Get over it.

Is this a  "New Year's Resolution"?
No, it's more of an epiphany.

In the last couple of blogs I've been bitching about getting old. Aches and pains, lack of energy and motivation, growing contact list of doctors, awful sleep patterns, a GRANDSON in the Air Force, for God's sake. The list goes on.

Then I say, without meaning it, "consider the alternative".

OK, enough. I can't promise I'll be less curmudgeonly, but I'll try. Think positive.

Three things happened in the past few days that are pushing me on this track:

1. The oncologist I saw last week said, when I commented on my age, "the patient I just saw before you is 91. Get over it."
2. My aunt passed away this morning. She was 102. My mom was 95. My dad died young, at 89. Get over it.
3. On a completely different note, I went to Algonquin Park on Wednesday. Because I can. Whenever I want to. In fact I can do anything I want. Whenever I want to.

I want to write. I want to make pictures, with the camera, the computer, a paint brush, charcoal and pencils. Time for the excuses to end. 
Get over it.

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In a conversation with my cousin Howard today (it was his mother who passed on at 102) we looked backwards at our lives — we basically grew up together — and we realized how much stuff we've done over the years. If I created a character in my novel who had done, and mastered, all that stuff, nobody would believe it. I'm still going to give it a shot!

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Topaz Labs sale

If you're reading this and it's not Boxing Day yet, you still have time to take advantage of the Topaz Labs year-end sale.

I'm committed to the Topaz products. Virtually every picture of mine that you see has had a whiff of Topaz. Whether it's painterly effects, textures,  noise reduction, extra clarity or sharpening, upsizing or simplifying, their products are superb.

I recently started using AI Clear and now I'm committed to it. It does such a good job of increasing the acuity of an image that a lot of the methods I've used in the past have been relegated to the shelf.

Is there a learning curve? Of course there is. Not that steep though, you can work your way through it.

If you're cost conscious, you want to take advantage of this sale before it's gone. If not, you owe it to yourself to try their products: you can do a full 30 day free trial on anything in their program.

Here's the link: https://topazlabs.com/ref/32/

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Newfoundland Portfolio

I spent some time working on my Newfoundland pictures from last summer. I put a selection of them up online using Adobe Portfolio. All of the pictures in this group are large hi-res, so for the most part they'd be great printed!

So far, these are the best images. Click a picture for full-screen. Hover over it for the description.

Longliner approaching Gull Island, off Twillingate. 

Right now I'm recommending canvas wrap printing: I have a good, responsive and inexpensive supplier. You can get up to 40" width, you can hang them without framing, and I can do a large format print for about $100, delivered, including taxes. I can get regular prints too.

If you like any of the images, please communicate with me, tell me the title or description, and we'll go from there.

Here's the link: https://glennspringer.myportfolio.com/newfoundland-2018.

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"The time had come, the warden said, to talk of many things...". 
Of animals and ecology and climate change and the Park 
(sorry, Lewis Carroll).

Before I get into pictures from yesterday, I want to talk about some things I learned from a Park Warden named "David" with whom we chatted for a while.

PS: I got carried away, writing this: if it's too much for you, just look at the pictures.

OK, OK, here's a picture!

Male Pine Grosbeak. I learned from David that this is a second-year bird, not wearing full-colour plumage yet. 

David was a nice guy, despite the patches on his shoulders and gold badge on his chest. A bit crazy hanging out with us on the back deck of the Visitor’s Centre in a short sleeved shirt, everyone asking him from time to time, “aren’t you cold”? “I wouldn’t do this if it was 40 below, but it’s a nice day…”. Me, in a down jacket over a wool sweater over my thermal underwear… Knowledgeable guy, knows his birds, nature, the park. “I don’t think that’s a hoary redpoll, look at the shape of the bill. I think it might be just a light coloured common redpoll”.

The conversation turned to feeding and baiting, and where do you draw the line. Aren’t they really the same thing? You could tell that David was not comfortable at times. You had the impression he was expressing a personal opinion and being really careful not to contradict the Park’s official position. He made an interesting comment, that it’s not a digital divide, unethical baiting on one side, managed feeding on the other, "it’s a continuum", he said. 

