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This is Hog’s Back Falls, or a portion of them, located on the north side of Mooney’s Bay. It is really cool to have a waterfall so close at hand. You can anticipate many more shots of this spot. Here, the sun was so bright that it was tough to get good detail out of the shadowy portions, so this is actually an HDR shot made up of two pictures taken at different exposures.

If was a little frustrated with this photo shoot, which sometimes just happens, but this shot ended up being my favourite. It is simple, has a simple subject (the tree), and has some great colours and textures. I think I was trying too hard to get a picture of the whole falls, which is really tough to do. Sometimes, photos are less about getting the whole scene, and more about finding a cool detail, like this tree, which is actually in the middle of the falls on a little island type thing.

While the wildlife may not be nearly as wild as it was in High Level, there are still opportunities for animal shots, like this kind squirrel who posed for me for several minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any goodies for him (or her).

Speaking of animal photos – PIGEONS! Surprisingly, the view from my apartment is another opportunity for photos I’ve got at my fingertips. Though it may sound a bit weird, getting pigeon shots is going to be one of my ongoing projects. But don’t worry, I will only show you a few select shots!

While I’m generally of the view that pigeons are flying vermin, birds in general are just cool to photograph. And since these guys love flying about and landing on the apartment buildings near me, it gives me a great chance for some high speed shots, like these two fighting pigeons.

With this shot, I was channeling a bit of Henri Cartier Bresson. He was a famous photographer who loved Leica cameras, and is noted for photographing “the decisive moment”. Here, I’ve tried to do the same thing by showing three pigeons sitting in a row, and catching this shot of a fourth pigeon just about to land and join them.

As dirty and not generally nice as these birds can be, sometimes they really do give off a graceful, angelic feel. To add to that, brightened up the area right behind the pigeon here in photoshop, just to bring your eye there.

Other times, I’m not even entirely sure what my photos are supposed to say, but this one intrigued me, with the technological, pointy antennae in the background, and the bird … yeah, anyone have any ideas?

Finally, there has been some lovely, light snow falling recently, and the courtyard between the four apartment buildings near me create a kind of snow-globe stillness, so I tried to capture that here, blurring out the background, keeping just a few snowflakes in focus, and upping the saturation to make the colours pop. I also played with the natural vignetting (dark corners) to add more charm to the shot.