Archive For The “landscape” Category
A mink (neogale vison) on a driftwood log at the Kitamaat Village beach, February 12, 2022 (Robin Rowland)
It was a cool, over cast Saturday afternoon when I accompanied birders from the Kitimat Valley Naturalists on the monthly shorebird count.
Just after we arrived at our first stop, the Kitamaat Village seawall and beach in Haisla traditional territory, I (and the others) saw something out of the corner of my eye, a flash of black with a tail scampering along a driftwood log on the beach. A few minutes later the animal appeared again, coming up from another log. So while the birders put up their scopes and scanned the shoreline, I walked up on a pile of dirt and kept watch for the mammal.
I kept watch. It was dashing along the logs and under others. Had the camera on high speed burst mode and missed it about twenty or so times.
Then the mink decided to pause (or to do me a favour) and stopped on one log, looked up and I captured this portrait. It looked around and then dashed into a hollow log and disappeared.
A mink (neogale vison) on a driftwood log at the Kitamaat Village beach, February 12, 2022 (Robin Rowland)
Cloudy day. Sony RX10M3, Iso Auto shooting at 2000 ASA. 1/1000 at F4.
A lot of other usual shots, even at low tide the beach is far off so it’s often hard to get good shots.
Then I spotted a bald eagle high over Douglas Channel.
A bald eagle flies over Douglas Channel. (Robin Rowland)
Then I got lucky again, the eagle flew right toward the beach, coming in for a landing.
Bald eagle coming in for a landing at Kitamaat Village beach. (Robin Rowland)
And then perched on a driftwood stump.
A bald eagle perches on a driftwood stump in late February afternoon sun at Kitamaat Village, Feb. 12, 2022. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle perches on a stump in Kitamaat Village, (Robin Rowland
The sun sets over the Dunes of Florence, Oregon, August. 1980. (Robin Rowland)
It was forty years ago, in August, 1980, that a friend and I drove from Vancouver, BC, where I was living at the time, to spend a weekend at Florence, Oregon, which inspired Frank Herbert to write the famous novel Dune.
That’s me at the beach in Florence, Oregon, in 1980.
Like many at the time, I was entranced by Dune as soon as I picked it off a drug store bookshelf probably in 1965. It was sometime later that I read someplace that it was Florence that first inspired Frank Herbert to write about ecology when he originally visited back in 1953 when he was trying to write an article about a US Forest Service project to use dune grass to keep the sand in check. After all that research, as Herbert said in the collection of his essays, Frank Herbert, the Maker of Dune (1987): “Before long I had far too much for an article and far too much for a short story.. But I had an enormous amount of data, with angles shooting off at angles to gather more.” The result, of course, was the blockbuster novel, then more novels, then spinoffs by his son, a movie concept that was never made, an awful movie that was made, a pretty good miniseries and a new movie that we hope to see this Christmas (if there are movies in theatres).
That trip has been a wonderful memory for years, so to mark the anniversary, I found some of the old slides, taken on Kodak Ectachrome, with my old Minolta SRT101 and scanned them. For a some where the colour did not survive four decades, I converted to black and white.
Sand dunes and grass at Florence, Oregon, August 1980. You can see a family building a sandcastle in the distance along the shore. (Robin Rowland)
That amazing sandcastle on the beach at Florence, Oregon, that could be out of a Dune movie or perhaps a fantasy novel. (Robin Rowland)
Sand dunes and grass at Florence, Oregon. (Robin Rowland)
Sand dunes are like waves in a large body of water; they are just slower. (Frank Herbert, “The Sparks Have Flown” in Frank Herbert The Maker of Dune).
Dunes and dune grass at Florence, Oregon, August 1980. (Robin Rowland)
Seagulls over the Pacific Ocean, the dunes and grass at Florence, Oregon, August, 1980. (Robin Rowland)
A wider view of the Oregon coast and ocean surf. (Robin Rowland)
Ocean surf on the nearby Oregon coast. (Robin Rowland)
Ocean surf. (Robin Rowland)
The 93% waning gibbous moon sets over the mountains of Kitimat early Sunday March 24, 2019 as the sun rises. (Robin Rowland)
A closer view of the waning moon over the mountains of Kitimat (Robin Rowland)
The rising sun begins to illuminate the mountain slopes as the moon sets. (Robin Rowland)
Smoke from the Rio Tinto plant over Kitimat harbour as the sun rises on a frosty Sunday morning March 24, 2019. (Robin Rowland)
Channeling Claude Monet on a back country wilderness hike. Water lilies from Pine Lake, north west of Terrace, BC, taken August 6, 2018.
