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!

Okanagan Part 1

I'm going to share the photos from my trip in parts because there are so many of them:)

One of the first places we went to was the White Lake Grasslands Park (located west of Okanagan Falls).  This beautiful and unique area was established as protected land in 2001 to preserve its fragile grasslands, open pine forests and endangered wildlife. It has everything from thinly forested areas, to rock cliffs, to rolling hills and open fields.  It was interesting being there not only earlier in the season but also during a cooler, wetter summer and seeing green on the hills and flowers blooming.  Unfortunately the lake wasn't pure white yet, due to the high rain fall, but it was still spectacular (and hot)!

We also went to Hardy Falls in Peachland.  It was very luscious in the park and there were trees in bloom with white flowers covering them which made the air smell just amazing!  There had been a rock slide next to the water fall at some point which blocked the bottom of the fall from view, but I still took a couple photos although they weren't as stunning as I was hoping for.

More to follow later...

Okanagan Trip

We just got back from an amazing trip into the Okanagan!  The fam and I went away for a week long vacation to OK Falls (which is located between Oliver and Penticton) and had a great time!  The scenery there is spectacular and so completely different from what we have here on the Island that I got a little trigger happy and shot just shy of 800 frames in six days.  Needless to say, I have a lot of editing to do now!  Some of my more memorable moments were doing a sunset shoot of a farm house built in the 1860's, sneaking some photos of a nesting Red-Necked Grebe, and getting up close and personal with a nest of newly hatched Sandpipers!  I'm one lucky gal :)

I've barely scratched the surface of the editing, so you'll have to be patient with me...but I will leave you this cutie to tide you over.

Stolen Flowers

I "stole" some flowers from my Mom's garden the other day and brought them home to take some pics.  Along with these, I picked a dark purple Iris, but it didn't look so good by the time it got here:(  Here are some shots of the heartier of the two flowers (I'm not sure what they are called...any one know?).

Second Wedding Shoot

Last week, Keri (of Keri Coles Photography) and I had our second wedding shoot of the season at Hatley Castle.  It was only a two hour shoot, so we were a bit pressed for time, but I think we did well! 

Here are a few samples:

Wedding Shoot

I had my first wedding shoot of the season last week and it was tons of fun!  I back-up shoot for Keri Coles Photography.  Keri is a fantabulous photographer and I can't wait to see the shots she got:)  It was an eight hour shoot, so we were pretty tired by the end, but we had a wonderful day!   The bride and groom were so great to photograph and made our job a whole lot easier!  (And, I loved the bride's dress, she looked so gorgeous!)  We have another wedding tomorrow so I can only hope it goes as smoothly as this one did.

Here are some of my favourite shots:

Rainbow Drops

I've been wanting to try this for a long time and I finally got around to it today.  Let me know what you think:)

China Beach

I took a few snappity-snaps when we were out at China Beach this past weekend and thought I'd share :)  On a side note, I have two wedding shoots this month (back-up shooting) and a family portrait session next month, I'm very excited!