, but nice low sun in the late afternoon. It was a good ending to the day when Shelley spotted a sea otter feeding just off shore.

(click to view photos)


See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Seattle to Monterey

Amazingly, we made it through two days in Seattle with no rain! We finished our visit with coffee at Zeitgeist before boarding the train again for another 24 hour ride to Salinas. We went to bed (we had a sleeper again) with snow outside at Klamath Falls and woke up to palm trees in California.

This train (the Coast Starlight) is apparently the only Amtrak train with a "parlour car" (exclusively for sleeper car passengers). We spent quite a bit of our journey in here since it had good windows and comfy seats. We had another (mostly local) wine and cheese tasting. The other excitement was a couple who got drunk and disorderly and eventually "volunteered" to get off the train (rather than be arrested)

After getting off the train we had lunch at Olivia's - a little Mexican cafe near the Salinas station. Then we took the bus to Monterey - a bargain at $3.50 for the hour long ride. We could have taken another bus, but it was a warm sunny day so we decided to walk the roughly 3 kms to Pacific Grove where we were staying.

When we reached the waterfront the first thing we saw were harbour seals sunning on the rocks. They looked like they were enjoying the sun as much as we were. After leaving Saskatoon at -30c the sunny +15c here was very nice.

We followed the bike/pedestrian Monterey Bay Coastal trail past Cannery Row and the aquarium to Pacific Grove. Most of the walk is right beside the ocean. We're staying at Green Gables Inn. After arriving we sat in the front room and had tea looking at the ocean. Wine and appetizers starts soon so we better go get cleaned up.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Seattle

A few photos from Seattle:

Waterfall Park

Tulips at the Market

Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project

Space Needle in the fog

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Minot to Seattle

Heading west from Minot the winter scenery is stark. It looked cold. The wind and blowing snow had polished the surface of the snow so it gleamed. But the sun was shining and the sky was blue with only a few high wisps of clouds.

There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen. Quite a few ring-necked pheasants around. They aren't native but they're still pretty birds. We saw a few bald eagles although I wouldn't think they'd like this extremely cold weather with little if any open water. There were a few groups of deer. Flocks of pigeons, especially around the grain elevators. Some groups of smaller birds that I couldn't identify. A few magpies.

It was nice to wake up in the mountains and watch the sun rise as we ate breakfast. Pretty scenery through the Cascade mountains. Warmer, judging by the puddles, but lots of a snow. Even peeking through the snow the green moss and ferns seem very lush compared to the frozen prairie.

We were three hours behind last night but we've made up time and are estimated to arrive in Seattle only an hour late. After sitting in the car and train for two days we're looking forward to stretching our legs wandering around Seattle.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

On Our Way

Drove to Minot yesterday. Very cold (-30) but the highways were in reasonable shape. Some blowing snow later in the day but not too bad.

Stopped in Lumsden at Fourth and James Bakery that Penny had tipped us off to. Good scones and coffee.

Checked into the Grand International hotel. Picked up our tickets at the Amtrak station. Dropped off the car at the airport parking (across the street from the hotel)

It looks like the train is running a little late according to the Amtrak app but we'll head over to the station shortly. Next stop Seattle.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Fresh Snow Still Life

The day was dull grey, but I threw the camera into my pack just in case. The chickadees were in their usual spot, and the goldeneyes were on the river. But it was things peeking out of the fresh snow that caught my eye. (click on the photos for a larger view)

Circumnavigation

We're setting off on another adventure - circling the United States by train with 45 day Amtrak rail passes that allow up to 18 stops. We'll drive to Minot and leave the car in long term parking at the airport. (Apparently they're geared up for this because it's common for Canadians e.g. from Regina to drive to Minot to catch cheap American flights.) The rail pass doesn't cover sleeping cabins but we're planning to upgrade on a few of the longer segments.

We've done some planning, but we haven't booked everything so we can adjust our plans as we progress. The trains run daily on most of the route, except from Los Angeles to New Orleans which only runs three days per week.

