Day 1 Jackson Hole Paragliding

Jackson Hole is a beautiful place to fly and it's great getting whisked up 4000 ft on the tram. As beginners we were flying early in the day before conditions got rougher, which meant fairly short "sled ride" flights, but still fantastic to be flying.



I can't say the same for my launches. Despite the relatively mellow conditions I had terrible launches. I get nervous and rush my turn around and don't control the glider well. And I really really hate doing such a crappy job. My second launch was slightly better but still not good. I got off first try both launches, but it wasn't pretty. I know I need practice, but I also know I do a lot better on our training hill with no one watching and no nerves. It's not so much that I'm nervous about the flying, it's that I'm worried about screwing up the launch and the more pressure I put on myself, the worse I do.



And then my first landing was awful as well. I misjudged my altitude, thought I could clear a barbed wire fence, realized I couldn't, flared at the last minute and came within a few feet of plastering myself on the fence, which would not have been fun. As it is my glider came down on the far side of the fence. Luckily no damage done. And the second landing was much better.



Of course, Shelley, who claims to be much more nervous, did just fine on both launches and landings. That's awesome, but it just makes me kick myself more!


So it was great to be flying, but hopefully I'll do better with my launches!

Yellowstone

We're on another road trip, heading eventually to Seattle for a computer conference, hoping to do some paragliding along the way. Our first day we drove as far as Livingston where we naively expected to pull in and grab a hotel room. Although we figured it might be busy on a weekend, we soon discovered there wasn't an available hotel room within 100 miles. We're used to traveling off season when the problem is more things being closed than everything being full. We were told even the camp sites were all full. We tried a few campgrounds and eventually one suggested the Livingston Campground which is more or less right in town. It was also "full" but for tents they just had an area of grass and we were told if we could fit in our tent we could stay. And hey, it was only ten bucks!

We figured we'd better book something in Jackson quick. There was some availability but the prices are pretty crazy. Needless to say it was a whole lot more than $10. But by the time we finished the slow drive through Yellowstone we were glad we had something booked so we didn't have the stress of searching. And the hotel was at Teton Village in Jackson Hole, within walking distance of the gondola that we'd be taking to paraglide - perfect, other than the price! (We found a KOA for the next few nights. Further away, but considerably cheaper!)

We didn't stop much driving through Yellowstone. Between road construction, slow speed limits, and traffic jams from animals it took us long enough even just driving straight through. So despite it being beautiful scenery I only grabbed a few photos:

Spiders of the Day

A couple of new spider sightings.



I think this might be a long-jawed orb weaver. It was on the underside of a horizontal web built in a corner of the pond at Innovation Place.

And this one was nearby, also on the underside but of a much small web.



No sign of my usual fishing spiders today.

Twenty K

Had a good 20 km run this morning, my longest so far this summer. It was a beautiful sunny morning for it. I'm always more motivated when the sun is shining! And it was pleasantly cool, at least early on.

When I started I wasn't sure how far I was going to go for my regular Sunday morning run. I wanted to run the 18 km loop around the new bridge but the farthest I'd been this summer was 13 km, and my knee and back have been complaining occasionally. My running hasn't been as consistent this summer since we've been away for a couple of extended trips. I'd just about convinced myself that 18 km was pushing it, and that I'd just do 15 km. I'm all for pushing occasionally, but on the other hand, I don't really want to do any damage. My body doesn't recover from abuse quite as easily as it did once upon a time.

But the older I get, the less I feel I can wait for the "perfect" moment, so when I got to the turnoff and was feeling good I went for the longer loop. It was nice to cover some new ground. We're so lucky to have the trails along the riverbank. About a third of the time I could run on the dirt trails lower on the riverbank, and the rest was along the Meewasin trail, with only a few blocks of running along streets.

I've been doing my longer runs averaging 11 km/hr so since I was aiming for farther today I set a target of 10 km/hr. Without my gps watch I suspect I would have settled into a slightly slower pace, but it turned out just about right and I had no trouble keeping that pace for the whole run.

At one point there was balding grey haired somewhat rounded man running ahead of me. He looked like he was moving very slowly, but it seemed to take forever to pass him. Either he was moving faster than he looked (my preferred interpretation!) or else my own pace was less impressive than I'd like to think.

When I get to the end of the loop I felt good enough, and my pace was still holding up, so I added another extra two kilometers to make a round 20. It wasn't till the last kilometer that my knee started bothering me. It's possible that was just its current limit. But the timing seems suspicious and I wonder if it wasn't just lodging a formal complaint against those extra 2 km. As soon as I stopped it was fine, so no big deal either way.

To a serious runner, 20 km in 2 hours is no big deal. Not even a half marathon, and a pretty slow pace. Of course, to a non runner it's an unimaginable ordeal. Given my current level of training it's about as far as I'd want to go. And yet it was enough within my abilities that I could enjoy it. Technically, I cheated since I made my usual coffee stop, making it a 14 km run, a short break (not counted in the 2 hours), and then a 6 km run. If that makes me a less "serious" runner, that's ok with me :-)

Photo of the Day

I spotted this butterfly landing on a tree as I was walking back to my office after lunch by the pond at Innovation Place. I stopped to look at it, assuming it would fly away shortly since usually they don't sit still for too long. It stayed for a while, even letting me get quite close so I backed off and pulled my camera out of my pack. As soon as I took the first shot I knew it wouldn't be very good since I was shooting towards the sun and a bright sky, making the butterfly too dark.

