Light

The power of light is awe inspiring.  It's not an original notion, but fairly new to me.  There is a Vancouver composer, Jeffrey Ryan, who composed a wonderful piece called "The Linearity of Light." It was inspired after watching the play of light on English Bay.  I was lucky enough to hear it performed by the Vancouver Symphony when I took a group of band students to watch a rehearsal at The Orpheum.  Here is a sound sample.  (I hope the link works.)

Last night, Bill drove me over to North Vancouver (again!) to see how the osprey chick was doing.  The sun was just about to set, and the light just East of the nest was warm and golden.  A young photographer from Bangledash was there, and told us that in his language, there is a word for exactly that light.  The word, translated literally, means that is the light to show off a bride's best features, suggesting that if she wants her suitor to pop the question, she should take advantage of such light. 

The nest is on a pylon just to the right of the ones you see in this picture.
Honestly, please forgive me for bringing this up (again!) but I am overwhelmed by Bill's kindness.  He sat, talking to another photographer and keeping Black Jack happy and comfortable for a long, long time, while I took photos to my heart's content.  Thank you Bill!  
Junior (current name until I hope I may be fortunate enough to find a clue to the gender) looks strong, and continues to exercise his/her wings in preparation for flight.  I would have loved the light to hang on for this shot, but the sun disappeared behind the mountains just before I took it.
Here, Junior calls to Dad while Mom looks on.  Dad is far, far off in the distance, on top of a ship's mast.  As far away as he is, it is clear from his posture that he is eating the fish that he caught.  Junior is not impressed.

The rest of the pictures were taken on Wednesday.  Black Jack and I did two walks, one at Jericho in the morning (the heron series in the previous post were taken at that time as well), and then, later in the afternoon, we biked over to Stanley Park and walked around the lagoon.

Jericho 

I have been watching the swallows for weeks now.  They flit around at an unbelievable speed.  Below is the first time I've been able to catch one with the camera that is a recognizable swallow.  Still blurred, but a feat of coordination for me.

I've been looking a lot at Ship Rock's flickr site.  He does incredible macro shots.  How he does it is still a mystery to me (reminder to self, yet again, to read the manual).  Here was my best close-up effort on Wednesday.
Any regular readers will know that I love crows.  There was quite a flock of them enjoying the berries on Wednesday.

Black Jack shows amazing adaptability when I'm walking super slowly, and taking pictures.  She finds ways to amuse herself, and sometimes, almost seems to be as motivated as I am to sneak up on the subjects.  We tiptoe around together, and only once in a while, she loses it, and bursts forward in her enthusiasm.  On Wednesday, she did not have one outburst.  Her reward was a swim at the little corner of the beach where few people go.  It was high tide, and just perfect for a little ball game.  She is showing more and more confidence in the water, and that makes me really happy.  It's still quite a struggle for her to get the ball in her mouth.  Her nose keeps pushing it away.
Success!

Stanley Park

I liked the demure expression of this duck.  I'm not exactly sure what it is.  The white tail feathers were different from all the possible id's in my book.  

This was my sad attempt to be "artsy".  It was inspired by David, an 11-year-old photographer.  I have a while to go before I will reach his level, but if you enjoy photography, check out his flickr site.  Truly amazing! 
Another failed "artsy" attempt.  I loved the light around these geese, but was taking the picture through the reeds, and couldn't find a way to focus.

Black Jack and I were very respectful of the swans' personal space.  Wouldn't want to mess with them, for sure.

Some pigeons and a seagull on the light standard by the lagoon.
"Listen to me, you guys.  I have height advantage."

Last but very important!!  

If you have not read this post by Jean, it is a must view.  I do not remember when I have laughed as much as I did when I first saw it, and though I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, I have watched it at least ten times since, and continue to laugh as much or more with every repeat performance.  (Click on the little "play" icon at the bottom left of the screen, rather than the larger one in the middle of the screen.)

That's it for today, folks.  I have put a counter on my blog, after a little more than a year of posting.  It tells me over 30 people visited the site yesterday.  If that is accurate, and if you feel like leaving a short comment to introduce yourself, that would be terrific.  But, don't feel obliged.  I'm happy to have readers, whether they comment or not:)