Category Archives: Photography

Camping, Hiking, Nature, Photography, Travel

Whidbey Island Camping

Whidbey Island in Washington State has become one of our favorite camping destinations. There are several state parks on the island, which, depending on time at the border, takes about two-and-half to three hours to reach from our home in Burnaby, BC.

Deception Pass State Park west beach
Yumi scanning the ocean at Deception Pass State Park west beach

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Seal pup on rocky outcropping near the west beach at Deception Pass State Park

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Sunset at Deception Pass State Park west beach

deception_pass_lock_20140914 Interesting patterns on parks pass lockbox

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Love the grainy detail on the handle on a beach BBQ box

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The wharf at Coupeville, a funky town mid-island

Deception Pass campground
Our campsite at Deception Pass State Park.

We’ve grown to love Whidbey Island ever since we “discovered it” several years ago. Lots of nature, wonderful state parks, lovely beaches, a variety of wildlife, yet all accompanied by easy access to groceries, shopping, etc.

And the state parks are quiet. We marvel at how even on busy weekends campers are near totally silent by 9:30 and definitely by the 10:00 pm quiet time.

Photography, Society, Streamkeeping

Alta Vista Community Picnic in South Burnaby Great Fun

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The Alta Vista Park Community Picnic in South Burnaby is always a great event. It’s truly a community gathering, and the organizers are excellent.

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers have participated for many years, and it’s one of our favourite events.

Some photos from yesterday:

Alta Vista Park Picnic - Streamkeeepers
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers booth

Alta Vista Park Picnic - Pols and Orgnaizers
Organizers with local politicians

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Arts and crafts

Alta Vista Park Picnic - Fire TruckBurnaby Fire Department

Alta Vista Park Picnic - Mini GolfMini golf

Alta Vista Park Picnic - Air Guitar ContestAir guitar contest led by the popular band Rainshadow

Nature, Photography, Travel

Lovely Day on Duffy Lake Road Loop in BC

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Gorgeous day today on the Duffy Lake Road loop. Burnaby > Whistler > Pemberton > Lillooet > Lytton > Hope > Burnaby.

I try to do this loop at least once every couple of years. You can do it fairly comfortably in a day, with several stops here and there along the way.

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Duffy Lake
Duffy Lake

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Seton Lake

cayoosh_creek_bugs_2_20140912 Cool beetle near Cayoosh Creek

Spruce Sawyer, I’m told. That looks right.

cayoosh_creek_bugs_20140912Lots of big aquatic bugs in Cayoosh Creek

Google Map of Duffy Lake road loop

Google Maps has the trip at 580km and about 8 driving hours

Business, Photography, Technology

Copying Photos to New Computer

Tonight I started the process of copying my photos to my new Windows 8.1 computer. I have set up the Photos folder to automagically redirect to the D drive (second 2TB hard drive that I specified to be installed in the new system).

Instructions on how to redirect a folder here.

The new computer is now copying 154,596 files, for a total of 1.22TB from a NAS (network attached storage) backup system. Windows 8.1 estimates that this will take about 12 hours. Initially it thought 17 hours. OK, now 8.5 hours. Whatever. That’s why it’s great to have more than one computer when you rely on them for business and pleasure. I am writing this on my Mac Mini that I mostly use to fool around on.

I like having my photos on an internal HD. Faster access than on a NAS or external USB drive. I use NAS and USB for backup.

Photography

Paul’s Photo Tips — Tip 5 — Take Lots of Photos

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Take Lots of Photos

Shoot shoot shoot. You learn by doing, so do.

Take photos from different angles, try different exposures, move closer up, move farther away. Experiment with faster and slower shutter speeds, and larger and smaller apertures. Try some at wide angle, try some at telephoto. Try some with flash, some without. Try fill-in flash.

If you don’t want to lug a DSLR around all the time, carry a pocket camera and take photos here, there, and everywhere. Practice gets you closer to perfect.

In the old days of film, every shot cost. Cost for film, cost for developing, cost for printing. The first two costs are now minimal, though you can still spend a lot on printing.

With digital, you can take thousands of photos for less than a penny to at most two or three cents per shot – and those pennies are reusable.

Examples of card prices taken from the NCIX website today:

32GB MicroSDHC Class 10 C$15.99

64GB MicroSDHC Class 10 C$28.99

On a 24-megapixel camera set to RAW + JPEG, 32GB gets you over 700 shots. So fire away, and then delete and edit later.

This is not to say that you should mindlessly bang away on your shutter button. You should still compose and expose each photo as best you can, just don’t be reticent about taking lots of different views with different settings.