Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Mother and Child

That grouse wasn't about to move - no sir, no way! Standing at the near end of the boardwalk in Minchin's Cove, it seemed unconcerned as I got a few quick pix from maybe 15 feet, then started slowly moving closer and closer...



Then we saw them - three chicks, each egg-sized, making their separate ways across the boardwalk, one at a time. Momma wasn't budging - no big fuss, just staying right there while the kiddies toddled across. Kinda like a school crossing guard, having an eye to the traffic and stopping anything that might cause harm...


With the last one safely accounted for , she strolls off into the tall foliage herself, still very relaxed about it all. Then she stands there, side on, and has one final look at this creature with the camera...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Small Stuff...

...can be wonderfully interesting. Lately, we've been taking a look at our world thru the macro setting on our digital cameras - and finding lots of fascinating sights.

Take a common leaf, for example, just after a rain - have a close look at the water drops - besides glistening like little jewels, they act as magnifying lenses and convex mirrors, little distortions you'd not likely see if you weren't looking with the camera's eye...



Sometimes, the right things happen for entirely the wrong reasons. This 'flower', for example, struck me as odd - never seen one like it, I thought, and so snapped a few shots to get it I.D.'d later on. Well, duh - turns out it's a dandelion, but with most of the seed dispersed. There is, however, enough seed left to show just why the plant is such a tenacious species - the brown seed and dispersal 'parachute' show clearly with the camera's detailed eye - another small wonder...



A gull's feather on the beach - not a lot to look at in most folk's books. Closeup, however, there is stuff to see - the shadings white thru grays, the drift of sand along the quill, contrasting with the strong green of the seaweed bladder. Another small visual world, caught and recorded by a close focus lens...



And while it isn't strictly macro work, there's always the whole other world beneath the water, a place most digital cameras fear to go. The Pentax WPi, however, is reputed to be waterproof to a depth at which the state of his/her camera becomes of academic interest only to an air-breathing kayaker. So stick your hand down, aim, and fire - the LCD screen freaks out with the cold, going gray for about 10 seconds...and then the bottom life slowly emerges, just like pix used to do back in the days of developing trays in red-lit darkrooms...



We'll be off to Eastport soon for the summer, and hope to have some really neat pix of some really neat places to post as the summer progresses. May be a bit hit and miss, tho, since we'll be doing the uploads thru the Community Access Point at the region's public library and have to hit it on days when it's open and the weather's not fit for paddling...first things first....

Friday, June 6, 2008

The KatYak - What Can You Say But !!!"WOW!!!"

There's kayaks, and then there's kayaks. There's VOLKSKAYAKs, and then there's VOLSKAYAKs. And there are certainly spectacular VOLKSKAYAK paint jobs - and there's the KatYak, the Queen of Them All.



As artist Reg Cantwell notes in his explanation of just what happened, a simple question became a commission that became a case of "Go Big Or Go Home", something that seems to have a way of happening when Kristy and Tim Way are around. Tim built the VOLKSKAYAK Standard for Kristy, and Kristy's innocent query to their friend Reg triggered the whole incredible thing. It's led to a perfectly serviceable kayak being turned into a floating art exhibit, and a darn fine one at that...


If you'd like to see more of where obsession can lead, the juicy details can be found at http://www.regcantwell.com/katyak.htm