At one point he grudgingly admitted that it wasn’t necessary to have the feeders at the centre, the birds would survive the winter anyway, or most of them would. The feeders were really there to cater to the visitors and yes, the photographers.

Of course we went to pine martens and foxes next. There was a couple we all  had run into up at the turnaround on Opeongo Road that day. When we (Amin and I) were there, they were holding a handful of bird seed or trail mix to hand feed the chickadees and Canada jays. But other people in the conversation said they saw this couple feeding cheese and meat to a pine marten there. One said he left without shooting any pictures because he couldn’t condone the behaviour. 

All of us have seen the deplorable setup at Mew Lake. The pine martens live in the garbage bins and through some sort of misguided logic, some people think there’s nothing wrong with spreading peanut butter or cat food on the tree branches in the hope of slowing down these fast-moving predators so they can get a picture. After all, they're eating garbage anyway. Last week I had to wait to get a shot when the animals weren’t busy licking the trees. Someone said they saw a visitor one day, nailing hot dogs to the tree. “Can’t something be done about this? Can’t you charge people”?

“When we get there”, David said, “people say the one who did this just left. We’re just taking pictures”. It is a chargeable offence, harassing wildlife, but hard to enforce. But David went on to explain why it’s wrong. He used the famous foxes on Arowhon Road as an example.

The foxes up there were so habituated to Man that all you needed to do was to stop your car and open the door, and the foxes would appear. Crinkle a potato chip bag and you’d almost have one in your back seat. They waited for people to appear, guaranteed food sources. As a result, several things happened. First and most obvious, the animals were interacting with two tons of metal and plastic and the inevitable occurred, the cars won. Papa fox and one of his daughters are now living their lives out at Aspen Valley rehab, Papa still limping around on often broken limbs after car collisions. 

My favourite picture of Papa fox, shot a few years ago. 

But Papa has lived a long time, some say between 12 and 15 years, unheard of for a fox: it's like a person living to 120. Still fathering a litter of kits every year until recently, which meant that there was a continuing presence of foxes in that territory for a long time. Not just a pair... many. Maybe as many as a dozen. There are turtle beds along the trails and with the constant pressure of a dozen foxes, virtually no turtles have survived. We've changed the ecological balance, at least in that part of the park, in a few short years, by feeding the foxes in order to get some pictures.

But there's more. These foxes are so tame they would conceivably take food from the hand. "What do you think would happen", David asked, "if a fox nipped someone, perhaps a child, in the process of taking food from the hand"? The answer was obvious: the foxes would be hunted down, trapped and euthanized. 

Now let's get back to the pine martens at Mew. There used to be one or two. This week I saw five, someone else said six. True, some of them were kits (or whatever a baby pine marten is called). What do you think is happening to the squirrel population? Voles? Are we changing the environment for the sake of a few pictures? When is someone going to get bitten (not "if". It's going to happen)? Then what. How is it different from bears or wolves invading campsites? 

Back to the question at hand. What's the difference between baiting the wildlife, and feeding the birds? Nobody's going to get bitten by a chickadee landing on your hand for a peanut. And since the Park itself is setting a poor example by setting up feeders and putting out suet, how can they begin to prevent people from doing the same.

There has to be a line drawn in the sand (or the snow!), though. And by the end of the conversation, we all agreed: it's between feeding mammals and birds (yes we talked about baiting snowy owls but it's not germane to Algonquin Park). And let's not talk about the supposedly "Wild" turkeys at Mew who peck between your feet and come out when people show up.

Is it ethical to take pictures of habituated animals, even if you're not the one doing the feeding? Should we be flocking to Mew Lake or Opeongo after the martens? A conundrum wrapped in a mystery, buried in an enigma (thanks, Sir Winston). I'm on the horns of a dilemma. It's just that they're just so damned cute...

And to that couple who were throwing cheese and hamburger to the Pine Martens up in Opeongo, don't do it in front of me. You know what side I'm on.

