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Your Bio

Hi.

Thanks so much for visiting our website. We live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Photography is our passion (amateurs) and we do a lot of day tripping (day or weekend trips) around this beautiful and almost pristine province taking photos. We've also had the privilege of meeting and chatting with dozens of visitors we've met on the road. We've helped them DISCOVER the incredible beauty this province has to offer through this website.

Our cameras are a Nikon D80 and a Fuji FinePix S6000. Most of our photos are taken in RAW mode with very little post processing as we prefer a more "natural" look.

Please feel free to offer your feedback in comments (and ratings) for any of our photos.

We've added a "New Work" gallery that contains uploads of our most recent photos.

Enjoy!

Regards
Richard and Barb. (Canucks).
E-Mail: b.jones@canada.com

Featured Galleries

Daily Photos

My attempt at a photo a day. :) Will giver my best.

Updated: May 10, 2008 11:01pm PST

Bald Eagles and Few Friends

Updated: Mar 22, 2008 8:34pm PST

$Gallery of Light : I always loved how light refracts in CDs and DVDs, so one day I was sitting around trying to think of a daily photo. A coin fell on the ground and was spinning. I started to spin other things and eventually tried capturing a spinning DVD. I played with the strobe flash a bit before, but only to see how it worked. I thought maybe I can catch the sequence of the DVD spinning. I not only did capture the rotations, but reflective surface on the DVD refracted the bright strobe beam for each flash revealing a light pattern of the rotation. So off go the lights and the rest is history. All these photos are of either one or two DVDs in motion while using a strobe flash. They are best viewed with the lights out. So sit back and throw some tunes on (preferably Pink Floyd) and watch the slide show. :) Enjoy. Rich$

Gallery of Light

I always loved how light refracts in CDs and DVDs, so one day I was si ...

Updated: Apr 04, 2008 10:16pm PST

$Water and Light : Water drops on a DVD - light refractions. Some shots remind me of cosmic scenes.$

Water and Light

Water drops on a DVD - light refractions. Some shots remind me of cos ...

Updated: Nov 18, 2007 7:37pm PST

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Most Popular Photos

Day 22 - Windy Day at Prospect Bay

Well, weatherman called for snow, then it turned to torrential rain, first with the deluges, then with near hurricane winds. I didn't hear any hurricane warnings!!! The wind gusts were hitting 80MPH or more last night. The windows were bouncing and doors were shaking.

So I expected more of the same today. Nope! Remember that saying, don't like the weather wait 10 minutes. Well, it was sunny and blue skies with 40mph winds. I knew where I was headed! Prospect Bay.

The bay is one of the farthest tips into the Atlantic Ocean and it sees a lot of wave action. These waves are so unpredictable, I don't think surfers even bother with this area. As you can see, this wave is viewed from upon a hilltop - the average spray heights today had to be in the 50 to 60 ft range when they smashed into the granite rocks. I bet the town is grateful for those granite rocks, they act as a natural break water.

Notice the white rock how smooth it is. This is the same type of rock formations found at Peggys Cove, which about 20 miles south from here.

The wind was so strong and bitterly cold - I could only take small exposures for roughly 15 minutes at a time. I still feel the chill in my bones. I had to hold the tripod with one hand, trying to keep my foot near one of the legs, and I left the camera strapped around my neck. For a few moments, the wind was so strong, I had to turn around to breathe. :)

I had so many awesome shots today! The sun was battling a massive snow storm over the Atlantic. Half the sky was dark grey and dark blue, the other was all puffy white and powder blue. When the Sun was over taken by the thick dark clouds, within moments the temp dropped roughly 10 or more degrees - you could actually feel the blast of cold air. Next thing I know, ice pellets were stinging me in the face, and snow - the sky was full of snow. Thick white puffy snow. That lasted for about an hour, then it was all gone. The sun came out and showcased some awesome rays of light which cast spot lights on the rocks and lit up the ocean. Pretty cool.

I could have stayed there all day! I ran out of space on the memory card and batteries died. :(
When it gets very cold I notice the camera starts to act a bit odd. Oh well.. next time. I keep telling Barb we should get a house down there. :)

PS ... and Barb says NO WAY!!! (signed Barb :).

