Cats Afternoon

Kress, eight week old female Scottish Fold


George, eight week old Scottish Fold male, straight ears


Mr Chin, male with folded ears, giving George a pat on the head.


Kress soaking up the heat from my desklamp, keeping me from work.

The Kittens Are Growing

The following pictures were taken about a week ago, when the kittens were seven weeks old. Today the kittens turned eight weeks and the first one to move out has found an excellent home with our son in sunny Kelowna. These cats are wonderfully socialized and will settle well in whatever home they go to.


Mother Sophie with the awesome Mr. Chin

1/60 sec f.5.6 60mm prime ISO200


Beautiful, brilliant and bursting with energy, this little lady we call Kress

1/60 sec f9 60mm ISO200


George, the Littlest Holstein. That gray between his paws is the last of his first mouse capture!

1/60 sec f8 78mm ISO800


Ems is sticking her tongue out and George is reaching out. Whatever it is it must look tasty.

1/60 sec f9 60mm ISO200

Color Valuing (Temperature) Photographs In Post Production

Today I would like to offer three versions of the same photograph in order to illustrate a simple yet visually appealing option in post-production, color valuing.

In truth, all three images are the same photograph. The different look and feel of each image is a result of the visual / emotional impact of the color values perceived. A simple adjustment of the temperature value slider and, Voila', an entirely different photo!

The original picture is shown first. It has not been edited in any way, it has only been converted from NEF (Nikon's RAW Format) to a reduced dimension JPG.


Personal Water Craft On Shuswap Lake - Original

1/6400 sec f.8 400mm ISO400 Color Temperature 4696

PWC - Warmed Up ...emphasizes the Golden Light...

1/6400 sec f.8 400mm ISO400 Color Temperature 8000

PWC - Cooled Down ...truest to the minds rendition at "Cheese" time...

1/6400 sec f.8 400mm ISO400 Color Temperature 3800


Please use the comments to state which you prefer and why. Any other comments and/or feedback is also welcome.

Graduation 2010

A family we are friends with celebrated the youngest daughters high school graduation the June. She has determined a solid educational path towards the profession she has chosen. She is an intelligent young lady and she will do well. As always, we pray that life continue to unfold well for her.


Balloons on the family float pulled in the Grad Parade

1/1600 sec f.8 55mm ISO400


Water Girls or Pink Mermaid

1/1250 sec f.4.8 86mm ISO400


After the Toss

1/10 sec f.5.6 200mm ISO1600


It says it all...

1 sec f.8 98mm ISO1000

Hunting the Elusive Yellow Headed Blackbird

Along the Salmon Arm waterfront is a rich marshland ecosystem that is recognized as important breeding habitat for several wetlands phyla and species. Amongst these breeders are Yellow Head Blackbird, which were my photographic pursuit on June 8, 2010. I weaponized the Nikon D70 with a Nikon Field Scope coupled through an SLR-Scope Adapter and set out to picture these illusive YH Blackbirds. For some unknown reason this lens, though powerful, appears to be incapable of capturing a "Money Shot," mostly because of severe Chromatic Aberration, secondarily due to a lack of ability to obtain Critical Focus, likely from the same basic optical fault that produces the Aberrations. None-the-less, I enjoyed my day and managed a few pictures I could enjoy anyway.


Yellow Headed Blackbird With Tail Fanned



The bird here is admittedly blurred, yet I quite like the tones and the pastel smoothness of the soft focus clouds.



Flying Fish? Darwin's (mythological) missing link? How does he carry the fish like that? -Look ma, no hands! (The only post processing done on this image is crop, dust removal, white point adjustment and reveal shadow detail.)



Over the years I have discovered that there is almost always a picture within a picture and along the same lines, there is usually another photo ready to be made if you take the time to look around you. My adapted scope-lens did not deliver a printable shot of this sailboat, but it did let me enjoy myself capturing compositions of this sportsman on the water.



All above shots taken with Nikon D70, Nikon Fieldscope IV (f.13) and Nikon FSA-L1 Adapter. ISO 400, Various shutter speeds.

Our New Scottish Fold Cats

Scottish Fold cats are a truly unique breed within the realm of the domestic cat; deeply affectionate, highly intelligent, vocally articulate yet soft-spoken, Folds have established a well deserved reputation as superb feline pets.

Years ago while living near Smithers, BC., my young family took great pleasure in a folded-ear and a straight-eared Fold that were bred in Prince Rupert, BC.. Earlier this year my wife found two Scottish Folds available to a good home, so once affairs were in order, my son and I drove to, coincidently, Prince Rupert to bring home our new friends, the queen is with my wife and I while our son has given a wonderful home to the neutered male.

By a genetic quirk Scottish Folds are bred to other breeds of cats that do not have folded ears and the result is typically half a litter with folded ears with the other half of the litter having straight ears. All the kittens retain the unique and sought after Fold personality. If both the Queen and the Tom are Scottish Fold the litter is likely to be deformed or otherwise deficient. We wanted kittens, therefore we chose to let her breed with a straight eared breed of cat in order to have a healthy brood.

The young were born on June 1, 2010. All are black with some white marking, except for the fluffy-puffy little holstein look-a-like who is white with black spotting!

Our son has chosen a dear little clone of its sweet mother and will be taking it home in another month, and then his "Bawler" will have a companion cat around the house. We haven't decided if we will keep one of these kittens or breed one more time before having our sweetheart spayed, we do agree however that we will be adding one more Scottish Fold permanently into our home, it is simply a matter of selection - and when they are all so sweet, it can be hard to choose.

REMEMBER: To view a larger image, simply mouse click over the image you wish to view.


This is our mother cat. She was previously named "Sophia," but we simply call her "Beautiful."



This is a snapshot when they were only days old.



Here they are curled up with Mom. Being so black they are difficult to photograph.



They are steadily gaining their feet under them and are sure to be a pleasant nuisance under foot within days now. Once they are more active, I will take opportunity to make some decent photographs of the little cuties as they play their way to readiness for their new homes. By the way, are you interested in a kitten? Use the comments if so...

Tea For the Tillerman

I have been pretty busy lately but I thought I had better update the blog anyway. These two pictures were taken several years ago with a point and shoot Canon. These are International pictures - the river is in Canada but the background mountain is in the USA!

Use the comments and tell me which of the two photos you like best...


TILLERMAN: This one always makes me think of Cat Stevens' Tea For the Tillerman.'



RIVER PILOT: I like the lighting,the wind in the hair, and the mountain dividing river from sky.



Please take a moment to comment on which you like best and why...