Sure the Pine Martens are cute and photogenic. But there are at least 5 of them living at Mew right now, what's that doing to the population of squirrels and voles in the area? And what happens when someone gets too close and gets bitten? 

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What else did I shoot at Algonquin yesterday? 

Not much but it was a great day, like every other time I've managed to get to the Park!

Colours on that immature male Pine Grosbeak are exquisite.

Here's what a mature male looks like 

Common Redpoll 

American Goldfinch 

— 30 —

Best time to be a wildlife photographer!

New header picture

I know it's just a robin but Carden Plain is such a great place and this gives me the feeling of being there.

Getting Excited!

Newfoundland's only a month away! I can't believe it. It's time to start prepping for the trip: figuring out what to pack, getting the car detailed and a final service, nailing down those last few reservations, making a list of the pictures i want to make!

I still have room in the houses I've rented if anyone wants to come visit. Look at previous blog posts for details: Twillingate, Coffee Cove, Bonavista, Torbay... the trip of a lifetime! Contact me!

Camera's in the shop...

Seems I must have been a little heavy handed. Somehow the little doohickey inside the bayonet mount of the D800 that holds the shutter open got bent. Maybe by the teleconverter, maybe by the extension tubes. I'll have to be a little more careful.

I suspect the TC. Amin came over and brought his computer with Fo-Cal software. We were trying to microadjust the focus of the TC/400mm combo and this happened right afterwards (it's your fault, Amin!... just kidding). It's weird, though. The TC with the 70-200 lens works fine. The 400mm without the TC works fine. The TC/400mm works fine on the D5500. But the TC is back focusing beyond the ability of the D800 to compensate for it.

Sun Camera Service has my body and the TC. They said they hope it's not the mirror box... I should have it back soon. Good thing I had the foresight to buy a backup camera last year. The D5500 is "OK" but it's not a D800. When I get it back, I'll send the TC to Nikon to see if they can fix it. I'd love to be able to use it with the 200-400mm lens, giving me 680mm...

Update: got it back. All working, reasonable price ($160 + tax & shipping). They cleaned the camera (including the sensor), adjusted the AF and replaced the bent part. They reset all my menu items, hope I got everything back the way it should be! Sun Camera Service is an outstanding place, they do factory service for both Nikon and Canon, expert with bodies, pretty good with lenses too. Fast, good and reasonable. Give them a try. Tell Nick I sent you!

Update on house for sale

Not sold yet.  Need to find the right person. One potential buyer liked it but isn't ready to retire yet. The suggestion was to buy it as a cottage and watch your investment grow. Another person thought about buying it as a full time home but they already have a cottage further up North. Suggestion was to buy it and rent it out for the summers. This is a good place to buy for investment, prices haven't gone up like Toronto or Muskoka and you don't have to contend with Highway 400. Pass the word!

I love this time of year.

If you're a wildlife photographer, this is prime time. Landscape photographers, not so much but we're getting there!

In the past week or two, I've been to Algonquin Park twice, Carden Alvar 3 times, and just driving around the beautiful Haliburton Highlands.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some pictures.

I shot this at the Prairie Smoke Alvar Nature Reserve. It's part of the Carden Alvar, just to the west. The Bobolinks were buzzing all around us in the grassy meadow as we walked through it. I thought this texture effect in Topaz Studio best represented the feeling of the day.

While I was there, I dropped the lens hood from my 200-400 f/4. "No problem," I thought. "I'll go on eBay and buy a new one, probably $20"... folks if you buy a Porsche, expect to pay big bucks for replacement parts. Same thing with a big pro Nikon lens. Almost $400! I went back on Friday and marched through the field, trying to execute a grid search. I was almost ready to give up when, "Eureka"! 

Algonquin Park...

You don't really get how big moose are until you have something to compare them with! OK, "Something with which to compare them".  

I did shoot the occasional landscape. This is Found Lake at the Art Centre, and that's Dr. Ron in the picture. 

Focus Stacking/Macro

It's amazing what you can see when you stack a number of closeup photos. Helicon Focus software gives you a whole new perspective!

Peppercorns 

It's Trillium time! 

This is a "Giant Water Bug". A species I didn't even know existed! 

