The Birds and the Bee
Its been a REALLY long time since my last post on this blog. Life kinda got in the way. I also haven’t had much time to go out and take pictures anymore so thats another reason for the non-posting. Anyways, I found a spare afternoon one day and decided to be like Elmer Fudd and hunt in my backyard. I was trying to hunt for those rabbits that keep visiting and digging in our backyard but I didn’t see them so I opted for birds and bees instead. I propped up a chair in the middle of the backyard and sat there waiting for whatever came in shooting distance. I quite enjoyed the experience of mindlessly shooting everything in sight, although it did leave me with WAAAY too many photos of bird silhouettes flying in the sky…. lol. I managed to find lots of birds but only one bee, hence the title of this post.
“The Bee – This was kinda a lucky shot and everything I wanted to be in focus was in focus. That bee flies REALLY fast!”
“Beautiful Sunset that day”
“Bye Bye BIrdies”
Woodbine in the Winter
“No Lifeguard on Duty”
Back when I was still going to school, I used to have quite a bit of spare time. I spent a lot of that spare time going out and taking photo walks and one of my most favourite places to visit was Woodbine Beach…. Woodbine Beach in the wintertime to be more specific. I love how the beach is so empty during the winter season, devoid of the people that usually crowd in during the summertime. I’ve never actually been to Woodbine Beach in the summertime (I’m allergic to heat… and I have sweating issues… lol), but from what I’ve heard the crowds can get pretty thick during those times.
There aren’t that many things to see at Woodbine Beach; mostly sand, sand, water, and more sand, so there really aren’t that many things to take pictures of. I really just go there to spend some quiet alone time along the shores of Lake Ontario. The pictures are really just a bonus. Looking back at these pictures makes me wish I had more time to just go out and take pictures again…. *sigh*
Here are a couple of shots that I’ve taken during my many trips to Woodbine Beach in the wintertime.
“Driftwood”
“Caution, bench may not be suitable for sitting”
“Enjoying the sunset”
“Leuty Lifeguard Station in Infrared”
“Sunset at Woodbine – You can see the silhouette of the CN Tower in the distance.”
“Dusk at the Beaches”
To All the Fish That I Loved Before
As a follow up to my post regarding Digby (the last fish to have ever lived in my aquarium), I decided to make a post with pictures of the fish that I’ve had the pleasure of taking care of in the past. I took care of more fish than the ones in this post, I just never had an opportunity to take pictures of the other fish that are not in this post or they were not that cooperative and didn’t feel as model-ly as the other fish lol.
I started my tank on a whim, about 10 years ago. I was bored and wanted to have a pet to take care of. I wanted a pet that was relatively low maintenance and self-contained (so I wouldn’t have to chase messes around the house) and a fish tank was the perfect solution. I did consider taking care of a pet rock but wheres the fun in that?!?
So here they are, my pet fishies from the past!
“Lippy, the bug-eyed goldfish – Lippy was the first resident model of the aquarium. I named him Lippy because of his large Angelina Jolie lips lol.”
“Sully, the sad pearlscale goldfish – I named him Sully because he always had this sad and sullen look on his face,which I dubbed the perma-frown.”
“Mort, the worried pearlscale goldfish – He always had this hurried and worried expression that reminded me of this character from the Archie Comics named Mort the Worried Wart, hence I named him Mort.”
“Dazey, the dazed red cap oranda – He always had a dazed expression, hence his name; and no, I did not put anything in the water… I think…”
“Flippy, the red oranda – He was the acrobat of the tank, always twisting and flipping around.”
“Spalding, the goldfish – Yes, after the sporting goods company because he reminded me of the Spalding basketballs which are orange and black. Although, I should have changed his name when Spalding lost all of his black coloration and ended up being all orange.”
“Patchy, the calico moor – The show off of the tank. She was named after all the beautiful black and orange patches on her white body.”
“Digby, the black moor – He liked to dig around in the gravel, hence his name. The last fish that I have ever had the pleasure of taking care of.”
To all the fish that I’ve loved before, thank you for giving me the pleasure of taking care of you guys and I hope you guys are all doing great in fishy heaven!!!
To all of the fish
Dogs in the Park
“Cute little pug (that I forgot to ask what his/her name was)”
We went on a quick stroll today through the grounds at Toronto’s Allan Gardens and saw that there were a couple of dog owners with their dogs inside the off-leash area so we decided to take a quick detour into the area and subsequently met these guys. Seeing these dogs makes me miss my dogs back home. To the owners of these adorable dogs, thank you very much for letting us play with them even for just a litlle bit!
“Rocco, the poser”
Be Ve-wy Ve-wy Quiet… I’m Hunting Wabbit!
