Thursday, April 7, 2011 Lethbridge

6:15 am tag: Morning Musings

Birding is my top priority today. I will try visiting both Henderson Lake and Nicholas Sheran park in Lethbridge to look for waterfowl. The Elizabeth Hall wetlands might be a good spot for marsh birds. I have yet to see any Red-wing or Yellow-headed Blackbirds. A short drive to Pitcher Butte to see the lake on the edge of town is on my list as well.

I am pleased with my efforts to combine outdoor activities. Geocaching and Birding go well together. Now to deliberately bring Photography into the picture. This means more than just taking my camera with me, although the camera is a good foil for looking busy when searching for a geocache in an urban setting. I need to begin some serious reading on photography (both scenery and wild flowers). I also need to begin deliberately looking for a "good picture" (composition, patterns, symmetry, color) as well as deliberately playing with some of the settings. There is a good lake near Taber that merits a look as well. And there is a lake west of Vauxhall that I would like to see.

I have downloaded 3 cache locations into my Garmin but they all involve some driving so I may wait until I can combine the searches with birding/photography. I will begin taking my iPad2 with me when I drive, to see if I find it useful while having a coffee at a Tim Hortons.

9:00 am tag: Birding

I am just back from an early morning walk around Henderson Lake. It was cold, but only a light wind. Nonetheless the tips of my fingers were frozen. I saw lots of Common Goldeneyes and Mallards, two Horned Grebes and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. This was only the second time (the previous time was in 2007) that I have seen either the grebes or the hawk. I managed to get a good photo of the hawk.

The hawk was in a large cottonwood tree above a parking lot. I was fortunate to see it as I was just about to enter the truck to return home and warm up.

Addendum: I have been having a second look at this photo (as well as a few others) and I have been looking at a few different books. There are 2 main possibilities: Sharp-shinned or Cooper's. The major argument against the Sharp-shinned is the size: the female length of a Sharp-shinned may reach 13" , the Cooper's may reach 19". This was not a small hawk. Also the female Cooper's blackish crown show a sharp line of contrast with the paler nape, which is clearly the case in the photo. I now feel that it is a Cooper's Hawk.

After changing the record in my database, the total number of Alberta lifers is 160, the total Canadian lifers is 175, and the total Global lifers is 585.

3:30 PM tag: Photography

As a result of a nudge from a friend I have finally set up an Activity web page for photography. So far I have identified 3 major goals.

The temperature today is below zero with the wind factored into account. Not a good day for cameras or humans. But I could do a little reading.

I have an excellent book by Blue Fier called "Composition Photo Workshop" (2007).

Now to have a look at the first chapter.

Addendum: 7:00 PM

I have read the first 2 chapters and liked, very much. what I saw. Here are some key points that caught my eye:

• walk around a site, looking for a view where all the elements come together
• compositional rules vary by culture, in large part because of the way they read
• keep in mind the level of detail in the image as well as the manner in which time is portrayed (stop action, blurred motion, ...)
• the basic elements of design are points, lines (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, zigzag, curved, S-curves), surfaces, and objects.
• when photographing objects one does not need to include the entire object
• the shapes should be easily distinquished from the background by color or texture
• everything within the frame should have a reason for being there, if not, recompose the shot
• the first step should be to determine whether the dominant theme is horizontal or vertical.
• In many cases try shooting it both ways
• In most cases follow the rule of thirds and use these lines in the viewfinder

There are a number of assignments embedded in the book.

The first assignment asks one to pick an object at least the size of a car and take a minimum of 30 photos of it, varying everything you can think of. Visit the website www.pwassignments.com and share your favorite photo.

I am going to pick the Elizabeth Hall wetlands near Lethbridge. But I may wait a day or so, until the temperature approaches double digits.

The second assignment asks one to pick an outdoor scene that shows an S-curve. Submit the photo to the same website.

I will walk over to Nicholas Sheran park and see if I can complete this assignment there (when it warms up!).