Carden Plain

I'm not a great birder. Other people see as many species in a day as I have in my life list. People make a lot better pictures than I do. But it really is quite a challenge shooting the birds and very satisfying when you manage to entice one to come out and pose for a picture.

Sometimes it's not just about the picture. Just being there, seeing them and hopefully identifying them is enough (well, I'd also like the picture...). I bought a pair of binoculars on Amazon. Really very impressive, you can see things much brighter and clearer than looking through the camera!

NIKON 16004 PROSTAFF 7S 10 X 42-Inch All-Terrain Binocular, Green. They cost me $239 Canadian. People told me to spend more but I didn't want to. Anyway, you can return stuff to Amazon, so I thought I'd give these a try. Amazing quality. Perfect. Here's the link if you want some yourself.

On Friday, when I was back at Carden because I was looking for my errant lens hood, I met a group of real birders — you could tell because they had Swarovski spotting scopes that cost more than my camera — and they told me about a rare hybrid bird called a "Lawrence's Warbler", a cross between a blue-winged and a golden-winged warbler. I spent some time looking for it. I played the call of the blue-winged warbler on my iPhone (in the iBird app) and out he came to investigate! I got a good look through the binoculars, dropped them and picked up the camera but he was gone in a flash. I got a couple of shots of a fuzzy yellow blob. But I saw it! Large as life.

Here are a few shots I did take over the past few days.

Baltimore Oriole
 

Chestnut-sided Warbler. Another new one for me
 

Eastern Towhee

Upland Sandpiper 

Savannah Sparrow. It was a windy day!
 

Here's another shot of the Savannah Sparrow. Sometimes pictures like this tell a better story. 

Parting Shot


Here's a macro shot of my one and only daffodil, stacking something like 30 images together with Helicon. I plan to do more of these as the spring flowers come up here in the Highlands.

 

'til next time!

— 30 —

Pay it Forward

Pay it Forward

Time for a story. Let me preface it by, (1) it wasn't my fault, (2) the photos in this part are not mine, and (3) those who know me know that I've been writing creatively for many years (to wit, this Blog!) and the Great Canadian Novel is eventually going to come out, if I live that long! Enjoy.

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"Trailer-hitch" Larry and I were looking for snowy owls to shoot. With cameras, dear reader, not guns. We could have gone to the Barrie area where we know there are some because this guy Len baits them with store-bought mice and charges tourist wannabe photographers an arm and a leg to photograph them close up. But it's more satisfying to find them in the wild. We've seen them in the Glenarm area before, him more than me because he can actually see out of his eyes. His nickname hearkens back to last year when an old beat-up Toyota sitting behind us, held together with duct tape and baling wire, suddenly sprouted a 2" hole in his front grill, exactly the size of Larry's trailer hitch ball. Come to think of it, we were snowy owl hunting that time too, with Dr. Ron...

This time it was just me and Larry. I was driving because I figured we'd have a better chance if Larry was the spotter. Amazing how he sees stuff. Kathy's got that talent too, but if a moose walked into my front yard and started grazing on the raspberry bushes right in front of my window, I probably wouldn't see him. I always kid Fred about how many deer he sees when driving up here in Haliburton, even when were going to the same meeting, I never see one and he posts dashcam video by the time I get home. I never see one, they're probably there but I just don't spot them.

I'd say, "Hey, Larry, look. A bird just flew over".
He'd say, "yup it was an immature male merganser and it looks like something is wrong with the second toe on his right foot".
"What kind of tracks are those?"
"Looks like a coyote tracking a flock of wild turkeys. Not chasing them, the tracks are too close together so he wasn't running".
I hate Larry.

"Snowys nest along this fenceline", Larry says. "They hunker down under the roots of those fallen trees. Sometimes you'll see them sitting on the ground in the field, or on a fencepost where they can spot prey".

Sure they do, Larry. White birds with camouflaged black patterns sitting in the snow 100 yards away under broken black branches. Don't get me wrong, I've seen Snowy owls. Sitting on top of a hydro pole or on the roof of a barn or church or house. But only when someone says, "hey, look! There's a snowy owl!".

