Daily Shoot #ds454: Tell the story of a subject today in a photograph by photographing one specific detail of it.

                                                                            Guitar Strings

The daily shoot topic yesterday was to tell the story of a subject by shooting a specific detail of it.  I decided to use my son's guitar, sitting directly in the sunshine in our kitchen.  I liked the combination of the strings, their shadows and the curves of the sounding hole.  This photograph was shot handheld with my 105mm macro lens.

. . . Rob Williams http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca

Barns

Barns outside Ottawa

I love the look of old barns around the Ottawa area.  Barns in the immediate area of the city are disappearing quite quickly now -- I can think of two at least that have been taken down in the past year.  I hope that the farming heritage won't disappear completely in our haste to build golf courses and houses.   My house was build on farmland, so I can't say that all house building is bad, but at the same time I don't like to see farms and barns disappear.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca

First Snow

Every year, no matter what era I've reached in my life, I still get excited at seeing the first new snow of the season.  It happened again last night when the snow started to accumulate.  For some reason, it's hard not to stop and watch.

Trees along Brophy Drive near North Gower, Ontario

When I woke up, the snow was still on the ground, so I took my camera out and drove some back roads around where I live, looking for some interesting images.

NCC Forest along Moodie Drive, Ottawa

The snow stayed around all day, and so it will be a chilly night for the ghosts and goblins.

Bushes at the Lime Kiln Trail, Ottawa

Fence post on Brophy Drive

Bush beside the road on Brophy Drive

. . . Rob Williams http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca

How to remove a stuck filter

Earlier this year, I wanted to remove the polariod filter from my 70-200mm lens, but it was badly stuck.  Filters are hard to grip, and doubly so for polarizing filters with the rotating ring.  I tried everything I could think of, including putting a rubber band around the filter for better grip, but I could not get it off.

I tried searching the web for a solution but I didn't find any good suggestions for a polarizer other than a filter wrench, and I couldn't find them (they're available at B&H, but I didn't want to wait for the shipping).  Eventually I went to a kitchen store to see if I could find a jar lid opener that would be kind to the filter.  Most were metal, but I found one that was made from soft rubber, called "EasiTwist Jar Opener":

I liked this one because it had a wide opening at one end, and smaller openings closer to the end for different sizes of filters.  It turns out that the widest opening was perfect for a  77mm filter.  I tried it out, and it worked immediately and very easily:

Highly recommended.

. . . Rob Williams http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca

Cape St. Mary's Ecological Preserve, Newfoundland

On our family's trip to Newfoundland, a day visit to Cape St. Mary's Ecological Preserve was easily one of the highlights.  The preserve is located on the tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, on a peninsula between Placentia Bay and St. Mary's bay.  It is home to a massive bird colony, consisting of thousands of Gannets, Common Murres, Thick-billed Murres, Black-legged Kittiwake, Razorbill and other species.

Northern Gannets

To get there, we drove down highway 100 from Placentia south to the cape -- a very picturesque drive, not to mention very hilly.  You drive through a series of small villages, each of which is in a cove at the bottom of a valley between two 250 to 450 foot-high hilltops.  The road up and down these hilltops is quite steep, at least from my perspective, which makes for an interesting and occasionally exciting drive.

Cape St. Mary's cliffs

When you get to the site itself, there is a roomy interpretation centre with information and a model of the cliffs showing the locations of the various nesting sites.  But the real fun begins when you start walking down the path to the cliffs.  The first viewing location is a grassy slope that lets you see the cliffs as a whole.  You can hear the birds as well as see the level of activity to and from the cliffs.  It's almost like a futuristic movie where flying cars are going to and fro on an aerial hightway.

Bird Rock and many of the 11,000 nesting pairs of Gannets

As the path continues (for about a kilometre), there are a couple of other viewing sites, but the best site is at the end of the path.  The path leads to the cliff edge, where you can venture out on a narrow rocky point to see Bird Rock, a rock about 20 or 30 metres away that is covered with Northern Gannets.  This view is truly awesome -- you can see the individual birds and their young, and various gannets flying back and forth.  I watched the birds there for quite a while, and took many photographs.

The Gannet superhighway

The whole experience was exhilarating.  When I was finished at the main viewing location, I went back to the grassy slope and just sat for a while watching the hub of activity, and listening to the sounds of the birds.

 These and other photographs from the preserve and elsewhere in Newfoundland, please visit my website.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca

A Carpet of Daisies

Around where I live, there is a lot of new house construction going on now.  When the land is being prepared, there are large areas of bulldozed earth that are left alone for months and sometimes years.  The freshly upturned earth seems to be full of seeds waiting to grow, all at the same time.  The results are quite spectacular:

A Carpet of Daisies

A gust of wind

Another view of the carpet

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robertwilliamsphotography.ca