Day 122 - Fresh Cut Watermelon I love watermelon in the summer, especially ice cold. :P I like to cut it into chunks and put it in the fridge for a while. When I cut into this melon, I thought the growth lines were really neat. So I took some shots before slicing and dicing it. So hard to find seeded watermelons these days - just glad they are still round - wonder why the square ones never caught on here ... yet. As I finished putting the last chunks into the containers, Barb nonchalantly scarfed them before I got to sample the goods. hehe Well, I did sample one or two - who can resist. June 17 2008

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

Gallery pages: << < 20 21 22 23 24 25 > >>

< 203 of 349 >

banjon > Day 126 - Fire at Lake Echo

As we were returning home from our drive along Musqoudoboit River (Musk-O-Dob-It), we took Route 107 to Dartmouth which took us close to the epicenter of the forest fire. During the forest fire, the fire jumped roads and lakes to continue spreading east.

The smell of the burnt trees reminded me of a camp fire, but different. I think it may have been the mixture of all different woods and brush that burned. All the greens took on a deep orange color, right before charring.

I found it amazing that only a week after the fire, I've spotted new growth on the ground, and some trees, although scarred, survived the fire. Maybe the rain we've had for the past few days had something to do with that. Nature is amazing. :)

BTW, they did find out it was accidentally set by poor judgment of two campers cooking hamburgers over a camp fire (in 30-40MPH winds). Over 2,000 acres were destroyed, including 2 homes. The firemen saved a large subdivision by working all through the night, soaking houses to keep the fire from expanding. The next morning, the two water bombers were able to concentrate their attack by saturating the ground with 1500-2000 gallons of water every 2 minutes. They were finally able to get it under control.

June 21 2008

banjon > Day 125 - Solstice Sunset

Fitting that the Solstice sunset would be nothing short of spectacular. Although brief, it was amazing to watch a hole in the blue sky burning away. It was nice today, but by mid-afternoon, the fog started rolling in and temperatures dropped from mid-80's (28C) to mid-50's (15C) (eventually to 40F/10C).

When I saw the sun fighting the fog, I grabbed the camera. Lucky thing, the struggle only lasted about 15 minutes and there was no more sun.

After seeing Los Angeles hit 113F and Death Valley at 120F today, I am glad we are nice and cool. It's amazing to see such a drop in temp, around 40 degrees difference in a few short hours.

June 20 2008

banjon > Day 124 - Expert Crab Fisher

A Herring Gull plucking a crab from the marsh in Grand Desert, NS.

I met up with Steve Methot today and we went birding east of Lawrencetown. It was nice to see the fog rolling in and out all day. We saw quite a few herons, which looked awesome in the fog. Lots of little duckies and their mums, some widgins, lots of sparrows, ringed-neck ducks, female Eiders, and lots of crows and gulls. Oh yeah, one shorebird - looked like a sandpiper. The Greater (from what we can tell) Black-backed gulls were in a few locations.

The fog added a nice mist, cool breeze, that fought with the sun for most of the day. At low tide, we got to see a few clam diggers at work in the fog. I never dug for clams yet, its on my list to try. :)

June 19 2008

banjon > Day 123 - Flashpoint

The blue flash reminds me of a face. This all started when I was about to light some incense. I started trying to capture the flash point just after clicking the long-neck lighter. Took a few hundred shots to get what I was after. I've always wanted to capture some flames in action. Now that I have a good idea where to head with this, I'll try some more experiments.

This was done using AF off, and just hand coordinating my hands to click both the camera and the lighter at the same exact moment.

June 18 2008

banjon > Day 122 - Fresh Cut Watermelon

I love watermelon in the summer, especially ice cold. :P I like to cut it into chunks and put it in the fridge for a while. When I cut into this melon, I thought the growth lines were really neat. So I took some shots before slicing and dicing it. So hard to find seeded watermelons these days - just glad they are still round - wonder why the square ones never caught on here ... yet.

As I finished putting the last chunks into the containers, Barb nonchalantly scarfed them before I got to sample the goods. hehe Well, I did sample one or two - who can resist.

June 17 2008

banjon > Day 121 - Rollin Thunder

Well.. :) Its a glass mosaic ball made from different colors of glass. Its a red ball by day, and colorful ball at night. I used the LED once again, but from inside the ball. I like how the color glass cast a pattern on to the surface. I tried to give the ball a sense of motion, sort of like rolling along making a thundering sound. :)

June 16 2008

banjon > Day 119.2 - Water Bomber

A water bomber coming in after fighting the fire over Porter Lake and Lake Echo. They said they are lucky because Nova Scotia has so many lakes. They can find water very easily and they can get it quickly, plus they have the ocean.

Hopefully they will help get it under control.

June 14 2008

banjon > Day 119.1 - Forest Fire

The fire is still out of control. They are worried about shifting winds. We saw the fire from about 20 miles away (rough estimate). From where I stood, it was directly toward Lake Echo and Porter Lake, the areas that are on fire. The fire is just beyond the other side of the mountain. Not sure how the wild life made out, as there is a large wildlife reserve to the right of the fire. Good news is that most of the other fires have been contained and stopped. This one doesn't look like they can contain it, unless the wind stops, otherwise, it will go right to the ocean.

The firemen are telling evacuated residents to open all windows and remove all drapes from windows to allow air to circulate, it stops the houses from exploding. They don't know how many homes have been consumed already.

We heard about a volunteer fireman watching his house burn to the ground. They said homes are burning to the ground in minutes. Some other stories we are hearing is about a couple that just finished building their new home, a Victorian replica, its all gone. Also, there was a wedding scheduled for today, right in the vicinity of the fire - I guess it will be postponed.

The photo shows some of the smoke plumes. There is a water bomber making a run over the fire (the white dot). I thought I was seeing things at first, but notice the red tint to the smoke. I sure hope they can contain it soon. Since the region is cooler, there is a lot of brush, so its causing for rapid burns, when a tree is met its sounds like a fire cracker exploding.

While we drove by the airport, we saw one of the Water Bombers come in for a landing.
A second photo I included.

Hats off to the fire crews - they are working day and night trying to get this one under control. The Canadian Navy has sent in crews to help relieve the firefighters. So sad to see so many lose everything. Most people never got home to get anything out of their home, as it started at 3pm, when just about everyone was at work. Some left early to get home, but found roads blocked off.

June 14 2008

Day 122 - Fresh Cut Watermelon

I love watermelon in the summer, especially ice cold. :P I like to cut it into chunks and put it in the fridge for a while. When I cut into this melon, I thought the growth lines were really neat. So I took some shots before slicing and dicing it. So hard to find seeded watermelons these days - just glad they are still round - wonder why the square ones never caught on here ... yet.

As I finished putting the last chunks into the containers, Barb nonchalantly scarfed them before I got to sample the goods. hehe Well, I did sample one or two - who can resist.

June 17 2008