John Harvey Photo

March 2020

Go to Slide Show Smaller Images A month of losing things


March is a bit of a weird month for us.  Normally we go to Asia for Spring break to visit family.  With the Corona virus outbreak we had to cancel our trip and come up with new plans for the month of March.  Some months I take nearly no photos in Vancouver in March so this year is an outlier.

Lighthouse Park

I've always like Lighthouse park - short walk to see a lighthouse and nice beach access.  The only downside is that the parking lot can fill up and parking becomes a challenge.

Hummingbird In New GrowthWalking Down To Beach

Lighthouse In Background

Claira managed to bring her natives rather than regular shoes and socks so we were worried she wouldn't have good grip while walking around on the rocky beach.   Some of the rocks are quite slippery but she did well in her shoes.

View Of The CityHiding In Driftwood Roots

Sunset from the office roof

I work in a tower downtown and I recently discovered that we have roof access after hours. It was a nice day so I brought my tripod and camera and took a time lapse during sunset.  This particular sequence (667 frames) started at 5:31pm and ended at 7:00pm.  Sunset was at 6:05pm.

 

Taking a timelapse of sunset has a challenges, a few of which I got wrong. My biggest two mistakes were allowing the tripod to shift mid sequence and allowing the aperture to get too large causing vignetting in the corners.  A few things went well here.  I started with the exposure compensation set to -2 steps so that I didn't blow out the sky.  I took photos every 8 seconds, and made sure that the shutter time didn't hit 8 seconds.  I took enough photos.

What I didn't realize is that we only had a week left of working in the office before they closed the studio and sent us all home work.

Taekwondo Belt Testing

The kids have been doing Taekwondo for about a year and have progressed up to yellow belt.  Today they did their testing for orange belt.  They had to demonstrate two "Poomse" - forms that demonstrate a number of blocks and response in order.

Claira Doing PounceClaira Pounce BlockingNara Doing Sweeping KickNara Kicking
Both kids passed to orange belt!

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

The bird sanctuary can be a good way to make both me and the kids happy - they enjoy feeding the birds I like to take photos.  We hit kind of a weird window - the winter owls have left but the spring babies have yet to arrive.   When you buy your bird food at the gate they ask if you want Chickadee food or duck food.  We reliably go through two bags of duck food per kid, but this time we also picked up a bag of chickadee food.  Once we walked into the park it was clear that the Redwing blackbirds were hungry because they were very close to people.  They would easily comes to kids hands and eat half a dozen seeds before flying off.
 
Claira With Red Winged Black BirdRed Winged Black Bird With Seed


We walked around various ponds before we found chickadee's.  They are much less patient with landing on peoples hands.  They will generally take one seed and go back to a tree before eating it.  The would eat about three seeds before they went off to do whatever they wanted to.  We did find a pair excavating hole in a tree - perhaps some day a nest hole.

Nara With ChickadeeChickadee Flies Out Of Clairas HandChickadee In Hand

It wasn't warm so the cut the day short and headed into town for lunch.  They closed the Reifel bird Sanctuary a few days later to help reduce the spread of COVID19.

Cambie Street Bridge Sunset

I tried a sunset Timelapse a week ago (just before the daylight savings change) and it had some problems.  I wanted to try again and do better.



I didn't anticipate how windy it was going to be.  It was cold, but the surprise was how much the anchored sailboats were blowing around in the wind.  The false creek ferries and aquabus's made this timelapse more interesting.   Both of the ferry companies closed a day or two later to help combat COVID 19.

Airport from the Oak Street Bridge

For the first week of spring break we got unseasonably good weather - a whole week of clear skies instead of the usual month of rain clouds.  On a Thursday night I decided to try and take a timelapse of the airport.


The best places would be the Arthur Laing bridge.  Unfortunately, there is no sidewalk and a sign that says no pedestrians.  You couldn't even take the photos with a bike - there is a no stopping sign.  The best I could was the Oak Street Bridge, one bridge back.  This video had challenges too.  Turns out there are a lot of birds flying through this area and birds don't work well with timelapse - the look like flickering noise.  I had to blend 465 frames to make something reasonable.

QE Park Birding

It was a nice morning and I figured birding in a park still passed the social distancing rule.
 
Golden Crown Kinglet Chasing InsectGolden Crown Kinglet Looking At Me
I can see how birding is addictive.  There can be a long "chase" where you try to spot something interesting and then a risk/reward phase as you try to get close enough fast enough to get a good composition but not so fast or close that you scare your bird.  Eventually the bird flies to do something interesting and the cycle starts again. 

Golden Crown Kinglet Side View
 


Bushtit In The Sun
I once got advice to try and get a single good photo out a day rather than trying to get a larger number of mediocre shots.  That can be tough if your first encounter is the best you have for the day.




Hummingbird In New Growth
Species: Calypte anna (Anna's Hummingbird)
Altitude: 11m (36 feet)
Location: Go To...
View Of The City
Altitude: 7m (22 feet)
Location: Go To...
Claira Doing Pounce
Person: Claira
Tags: Taekwondo
Claira With Red Winged Black Bird
Person: Claira
Tags: bird, fence, hand feeding, Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Claira Pounce Blocking
Person: Claira
Tags: Taekwondo
Nara Doing Sweeping Kick
Person: Nara
Tags: Taekwondo
Bushtit In The Sun
Species: Psaltriparus minimus (American Bushtit)
Tags: Queen Elizabeth Park
Chickadee Flies Out Of Clairas Hand
Tags: hand feeding, Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Hiding In Driftwood Roots
Person: Claira, Nara
Altitude: 4m (13 feet)
Location: Go To...
Walking Down To Beach
Altitude: 9m (29 feet)
Location: Go To...
Red Winged Black Bird With Seed
Person: Nara
Tags: hand feeding, Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Golden Crown Kinglet Looking At Me
Species: Regulus satrapa (Golden-crowned Kinglet)
Tags: Queen Elizabeth Park
Chickadee In Hand
Tags: hand feeding, Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Lighthouse In Background
Person: Claira, Helen, Nara
Altitude: 7m (22 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: lighthouse
Nara With Chickadee
Tags: hand feeding, Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Nara Kicking
Person: Nara
Tags: Taekwondo
Golden Crown Kinglet Chasing Insect
Species: Regulus satrapa (Golden-crowned Kinglet)
Tags: Queen Elizabeth Park
Golden Crown Kinglet Side View
Species: Regulus satrapa (Golden-crowned Kinglet)
Tags: Queen Elizabeth Park
Tags: hand feeding(5), Reifel Bird Sanctuary(5), Taekwondo(4), Queen Elizabeth Park(4), time lapse(3), Vancouver(3)
People: Claira(5), Nara(5), Helen(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > March 2020

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