The grey days of winter on Vancouver Island can be excellent for photographing rivers and waterfalls. With the cloud cover, the light is even and flat so you don’t get the high zones of contrast between the dark sides of the river bottoms and the sunlit trees on the ridge above. I’ve organized a “Slow Photographers SIG” within the Comox …
Author: Dave Ingram
Sandstone and Water
I returned to the Oyster River this week with a small group from the Comox Valley Camera Club “Slow Photographers SIG” to photograph the surreal landscape of rock and water on this part of the river. Again, I was limited by the fixed focal length of my Fuji X1oos (Nikon D600 still in the shop for a second servicing for …
Ice and Sandstone on the Oyster River
When I’m photographing landscapes, my tendency is to anchor the scene with a foreground object and then go wide to show the expansiveness of the land. Last weekend I was without my full-frame Nikon D600 (still with Nikon Canada being serviced a second time for oil and dust problems—looks like I’ll be without it for at least another week or …
Salmon Nurseries in the Tsolum River and its Tributaries
Guest post by Jennifer Sutherst As our noses are affronted with the smell of salmon carcasses feeding our aquatic habitats, our local streams and rivers are playing host to the completion of the salmon life cycle as adult spawners return to lay their eggs and die. We saw a huge run of pink salmon a reasonable run of chum are just …
Oyster River Bowls
Photographing moving water has been a theme for me this year and I’ve really been enjoying experimenting with neutral density filters to slow down the shutter speed and blur the flowing water. It’s also been a good excuse to get out and visit new locations. Sandstone Abstract #2 This weekend I followed up a suggestion by George Bowron and checked …
Triple Falls in Errington, British Columbia
Sometimes the best falls are the ones that are a little bit off the beaten path. They don’t have to be spectacular drops, but they should be a little harder to get to. The extra effort makes it worthwhile. This weekend I joined a group of Comox Valley Camera Club photographers on a day trip to the Triple Falls on …
Down at the Brown’s
Brown’s River falls have been on my “must visit” photography list for a while—the problem was that I really didn’t have a clear idea of where exactly they were. The Comox Valley Camera Club did a field trip there earlier in the month but I had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend. There are a couple of different ways to …
Phillips Beer + Nature = Vote for Swan Lake’s Rye Ale
Who doesn’t like beer? Who doesn’t like nature? Now’s your chance to enjoy both. Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary has been selected as a finalist to receive funding in the Phillips Beer Benefit Brew 2013 project. You can support this wonderful nature sanctuary located just minutes from downtown Victoria, British Columbia by voting daily at Benefit Brew 2013. Note …
Crossing the Country Road
For the last couple of weeks I’ve seen at least 30 banded woollybears (Pyrrharctia isabella) crossing the country roads every time I’ve been out on my lunch time walks. One of my colleagues has taken to rescuing these cute little caterpillars and moves them from the middle of the road to the safety of the shoulder. They curl up in …
An Occupation of Snow Geese
If you’re in or visiting the Lower Mainland over the next couple of months, make sure to make your way out to either Richmond or Ladner and take in the seasonal spectacle that is the wintering flocks of snow geese (Chen caerulescens). The word flock doesn’t really do justice to the sheer number of birds: gaggle is more appropriate to a …