Some of the stops we have planned are:

• Seattle, WA
• Salinas - to go to the Monterey aquarium
• Santa Barbara, CA (to avoid stopping in Los Angeles) 
• Tucson, AZ - meeting up with Shelley's dad
• Alpine, TX - backpacking in Big Bend National Park
• New Orleans, LA
• Suwannee River, FL - five day kayak trip
• Jacksonville, FL - hoping to take in the nature photography / symphony event
• Savannah, GA and/or Charleston, SC
• Charlottesville, VA - wine country and Skyline Drive through Shenandoah Nat. Park
• Washington, DC
• Chicago, IL

Unfortunately, the train no longer seems to run from New Orleans to Jacksonville so we'll have to take the bus on that section. (or go further inland)

 I've loaded my Kindle with a stock of reading matter, including Waiting On A Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service: A Year Spent Riding Across America

This is a trip I've thought about for a number of years. It should be fun. Stay tuned for more blog posts and photos from Shelley and I.

See also: all the posts from this trip and all the photos from this trip

Learning to See

at Innovation Place where I work

We think we know how to see. After all, it comes naturally. But photography has shown me that I don't really know how to see very well. And it has helped me get just a little bit better at it.

Common advice to aspiring photographers is to take lots of photos and then pick the best.

We're also supposed to adjust the exposure and color etc. to get the best possible photo. (Whether in the camera, or the darkroom, or nowadays, the computer.)

The weak point in this kind of advice is that it assumes you know what's better and what's worse.

There are some things that are obvious. You want your image to be sharp and in focus. Except there are always exceptions. There are some great artsy, blurred, out of focus shots. And what about depth of focus? How much of your image should be in focus? If only part of it should (or can) be in focus then which part should that be? The eyes? The foreground?

blurry, but I like the feel of it

When I first started using photo software I thought I just needed to learn what all the knobs and buttons did. But that's just the start. Knowing what the white balance control does won't tell you what the "best" setting is.  There are times when it's clear cut, when you just want to make white be white. But if you do that to a sunrise or sunset, you're going to destroy it because the light actually was colored and the whites actually weren't white.

I love reflections in water

I always enjoyed color, but I never paid much attention to the nuances. Now I've been forced to pay a lot closer attention, because I have to decide what the "best" color is, from a huge range of subtle variations.

We tend to like images that "pop", that have lots of contrast and saturated colors. But when you're adjusting those things, you have to decide how much is enough, and when it's too much. It's easy to go too far. Looking at some photo sites you'd think we live in a Kodak commercial. I fall into this trap all the time. Then again, sometimes you do it on purpose.

also at Innovation Place

But the interesting part is that learning to see in the context of photography has helped me to see better even when I'm not doing photography.

I see the warm light of sunrise and sunset. I see the blue of twilight. I notice the difference in the reflected light from the water depending on whether I'm looking toward the sun or away from it. I see the shades of green in the leaves and the shades of white in the show. I see the color of the sky. I see the lines and shapes, the textures and patterns.

I'm still not very good at it but I feel like I'm slowly learning to see.

Photos of the Day

More sunset photos taken walking home from work. In a way it's boring to take photos of the same scene over and over. On the other hand, it's a good exercise. The light and the sky are always different and I always try for a little different angle or treatment. And it helps me pay attention instead of just thinking I've seen this route countless times.





These were taken with the little G12 which struggles a bit with the low light. (My new Pentax would have been better.) I used a tree to steady the first, and rested on the bridge railing (using the articulated screen) for the second. I applied substantial noise reduction in Lightroom (although the noise isn't as visible in these smaller versions).

Photo Books

For several years I've been meaning to try making photo books using one of the online services.

When Apple came out with books in Aperture and then iPhoto I thought about trying them, but I have my photos in Lightroom.

Finally, Lightroom 4 came with a Book module and I didn't have any more excuses.

As Christmas approached and I was suffering my usual conflict of wanting to give gifts, but not wanting to support the commercialization of Christmas or our general obsession with "stuff".

I got the bright idea of doing a photo book of our McKinlay family trip to Baja in the fall.

It didn't take long to figure out the basics of making a book in Lightroom. It was definitely a plus that I could do it within Lightroom and have easy access to all my photos and be able to tweak them without having to switch programs.

The Lightroom book module works with Blurb. I finished my book and sent it off to them. I was a little nervous about how it would come out. I would have liked to order just one and see what it was like but I didn't think I had time so I ordered three (my two sisters plus Shelley).

As it turned out, they came very quickly. I was really pleased with the results. The premium lustre paper is very nice and the reproduction of the photos was good.