This is probably recoverable on the computer, but it's better to start with something decent, rather than try to rescue it later.

I could have adjusted the camera exposure to make the butterfly brighter, but then the background would have been "blown out" (too bright). So I turned the flash on. Usually I'd lower the flash power so it wasn't overpowering, especially up close. But I figured with sunny mid-day I wouldn't need to. Looking at the photos on the computer I probably should have still lowered it a little bit.

I also tried moving around so I was shooting away from the sun and didn't need the flash, but it wasn't as good an angle, although more natural looking without the flash.



Why do I think this is a butterfly rather than a moth? There's no simple answer, but a bunch of clues:

• thin antenna with "clubs" on the end
• out during the day (most moths are nocturnal)
• resting with wings together (moths usually rest with wings open)
• butterflies are often more colorful than moths, and although the underside of this one is fairly drab, the top side was a much brighter orange

However, butterflies usually have smooth slender bodies, whereas this one was stouter and furry looking like a moth.

From my butterfly app I'm guessing this is a California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica), although Saskatoon is on the edge of its range. (It's usually found in forested areas in the mountains.) 

Flight Visualization

Doarama provides cool 3D visualizations from GPS data. Here's my long flight near Vernon, BC. (If the embedded view doesn't work you can see it on their site)

Print of the Week

Another one from our Kanchenjunga trek in Nepal last fall. The sun on the bright yellow leaves against the shaded background made a striking contrast.

See also past Print of the Week posts.

Fishing Spider Nursery

Fishing spiders lay their eggs in a ball that they then carry around with them. When the eggs are ready to hatch the female builds and guards a "nursery" web where the baby spiders are protected from predators and perhaps can also find food trapped by the web. A single egg sac may produce over 1000 spiderlings.



The big spider on the left side on the outside of the web is momma. Inside the web is the remains of the egg sac. It's hard to see in the web version of this photo, but if you look closely at the top of the egg sac, you can see the baby spiders. There are several insects trapped on the outside of the web, mostly dragonflies. Momma is feeding on one of the dragonflies in this photo.

Immature fishing spiders hibernate over the winter and then mature and mate in the spring. They can produce two or three batches of eggs over the summer.

Note: This is not the same female that I took photos of with her egg sac. That one is at the other end of the pond and is still carrying around her egg sac. 

Print of the Week

Our living room window faces the sunset, but there are so many trees (and houses) that it's hard to get a good view. The best I can do is shoot through the trees and make them part of the composition. Usually I print photos that I took some time ago, but sometimes it's fun to print an image right away. This is from last night.

Blossoms and Bugs

It's hard for me to walk through the gardens at Innovation Place without seeing something I want to photograph. These photos are from several different sessions.

I was eating lunch by the pond when I noticed this flower in a spot of sunlight.



And then beside it, a less colorful flower, but with a harvestman in it (not to mention a fly in the next flower). One of several arthropods known as "daddy long legs", harvestmen are arachnids, but not technically spiders.



The water lilies are flowering as well, wonderful splashes of color in the pond.





I'm a sucker for the hibiscus flowers as well, not so much the showy petals as the colorful details of the stigma and stamen.



I keep looking, but I haven't seen many fishing spiders this year, mostly just a few small ones. I have spotted this larger one several times in the same area (at least I assume it's the same one). It's now guarding a ball of eggs. You have to move slowly when you approach and photograph them or else they dive and hide underwater.



On the other hand, there are an abundance of dragonflies around, and maybe not coincidentally, not many mosquitoes. There are obviously dragonfly larvae in the pond since I see their exuva on the reeds (the skin they shed when they crawl out of the water and become dragonflies).



I found this dragonfly soon after emerging, still drying and "inflating" its wings. Both the larvae and the adults are fearsome predators. The adults are amazing fliers, it's estimated they can accelerate in a straight line up to 4 g's and pull up to 9 g's when they turn in pursuit of prey. Fighter pilots eat your hearts out!



As with most of my Innovation Place and walking to work photos, these were all taken with the little Sony RX100 that I keep in my pack. It does an amazingly good job for a tiny little camera.

See all 13 photos as a slideshow or overview

Print of the Week

"The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”

- Alberto Giacometti

This is another photo of the succulent flower, only deliberately out of focus, making it mostly abstract. (But at least not black and white!)

Normally I'm trying for the sharpest image I can get, but when I was shooting these flowers I noticed that it looked interesting when it was out of focus, so I shot a few images that way.

I can't decide if I think it's "good" or not. I like the colors, and the contrast, and the shapes, the vague suggestion of leaves and a flower. On the other hand, what's the value in a blurry picture of a flower?

Flying Practice

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

- Aristotle

A few days ago the wind was right for another practice flying session at our local hill. With the wind from the south we got a break from the smoke from all the forest fires up north.





