Horse

A few years ago, I was driving by Bryant's Cove and saw what I thought was a Newfoundland Pony (Yes, we have our own species of horse). I am not certain if this was a Newfoundland Pony or not, but it was a small horse compared to many I see on my travels.

The first photo was taken as I approached the animal. I wanted to show the entire animal in the setting - a large field on a cliff in Conception Bay.

The second photo is more abstract - When I focused on the grass and saw the horse looking towards me, I decided to take the photo even though the horse is out of focus. When I look at the first two photos I get different feelings.

I knelt down to capture the third image. Just as I was about to take the photo, something startled it and it drew its head back. At first I was disappointed, but when I reviewed the photo, I liked it.

I have 6 more photos of horses on line at: http://lanephotography.com/horses/horses.htm

Pond

This morning I am sharing a couple of photos taken from my front deck. Approximately 150 feet from the house there is a small pond around 20 feet in diameter. The quality of the photos isn't that great because of the lateness of the day, and the views don't show much of the property, but I plan to photograph the entire property throughout the summer and share more with you.

The first photo is an image of several birch trees that are growing between my house and the pond in the background. The leaf buds are stating to open after a few warm days. I focused on the trees which were brighter because of the setting sun and you can barely see the pond because of the shade.

The second is a wider view that shows part of the driveway. I used some crushed rock (that I raked) to build a little trail around part of the pond. (We are considering putting a few small fish in it.) The lower part of the land was completely shaded and when I focused there, I knew the photo would be too bright but I wanted to show you a better view of the trail.

As you can see, we are living in the woods.

Tulips

Last fall we planted a couple of dozen tulip and daffodil bulbs which are adding colour to the gravel around our house. Last night I photographed the tulips, which look like they will soon bloom.

I liked the rich colours created by the green leaves of the daffodils in the background. I used my 70 x 300mm lens at maximum zoom and the sun was just about to set behind the trees.

Blue Jay

I don't remember seeing blue jays around Grand Falls when I was a kid, but there have been lots of them around since I moved to Holyrood. A pair visit my house every day to check for food. All winter I threw out sunflower seeds and several species of birds still visit even though I have given up feeding them.

The blue jays are smart birds and keep their distance, but I feel they have learned that my wife and I are sources of food. They will come closer than any other blue jays I have observed over the years. I have a feeling we could train them to come even closer, but there are two things keeping me from doing just that. First, we have two cats and my son has two cats which often hang around here. Secondly, I feel it would be a mistake if they learned to trust people because the next people they come across may not be as quite as friendly and they may be hurt or killed.

The day I took these photos, I was sitting quietly on my back deck when they arrived. I observed them for a while, then went inside to get my camera. I returned a few seconds later and they flew into the trees, but as soon as I settled, they once again flew to the ground for food. They kept a close eye on me, but didn't seem to be too afraid.

If any of you get photos of birds, or anything else of interest, feel free to send them to our Photo Album Project at school - www.mqp.k12.nf.ca/photoalbum . Send photos to me or mqpphotos@mqp.k12.nf.ca

Sunset

Several people have wondered what the view from my front deck is like. Today's photo was taken last evening just after the sun set below the horizon.

The colours were soft and all I could hear were robins singing - a very peaceful night.

Flood

Last summer we had such a heavy rainfall on the Avalon Peninsula that several communities were damaged by flooding. This morning I am sharing three photos that I took at our local swimming park. Hopefully, it will be a while before we get heavy rains like that again.

I liked the sign which says that people swim at own risk at all times. I don't think anyone will be silly enough to swim when the water is this high!

Jumping off Signal Hill

Last year around this time I attended a conference of young people from all across Canada. Today's photos were taken on a field trip to Signal Hill during which I photographed two girls "jumping off Signal Hill"!

Of course, I took over a dozen photos of the girls running, then jumping. I am sharing three images taken that day. The first shows both girls as they jumped as high as they could. The others were taken from the side and I tried to capture them just as they left the cliff.

These type shots are hard to capture because it is hard to predict exactly when they were going to jump. I shot as fast as I could hoping to capture them at the right moment. I was lucky to get a few good shots.

I have more People photos on line at: http://lanephotography.com/people/people.htm

Abstracts

Last summer on one of my many walks to the hills behind my house I photographed a pitcher plant from an unusual angle. I held the camera under the plant and shot upwards towards the sky. To be honest, I didn't like the result because it was a too bright in the top left corner.

Around the same time, I had downloaded a free paint program that I have since installed on the computers at school. Several students have been playing with it and getting interesting results. The program is called Paint.net. ( http://www.getpaint.net/ ) I am including three images that I created with the program.

The first is the original, which would have been more successful had the sun not been in the top left of the photo. I used one of the tools to swirl the flowers. I also removed one of the stems and started to create more cloud-like textures.

To make the third image, I flipped the image and removed the stem to make it a little more mysterious. The absence of the stem makes it harder to identify. The cloud textures and bright area still bothered me, so I removed it. I wondered what it would look like if I added the same image and flipped it in the opposite direction. I liked the result.