Mar 09 2008

Day 26 - Streeeetch

"After a long hard day of chasing the birds from the window feeder, watching the crows do flyby's, my long walks from the kitchen to the den, complaining to the staff why I'm not eating yet, my morning/afternoon daily pets and rubs, the never-ending marking of territory, and did I mention grooming...

When all is said an done, I like to relax. Its off to the master bedroom to soak up some rays. Ah what an afternoon, peaceful, mid-day sun, warming me up on a cold day, ...

Oh no! Not that horrible boy with that black clicky thing I have not rubbed against or inspected yet. Shoo! Shoo! Get away! You are disrupting my quiet time! " - Patches

Ah the memoirs of our cat. Wouldn't we all love to be cat. :)

March 13 2008

Day 76 - Trying to Blend In

Oops forgot to give a description. :)

Its a clear glass marble on top of green glass beads. The green from the glass is shining through the marble.

I used a 250w halogen - man them things are warm. I felt like I was in a sauna. :)

I found the sweet spot (where the marble turned green) by trying different angles. I liked this one the best. I did try other colors, blue looked neat, but didn't light up like the clear glass one did.

Thanks for all the comments. :)

May 02 2008

Day 25 - Mr Bucket is not a happy camper

After seeing plenty of birds today, and having almost springlike weather, I thought wow we could have an early spring for a change. Barb said these warm temp is snow weather. Then all the little birdies disappeared, even the crows got caught in the snow storm heading to their nightly roost.

Weatherman says Flurries, I say Feet. Well, its been snowing like crazy, about 2 inches an hour for the past several hours. Who knows how much we will end up with.

I had to go out for some groceries at the corner store, so I took along the camera and spotted the bucket. The way the snow lay, made the bucket come alive... :)

Update: Snow stopped. It wasn't too bad, only 12-14 inches

Mar 12 2008

Day 69 - Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Who said SNOW is so delightful! Last night we had snow on the ground. Today the clouds were wicked. Like rivers of fluffy marshmallow spread all over the sky. Dark blue, grays, and different shades of white all moving pretty rapidly.

Thankfully the clouds were over the ocean and not over us - we got lucky, only a few flurries. I think Old Man Winter has finally puckered out for now.

We were just getting used to some warmer temps, when they took a plunge. I opened the window today to find a few moths taking homage inside the window frame. Even a cool green, brown, and white moth - it looked like he had camo's on - I was only able to snap one shot of him .. he was so cool looking. First time I ever saw one like that.

It's amazing what the camera picks up - I didn't even notice that 747 in the sky (above the sun, middle right) until I was loading it. It must be headed to Europe or the UK. Flying low due to the moderate winds today.

April 25 2008

Day 73.2 - The void

Water creates bolts of light and clouds of color.

April 30, 2008.

Day 59 - Pin Cushion Smuggy

Look what I found lurking in Barb's sewing tin.

psst. I am quietly replacing the sewing tin to it's correct location. shhh. You didn't see anything.

April 15 2008

I HEARD THAT!!!!!!! Love you Barb.

$Day 45 - Rays of Light This all started when a coin rolled on the floor. Then I tried a broken headphone speaker. Just playing around. Then I saw an old DVD and thought what if... I started taking shots of it spinning down, then added a light to catch the refractions. Then I tried catching it as it was dropped. Annoying Barb and getting strange looks. :P Then the strobe idea popped into my head. I setup the popup flash to do a strobe effect and added a black background. I was hoping to catch the reflections, but spinning the DVD and holding the camera takes some coordination. :) On one of my so-called failed attempts, the DVD was about to spin off my desk, but turned reflective side up showing me these rays of light. I turned off all the lights and tried a few more times. Getting the timing right with the spin and waiting for the flash to rapid fire took a few tries. I'll process some of the others.. this is definitely something I'd like to try again. Some of the colors and different rays combinations are wild. April 01 2008$

October 2003 - Hurricane Juan.

