Category Archives: Photography

Plants in the Rain — Some Macro Minis

I took advantage of a lull in the rain to get some closeup shots around our front door and on our balcony. Also one of our turtle under her sun lamp.

For the photographers, these were shot with a Nikon D300 DSLR and my all-manual, some 35-year-old 55mm/3.5 Micro Nikkor.

rain drops on leaf

rain drops on leaf

rain drops on leaf

rain drops on leaf

rain drops on blossom

Turtle face
Dori looks more orange than green with the warm color temperature of her basking lamp

Nikon, Broadway Camera Event at Iona Beach, YVR

I took in the Broadway Camera / Nikon Canada camera/lens event at Iona Beach Regional Park near YVR (Vancouver International Airport). It was fun trying out all the latest Nikon gear, and huge Nikkor telephoto and telephoto zoom lenses.

I fell in lust with the new Nikon D500 just as I figured I would. Amazingly responsive autofocus and blazing speed make for a superb wildlife camera. Going to need to save up a lot of coins in the spare change jar! : -)

I then shot some osprey and tree swallow photos with my, er, Tamron 150-600mm lens : -). Hey, I’ve got several Nikon DSLRs and half a dozen Nikkors, too!

Nikon camera event

osprey iona beach

osprey iona beach

osprey iona beach

tree swallow iona beach

tree swallow iona beach

Byrne Creek Runs Milky Day After Fish Release

I was shocked to see Byrne Creek running a milky gray-green the day after volunteer streamkeepers and local schoolchildren released several thousand coho smolts (yearlings) into the creek.

I called the City of Burnaby, and neither City staff nor I saw any dead or distressed fish, but folks, please remember that NOTHING is to go down street drains other than rain.

We missed a bullet today!

byrne creek pollution
Griffiths’ Pond near Edmonds Skytrain Station

Coho Smolt Release on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC

Kids from Glenwood Elementary, volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society, and DFO Community Advisor Maurice Coulter-Boisvert released coho smolts in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby this morning. Great to have help from City of Burnaby staff, too!

A few shots of the fun:

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DFO CA Maurice

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Talking salmon life cycle

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Netting smolts in the transport tank

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City of Burnaby staff help fill baggies of fish for the kids

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Handing out baggies of fish

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Streamkeeper volunteers supervise releases

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A lovely coho smolt

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After the kids had to leave to get back to school, we released the rest of the salmon in the artificial spawning channel

Byrne Creek coho smolt release

Never Work for Free

Cleaning my office today I ran across some words of wisdom posted to the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (Japan) mail list back in 1996 by Fred Uleman, quoting “Hugh Gigante of MktgMavens”:

1. I never work free of charge
2. I never work cheap
3. I charge more than others because I am better than them
4. I never get paid based on performance, only deliverables
5. I define deliverables
6. I always have more of the client’s money than he has of my time
7. Rates go up every six months
8. People who want work free or on spec must first show that they are working on the same basis, and are a legal charity
9. Every client can be fired, any day
10. Repeat number 1.