He saw 10 bald eagles and a herd of deer at the landfill the other day. Not just a story — I talked to the guy who works there. I said, "Larry told me he saw 10 eagles and a bunch of deer".

"Yup".

Did I tell you I hate Larry?

Anyway, Trailer-hitch and I are driving the back roads south of Glenarm, looking for snowys. We come to an intersection, and lo and behold, an Amish buggy crosses our path. That I can see: it's big and black and there's a horse towing it and it has one of those dayglo orange triangles on the back to warn motorists. Google will tell you the difference between "Amish" and "Mennonite". The former are more strict and eschew modern tools, like cars and machinery. Go ahead, look it up. I'd recently seen a great picture featuring one and thought I'd like to try to get a shot, so I turned the corner to follow them. That's where the trouble began.

Picture one of those big old highway snowplow trucks, where the blade extends out wider than the truck itself, especially on the right side, where they drive down a highway lane and clear the lane and the shoulder too at the same time. Now picture what happens when he turns a corner: the plow blade clears a beautiful swath around the inside of the corner so it looks just like a nice, flat, cleared road. But underneath that smooth surface is... a ditch. That's what i figure happened, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I turned the corner. First inkling of a problem was Larry saying, "uh-oh" and the second was this tilting feeling.

Sometimes stuff happens in slow motion and you know there's nothing you can do about it. It's like if you're a motorcycle rider and you get off the bike and forget to put the sidestand down. Or you're making a u-turn on the crest of a hill and you come to a stop mid-turn with the bike leaning too far over and you KNOW what's about to happen. I'll leave you to guess why I chose these examples.

So we come to a stop. I look at Larry. He looks at me. I try to put it in reverse and use the 4WD. But I know. And he knows. And he says, "looks like I'm going to have to climb out the window or crawl out your side". And I can't get out either because I'm using my legs to hold the door from falling closed and can't get enough leverage to lift myself out of the seat. Probably also has something to do with me being 'short for my weight' and in great shape if I were 100 years old. Hey, round IS a shape... I tell Larry to push on my back. He does and I fall out of the tilted car. He crawls after me.

We ain't going nowhere. I knew I hadn't damaged anything but we're stuck. And I had let my CAA membership lapse, so my first thought was, "this ain't gonna be cheap". Neither one of us is a Canadian Winter newbie: we both have thick winter coats, hats, gloves, boots. I was actually in full camo because, well hunting clothes are made to be warm, dry and more importantly, to fit people in great shape like me.

Larry says, "I think I saw a tractor at that farm back there. Let's try them before calling a tow". We went traipsing off down the road and sure enough, there's a huge John Deere in the farmyard, only problem is: nobody home. "Let's try the farm where we saw the buggy turn in. Bound to be someone there".

We walk into the farmyard, trying to look needy and contrite. There were about 3 men there; the closest one a young lad I'd guess in his late teens or early 20's, clean shaven, red face from working out in the cold, a second man somewhat older, with a dark and straggly beard and the third your stereotypical Amish elder with a long grey unkempt beard and a lined face that has obviously seen many harsh winters. All three were dressed in rough farm clothing with rubber boots, heavy pants and dark, sturdy coats. All of them wore variations of those kind of hats that they've probably had for years, weathered and hard-worn the kind of thing Yuppies look for in high end stores and would pay hundreds of dollars for in a heartbeat.

There was also a sledge in the yard, with a team of two large, sturdy draught horses hitched to it. The kind you'd see in a beer commercial but without the hairy Clydesdale hoofs. We explained our situation, and stepped out in the road to point out my vehicle clearly captured by the false promise of smooth hard snow. Someone said, "well let's get to 'er". They said they had towed another hapless motorist out of the ditch across from the farm entrance, and someone mentioned that a snowplow had gotten stuck in the same spot we were in a couple of years earlier. 

