Sailboats

This morning I decided to share photos of sailboats in Holyrood Harbour. The local marina is home to many sailboats and during the summer months there are races in which they, and people from other marinas compete. If I am near the harbour with my camera when sailboats are on the water, I usually take the time to make a few photographs.

The first photo shows four or five boats that were getting ready to line up for a race. These boats looked very close together and seemed to be going in all directions but the pilots were skillful and there were no collisions. I am amazed that they can control the sailboats so well when they are dependent on wind for power.

I have only been on a sailboat once and remember how quiet it was; the only sound was the wind blowing and flapping of the sails. It was an enjoyable boat ride, but it was a fairly calm day and I suspect it wouldn't be quite as peaceful if it had been much windier.

Icebergs

I just checked www.icebergfinder.com and there are a few icebergs in Notre Dame Bay and quite a few off the Great Northern Peninsula and Labrador. Hopefully a few will find their way to Conception Bay before they become grounded or are blown offshore.

The icebergs I am sharing today were located in Spaniard's Bay in 2003 and I was fortunate to have gotten out to photograph them on three or four occasions. What you see in the photos are three remaining pieces of one very large iceberg that remained there all summer.

If you have been on my list for any length of time, you know I enjoy photographing icebergs and have made images of every iceberg I have seen. My son Mark and I created a DVD of icebergs in 2005 which we offer for sale. http://www.lanephotography.com/photo_products/photo_products_02.htm

Sheep

There are many places on the island where one will find sheep grazing on the cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean. Today's photographs were taken in Upper Island Cove, Conception Bay.

While I was making the photographs I thought that these particular animals looked very healthy and could be a particular breed of sheep. I know Newfoundland and Labrador has its own unique specie of sheep, but have no idea if these animals are that particular specie or not.

These animals were grazing in a fenced area, but they had lots of space to move about. I liked the views with Conception Bay in the background because I normally associate sheep with farms rather than the ocean.

Another Moose

Our local newscasts and open line shows have been flooded with reports of moose on or near the highways all across the province. Most radio stations broadcast "moose alerts" that tell people where moose have been spotted and, since most people have cell phones, there are a lot. I saw a moose while driving on the highway at night (which I avoid as much as possible) last week and another the next morning. There have been several accidents and at least one fatality in recent weeks so please be careful if you are driving on the highways here, especially this time of the year when the mothers have driven young calves away and left them on their own.

I haven't seen the mother and yearling since I photographed them on May 4, but a couple of days ago a large bull wandered onto my property just as the sun was going down for the day. Of course, I grabbed my camera and approached it slowly. I think this is a different moose than the ones I have been photographing for over a year, because it wasn't as used to me as the others were. As I approached, it became nervous and started to move away. I followed it into the woods and it ran from me - the young bull I had been photographing used to approach me, rather than run away.

Gorilla 4

This is the last of my Gorilla series and I hope you have enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them. This was the only time I had seen gorillas at such close range and even though I was shooting through thick glass, I was still impressed with the final images.

I remember years ago, Jane Goodall filmed chimpanzees using reeds of grass to catch termites and said it was the first example of animals using "tools". In fact. it made scientists rethink how they viewed the intelligence of animals.

I saw the gorilla in the first image pick up a twig and use it to scratch itself. Another (shown in yesterday's photos) was tapping on a ball. I uploaded a couple of close-ups of its hands to my Blog. In several of the photos I have shared this week, the gorillas were looking at me as curiously as I looked at them.

The last photo shows a gorilla looking at me and almost smiling for the camera. It actually looks a little shy. :)

Gorilla 3

I've been calling the primates shown over the past couple of days, "apes", but they are Western Lowland Gorillas from the rainforests of Western Africa.

Today's photos show three individuals that were photographed through the glass enclosure at the Calgary Zoo. It is amazing how close I was to these animals - close enough to capture an image of one of their eyes.

For those of you who photograph animals through glass enclosures at zoos, you have to remember to shoot without a flash and place the camera as close to the glass as possible. You may have noticed the hand prints on the glass in the photos of the little girl watching the gorillas in yesterday's post. I tried to make a few photos through the glass while sitting, but there was so many handprints that I had to stand, otherwise it was too smeary. As well, a flash would cause too many reflections unless the lens was actually touching the glass.

Because the photographs were shot inside, I had to set the ISO at 1600, but many cameras these days have auto-ISO, which means that the camera will set it automatically when you move from bright to dark situations. That function avoids the possibility of shooting outside at 1600 without noticing - that happened to me a few times. :)

If I lived near the zoo, I would spend a much longer time photographing the gorillas in order to catch more facial expressions and more of their actions which make them so human-like.

Gorillas 2

I had moved on from the apes' enclosure, but saw one of the apes heading towards a window in a dark room. I went back because I knew I could make a photo or two without too many reflections on the glass. I saw the young girl looking through the glass at the approaching ape and since I knew I wouldn't have time to change lenses, backed up to get a photo before the ape passed by. It later sat down next to a ball and started beating it like a drum.

When photographing subjects through a glass enclosure, I try to get as close to the glass as possible to avoid getting reflections.