Dappled Air

On Friday's walk around Oat Hill Lake we came across the first ducklings of the season. That's why I always take my camera along on my walks. The ducklings must be very new as they still have yellow in their plumage from the egg.

The cold air has arrived much earlier than usual and yesterday it felt with the windchill like it was below -20°C. I decided not to venture outside, but the birds did not have that advantage. Around lunch time I was looking out my kitchen window and saw this blue jay all puffed up sitting in a pine tree trying to stay warm. I grabbed my camera and put it on full zoom which turned out to be 24x digital. Trying to find the bird at that zoom was no easy task then the next step was to stay still and not shake to take the picture. To my big surprise the picture turned out very well.

I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to put up new posts, but I have been taking pictures. I don't leave the house without my camera any more, because just when I think there is nothing new to capture, you guessed it, there is something. I took this picture a week ago. There was no snow in sight and it looked lovely even with the green grass. Now a week later it is a totally different story.

I don't really keep track when the ice forms on Oat Hill Lake. I seem to remember that last year it was at the end of November, this year I just noticed today that on the Western end of the lake, the shallowest part, the ice is starting to form. Also when walking on the grass, the earth does not have any give any longer and is freezing up also. I remember one year the lake was still open on February 14, but eventually froze up and the ice was thick enough to skate on it after all.

The reason for not posting for so long is my daughter's wedding on June 30/09 and me coming down with a bug afterward. As I am slowly getting back into the groove I discovered that I had totally forgotten to make my July wallpaper. This also gives me the opportunity to start posting wallpapers in my graphics blog called Grafika. For the July desktop wallpaper and/or calendar I used a photo I took in June of a man fishing while standing on a stone in the lake.

While digging in my garden this week I came across these two salamanders. At first they did not move at all, so I quickly ran for my camera and took the picture. Some quick research revealed that they are Redback Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus): "This salamander is more of a land creature. It lives in all sorts of moist forests and often invades suburban backyards. Its eggs are laid in damp places under rocks or logs, so there is no aquatic stage at all. Redback Salamanders have no lungs. The animals breathe through their skins, and the lining of the roof of the mouth. Read the rest at the above link from the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History."

I took this photo in May at Oat Hill Lake, Dartmouth, NS. I only realized once I looked at the photo on my computer that it was a very pink picture. It turns out that the new vegetation combined with the sun light created this very pink landscape and very unusual scene. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

A lovely sunny and warm spring walk in Point Pleasant Park turned out to be a perfect photo opportunity. I really liked the way the waves were breaking at the point of the Halifax peninsula. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

When I am too lazy to open Photoshop, I found this online photo editor is perfect for the job: Pixlr . Cropping an image to send by email or even making some minor adjustments online works great. I like to work with Photoshop, but sometimes it is not worth opening the program for working on one picture. It took me a long time to get the hang of Photoshop. I guess when you are not ready for something trying to force it just does not work. When the timing is right things will happen as if by magic, when the timing isn't right it is like banging your head against a brickwall. I have learned the hard way and it applies to everything in life.

I am really trying to take at least one picture a day. Most days I am successful, but there are still some days when I plain forget. Some days it is harder to come up with a picture than on others, but I am trying to be persistent and to come up with different ideas. Enjoy my slide show of March 2009 pictures

Spring is slow in arriving in the Canadian Maritimes and there are only a few early spring flowers poking out of the ground where the snow has melted. A neighbour showed me with glee the tiny snowdrops that had already appeared. It took some maneuvering to get a closeup of those tiny flowers so low to the ground. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

I don't usually post pictures of family members. But his one I just could not resist. After I received the picture of my grandson and took a good look at it, it reminded me so much of a picture of my son. So I dug through my pictures and found it. My son is 9 months old in his picture and my grandson is 2 months old in his picture. They probably weigh about the same in the pictures. My son was about half the weight of his son at birth, that's the reason for the age difference in the pictures. I think they resemble each other quite a bit. I know it is still a bit too early to tell who my grandson will take after.

Even though we still have snow on the ground and the snowstorms, but every so often there is a day when spring is in the air. February 25th was such a day and the crow was asleep in our blue spruce tree until I decided to take a picture. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

This year the city allowed ice fishing on the lakes for the first time and there were many people taking advantage of it. One guy came with a truck that had this ball at the end of his antenna and I just had to take the picture. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

I just could not resist to watch Obama's inauguration online. I really liked the way CNN linked with Facebook , so that you could read all your friends comments. I took the screenshot to the right before I realized that I should change to full screen and then take the screenshots. Being so much into photography, watching an event like that on TV was frustrating. Then I got the idea that I have the 'print screen' button to capture screenshots, yes I know I lost a lot of clarity. So as I was watching things unfold, I was also waiting for that one special picture to capture. Once Obama started his speech I realized quite quickly that he looked to the left and then to the right, but never quite straight on into the camera. Also when he looked to the left there was a glint of the lapel pin of the American flag on his suit that looked like a star. So, I patiently waited for the moment to capture that glint and I think I succeeded.

Last October I came across an article talking about going shampoo free. I wondered what were they talking about, how would you wash your hair without shampoo? So, I read the article and it made sense, especially since I was getting frustrated the way my hair felt after washing it. It seemed to be coated in something and just did not feel natural. Then today I came across another blog taking about going shampoo free . That gave me the idea to now talk about my experience with going shampoo free for the last 3 months. I really like it. I like the way my hair and scalp feels. My tendency towards greasy hair is greatly reduced. The biggest bonus I found is that in winter I have hardly any or non static hair. That never happened when I used shampoo and was very annoying. This is the way I use the baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair. I have a one cup plastic peanut butter jar, baking soda in a jar and a plastic spoon in the bathroom as you can see from the picture to the le...

Inspiration for my graphic creations can come from the strangest places. I do my daily exercises on the living room floor as the DVD player is in that room. After looking up at my textured ceiling for many months, I have discovered shapes in it. One looks like a heart and the other one like an alien figure. So I lay down on the floor and took a picture of the ceiling. Then I opened it the photo in Photoshop and started to bring out the figure I saw. Well, here is the design I came up with. I love including png icons for little things in my graphics and it adds to my geekiness. I don't even have twitter account, but I liked the blue bird and the Microsoft butterfly gives away that I am a Windows person. The plain ceiling picture is here .

I finally printed my own monitor calendar strip for 2009 even though I created them early in October, but just never got around to print one. I originally created the calendars in 2008 and the feedback was so positive that I just had to keep on repeating it. I really like to have the calendar attached to the frame of the monitor, it is very helpful. While I am on the subject of calendars. I also have the 2009 version of the popular dodecahedron calendar with different backgrounds. It is easy to make if you glue it in the right order. My CD case calendars were quite popular Christmas presents. I give them to my friends and family in the case the first year and then I can them send refills the next year. I created my version to be printed on double sided brochure paper (I get mine at Staples), this way there are not too many pages to cram into the case. All calendar templates are free and you can download them at the following pages: Computer Monitor Calendars Dodecahedron Calendar CD C...

With December's changeable weather the lake did not stay frozen the whole time and this picture is from one of the warmer days when the ice was braking up. I hope that during the cool days of January it will remind me that it will get warmer again soon. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1920 x 1200 pixels

Looking through my pictures I took during November, I realized that the one with the bicycle in the snow was perfect for December. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1900 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1900 x 1200 pixels