View of Hurricane Juan approaching Halifax from a tanker. The hurricane caused a few deaths and devestated thousands of trees throughout the area. It's been three years since Juan, and there are still signs of the damage. Many trees tried holding on, but anytime we get strong winds, we see a few more trees lose the battle to stay rooted. This is NOT our photograph. Photo Credits go to: http://gallery.ivany.org/v/miscellaneous

$Day 80 - Candlelight Refraction A nice little surprise occurred while lighting a candle near a DVD. It reminds me of the old cartoon drawings of candles showing light. Here is a BW version: http://banjon.smugmug.com/gallery/4854550_VWf2K#291323471_fEias May 06 2008$

$Day 32 - Mountain Dew Splash I didn't get much time to fiddle around tonight with the water. I was cleaning my system both spacewise, updating software, and cleaning all the gunk and dust bunny villages that had taken refuge in my PC. I know my PC was running a bit hot, cleaning the fans up really cooled things off, temp dropped 10 to 15 degrees. Thats good! I was trying some different setups with water tonight, and had a few others I liked, but this one I really liked. I love the water bead refractions. This was sort of an accident shot - I'm glad it worked. When I get time I'll post the others that came out descent. I want to work on some side lighting to help bring out the water more. March 19 2008$

Day 4 - Canonball Duck

Had some time at lunch to watch the ducks at a nearby marsh.
They can be comical to watch - especially when landing in the water. I swear they all look like they are coming in for a crash landing, trying to judge how fast they can smash into the water to splash the other ducks. Duck-Cannonballers.

Feb 20 2008

Day 77 - Shipwrecked

I couldn't wait to go outside today - nearly 18C/68F! woohoo!

I was watching some ducks/geese, not sure the name yet - very unique heads (beak extends to the top of their head). Then decided to take some beach shots. I noticed the wood sticking out in the water, thought it was an old dock.

When I approached it - thats when I saw the keel and the U shape of the hull. The timbers are definitely from the mid-1800's. The iron spikes and forms all have pits, so the metal was forged by hand.

I'm going to research if this shipwreck was reported, seems the winter storms redefined the beach here and may have revealed this hidden beauty. I wanted to get closer but the tide was coming in. I got some closeups of the textures and such. Definitely want to go back again.

Nova Scotia is known for shipwrecks (150 documented wrecks so far, researchers are estimating nearly 10,000 remain off the shores of Eastern Nova Scotia). There is one little island east of here, called Sable Island, thats been responsible for a large amount of the wrecks. The island is also noted for having wild horses as well.

This is my 2nd shipwreck I came across. This one is in much better shape. I would say the width is about 20 feet from side to side. The keel that remains extends into the water about 30 feet. I think there may be more buried there.

More photos can be found here: http://banjon.smugmug.com/gallery/4858681_jd2N2

I also started to see flowers and buds. :)

May 03 2008

$Day 46 - DVD + DVD + Strobe = Refraction Reflections Gone Wild After a long work day, I thought what better way to relax and spend 2 hours taking about 300 photos of two DVD's. After trying different sequences, and flash levels, I thought lets try some glass and mirrors or another DVD! Wow! I'm in love with my strobe flash! shhhh! Don't tell Barb! When the DVD's are angled just right, they get that infinite reflections going and with the strobe, its like a pinball game. I'm working on a gallery to show some of the others. I love the vivid colors and reflections. Its all about movement and light. Really cool. :) April 02 2008$

Day 83 - Tulips in Bloom

Today I ventured out to capture some tulips in bloom. Tulips are just one of my favorite flowers. I really like the soft lines and colors. It was somewhat an overcast and murky kind of day, but when I went outside the sun broke through the clouds for a few moments while I took a few photos. :)

I saw these tulips growing in between this dormant bush. Trying to think of the purple flowers, they sort of look like pom pom's. oh well.. :)

The weekend is here. Yahoo!

May 09 2008

Lighthouse reflecting in a tidal pool between the rocks. I caught this one just at the right time. A moment or two later the sun's direction changed and I couldn't get another shot of it. The rocks are glacial deposits hurled on to the shore during the last ice age. Tidal pools are formed by waves that wash over the rocks and allow salt water to settle in between them.

Day 52 - Succulent for Julienne

A few more photos:

When we went to Montreal, there were no flowers on this succulent plant. I even made a comment, is that thing still alive! Barb said it just needs some water. So she watered it and we left for Montreal. We got back on Friday, got some sleep, and the next day, Barb said there was a bud!

When I went to go check on the blossom today, I was amazed a large flower appeared. It was the largest flower I ever saw on that plant in the year and half since we bought it.

Barb wants to call it Julie after her mom. That is when I thought of my grandmother, whose birthday was on April 8th. They must both be looking over us and smiling.

We love this photo because it gave both of us a warm and peaceful feeling.