I was so happy with the results and the speed that I decided to do a second book of my Saskatoon nature photos to give as a Christmas present to some of the people who have been supportive of my photography and that I thought would appreciate it.  I made the first book hard cover and fairly large so it turned out quite expensive (about $50). This one I made smaller and paperback, reducing the cost to about $20. (Still with the premium paper.)

I was afraid it wouldn't arrive before Christmas but again it was very quick. And again I was really pleased with the results. (click on the full screen button for a larger view)

the nature of saskatoon

Speaker for the Dead

I was out with some coworkers and one of them was talking about the hassle of clearing snow on their acreage. Someone said they should move into the city. Oh no, they liked living in the country too much. They loved having the deer come and visit their yard. How nice, I thought.

But they also had a coyote come and visit their yard. Even nicer, I thought, coyotes are cool.

But they were worried it might hurt their dog, so they shot it. So much for nice, I thought.

Everyone agreed that this was regrettable, but necessary. Except me. I said I'd choose the coyote. They all misunderstood, assuming I was agreeing with them. No, I said, you don't understand, I would choose the coyote over the dog.

They looked at me like I had two heads. One of them said (albeit joking) "And I thought you were a nice guy". I felt I should look at them like they had two heads. I wasn't nice because I didn't agree with killing a wild animal? To me that's bizarre logic.

I tried to explain that I thought the coyote had as much if not more right to be there than we did. But all I got was blank looks.

These are nice people. I like them. I think I get along pretty well with them. This doesn't change that. I don't hold their attitudes against them. Their parents likely had, and taught them, the same attitudes. Their friends likely have the same attitudes. Heck, our whole culture has the same attitudes. It's clearly me that is the oddball wacko.

I love people, and dogs, and cats, and all animals and plants. But I love nature more than I love people. If you had to choose between a tenant that trashed the place, and one that left no trace, which would you choose?

Humans have demonstrated over and over that we have little concern for anything other than ourselves. We've shown that we will continue to party until the whole place is wrecked. We are the hoodlums and therefore we don't deserve to be here. The coyote isn't trashing the planet, to me it obviously and arguably has more right to be here than us, let alone our pets.

It's bad enough that we feel it's ok to trash the planet for our sake. But it's even worse to feel it's ok to trash the planet for our pets. (We might not explicitly say that we think it's ok, but actions speak louder than words.)

Shooting a coyote is hardly trashing the planet. But the attitude it demonstrates is the same attitude that is driving our destructive ways. People always come first. Closely followed by our toys and pets. The government will pay you to shoot a coyote, but if I shoot your SUV (clearly more harmful than the coyote) then I'll likely go to jail. Pretty obvious what our value system is.

I have no illusions that this post will change anyone's attitude. If you disagree, no doubt you still disagree (if you made it this far). And if you agree, then you didn't need to read this. But sometimes it's just hard to stay silent. I'm not angry, I'm just sad.

* The title comes from an Orson Scott Card book of the same name. 

Favorite Photos of 2012

Here are my favorites of my photos from 2012. It's always hard to choose, and your favorites may not be the same as mine.  Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy them. Much thanks to everyone who gave me encouragement and support through the year.

click to view photos (34)


2012 was another great year. In March we took the train out to Vancouver and the ferry to Victoria. In April / May we drove down to Red Rocks (near Las Vegas) to rock climb and drove back through California, visiting Sequoia and Yosemite. We stuck around Saskatoon to enjoy the summer. In September / October we drove down to Baja Mexico for scuba diving and sea kayaking. (Photos of all these trips are on Flickr)

I went another year without flying. That makes three years except for the short flights between Florida and the Bahamas at the end of 2011 (the ferry quit running). Of course, we did quite a bit of driving instead, but with two of us in our Prius, it's better than flying. (And flying it's a lot easier to rack up a lot more miles.)

You can see last year's favorite photos at 2011 Favorites

Photo of the Day

There are a few more in the set, although nothing that stands out.

The frost was amazing on Friday morning when I was walking to work. Very thick and plastered on everything. But it was too dark to take any photos of it. And too dark by the time I walked home. (On the positive side, at least the days are getting longer now.)

The sun was shining Saturday, but by the time I got out to see if there was any frost left it had clouded over. It was warmer (up to -10c) so the frost had disappeared where it had been in the sun, but in the shade there was still some left. However, I wasn't very satisfied with my attempts to capture it - hard to take photos of white on white with flat light.