They all came out to help! Picture by Larry

Suddenly, there weren't just 3 of them. We turned around and started walking back to the car, accompanied by probably 10 more men. The horses and sledge quickly overtook us and on the sledge were perhaps another half dozen men and a couple of young boys. Everyone had those great hats! By the time we got to the car, the sledge was parked, men were unhitching the horses and a couple of them were crawling under the car trying to figure out where to attach a chain. The only visible hooks were on the front, so it was decided to pull it out that way. Subaru, by the way, has hidden places where tow hooks can be attached, we learned later and there were hooks in the spare tire compartment. I know... read the f'in manual!

The whole family came.  The big guy in the middle came out of that F-150, I think. Now that I look at this picture, I guess they didn't ALL have those great hats. I'll bet they do, but it's winter... Picture by Larry

These folks didn't mess around. I realized this was going to happen like, right now. So I dived into the car to start the engine and take the transmission out of Park. I didn't make it! Those huge, living, one horsepower creatures had already started effortlessly pulling my car out, locked wheels and all! I managed to get it into drive eventually, and a few seconds later, I was safely stopped in the middle of the road. 30 seconds later, the horses were hitched back up to the sledge, they had turned around and everyone had piled on board for the ride back to the farm.

That has to be more than one horsepower! Picture by Larry 

They pulled me out like it was nothing! Even before I got it out of Park. Picture compliments of Sam Tallman from Haliburton. She was in that black F150 that came to help. That's Trailer Hitch Larry

I got out and shook hands with 3 or 4 of them, as many as I could get to. I went to the elder gentleman and thanked him profusely and I asked if there were some other way I could express my appreciation. He looked at me and said, "No thank you. Pay it forward." 

And off they went, horses chuffing and the sledge grating on the road surface, chains jangling and a silent score of unassuming heroes getting back to their chores. Back in the car, we thought about how "help thy neighbour" is a lost concept in the world we live in, but not in their world. It's like that in Newfoundland too, that's one reason I love the place so much.

And off we went, to a nearby rural bakery for a 'slice' and a coffee. We bought pies to take home. We messed up making change paying for them and I ended up giving them $10 too much. That's OK, they needed it more than me. 

Homeward Bound! Picture by Larry 

I will. Pay it forward.

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Ice Fishing is a "Thing"

Tourist season in the Highlands is of course in the summer. The population increases by an order of magnitude, the likelihood of meeting another car on the road is actually higher than that of encountering a deer. Then comes the fall; after the leaves are down people batten down the hatches and prepare for the onslaught of winter. But among them are those who spend their time figuratively sharpening their fishing rods and getting ready to wander out on the ice in search of finny food. And there are actually people who come up here in order to sit out on the ice, braving the wintry chill or in heated huts, in the off-chance that some frigid fish might swim by and grab a wriggling minnow. The Inns and B&B's actually have customers in the winter!

Of course that presumes that they actually go out there to fish. When I've visited ice fishing huts in the past, one can attain a blood-alcohol content greater than 0.8 just by breathing. But these people are obsessive about getting out there. To the point where, well, all their brain cells have fizzled and died.

Listen. It was +7°C and raining last week. Obviously the ice was thick enough for him to get out there (he's about 150m away from shore) and that's surface water you're seeing but just behind him is fast flowing water from the 12-Mile Lake dam which NEVER freezes, and he's fishing through an opening in the ice. A candidate for the Darwin Awards. I drove by an hour later and the red hut was there but he wasn't.

I got to thinking what would happen if he fell in? All I would be able to do would be to dial 9-1-1 and watch as he drowned. That's all anyone could do. Folks, let's not be stupid out there. 

Now when it gets colder, and there's a foot of solid ice out there, it's another story. This is on 12-Mile Lake opposite me — half a dozen huts are out there now.  I haven't been out to visit yet but I should be able to this weekend. 

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Algonquin Park

I do go there a lot. Some days you don't see anything interesting to photograph but a day in the Park is better than a day at home (or in the office) ANY time. Dr. Ron and a group of people were up for the weekend, staying in a beautiful cabin (OK, "house". 'way bigger than mine!) in Dwight. I had a commitment for Sunday, so I just came up to visit for the day on Saturday, and Amin came with me. 

My "Sunday" commitment was to go to Toronto and pick up that 200-400 f/4 Nikon lens I told you about last week. Got it! Yahoo!

