All posts by Paul Cipywnyk

Pets, Photography, Technology

Reviving Nikon D300

After some 40 years of shooting with film cameras, my first DSLR was a Nikon D300. I still have it but hadn’t used it in years.

Today I ran across its battery charger as I was cleaning out some desk drawers, so I charged up the battery, put a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle zoom on it (15-30mm equivalent on this sensor), and tested it out on Sora the Cat.

Pretty good. . .

I see on my old blog that I got the D300 on April 16, 2008. 🙂

D300s are built like tanks, and though just 12MP, that’s plenty for web and online work and prints of moderate size.

sora the cat nikon D300

Nature, Photography

Centennial Beach Ramble in Delta, BC

It was cold and windy, but enjoyed the wildlife at Centennial Beach Regional Park in Delta, BC.

Centennial Beach views Delta BC
Somewas was building a causeway toward Cresent Beach in south Surrey, but they gave up with about 10km to go 🙂


Gulls were dropping shellfish to crack them open

gulls heron harrier centennial bach delta bc


Great Blue Heron at the pond


Northern Harrier over the marsh.


Yellowlegs?


Golden-crowned Sparrow

Nature, Photography, Streamkeeping

Learning to See Nature

So I’d never seen, or photographed, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet until a few weeks ago, and now I’m coming across them at least once a week in south Burnaby.

Here’s one from today’s walk.

ruby-crowned kinglet burnaby bc

I wonder if I’d been seeing them all along for years, but just considered them another LBB (little brown bird).

I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in spotting various birds, fish, animals, and even plants. Once you learn what they are, you start “seeing” them more often.

A great example is spotting salmon fry hatching out in the creek in the spring. Most people don’t notice them. Sometimes it’s hard for them to see fry even when you’re pointing them out.

But walk the creek several days a week, year after year, and you learn where you are most likely to see the first fry of the year.