Archive For The “Photo gallery” Category
The North Matters group held a forum, LNG Myths, Facts & Benefits in Kitimat, BC, on May 2, 2018.
Here are the portraits of the speakers.
Fort. St. John, BC, Mayor Lori Ackerman. (Robin Rowland)
Elected chief counsellor of the Haisla Nation Crystal Smith (Robin Rowland)
Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth. (Robin Rowland)
Energy blogger Vivian Krause. (Robin Rowland)
A near blizzard did not stop the people of Kitimat turning out for the Remembrance Day service on November 11, 2017.
Building a snowman before the Remembrance Day service (Robin Rowland)
Laura Mckenzie and Linda Lewis checking the wreaths prior to the service (Robin Rowland)
An RCMP officer leads the colour party (Robin Rowland)
The colour party (Robin Rowland)
The RCMP march to the cenotaph. (Robin Rowland)
The invocation, left to right, Dwight Magee, Royal Canadian Legion, Rev. Dr. Dona Lethbridge, Legion chaplain, Marg Bogaert, Royal Canadian Legion. (Robin Rowland)
Cubs and scouts at the Remembrance Day service (Robin Rowland)
Lucy Beatty of the Royal Canadian Legion Ladies Auxiliary lowers the flag during the two minutes of silence (Robin Rowland)
A moment of silence. (Robin Rowland)
Veteran Jason Parrill lays a wreath on behalf of Canada. (Robin Rowland)
Anne Berrisford lays a memorial wreath for Captain (Chaplain) D. Schmidt. (Robin Rowland)
A cub lays a wreath. (Robin Rowland)
Mayor Phil Germuth lays a wreath. (Robin Rowland)
The wreaths (Robin Rowland)
A Mountie salutes during the playing of O Canada. (Robin Rowland)
Here in Kitimat, you hear the “cooing” of doves more frequently these days.
The naturalists say the mourning dove (zenaida macroura)more common in southern British Columbia has been moving north, enticed by the changing climate. Other members of the family Columbidae that from time to time visit the Kitimat Valley are the band-tailed pigeon and most common pigeon of all, known as the rock pigeon or rock dove (Columba livia) even when it hangs out in city streets.
UPDATE: Since I posted this, I was pointed to a Kitimat area Facebook debate about the collared dove, which some people have seen in Kitimat over the past two years or so. (and complaining about the noise). This was the first collared dove I have seen although I have seen many mourning doves in the neighborhood.
Since the spring a white dove has been active in my neighbourhood, but with it usually perched high on the power lines, I couldn’t be sure what it was until a couple of days ago when it finally landed on my deck, near my feeder.
The Eurasian collared dove on my deck. (Robin Rowland)
Clearly it’s a Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) which isn’t even listed in any of my British Columbia bird books. Wikipedia says the collared dove is native to “warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka” and began expanding its range across Europe and other parts of Asia in the early 20th century. The Eurasian collared dove has spread across China and into Japan.
According to Wikipedia a flock of Eurasian collared doves probably escaped from captivity in Nassau, the Bahamas in 1974 and arrived in North America proper in the 1980s with the first formal identification in Arkansas in 1989. The bird is now found all 48 contiguous US states. It appears to prefer the warmer climes of the more southern US states but with climate change it may be spreading further north.
The Eurasian collared dove prefers the same ecological niche as the mourning dove, which if it isn’t a single vagrant or visitor (it appears to be sticking around) we may be seeing more around the valley. which likely means that like the mourning dove, the Eurasian collared dove is moving north as the climate warms.
This is how I usually saw the dove, high on the power lines. (Robin Rowland)
“Super” low tide on the Skeena River at Telegraph Point, Sept. 28, 2015 (Robin Rowland)
I had great plans for shooting the super moon and the eclipse blood moon on Sunday night, September 27. Unfortunately the ideal shot of the moon rising over our iconic Mt. Elizabeth (which I have captured in the past) was impossible, there was a storm blowing in, and the overcast was so heavy that dark moon wasn’t even visible.
But today, I captured the related super tide –at low tide–which is the shot, I am sure, no one was looking for. To be honest, I was trying to shoot fall colours on a gloomy day where the Skeena lives up its original in name in the language of the Tsimshian First Nation, K-shian, “water that falls from the clouds,” also translated as “river of mists” and now is colloquially called “the Misty River.”
I was amazed at the Skeena was so flat, and so low at a time when it had been raining for the past couple of days and should have been much higher.
A few hours later when I was driving back from Prince Rupert, in a pounding rain and wind storm, the river was actually higher than I had ever seen it before.
I didn’t realize what I had until I was watching the weather segment on the CBC National, and the Weather Network presenter mentioned there was a super tide. Google checks confirmed that a super tide accompanies a super moon.
Telegraph Point, on the Skeena, taken at 1135 hrs on September 28.
Telegraph Point is about 44 kilometres (27 miles) inland from where the Skeena reaches the Pacific Ocean, and the tides do reach even further inland than that. Low tide at Prince Rupert was at 0811 on Monday. There aren’t tide tables this far inland (not needed for sailors)
As I arrived for an appointment in Prince Rupert, it started to rain. By the time I had completed my appointment and had had lunch, I drove back in a wind driver rain storm. I stopped briefly at Telegraph Point and grabbed some quick shots.