I was going to send the fourth image and have you guys guess what it was, but figured it would be very difficult. :)

I have more Photo Art and Shapes and Textures on line at: http://lanephotography.com/abstracts.htm

Hands

Yesterday, at school, we had a special presentation by a large high-school band from Fredericton, New Brunswick. I took over 100 photos of hands during the part of the presentation that I saw. I knew that I already have many photos of "musical" hands, but I don't often get a chance to photograph the hands of teenagers. I was glad I did, because they had some musical instruments that our kids don't use.

All photos were taken hand-held without a flash in the school gym. I changed the ISO to 1600 and took lots of photos because I knew that the hands were moving and it would be hard to capture an image that was in focus. The shutter speed ranged from 1/30 - 1/50 of a second.
I have a Musical Hands Gallery at: http://lanephotography.com/hands/hands_01.htm

Daffodils

Last night as the sun was setting, I noticed that the daffodils looked very beautiful as they were bathed in the soft light. Yes, in my yard, even though I am still raking my property, flowers are starting to grow.

Last fall, I dug holes in 4 areas, filled them with compost and planted several types of bulbs. I believe that every bulb has started to grow and is now adding colour to an otherwise colourless yard near my house! Of course, the woods (less than 20 feet from my house) are growing normally and are coming to life over the past few days because of the warmer weather.

Antiques

It was a beautiful day here yesterday with temperatures reaching 20°C (72°F). It was definitely the best weather we have had so far this year. We deserve it!

I am sharing photos taken at an "Antique Show" we had at school one time. The watch has an image of a train and the words R.R. Special. I wonder if it stands for "Rail Road" Special?
I own the antique record player. I have had it since the late 60s and it still works, though some of the original components are in bad shape.

I have a large collection of "antiques" because I photograph objects in museums whenever I can.

I have other photos of "Objects" at: http://lanephotography.com/objects/objects.htm

Sunsets

When I lived in Grand Falls back in the 70s, I often travelled to Rushy Pond to photograph sunsets because I liked the reflections in the water.

The three photos this morning illustrate that each sunset looks different and that they are all beautiful. When there are lots of clouds, the sunset is usually more dramatic than if there are only a few (or no) clouds.

I uploaded a video of Florida sunrises to my Blog today: Photo of the Day Blog

Sailboat

I have been sending out my Photo of the Day for over the five years and many people have commented on the beauty of Newfoundland and Labrador and how thankful they are to be able to see it through my photographs.

As the people who have been on this list for a while already know, I try to share current photos of what I see. During winter months, when it is hard to get lots of photos around here, I go back through my files and look for photos that you may find interesting. For the past few years I usually send more than one photo related to my theme - EVERYTHING'S A PICTURE.

It has been so foggy over the past couple of weeks that I haven't gotten many recent photos. As a result, this morning I am sharing photos of a sailboat that I photographed from another boat in Conception Bay in early July, 2003. I find it interesting that the four couples on this boat don't even know that these photos exist.

There are more photos of boats at: http://lanephotography.com/boats/boatpics/boatpics_intro.htm

Horses

The first photo today was taken in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia.

To create images of a unicorn, I used Corel PhotoPaint to convert the image to black and white and painted it to make it look like nighttime. Then I drew the horns to create mysterious looking images of unicorns. Since I am not an artist, drawing the horns was the most difficult part of creating the images.

I am hoping that we'll see the sun for a while this weekend. If so, I will probably photograph the icebergs again. They will have changed over the past week!

Icebergs

I am sharing a couple of photos of icebergs this morning because I have uploaded a slide show of the icebergs I have seen in 2008 to my Blog.

The iceberg was stuck in Quidi Vidi Harbour for at least a week. It may be gone now but it has been so foggy this week that I am not sure if it still around or not. It is supposed to warm up a little this weekend and I may get a chance to photograph a couple more icebergs that were here last week.

Feel free to check my Blog - Photo of the Day Blog

If you haven't checked my 10 Iceberg Galleries feel free to go to: http://lanephotography.com/icebergs/icebergs2.htm

Devonian Gardens

I wasn't going to send more photos of Calgary, but one of the people on my list mentioned Devonian Gardens so I decided to share photos of a very beautiful statue that I photographed on my last visit. I photographed this statue on my first visit to Calgary in 1988. Of course, I was using slide film then, so I can't show you the images I made during that visit. :)

Feel free to check out my Calgary Art Galleries at: http://lanephotography.com/calgary/Calgary_Art_01.htm

Calgary

While in Calgary I walked around the downtown area several times and photographed all the sculptures I could find. I really liked the tall sculptures of young people. This morning I am sharing a couple of the silhouettes I took which show the hands of the figures. There are a few more on my Calgary Art Gallery.

Feel free to check out my Calgary Art Galleries at: http://lanephotography.com/calgary/Calgary_Art_01.htm

Calgary

Imagine the difference my backyard in Holyrood and the scenes of Calgary I am sharing today.
Feel free to check out my Calgary Galleries at: http://lanephotography.com/calgary/Calgary_Buildings_01.htm

Sorry about the brevity of the photo of the day for the past few days; I am working on a project and am very busy!

Spring

In mid-May 2005, we were a little further ahead in terms of plant growth. The catkins on the alders around here aren't visible and there are no lupines around either, yet!

Sorry about the brevity of the photo of the day for the past few days; I am working on a project and am very busy!