:)

A few more photos here: http://banjon.smugmug.com/gallery/4685183_qkZfX

April 08 2008

Day 55 - She had a rough day

She was minding her own business, chasing birds from the feeder, begging for food, looking for places to nap, when this mysterious leaf had the gall to enter her territory. Well she had a dilemma. Do I chase this leaf and become champion of my domain or do I take a nap....

:)

April 11 2008

Day 72 - The Curious Starling

I was taking a few shots of other Starlings, hoping one would come into view. Waiting and trying to get a good glimpse of them. Out the corner of my eye, this little guy was less then two feet away from me - observing me. :)

When I turned and realized he was SO close... I slowly turned the camera and started snapped. He went back to his business looking for worms and grubs - I guess. :)

As he turned into the sun, its the first time I ever saw their entire body shimmer. Usually its the neck, or a wing. They were fun to watch.

April 28 2008

Day 51.2 - Positioning the Seed takes great skill... steady... steady...

Busy little birds. Seeds are serious business. I often hear the seeds hitting the window. I guess some seeds are not Chickadee approved. Junco's don't mind.

April 07 2008

Day 37 - Sunset Raven

Today was a quiet day. Witnessed a pair of Ravens joining in Spring Fever. I guess they liked this area too. We're seeing a lot more Ravens, well, we went from seeing none to about 10 or more in a few days (behind our apartment). I wonder if they will be staying or moving on.

No more unsupervised suntanning for Patches on the back porch. Don't want her to become a Raven next meal ticket. I heard a few Racoons were spotted, so we'll keep an eye out for those little guys.

Lots of Chickadee's today. Saw a nuthatch too. I guess spring is in the air. :)
There was a nice sunset tonight. I love March and April sunsets - they show some of the wildest colors. Peggy's cove must of saw a wicked sunset tonight (How would you say that - we are parallel to the cove, we pretty much see the same sunset as the cove would).

Everything is arranged now, so we're heading out tomorrow.
Early to bed tonight.
Be back soon.

Barb said "Thank You for your sympathies".

Take care

March 24 2008

Golden Ray

Moments before I took this shot, I had a nasty spill down an embankment where I almost lost the camera and could have been seriously hurt. That's when I realized I was no longer 25. When I climbed back up the embankment, I needed to clean myself off and rest a bit at a nearby picnic table. I checked over the camera to make sure it was okay, and decided to take a few test shots. Then I spotted this leaf on the ground, and thought it had interesting lines. I was just about to snap the shot, when suddenly the sun illuminated the leaf.

This is the RAW image. No post work, no saturation, nothing - only the sun. :) I couldn't believe the image when I saw it. I really love how this came out. Must of been a sign from above. :)

Day 63.1 - Sunset Pink

Tonight's sunset was beautiful. The sun was orange, and the sky was purple, then it turned multiple shades of pink.

Its was a bit windy, a full moon, the surfers were out in droves. The waves were constantly pounding the shore. The swells had to be averaging 10-15ft, I swear some looked like 20ft high. I spoke to a few surfers, they were loving it. It was like that all day - one guy was surfing for 5 hours and told me "I still want to surf, but I'm exhausted." I heard a few guys saying there were so many waves that after a while they couldn't surf. The waves were so powerful they were riding them a good 500 ft or more. Most the time they rode it into shore. Lots of good runs and some nice tricks.

Met a few more nice people flying their kites. Kites were everywhere, not the little ones, huge parachute types. I saw one guy get dragged across the sand after he was anchored down - that must of hurt.

Saw a Great Blue Heron today, so spring must really be here! I heard Vancouver is getting some snow, and a few feet in Calgary. LOL.. usually that's us getting hit. I also some Ring-necked ducks today - very cool looking black ducks - wish I had a 500mm. :)

All that fun and then the sunset. I told Barb, I like when I have days it's hard to choose a daily photo. This time I ran out of memory cards, hehe - oh well.

April 19 2008

Day 61 - April Dusk

I thought yesterday's was a nice sunset. Today's was one of those spectacular ones.

