Same heron

Pic 1120
Sad turtle

April 23, 2010

Two years ago:
Pic 776
Under the Queensway

April 23, 2010

Three years:
Pic 435
Spring bud with raindrops

April 23, 2009

In the canal between Dow’s Lake and Lansdowne. Usually you have to snap like crazy before they fly away, but this guy wasn’t going anywhere. Eventually I got tired of taking his picture and pedalled on.

Pic 1116
Mirror, mirror

April 19, 2010

Two years ago:
Pic 773
Back end

April 19, 2010

Three years:
Pic 430
My cat rolling around on the asphalt at night

April 18, 2009

Heron

Two years ago:
Pic 585
Blue jay

September 25, 2009

Three years:
Pic 226
Just a pigeon

September 25, 2008

This heron was fishing under the Queensway where it crosses the Rideau.

Pic 915
Capital P

September 24, 2010

Two years ago:
Pic 584
Leaf in the sand

September 24, 2009

Here we go down Cambridge Street in Judy’s van. This picture was created in Photoshop using some instructions I found on the web:
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-create-a-colored-sketch-in-photoshop/

We wanted to spend the day exploring some little towns near Ottawa. First we went to Carp, but we didn’t see anything there except for these cows and the Diefenbunker. Definitely no carp.

The cows are pretty much straight out of the camera, except that they all ran away when I jumped out of the van to take their picture, so the photo is cropped quite a bit from the original fisheye.

After that we went to Fitzroy Harbour, but we didn’t see anything there either. I apologize if you live in one of these places or you’re from there, but there isn’t anything there. If there is a main street with the post office and a cafe on it there weren’t any signs telling us where it was, so we didn’t find it.

Then we went to Pakenham, a much bigger place.

Somewhere in there I remembered something I have always known but keep forgetting: distances are way farther when you’re driving them than when you’re looking at them on the map. It was a long way to Pakenham but they had ice cream there, so we stopped and had some.

We also stopped at the stone bridge, which was great.

This picture and the last one were created using a fisheye lens and the Nikon in-camera Color Sketch effect. Then I changed the colours in Lightroom. I find the Color Sketch colours are way too bright and pastellish, right out of the camera.

On the road again, heading for Almonte. Someone once told me that Almonte was named for a Spanish general, so I always call it Al-Mon-tay. But the people of Almonte call it Al-Mont.

If you want to know the story of the Spanish general you will have to google it. This is a Nikon Color Sketch fisheye pic, colours altered in Lightroom.

At Almonte we went to the Barley Mow and had lunch. Although Barley Mow is a chain of pubs and we could have gone to a Barley Mow in Ottawa and had the same food, the one in Almonte has a fantastic location beside a dam and a stone bridge and some waterfalls. We sat on the patio and had lunch and a Beau’s.

This is a cement wall with some graffiti on it. These two pictures are fisheye Color Sketch.

There was a heron fishing in the waters beside the patio. I love to see a heron. The picture is up top of this post. It’s just a picture taken with a zoom lens, not much processing. It’s a bit fuzzy, sorry. I made it bigger anyway so it can be the pic of the day.

Then we went home, and that was it for the Sunday drive.

I think I like those ones done in Photoshop better than the Nikon Color Sketch ones, so I guess I’ll have to get more involved with layers in Photoshop. I’m sure it’s for the best. Bye for now!

Pic 847
Pretoria Bridge

July 10, 2010

Two years ago:
Pic 510
Guide dogs

July 10, 2009

Then it took off…

It just flew down the bank a little way, to get away from me and my ominous camera clicking.

I love seeing wild things in the city.

Rowing

September 18, 2009

Two years ago:
Pic 221
Leaf

September 18, 2008

Is this really a heron? I saw it on the canal near Bank Street.

It’s probably a heron. Ottawa has a street named after herons, so most likely they’re common on the canal. But I hope you’ll feel free to set me straight if it isn’t.