But someone had put a bird feeder beside the trail and there were a group of chickadees flitting in and out. They were quite skittish and I had to stand there for a while and shoot whenever one landed momentarily. I used the continuous shooting mode to have a chance of catching a good position and focus. Again, it wasn't the best light but this shot (out of 60) turned out not bad.

My mother was fond of chickadees. They are cute birds. I always smile when I hear their distinctive "swee-tie" and "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" calls.

Books from Christmas

I try to avoid getting "stuff" for Christmas, but books are my weakness. Mostly I buy ebooks rather than dead trees, but I make an exception for books with lots of photos. Here are the ones I got this Christmas:

National Geographic Guide to State Parks of the United States
I also have the National Parks guide in this series. They're good for armchair browsing, planning a trip, or getting ideas for what to visit in an area. Aside from all it's other flaws, the USA is gifted with a wonderful array of landscapes and nature. Another one that I might pick up is their Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways.

Unexpected: 30 Years of Patagonia Catalog Photography
I've always loved the photography in the Patagonia catalogs so it's great to have a collection of them. It won the award for best mountain images book at last year's Banff Mountain Book Festival. There are also some great essays mixed in. (Too bad the photograph by Rob Owens of Murray Hainer and I in Tibet that was in one of the catalogs didn't make it into the book. )

Fred Beckey's 100 Favorite North American Climbs
At 89 years old Fred Beckey is a climbing legend and one of my heroes. Many years ago I was climbing at Skaha (near Penticton in BC) with Ian Marsh. Standing in the parking lot, he said "I think Fred Beckey is here! (Fred was already legendary, even back then.) I was skeptical and asked how he could possibly know that. He pointed to a beat up wreck of a car and said "I recognize his car." And the reason he recognized the car was because there had been a picture in a Patagonia catalog. (Back in those days we studied those catalogs religiously.)

The Responsible Company: What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years
Yvon Chouinard is another hero of mine, for his climbing and for his business and environmental work. I just started reading this, so I can't give much of a review yet but I really liked his previous book Let My People Go Surfing. (What is the Saskatchewan equivalent? Let my people go tobogganing?) We saw him in person at the Banff Mountain Festival when he launched the 1% for the Planet initiative. (I got this one as an ebook.)

Thanks to my family for the great gifts!

Cold Christmas

Despite the cold I decided to get out for a little "fresh" air late in the afternoon on Christmas day. I took my camera and managed to take a few photos. I would have taken more but -25c is a different story than the -10c last time. The sun on the frost was beautiful. And I loved the contrast of the warm evening colors against the cold blue of the snow and ice.

click to view photos


I hope everyone had a good Christmas and stayed warm!

Photographic Confessions

I have a confession to make - I'm not a very "serious" photographer. Don't get me wrong, I love my photography and at times I take it quite seriously. But I don't do most of the things that "serious" photographers do, and tell you you have to do.

A photographer friend recently asked what settings I'd used for one of my winter shots. I had to admit I didn't know, I just shot it on automatic. Honestly, I take virtually all of my photographs on automatic. Most of the time I treat my DSLR like a big point and shoot camera. I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of - automatic is pretty darn good these days.

If you read photography books (as I do) they'll tell you that you have to override the exposure when taking pictures of snow and ice. I didn't, and I think they turned out ok.

They'll tell you you should carry around and use a tripod, preferably a big heavy one. I do own a tripod, but I rarely use it.

They'll tell you you should use polarizing filters and neutral density filters, and graduated filters. I don't. I bought a polarizing filter but I never seem to have it when I need it. Or else I have it, but I forget to use it.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying this advice is wrong. I'm just saying you don't need to interpret it as "you must do this", instead you can take it as "if you want the very best possible results, then you should do this".

I almost never use manual focus, even when I know auto-focus will have problems. Honestly, I don't think my aging eyes are going to do any better than the camera. I do find it quite useful to set the focus to the center point and press the shutter halfway to focus on a particular part of the scene.

If I think camera shake or focus may be a problem, I take multiple shots to have a better chance of getting one that works.

handheld at 1/5 of a second (!)

I have a single 18 to 250 zoom lens. It's slow and because of the large range and relatively small size, it isn't the highest quality. If I was serious I'd have a whole range of expensive fast lenses that I'd have to carry around and switch back and forth. And then because I was switching lenses I'd have to worry about cleaning the sensor. Sorry, not for me.

