Horse Crazy!

Lucky me has had the opportunity to test my equine photography skills over the past couple of months!  It's something that I've always wanted to try my hand at (since I'm a horse nut) and now that I'm leasing I've been given free reign sorta speak!  Here are some for you to check out, I'll be posting my fav's on my site shortly.  PLEASE leave some feedback :)

 

 

Merry Christmas To Everyone!

Meet Sawyer!

This is Sawyer, isn't he adorable?!  I love his chubby cheeks ;)  I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to take some pictures of him and his brother, Evan, a couple of weeks ago.  They were both great in front of the camera and I had a wonderful time hanging out with them!  Two handsome boys for sure!

Farewell

My brother moved out East a few weeks ago, but luckily I talked him into posing for a few pictures before he left (not an easy feat).  He's a very descriptive writer and detailed artist so I wanted to shoot in a way that would reflect the dark and sometimes twisted perspective of the worlds he creates.  I think the second shot catches who he is perfectly!  He has now moved to a new city to pursue his dream of turning his latest script into a movie.  I wish him all the best in his endeavors and can't wait to see his amazing script brought to life on the big screen :)

Kayak Trip

My Mom and I went for a wonderful evening paddle in our kayaks a few days ago.  The water was like glass and there were hundreds of jelly fish floating underneath us.  On the way back I was privileged enough to get to spend some time with a family of otters!  I kept gliding closer and closer - they chirped at me, but didn't seemed too bothered by my presence.  Eventually they were coming up to the end of my paddle to check me out and one even popped up right beside my kayak giving me quite a fright LOL!  It was an amazing experience, one that I won't forget!  Can't wait to go back there (maybe in the morning next time so I can sneak up on some herons).

Spider Webs

The fog combined with the sunrise created an interesting "feel" to these spider webs off my balcony one morning last week :)

New...

Story boards from my trip:

Just a reminder...

that you can order prints of any of the photos on my site (or even this blog)!  I can do enlargements, panos, custom sizes or even greeting cards...whatever you'd like!  Send me an email and I'll hook you up :)

http://emilymacdonald.weebly.com/

Okanagan Part 3

In my previous post I mentioned walking along the canal, so I'll share some more shots I got while doing so...

One night we went out to an old farm house and barn that were built in the late 1860's.  It was built by the first judge in the area, John Haynes.  At one point his ranch covered just shy of 21,000 acres (which is hard to believe looking at it now).  Sadly it is getting extremely run down and is all fenced off for safety reasons...I don't know how much longer it'll last.  It's too bad that it couldn't be preserved since it's such a major piece of Osoyoos history. 

One thing I wasn't prepared for when I went out to shoot this was the mosquitoes!  They were brutal and started to swarm me as soon as I got out of the car.  Some of my images were completely covered in grey splotches from them diving in front of my lens LOL!  I'm sure I must have looked like I had a disease or something when I got back to the camp site from all the bites I had on my face - it was horrible!  Here's a behind the scenes look at me trying to shoot and stay protected from those nasty blood suckers:

Sigh if you must, but I have to share some "Mini Marmot" (as I call them) pics from Manning Park.  They're just so darn cute!

That's all folks, hope you enjoyed :)

Okanagan Part 2

One of my favourite things to while we were camping was to walk along the canal with my dog.  One day I went for a couple of hours and had a wonderful time strolling past horse filled pastures, flower covered fields and old barns and paddocks.  I saw a tonne of birds, everything from Red-Winged Black Birds, Cedar Waxwings, Osprey and Finches.  One of the birds I was most captivated with was the Sandpiper.  There were quite a few of them nesting near the path and it was fun seeing their different tactics when it came to defending their nests.  One of them was particularly feisty and would fly madly back and forth in front of me (driving my dog crazy)!  Most of the other ones would just vocalize from a distance, but not this one!  She was a bold little thing. 

I came to know one Sandpiper quite well over the course of my walks.  As I discovered on my second walk, she had a nest with four eggs in it right on the edge of the path!  It was hidden pretty well, but was still too close to where people walked for my comfort. 

Here she is standing guard (her nest was under the green shrub directly behind her):

And, here is her nest with her wonderfully camouflaged eggs:

When I went back two days later, three of the fours eggs had hatched!  I was able to get so close to them that I had to use my macro lens to get the shots.

Mom kept a very close eye on me and tried to distract me by bobbing up and down and vocalizing.  I didn't stay very long since I didn't want to stress them too much.  (The next day when I went back they had left the nest, leaving behind one dud egg.)

Another amazing opportunity I had was to shoot a Red-Necked Grebe sitting on her nest (with Dad floating nearby).  She was very protective (understandably) and would squawk at me whenever I got too close.  I only wish I could have been there to see her swimming around with her babies on her back.

One day I was sitting in our campsite and just happened to have my camera on my lap when a beautiful quail jumped up on a stump right infront of me!  I swear he was posing LOL!

I think that's all I'll post for now.  Yet more later!