Ron has one of these lenses. He's a good friend and he let me use it for the day before parting with all my shekels for the one I was buying. With the usual caveat, "you drop it, you own it". Actually, I took it to mean, "you SCRATCH it, you own it". I was really careful!

It is an AWESOME lens. Here's the very first shot I took with it:

Dr. Ron. Straight out of camera, not even cropped. Wide open at f/4. I love it.  

One of the first stops we made to photograph was along Hwy 60 — the cycle of warm, wet and cold has created outstanding frozen water cascades along the rock surfaces on the roadside. The colour variations in the ice are beautiful, a watercolour painter would kill for that effect. As near as I can figure it out: thin ice structures are basically white, while the thick ones have more colour. If the water has dragged bits of earth down with it, there's a yellowish-brown tinge. But once that has cleared, new water dripping down will take on a blue or green cast due to trapped gasses or the way ice crystals refract light. Icebergs display similar characteristics but even more pronounced. 

I enhanced this painted image to illustrate the colour variations 

Luba Citrin trying to decide what to shoot.  Choices are almost infinite, from sweeping wide angles to textured surfaces and details, down to plants trapped in the ice or even macro shots. 

Here's a sequence of three shots I did of a lonely alderberry twig trapped in the ice.  I still don't know how to crop it! 

Then I decided to turn it into an impressionist image using both the Seven Styles Watercolour action (which doesn't work perfectly in the latest 2018 Photoshop, have to work on that) and finishing it with Topaz Studio, starting with the Impasto preset in Impression and modifying from there.

This should make a dandy canvas print. My walls are getting full, though! 

There's a canvas print supplier I've been working with who is offering incredibly discounted prices. I can happily sell stretched, wrapped canvas images up to 24 x 36 inches at surprisingly low prices. This is a time-limited offer, anyone interested should contact me ASAP. If you are a subscriber to this blog you will have received more detail (see below)

We stopped at the Visitor Centre to shoot birds at the big feeders around back. I was motivated to test that borrowed 200-400mm lens and I gave it a good workout. Literally: I did not pull out the tripod and gimbal mount so I shot handheld, albeit braced on the balcony railing. I've had tendonitis in my left wrist ever since! 9 pounds doesn't sound that heavy but when it's jutting out cantilevered from the camera...

Here's a female white-winged crossbill shot with the 400mm. Cropped a bit... and I got lucky with the sun on the bird and the dark background.  

This is a goldfinch in its winter plumage, puffed out to insulate itself against the biting cold (it was -22°C and who knows what the windchill was!). This was at 650mm because I had mounted the 1.7x converter for a few shots. I love the bokeh of the background in this shot, wide open at approximately f/6.7 (1/1000k sec, ISO 450). I edited two versions of this shot, the other one with added clarity and detail and sharpening done in Studio but this one is only basic Lightroom edits, so this is what came out of the camera. Or the lens.

La pièce de résistance. This is an immature male red crossbill. I had no idea they were so colourful! This shot has earned more "likes" on Facebook than any other picture I've put up. Originally I said that I didn't see what the front of the bird looked like, until I went through my images and found a couple of others, which I had initially rejected for focus and other reasons.

If you follow this blog (click the Newsletter icon at top right), you will have received a heads-up email with one of those frontal pictures included. I always include a picture that I haven't posted anywhere else. 

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Two final comments before we close for today: 

• Kudo's to Subaru who, as my readers already know, replaced my engine because it burned too much oil, even though I had over 200,000 km on the car. I did end up paying for some service — my oil pan was leaking and my rad had a crack in it, and I needed new brakes all around — but now I have a car I can continue driving for much longer. Eddie and the crew at Minden Subaru are the best, and
• I really am seriously considering Newfoundland for the entire summer. If you want to come to Newfoundland, I'm planning to rent a 2-bedroom place so that some of my photographer or artist friends can visit. I'll guide them to some of the best spots and I've already been in touch with one or more of the premier photographers on the Rock to provide guiding services as well. But it's time to start looking at who might be coming and when; you need to get in touch with me if you'd like to talk about it.

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