Pic Spocket

It’s been a while since the last “Fauna Related Outing”. Last weekend, we did a quick stop at the Holiday Beach Conservation area for a walk during the annual “Hawk Festival”. It was our 2nd Hawk Fest since we also went in 2007.

Some of the birds on display were the same, including this owl and hawk:

And some birds we did not see before:

Walking around, we had a chance to see some other animals from up close, including thse frogs and a turtle that crossed a path just before us:

But whose big nose is that, ruining my picture???

Newton! But how can you be mad at such a pretty face hehe

More pictures and larger versions in the album….

Hawk Festival 2010

I was up early last Saturday morning and while I was waiting for the bike stores to open, I decided to take my photo gear and head down to the Ojibway Park, located 5 minutes from home. I thought I may be lucky and get some nice bird shots.

When I got there, the light was very nice: the sun was out and low providing a nice soft and gold light. While I was not so lucky with birds, there was a group of deers right in the open field (some people had set food for them). They are not too scared and for many shots, my 100-400 mm zoom was too narrow to capture them completely in the frame. They were 8 and I couldn’t get all of them in the shot without changing lens (and risking them to leave suddenly).

Here are a few pictures.

More in the album below. Enjoy!

Deers in morning light

The 2009 NAIAS Detroit Auto Show was running for the last week or so. There is a photo contest organized for the show. People wanting to participate in the contest and showing up at the door with any other camera than a camera phone could access the show 1 hour before official opening last Tuesday.

I did not necessarily want to participate in the contest, but could not pass the opportunity to enter early while the crowds are not yet there. I always went to the show on weekends and it usually CRAZY over there. I usually end up with a headache from the sensory overload (light, noise, etc).

Maybe 20 or 30 people showed up for the early entrance. I’ll tell you: it seemed almost strange to walk this show with virtually no body there for a while. It helped to get many pictures without people in them. That being said, the show did not seem as big or as crowded as I usually see it. With the actual economic crisis, there were some big companies missing such as Nissan.

So I did not originally planned to participate, but finally submitted one picture per category of the photo contest. Here are my entries:

Convertibles and Coupes		Black and White Photos
Cutting Edge Concepts		Coolest Close-up
Luxury		Snapshots at the Show

There are many good submissions though and only one winner per category, so I really do not expect anything. It’s just for the heck of it. You can see the pictures submitted by other people here: 2009 NAIAS PHOTO CONTEST.

Here are some more of my pictures during the show:

You know it… larger versions and many more pictures in the album below. Enjoy!

After my big Saturday car ride in the Camargue area, I decided to take it easy the following day. I decided to go to Cassis, just east from Marseilles less than an hour ride from my hotel.

I know Cassis from previous trips. It is right by the sea and it is famous for its cliffs, nearby calanques and for its very cute little port.

I first wandered around quite a while to find some parking. I found one right by this little beach “La plage du Bestouan”, which is a little bit outside downtown, almost hidden. I think the beach over there is much nicer than the one downtown.

Then I headed downtown in the old port. This area is quite nice.

The port is full of small restaurants and bars. I stopped for lunch in one of these.

The area between Cassis and Marseilles is very well known for its “Calanques”. This coast line is mostly a very high and abrupt cliff of several hundred meters in height. A “Calanque” is a kind of inlet in that wall of rock. It can be described as a deep valley with steep sides partly submerged by the sea.

Some of these Calanques are actually very hard to reach even by foot. I did hike to the Calanques area last January (see original post). The best and easiest way to access them though is by boat, which I never did before. So I looked for one of the many guided boat tour available and took the bigger one (8 Calanques). I sat up front, thinking I would see better…. What I got is a partial shower of sea water due to the large waves.

Calanque of Oule (also referred as ‘Cathedral of Oule), Calanque of Devenson

Calanque of l’Oeil de verre (glass eye), Calanque of Sugiton (2)

Then I came back in Cassis as the sun was setting, offering a warm light to snap a few more pictures before heading back to the hotel.

Larger images and more pictures in sub-albums linked below.

Cassis	Calanques by boat

More to come…

With the new puppy, it’s hard to find time for photography. I took an hour last Monday evening for a short visit to Jackson Park, where all the tulips are out.

I have experimented with HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures before, but I was never really happy with the result. This time was different. The picture of the park below comes from the combination of 7 exposures (from -3 to +3 EV) in the program ‘Photomatix’. It renders well the feeling from that day.

The other pictures were taken normally. Since it was late in the day the light was very warm, which is good for pictures. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this visit.

As usual, more pictures of this shoot are available in the photo album with the link provided.