It's not that I don't know enough to be "serious". I grew up with manual cameras. My father was a "serious" photographer. He used multiple cameras and lenses and tripods and lights and filters and manual exposures and all the serious stuff. I used to help him set up and take down and work in the darkroom. I enjoyed helping him, but it was never my thing.

I do photography to exercise the other half of my brain, to be a little artistic (or at least aesthetic) for a change. I spend all day being logical and analytical, the last thing I want to do is spend my photography time calculating exposures.

You'll hear serious photographers say they want to spend the time to get it right in the first place, rather than adjust it later on their computer. Personally, I'd rather shoot from the hip, and fix minor issues later.  I want to enjoy what I'm photographing, not be focused on technical issues.

One thing that really helps, if you're going to shoot from the hip like I do, is to shoot RAW. This gives you a lot more leeway to adjust the photos on your computer. That means you need a camera that will let you shoot RAW. Most consumer level point and shoot cameras don't.

RAW isn't anything complicated, it just means that the camera records the image without a lot of processing. That means you need to do some processing afterwards, with a program like Lightroom or Aperture. (the modern day equivalent of having your own darkroom) On the other hand a camera that records JPEG's (like most consumer cameras) processes the images into "final" form within the camera. Because the JPEG images have already been processed you have much less ability to adjust the afterwards.

I accept that by not being "serious" I'm sacrificing a certain amount of quality in my photographs. But I'm not trying to sell them or make a living from them. As long as they please me, and hopefully a few of you, then I'm happy.

Of course, that doesn't stop me from being jealous of the results of serious photographers. I look at their super amazing images and I want to cry with jealousy because I know I'll  never be that good. But then I remind myself that what matters is that I enjoy my photography.

I hear people say they want to "learn" photography, by which they usually mean "serious" stuff like shutter speed and aperture. There's nothing wrong with knowing that stuff. But really, if you want to learn photography, my recommendation is to take photographs, lots of them, and enjoy doing it.

the plant in my office, taken sitting at my desk

Winter Photo Walk

Saturday afternoon the sun was shining gloriously so I decided to walk to work (more for the walk than the work) and take my camera in case I saw anything worth photographing.

Two hours later (on a 20 minute walk) I arrived at work, somewhat chilled, having taken over 400 photos. Obviously, I found a few things to photograph :-) Considering I've done this walk countless times it's amazing that I found that much of interest. That's one of the things I like about photography - it helps you look and see.

I've been taking about 6000 photos a year so 400 is quite a few. It's not all that long ago that I would have been shooting film. I might have shot a roll (36) or two if I was extravagant. And then taken them for processing, and waited to see what I got, and had very limited options for tweaking them. The ease of digital makes a huge difference. I doubt I'd be doing anywhere near as much photography if it was still on film.

Thankfully it was only about -10c, not that cold (for Saskatchewan winter) and I'd taken some light gloves to wear while operating the camera. Although if I'd known I was going to stand around that much I would have put on long underwear!

400 photos took me about 4 hours to go through and tweak. I'm not big on black and white - I love color too much, but I did convert a few. My rule of thumb is not to show more than one in ten of the photographs I take. I thought that would be easy this time (because I shot a lot of similar ones), but it took some culling to get it down to 41 photos. That's still a lot, my apologies for inflicting so many on you. Some day I'll learn to be more ruthless.

I stopped for coffee on the way home and the sun was going down by the time I was finished. I put the camera away in my pack but I had to pull it out again - I can't resist the colors of sunrise and sunset.

click to view photos


I recently traded my three year old Pentax K7 for the new K5 II and I haven't had a chance to do much with it, so I was happy to take it for a spin. Physically it's pretty much identical, but it has an improved sensor (the same as the Nikon D7000) and an improved auto-focus system, giving it better low light capabilities. (Plus all the improvements that were made in the K5.) Some of the sunset photos were at 6400 ISO yet the noise was easily cleaned up by Lightroom. That's a lot better than the K7 would have done.  In theory it'll go to 51,200 ISO, which is amazing, even if the results are noisy. Pentax is known for their good ergonomics, and I would agree, but I wish the LiveView button was somewhere different. I often hit it by mistake when changing the focus selector, or even with my cheek when shooting. For me, the other big advantage to this series is that they are weather sealed and cold resistant. It's also one of the smallest DSLR's which is an advantage for travel and hiking.