“Hi Bugs!”
In the last couple of months I’ve been noticing little holes in the dirt in our plant boxes in the backyard. I wondered what or who made those holes cause there were TONS of them! Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally got my answer. The holes were being cause by this family of rabbits coming into our backyard. I’ve been seeing them a lot ever since roaming about from our neighbors’ backyards to ours; they even made their own holes in the fences so they could easily slip in and out. Well, one afternoon while I was sitting outside enjoying the nice summer weather, I saw them scampering around the backyard again so I decided to follow them like Elmer Fudd, except I had a camera in hand in place of a rifle. I had to walk REALLY REALLY slow in order not to startle them and I also had to hide in the bushes so they wouldn’t notice me coming over to them. I wonder what the neighbours thought while I was taking these pictures?? Anyways, here are the pictures resulting from that endeavor.
“Munching on grass”
“Uh-oh… I think he saw me!”
“Thinking that he probably should have made that left turn at Albuquerque…”
Daylilies
We’ve had a REALLY hot and dry summer in Toronto so far. Its been so hot and dry that I have never seen our backyard so lifeless and dry that whenever I step out into the backyard I would hear the brown brittle grass (well, whats left of it) crunching under my feet on every step! The state of our backyard right now is really in stark contrast to what it was about a month and a half ago when the weather was nice and mild and everything in the backyard was full of life and ripe with photographic opportunities! Thankfully I took a lot of pictures of the backyard during that time so I’ll have stuff to process for the future. Think of it as saving for a rainy day except that I saved the pictures for the opposite reason.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the daylilies in the backyard when they were in full bloom. I love how the flowers are backlit by the warm sunlight and makes it seem like they’re glowing… And who said that you shouldn’t shoot against the sun?? 😛
To My Last Fish
“Digby, the Black Moor”
I’ve had an aquarium in my room for the last 10 years or so and I’ve had so much fun taking pictures of its inhabitants over the years. However, about a month ago I had to get rid of the aquarium after my last fish, Digby, died because of another fungus outbreak. My tank has had fungus problems over the years and I’ve managed to keep it under control with anti-fungals; but the fish would still eventually succumb to the fungus after being hit multiple times. Since the outbreaks became more frequent over the last couple years, I decided to not take in anymore fish so I wouldn’t have to subject more fish to get fungal problems. I also decided to give up the whole aquarium business after my last fish had gone to fishy heaven, since this tank would probably still have fungus even after a good washing (I’ve washed and dried this tank thoroughly several times in the past and the fungus just keeps coming back). It finally happened about a month ago.
This post is dedicated to Digby, the black moor. He (I just assumed that he was a he… lol) was the last fish that I had the honour of keeping in my aquarium. Here are some of the pictures I have taken of him over the time he had occupied my tank.
Revisiting the Canon FD 35mm f/2.0
A couple of months ago I purchased a Canon FD 35mm f/2.o lens to mount on my Olympus E-P3, now this is a manual focus-only lens on this camera body. I had originally thought that manually focusing on an LCD screen would be a piece of cake and how I would make a boatload of beautiful photos with this lens, but how terribly wrong I was. I ended up not using the lens as much as I had intended to because of the difficulty I experienced with manual focusing, which was also exacerbated by my deteriorating eyesight. So it stayed in storage until I saw it again a couple of days ago while rummaging through my camera stuff. I decided to take it out for a trip to the backyard as I felt guilty for having neglected this gorgeous piece of glass for a couple of months.
A Walk at Toronto’s Harbourfront
“Panorama of the Toronto Harbourfront”
I took a walk at Toronto’s Harbourfront in March during one of those weirdly warm days. It was about 20 degrees Celcius that day and that kind of weather is May type of weather so it was a very refreshing walk that early in the year after being cooped up indoors all winter-long. I spent a couple hours up and down the harbour just taking pictures. Here are the pictures that resulted from that photo walk.
Honda Bay Island Hopping
“Early morning stillness at the Honda Bay docks”
Last day of the Puerto Princesa trip 😦
Our last day in Palawan was spent island hopping around Honday Bay. We really only had half a day left because our plane ride back to Manila was at 3:30PM that afternoon, so we had to wake up really early that day so we could maximize our time around the bay and still have enough time to pack and get to the airport. We got to the Honda Bay docks at around 7AM and it was great because there were barely any people there except for the boatmen that worked the boats. Since it was very early, the boat rental office wasn’t even open yet so I just roamed around the docks and took pictures until we got a boat that would take us around the bay. I loved how quiet and calm the dock was, compared to the chaos it was in later in the day.
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