March 2008
Love those longer days
Deas Island
When it's a nice day in spring, you really
feel the
need to go out for a walk to take advantage of it. We went
looking for something close by and Deas Island (on the Fraser river
between Richmond and Delta) looked good.
The plant life isn't particularly wild, but there was still lots to
look at. The island was once a farm and there are some buildings
from that era.
There weren't a lot of birds around but I was really happy to see a Red
Tail Hawk fly by and then perch on a near by tree. We took lots
of photos and the hawk didn't seem to care. We heard a bald eagle
cry and sundenly our Hawk puffed up and looked bigger as they looked
around. Shortly there after, the bird flew on.
The trails were nice, but boring.
Walking closer
to shore, we saw a small woodpecker on
a fallen piece of lumber.
A nice walk for a short spring day.
Cross Country at Silver Star
Last year Helen, Mark and I did a
ski day trip to Manning Park for
some "not cypress" cross country skiing. This year we
decided to take on something larger - Silver Star.
The
mountain actually has about three distinct ski
areas. Near the village there are trails (including some lit
night trails) that go around and down. From the village you can
also take the lift up to the top of and ski down the mountain (around
the peak, the long way down) back to the village. Finally, you
can also ski over the soverign lake ski area (but the transit isn't
well signed) and ski around the large area there. Out first day
(just off the bus) we tried the trails around the resort. Our
second day we headed over to soverign lakes and back.
Taking photos while cross country skiing isn't exactly
easy. The camera (which doesn't like snow, cold or being fallen
upon) stays inside a padded camera bag inside my backpack. When I
do want to take photos it's a procedure to open the two bags to get it
out. The scenes are full of white so getting detail for a sense
of depth is difficult. Finally, most of the skiing takes place in
forests which isn't exactly compelling material.
Always wanting to try something new, I tried taking photos while
skiing. We had a long, slow downhill part and with the lens
closed down as much as possible, I took some long exposures to try and
convey a sense of speed. I like the effect.
I think the point of trying to take photos while skiing is to see
conditions and terrain you don't normally see. On the Sunday
morning, we had some beautiful blue skies and the snow conditions were
excelent. It was a great day of skiing.
Tags: Do Not Tag(5), skiing(5), snow(5), forest(4), bird(3), motion blur(2)
People: Helen(4), Mark(3), John(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > 03_2008
Last Modified Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 23:46:11 Edit
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