Category Archives: Photography

Brooding Bridge, Birds, Berries in SE Burnaby, BC

I walked from Edmonds Skytrain Station in SE #Burnaby to 22nd St. Station and back after lunch. It was quiet, only a couple of Anna’s Hummingbirds (one at our feeder and one on the trail), a few robins, and assorted sparrows in Taylor Park.

There were some lovely colors to be found in berries and leaves along the way. . .

alex fraser bridge bc
The Alex Fraser Bridge as seen from the urban trail. Deliberately underexposed to enhance the brooding appearance.

american robin burnaby bc

anna's hummingbird burnaby bc

colorful buds leaves burnaby bc

Salmonella Killing Pine Siskins – Please Remove Feeders

Yumi found this dead Pine Siskin yesterday. She picked it up using a plastic bag, and buried it.

She found it near the Green townhouse complex on Southridge Dr. in SE Burnaby, not far from Taylor Park Elementary School.

dead pine siskin burnaby bc

It exhibited the symptoms of salmonellosis — emaciated, discharge at mouth, etc. Do not touch birds with bare hands, this can spread to other species.

Please take down your feeders, folks, as more cases of salmonellosis are being reported. Apparently Pine Siskins are particularly vulnerable as they flock to feeders around this time of year.

The advice is to take your feeder down for at least two weeks, and clean up any seeds on the ground.

Taking My Own Advice About Photography

Back in 2014 I wrote six blog posts on what I called “Paul’s Photo Tips.” Today I took my own advice regarding “Tip 2 – Read the Manual.”

I hadn’t looked at the manual for my Nikon D7500 in years, and on this quiet, rainy day, with the cat on my lap, I read its over 300 pages. Much of that information will also apply to my D7200.

It was a valuable exercise, as I was reminded of features and functions that I rarely use, and many of which I’ve never even tried.

I also got refresher on setting up autofocus and metering optimized to the kind of nature and wildlife photography that I mostly do.

And something that I’ve never taken advantage of is setting up the programmable dedicated function buttons to suit the sorts of situations I often shoot in.

Here are links to the six tips:

Tip 1 – Take some classes

Tip 2 – Read the manual

Tip 3 – It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer

Tip 4 – It is the camera

Tip 5 – Take lots of photos

Tip 6 – Carry extra cards and batteries