And a quick video:



We also got out yesterday for a no wind, forward launch practice session at the tiny hill in the park at the end of our block. With practice, we're gradually improving, going from the glider controlling us, to us controlling the glider. As skill improves, frustration decreases, and the enjoyment goes up :-)

PS. While we were practicing our no wind forward launches, first a group of pelicans flew over with their effortless graceful flight, and next the Snowbirds air force demo team blasted by (airshow is on). I felt like an ugly duckling in comparison!

Close to Home

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them. ”

- Matisse

Earlier in the summer we had bought an arrangement of succulents from Solar Gardens at the Farmers Market. Although we don't tend to have very green thumbs they've actually done quite well. Maybe they like the warm weather. Shelley asked me if I'd photographed the flowers on them, but I hadn't even noticed them. Probably because I tend to see them when I'm going to and from work and they're only open in the middle of the day. They're not very big but they are pretty, and the bright color contrasts nicely with the green of the rest of the plant.





While I was at it I took photos of some of the other succulents in the arrangement.





Several years ago we had a bunch of native plants added to our flower beds. They didn't all survive, but the ones that did seem to be doing quite well. Here's one that's flowering right now. Of course, I've forgotten what kinds they are!

Photos of the Day

A couple more shots from the gardens at Innovation Place. I took these a few weeks ago but hadn't got around to posting them.

The bees seem to like these flowers as much as I do. The flowers don't last that long but every year I seem to get a shot like this.



And who can resist the irises.

Prints of the Week

The images I chose to print this week are both black and white, and fairly abstract. There goes 90% of the audience! As usual with my black and white images, these didn't have a lot of color to start with.

The first is a close up of tree bark at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Phoenix in Arizona. (Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.)



The second was taken in one of the conservatories at the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.



I hung them side by side on one wall. They are quite different, but somehow they fit together. Both are plants, but the bark is less identifiable.

For color prints I use Lightroom's color management (with a custom profile from a colormunki) but for black and white I tend to use the Epson 3880's Advance B&W Photo mode since it seems to do a slightly better job. The 3880 has been the printer of choice for a lot of photographers for many years. Recently Epson finally came out with a new model - the P800. It's not enough of an improvement to dump my 3880 but if you're looking for a printer (for photographs) the P800 would be my recommendation. (or the P600 for 13" wide). Canon also has good photo printers, but I don't have any personal experience with them. There are times when I wish I could print bigger, but the cost of the printers, paper, and ink goes up significantly and the printers also get too big to put on a table and require special stands and lots of space. 

Hyde Park

I got a chance to visit the Hyde Park naturalized wetland area in Saskatoon today. It's a large area and I didn't get to see all of it, but I really enjoyed what I did see. Their were lots of birds around including red-winged blackbirds, ducks, grebes, terns, and herons.

I'm not a good judge of how "natural" it is, but it's certainly wilder than the mowed grass playing fields in the same area.



The red-winged blackbirds seemed busy collecting food, presumably for their young. The flashier males didn't cooperate so all the pictures are of the drab (in comparison) females. If you zoom in you can see the mouthful of bugs this one has collected. What I want to know is how they pick up so many without dropping any!



Nice to see all the wild flowers.





There were lots of blue damselflies around. They didn't like to sit still to be photographed either! (damselflies hold their wings together at rest, whereas dragonflies hold them spread out)



Still beautiful despite all the smoke in the air (from forest fires) and the resulting gray skies.



Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

See all 17 photos as a slideshow or overview

Kamloops Wildlife Park

On our recent trip we made a stop in Kamloops to visit Shelley's niece. And not surprisingly (for us) we went to the wildlife park. There are wildlife photographers that I really admire that only photograph wild animals. I wish I could say the same, but unfortunately I wouldn't get to photograph most of these animals if it wasn't for zoos.

One of the stars of the park is Clover, a white Kermode or spirit bear. These are actually black bears, which, despite their name, come in a range of colors from white to brown to black. The white Kermode form is from a recessive gene. (They are not albino.)

At first Clover was sitting beside a tree, partly hidden. We watched for a while and were about to leave when he got up and ambled directly toward us. When he reached the fence near us he took one good sniff and then headed off in a different direction. People probably aren't a very interesting smell to a bear in a zoo. I took some photos but it's difficult shooting through chain link fence.



It was a hot day and he ambled over to his pond and sat down in the water to cool off. This was better for photography because there was glass to look through (albeit dirty). But he just sat in the water with his back to us. We started to leave once more but then he started to roll around on his back in the water so I went back and took more photos (like the one at the top).

I think whoever gave this llama its haircut had a sense of humor!



I did photograph some unofficial "wild" residents of the park, including insects, birds, and marmots.





As soon as I got close this raven flew over to inspect me. Because it was so hot many of the birds had their mouths open "panting" to cool off. (Birds don't sweat.)



There were peacocks roaming around the park. I love their bright colors!



We walked up the hill behind the park to a small waterfall for a cool shady break from the heat.



If you're in the area and like this kind of thing I'd definitely recommend the Kamloops Wildlife Park.

See all 19 photos as a slideshow or overview