This shot, roughly the same angle as the first low tide shot, was taken at 1457, just after high tide at Prince Rupert at 1426. You can’t see it in a still image, but in the river the water was moving rapidly upstream.
This was taken at 1512 from the same spot as the first low tide shot.
Another angle from Telegraph Point taken during the storm at 1512.
(All images above taken with Sony Alpha 55)
This was one of my first shots of the day, taken about 25 kilometres further upstream at 1101. (taken with Sony Alpha 6000)
Related
Shots of fall colors along the Skeena, October 16, 2014.
Sources
DFO tide table for Prince Rupert, Sept. 28
Supermoon 2015 to cause highest ‘super tides’ for 19 years (Independent UK)
Headstones on The Old Burial Ground, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts during the blizzard on Dec.6, 2003 (Robin Rowland)
Boston, like Kitimat, is buried in snow. I was in Boston, staying in Cambridge for a conference, when the region was hit by a blizzard in December, 2003.
According to the Boston Globe, the area has received 196 centimetres of snow so far this winter (77.3 inches). Kitimat got about 180 centimetres (70.80) inches during the storm between Thursday morning February 5 until the afternoon of Saturday February 7.
So here, from archives, are the images I took while stuck in that blizzard of 2003. (Note: I am still working on the Kitimat blizzard photo gallery)
The Old Burial Ground, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts during the blizzard on Dece.6, 2003 (Robin Rowland)
The statue of John Harvard in Cambridge, during the blizzard of Dec. 6, 2003. (Robin Rowland)
The US flag at a headstone on The Old Burial Ground, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts during the blizzard on Dec.6, 2003 (Robin Rowland)
Last quarter September supermoon over Whale Channel, BC, Sept. 13, 2014, at 10:09:44 am (Robin Rowland)
There were three “Super moons” in 2014, July, August and September. Most photographers concentrated on the night of the full moon, but the “super moon” was still super as it waned to last quarter and I photographed the moon over British Columbia’s Inside Passage and Douglas Channel while on a fishing and photography trip last weekend. So here is the September moon, shot first in Vancouver at the full moon and then the last quarter a week later.
The waxing moon, almost full, moon rises over the towers of Vancouver on September 7, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Vancouver on September 7,2014. (Robin Rowland)
A closer shot of the moon over Vancouver, September 7. 2014. (Robin Rowland)
A while later, the moon over downtown Vancouver, September 7, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
On September 9, the super moon rises over the tops of Vancouver’s office towers. (Robin Rowland)
The “super moon” over a Vancouver office tower, September 9, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon edges between the towers of Vancouver a few minutes later on September 9, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Kitimat harbour, at MK Bay, at 6:51 am, September 12, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Hawkesbury Island, at Fishtrap Bay, off Verney Passage, September 14, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon about to set over Hawkesbury Island, September 14, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
A member of the Haisla Nation dances with a cloak saying “No Enbridge,” in Kitimat, April 12, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
Residents of Kitimat, BC, voted “No” Saturday, April 12 in a plebiscite that sort of asked them if they supported the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker terminal project.
The vote was 1,793 opposed versus 1,278 who supported the project — 58.4 per cent to 41.6 per cent. The plebiscite called by the District of Kitimat Council caused rifts in the community during the campaign and raised tensions with the Haisla Nation. If it ever goes ahead, the Northern Gateway terminal would be in Haisla traditional territory and most members of the First Nation oppose the project.
It was a municipal plebiscite, called by the District, and that meant that only residents of the municipality could vote. So members of the Haisla Nation who actually live in Kitimat could cast ballots, but members of the Haisla who live in Kitamaat Village, a federally designated Indian Reserve, could not. All the same, many Haisla felt that they should have some input on what goes on in their traditional territory. Some of the Haisla decided to demonstrate against the vote as polls closed. When the “No” result was announced, the demonstration turned into a celebration.
I was shooting on assignment for The Canadian Press and filed two images, one of a Haisla drummer that appears in The Province and a dancer, in the Globe and Mail.
Many of the images of the celebration, taken at night with flash, were rather noisy.
So I decided to try a technique I’ve used before with night shots, converting to black and white. After a couple of test images, I decided to go for 1960s look, using the Tri-X emulator in Photo Effects 8. (For younger folks, Kodak Tri-X black and white film was the standard for journalism for decades before digital).
One of the Spirit of Kitlope dancers at the No vote celebration, Saturday, April 12, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
Haisla Nation members hold a flag at the celebration. (Robin Rowland)
Skeena Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen speaks to members of the Haisla Nation at the celebration. (Robin Rowland)
Gerald Amos speaks to a crowd of Haisla and Kitimat supporters at the park across from Kitimat’s City Centre Mall. (Robin Rowland)
Spirit of Kitlope drummers and dancers at the No vote celebration. (Robin Rowland)
A Spirit of Kitlope singer. (Robin Rowland)
Haisla drummer at the park celebration. (Robin Rowland)