I can see clearly now…

So my wife got me a new lens for an early Christmas gift. If you are all about technology you might just want to skip this post though. This is a totally manual lens, no built-in image stabilisation or auto-focusing. It has a solid metal casing with an impressive focusing range. It can be used as a regular prime 40mm lens but will let you focus from infinity down to 3.5 cm. It has been a great addition to the motley collection of ancient prime and manual lenses I brought to my Fuji from my old Pentax.

I’ve been feeling it out the past month, so here is a collection of shots, both “normal” and “macro”.

First Winter

Our climate is obviously changing even over the last 10-20 years. When I was young the warm days in the winter were fewer and farther between. Now we get a number of false starts and stops and there’s a good one this week that promises temp’s in the teen’s (that’s Celsius to any Americans reading this). So while the snowpack has already mostly been gutted I thought I’d look back at some shots from this winter as the sun warms the land. I expect there will be a second winter at some point in the next month, but it will be sloppy and wet, already on the way out.

Kejimkujik fall

“Keji is a special place”, almost a cliche in Nova Scotia. Folks who go to enjoy the park have often done so for decades. I remember coming here when I was a teenager (a LONG time ago), with my dad, my friends and my wife and our girls. Most of the time we travelled to the back-country via canoe.

After I retired we bought a small camper. Sleeping in a tent on the ground was getting harder and we’d already maxed out the thickness of the inflatable camping mattresses. The camper turned out to be the perfect base camp for canoeing and cycling adventures, plus the bed was comfortable and there was a furnace for more adventures during the spring and fall (our favourite times to camp).

Often the last trip of the year before we put the canoe and gear to bed is around the time the leaves change. So here are some selections from this years fall trip. Enjoy!

Colour Cartridge

A number of my Facebook friends (and IRL friends) are photographers. Most of them are much better than I and a couple of them love black and white photography. I actually enjoy it as well but that doesn’t stop me from teasing them about it.

So I spent a pleasant, if grey and damp, afternoon walking along a trail that borders a local lake. I claimed the colour cartridge in my camera was empty, so this was the result. I even included one colour photo “after shaking the cartridge really hard”.

It’s always good to explore line, texture and form without the “distraction” of colour. But I find colour brings a lot to my experience behind the camera.

There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.

Edouard Manet

DPS spring 2022

For years a small group of us have indulged in an easy canoe trip on what is traditionally known as the “May two-four” weekend. This is our excursion for 2022.

The lead-up to this years trip was presented with a 4-part set of blog posts at my retirement blog where I talk about looking at the past weather to get an idea of what to expect. Having said that this years trip was easily one of the best. No precipitation (lots of fog on the last day heading back though) and lots of wind. One of the great things about wind in May is it blows the black flies away.

Anyway, this blog is more looking at pictures with a story behind them and less talking.

The Preacher and the Reader taking the long way around.

The “young folk” (under 65) camped on outcropping joined to the island by a beach.

The “old folks” decided above the high tide mark on the beach was better for camping.

The Preacher making his way over outcrop, scoping out the geology.

The youngest possibly hunting Pokemons….

Every beach shot has to have a cliche “tracks in the sand”.

“Old folks” camp and the beach.

“young folks” camp and a colourful array of tenting.

Sunset with “old folks” camp in the foreground and the “young folks” camp on the treed outcrop beyond.

Heading home in the fog.

Getting the canoes loaded for departure.

Looks like a sad breakup, but just a Pokemon hunter and someone texting a girlfriend!

Nature’s crime scene.

Heavy minerals in the sand making tracks towards the sea.