The moon and Mars rise over Minette Bay, Kitimat, BC, as a meteor streaks over head. You can see Saturn on the far right (Robin Rowland)
This week is a stargazer’s delight. Mars is at its closest approach to Earth, and that means the Red Planet is the brightest it will be from July 27 to July 31 (the latter date is when Mars is actually the closest). Although North America missed the solar eclipse earlier this week, the moon is actually at its smallest, sometimes called a Buck Moon. The giant planets Saturn and Jupiter are high in the southern sky this week. Earlier in the month, Venus was visible as the Evening Star and for those with the proper gear it was possible to get a glance of Mercury.
Kitimat is in the midst of the summer heat wave that is gripping most of North America. Nights are mostly clear although there is some high haze from smoke in the atmosphere stemming from the forest fires in both Siberia and North America.
With all that I drove out to the Kitimat Viewpoint late Saturday July 28, to capture it all.
Gear
Apps (for Android)
The Photographer’s Emphemeris
– told me when the moon will rise and the angle of location. Note: TPE gives moonrise at sea level. That means moonrise in Kitimat is usually between 50 and 70 minutes later depending on where it comes up over the mountains.
A compass app. To check the compass direction of the moonrise as predicted by TPE.
Sky Map. Android app originally developed by Google. Hold up you phone and see location of stars, planets, nebulae, satellite etc.
Camera
Heavy duty Manfrotto tripod
with
Sony Alpha 77, Minolta 17 to 35mm wide angle lens
Mounted with Cokin P121L Neutral density filter (to reduce the glare from the moon)
Handheld
Sony RX10iii
Jupiter and Saturn over Douglas Channel
Jupiter over the Rio Tinto aluminum plant (right) and Saturn (left) over the mountains above Kitamaat Village, about an hour after sunset (Robin Rowland)
The late summer dusk lingers for more than hour after sunset, so even the distant mountains of Douglas Channel can be seen. Jupiter is bright over the Rio Tinto plant at 10:50:33
Sony Alpha 77 ISO 4000 F2.8 1/2.5 of a second
Moonrise
Moonrise over Minette Bay. (Robin Rowland)
The moon is about to rise above the mountain (Robin Rowland)
The first arc of the moon peeked over the mountaintop at about 10:57:40.
The first image in the photoblog was taken at 11:00:23 and the second at 11::02:27
Sony RX10iii, handheld, ISO 4000 f4 1/1000 of a second
The RX1oiii is a high-end carry everywhere point and shoot. Moon was shot at 600mm on manual focus.
The moon reaches for the zenith. (Robin Rowland)
Same settings on the RX10iii at 11:06:50.
Mars rises
Mars rose to the west of the moon at 11:17:08 This image showing the moon, Mars and Minette Bay Lodge was taken 11:18:35.
Sony Alpha 77, manual focus, ISO 2500, f5 at 2.5 seconds
At 11:23:31 same settings
I was bracketing shots, working with different shutter speeds and other settings, still on manual focus. The meteor streak is in just two frames. This was taken at 11:37:05. (The other at 11:36:58 by 11:37:00 the next frame it was gone. I did not notice the meteor streak until I got home.
Alpha 77 ISO 1600, f3.2 at 2.5 seconds
A last look at Jupiter
Jupiter over the Kitimat mountains and the Rio Tinto plant. (Robin Rowland)
At 11:34:02 Jupiter is setting over the mountains behind the Rio Tinto aluminum plant.
Sony Alpha 77 ISO 1600 f2.8 2.5 seconds
Fly past. A bald eagle passes some mallard ducks in flight over Kitimat harbour. (Robin Rowland)
A flock of mallards fly over Kitimat harbour. (Robin Rowland)
A “murder of crows” fly toward Kitamaat Village from the Kitimat harbour. (Robin Rowland)
A crow comes in for landing on the shores of Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
The beach at Kitamaat Village as the tide begins to recede with the sun shining on the fog in Kitmat harbour. (Robin Rowland)
A pair of bald eagles find perches on a old snag on the Kitamaat Village waterfront. (Robin Rowland)
A sparrow hides in the long grass and wildflowers in the Kitamaat Village seawall (Robin Rowland)
