Archive for the Category ◊ Critters + Creatures ◊

15 Aug 2010 Swans At Sunset

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This is a rare weekend at home without shooting a wedding or major travel, and my plans changed several times, in most cases due to the unpredictability of the weather. Shakespeare in High Park on Friday night turned into hanging out with a group of documentary film makers at a pub in the East End, but in this instance I preferred to interact rather than spectate. Saturday involved heavy-duty cleaning, visitors, location scouting, more laundry than I care to think about, client stuff, volunteer stuff, and crashing before I could even watch a movie that’s been sitting around for months. Sunday morphed from an aviation-related activity (oh how I’ve been missing this!) to computer work and more sleep than I’ve had in ages. This might have something to do with not having any coffee the entire weekend, but I doubt it. I wasn’t avoiding coffee, but I decided I wasn’t buying any (I’ve been buying it for weeks while volunteer driving) and didn’t get around to making any, on account of the hot weather. I cooked in the morning, enough for the day. I’ve been avoiding the stove practically all summer because I don’t have air conditioning and it’s not pleasant to be cooking and sweating!

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I did, however, make an effort to walk down the street to catch the sunset on Sunday in order to get more shooting time on the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 prime lens I rented. I’m a firm believer in test driving all lenses before buying, and that means plenty of times behind the wheel. I love this lens, it’s sharp even in low light (f/1.4 is pretty fast) and the camera AF isn’t hunting and backfocusing in the dark.

The swans and ducks were out in full force by the lake, and I took advantage of other people feeding them to get some shots in before the sun disappeared completely and the lightning drove me back inside. The uploads from the day can be found here.

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23 Jun 2010 Scaredy-Cats

Xena The Old Bean

They look pretty calm now, but I heard they went berserk when the earthquake hit at about a quarter to two this afternoon. Xena was tearing around the house and Beano probably went into deep hiding.

I didn’t even feel it at all.

I was making myself a fruit salad in the kitchen at The Firm, slicing strawberries and minding my own business when one of the IT guys walked by and asked, “Didn’t you feel the earthquake a couple of minutes ago?”

I work in a company full of pranksters so I let that one go by. Earthquake? In Ontario? Last time I felt an earthquake I really FELT it — stuff was falling off the shelves. If I’d felt the building move, the first thought would be a bomb. I was certain all sirens would start blaring and the police state that we’re currently working in would escalate into a full-on emergency situation, complete with alleged links to terrorism. But nothing happened. Oh no, untrue: someone in the office claimed to have farted.

I was in Vancouver during two earthquakes, the first one was at night while I was fast asleep and it moved the bed across the floor! It was so forceful I thought a small airplane had crashed into my apartment building on Beach Avenue. The second one wasn’t much later, maybe only a year or two, and it was during the day when I was working from home. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Eh, earthquake”, and holding on to the shelf so it wouldn’t tip over but that was only because the second time I was wide awake and could comprehend the situation. Being woken by an earthquake is enough to give a person a heart attack.

Fancy wrote about it, she was much closer to the epicentre.

Oh, and there was also a tornado nearby tonight.

What’s next? Maybe the G20 fake lake will flood?

22 May 2010 Cat In Camouflage

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you woke me up!

13 May 2010 While The Cat Was Away, The Mice Were Fighting

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See the scratch on Beano’s nose? The catsitter emailed me to tell me about it. Beano probably deserved it — he’s constantly bugging Xena. One too many provocations and she walloped him.

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Sleep, glorious sleep… for someone who loves sleeping as much as I do, I sure deprive myself of it. I can’t blame the photography work backlog, even though it exists. I just like doing too many things, and there’s that small detail of needing to be awake to do them that gets in the way of a full night’s sleep, which happens all too often, I suppose.

I had a superb week in Vancouver, but now it’s back to work. I’ll have to save the stories for in-person.

09 May 2010 Ebi Having A Panic Attack
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures  | Leave a Comment

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Ebi’s met Maddy and Melissa before, but apparently he’s forgotten.

06 May 2010 False Creek Whale Sighting Pics
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Local Colour  | One Comment

whale sighting!

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I had been in town barely a few hours, only long enough to dine at Kirin Restaurant (City Square) for a fancy dim sum, when Eliza took me to False Creek to photograph around Science World and the Olympic Village area. We needed to walk off the food coma. There was a group of people standing at the railing over the water, but we had no idea what they were looking for. Someone walked by and all I heard was “whale” but I didn’t think they were referring to one located in the water beneath us.

Here’s the CTV news piece about it (video and photos): Grey whale wanders into downtown

I saw the media choppers circling above False Creek, so no doubt they had the best views of the whale.

Then all of a sudden it appeared not more than 20 metres away from us and I was so shocked by the sight (and closeness) of it and startled by Eliza’s shrieking that by the time I tried to take a photo it had submerged. I stayed on the Olympic Village side of False Creek and watched the whale surface about five or six times. These are the best three photos I could manage with the wrong kind of lens (I needed a telephoto for this) and a bunch of cropping.

whale sighting!

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whale sighting!

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30 Apr 2010 Birthday Beano
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano  | 4 Comments

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I was at the vet the other day to pick up food and injection supplies, and while I was there I inquired about Beano’s age. According to the vet records, Beano turned 16 years old yesterday! I don’t know how they arrive at the birth dates, if they just guess or if my friend Arliin actually knew, but either way that would make Beano the equivalent of a very, very old man. According to this chart, Beano would be 80! Thankfully he’s still frisky and showing no signs of slowing down, he just has a lot of gray hair now, like Yours Truly.

22 Apr 2010 Pick. Pick. Pick.
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano  | One Comment

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This is why I have holes in my clothes. There are actually two hole-makers here, but for some reason Xena picks at me like I’m a guitar. ALL THE TIME.

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17 Apr 2010 Caturday

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I know, I know — what’s with two cat posts in a row? What can I say, I’d love to process and edit any one of the thousands of other personal photos I have laying around the hard drives, but I’m working on a client deadline right now. Besides, Beano would be deeply offended if you viewed Xena’s post yesterday and didn’t view his today. I shot these this morning.

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Can you sense the righteous indignation?

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16 Apr 2010 Kitty Soap Opera

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That’s Beano’s ears in the foreground, Xena’s in the background. This photo looked so dramatic that I invited a caption (in Flickr). This was what Paula came up with:

As treats were not forthcoming, Xena plotted her next move. Would she tear out the stuffing of the sofa, or leave dead mice in the bathroom? Luckily, with all day to ponder, she decided to sleep, instead.

Too funny!

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