It started off as an ordinary everyday sunset, light yellows and some clouds. Then we see golden yellow, a few oranges, and reds, then it get bright blinding yellow as it sets, and that's when the real show begins. The sky just explodes with color, we see pinks, lavenders, and blues. This is a perfect example of when the sky is about to change, moments after this photo, the sky went orangey red, maroons, purples, and still some streaks of yellow. :)

It's common to hear people at work say, "Yo, come on outside and check out the sunset". Everyone stops working to go check them out. :)

For the first two years that we lived in Halifax, we saw a few nice sunsets at Peggy's Cove and maybe one or two around the area. When we moved to our current residence, we never expected such a view. I remember the day we saw our first vivid sunset, it was in April. We were just sitting down to watch the news, when we noticed the blinds were glowing pink and orange. When we pulled back the blinds, it was like the scene in the Wizard of Oz going from B&W to Color. Barb came running yelling "Oh My !!!" look out the window. We were mesmerized by the colors. The sunsets lasted for two hours of nothing but color upon color. I love living here. :)

2008 has been pretty lean for sunsets. The colder than normal temps and winds really play havoc with the clouds and often times make them dissipate right before the sun sets.

Usually we get very nice sunsets in Jan, April, August, Nov and early December. Very nice means you can count on the sky changing colors at least 10 times or more over a 2 hour or more period. The longer ones are in August when we see the sun setting around 11pm. Thats wild, talk about a full day. You can do so much on those days. Parties are usually abundant around those times. :)

I'll try posting some photos from tonight and yesterday. I have a feeling there will be some wicked ones coming up.

Tonight there was even bright blue in the upper atmosphere while the rest of the sky was black. It almost looks like northern lights. I wish we got those here (there was one when we first moved here, but I slept through it).

April 17 2008

Day 50 - Baxter Harbour Falls

A gorgeous day today! We don't know what happened - Old Man Winter may have called it quits for now. The bees were out, the birds were out, pheasants, some eagles, and LOTS of melting ice. The jackets were off and had the windows open for some fresh warm air - I think it was 60F/15C today.

Arriving at Baxter's Harbour, we heard this sudden loud roar of water. As we rounded the corner, we saw this 50 ft water drop cascading down the cliffs. It was really breathtaking. An older gentlemen chuckled and called it Old Niagara. Its all fresh water runoff from the nearby mountains.

Driving here Barb noticed the Bay of Fundy was a bit higher than normal, seeing the flood plains saturated is a little scary. The Fundy tides change nearly 60 feet every 6 hours, so you have to be on your toes when walking the beaches. At high tide, the water level will rise to about half the height of the falls (about 20ft) where the ice ends on the right of the falls.

When the tide ebbs, you meet lots of people on the beach from local fisherman who are setting their lobster traps and herring/haddock nets, to beach combers looking for what the tide left behind this time, such as blue glass, quartz crystals, purple amethyst, and other semi-precious stones. Last year, I found a quartz crystal the size of a softball and some purple amethyst.

As we were there taking photos, the ice block on the lower left was in the middle of the cliff on the left (the dark wet area). We heard a loud boom as it let go from the cliff and plummeted about 30 feet. It was about the size of a small car. There was a young lady photographing the falls at the time, she was at a safe distance.

The area was very nice, basalt formations were all around the beach. I guess there was a lot of magma here at one time. We love visiting this area, so many unique and pristine beaches to walk.

April 06 2008

Day 9.1 - Wait 10 Minutes

There is a saying around the Maritimes, "Ya Don't Like The Weather, Wait 10 Minutes". The Atlantic coast is a meteorologists worst nightmare. In other words, no one pays attention to what the weather channel or meteorologists have to say. If you want to know tomorrow's weather, ask a farmer or a fisherman. Forecasting beyond 2 days is useless.

So here I was, a long hard day at work, no sun today, cloudy as heck, no birds, well a Chick-a-dee showed up for a few seconds, cold and miserable... Barb gave me call, after talking to her for a bit, I look out the window and my mouth hit the floor. Where in the heck did this come from! A sunset! what the...

I often think there is some greater being that loves to pull our strings from time to time. :) I have to say its worth every cent.

Feb 25 2008

$Day 54.1 - Rainbow Bubble After doing some experiments with water, DVD's, and strobe flash, I was playing around with water and thought I wonder what a bubble would pick up on a DVD. Pretty cool colors. Water and strobe light had some nice shots. I'll work on getting an album together. Amazing what water and refracting light does. I was thinking after working with water.. I really need a macro lens. :) April 10 2008$