Timing is everything

Due to circumstances beyond my control I almost missed an extraordinary sunset the other night.
Lucky for me I was able to make the best of a bad situation and improvise a bit.

This shot was taken from my bedroom window and the huge birch tree (although obstructing my view) provided for a great silhouette shot and quite a decent desktop background. Help yourself, it's fullsize.

Featured

Earlier in the week I was contacted by Andrea from www.thedailykitten.com asking if I would be interested in having my two cats KiKi and Bella featured on her site.



Not one to deny them their day in the sun as they are obviously fans of the spotlight, I decided it would be fun to have them featured.

You can check out their spot HERE.

Shipping season begins

Where I come from you know that summer is just around the corner when the icebreakers make way for the large ships on Lake Superior. This week I had heard that the first ocean going vessel of the year (The Federal Saguenay) had arrived in port to officially kick off the international shipping season here in Thunder Bay.

I decided it might be a worthwhile trip to head down in the early morning and check it out for some shots...











As usual lately, the above 5 shots were all taken from the same 10 foot patch of shoreline using my ultra capable Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO. It's a fantastic lens and has made my others obsolete.

Since I was out and had some time to play around, I figured the scene was a good candidate to practice a technique that I rarely employ and to be honest, have never really been good at. I figured I'd attempt some HDR. The next two shots are both HDR versions and I have to say I was pleasently surprised by my results...