A strange plant, and the hunt was on.

What plant is this?

On my travels, I will come across something which piques my curiosity.  I do not have much of an interest in plants as a generally true statement, but occasionally my neglect of them is thwarted by an interesting specimen.  While visiting Vancouver Island I came across an odd herbaceous plant.  I did what anyone with a query normally does these days; I searched the internet.

It is not an overstatement to say that I spent two hours plying every trick I know in an attempt to uncover the identity of this peculiar plant.  I used Google, of course, as my search engine of choice and started out with simple search terms.  The meaning of the word "useless" became clear in my mind as the returns were exactly that.  Undaunted by such drivel, I was inspired to use more precise language.

Still, there was nothing.  A short break was needed to give my strained eyes and nerves a rest, then it was back to the fray.  I have often been successful with quotations in my more challenging searches, so short phrases such as "rocky outcrop" and "Pacific Northwest" were liberally used.  I included the unique leaf colours, descriptive terms such as creeping and "ground cover", all to no avail.  I found some remarkable sites though, with lots of plant pictures and some great information, but nothing to satiate my quest for an answer.  I was in a funk.

A new idea, why not use the Google image search engine by submitting a picture?  This must work, as there are not too many plants that look like this one.  Yet, it too was a bust.  My enthusiasm was running out.

Another break was needed.

It was time to re-engage with the hunt.  It was at this point that the big guns came out.  I looked up the email for a UBC botanist.  Surely such a specimen could be recognized by someone who took plants more seriously than I did.  I fired off an email with an attached image; hope refilling my renewed aspirations.  I have used this technique before.  A friend sent me a photo of a remarkable fungus which had stymied both of us.  I found the name of a renowned expert overseas and decided there was nothing to lose.  The fungologist (funny word, don't you think?) got back to me very quickly and identified the mycelium.  It could work again.

However, it was late in the day and who knows what that person was doing.  I may hear from them tomorrow or maybe never, but I wasn't about to wait.  No, an exercise in page turning was clearly warranted.  It was time to open a book.

I have quite a few identification guides, and brought out my copy of "Plants of Coastal British Columbia."  It is a great book and is filled with a lot of sage (excuse the pun) knowledge and information on local botany.  It took a mere five minutes for me to discover the identity of the unknown vegetation.

Broad-leafed stonecrop.  "Eureka!", I cried, with less importance to the expression than Archimedes' original use.  My quest was successful, and it was using the centuries-old, tried but true, method of flipping through a book.  Instantly I typed in the name into my computer and got this hit.  Great information, and local too.

I also learned that the yellow flowers in my shot are the actual flowers of the plant; I had thought they were some other plant just jockeying for position in the photo.  You learn something new every day; in this case, two things.

There's GOLD in them thar hills!

Sam Mah with a large rock rich in gold.

Gold is an amazing metal.  We all understand that it is valuable, and most of us will have something made of gold, even if it's not 24 karats (pure gold, not a gold alloy).  But few, relatively speaking, understand exactly why gold is considered valuable, or what some of its more important physical and chemical characteristics are.  Consider the following:

Gold does not react with much.  There are a few things that do combine with gold in nature, such as tellurium and pure halogens (fluorine and chlorine).  In small scale mining operations mercury is added to crushed ore where it forms an amalgam with the metals, including any gold.  It is recovered later by heating (video here).  This is why gold is found in pure form, it generally doesn't combine with anything.  It will not react with acids (except for aqua regia - a concentrated mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid), bases, water, sulfur compounds, and the list goes on.

Gold is heavy for its size; this is called density.  Gold, in fact, is about 19.3 times heavier than water for its voluem.  Why is this important?  If you have a liter of water, it weighs 1000 grams, 1 kg, or about 2.2 pounds.  One liter of gold weights 19,300 grams, 19.3 kg, or about 42.5 pounds.  It is this high density which allows one to extract gold from stream beds by panning.  It goes to the bottom and stays there.  If gold is present in an area where a stream cuts through it will erode away with neighbouring bedrock and end up in the riverbed.  It is so dense that it does not move as far as other rocks do over time and you can pan for it; it will be modestly close to whatever the source was.

The density of gold brings up an important movie consideration.  Think of thieves taking a box of gold.  Let's say the box has a capacity of 1080 cubic inches (18" x 10" x 6").  That converts to 17,712 ml, which is 17.7 liters of volume.  Remember the density of gold?  That box would weigh 342 kilograms or about 752 pounds.  You, me,  and all of our immediate neighbours would have a hard time lifting that box together, little lone one bad guy in a hurry.  But it makes a good visual presentation, even if the science is way off.

Gold is perhaps the most malleable metal on the planet.  Malleability is being able to pound a substance into a sheet.  Hit charcoal with a hammer and it shatters.  Zero malleability.  Hit playdough with the same tool and it squashes nicely.  Gold is more like that.  It doesn't even have to be hot like iron does if you want to work it.  Hit a pure gold ball and it gets a bit flatter.  Repeat and it continues getting thinner and thinner.  In fact, gold is so malleable that you can create a sheet of it only 400 atoms thick.  One ounce of gold can be flattened into a sheet over 9 square meters (almost 100 square feet) in size.  This is what the scientist Rutherford used in his experiment to hypothesize that the center of an atom was small and dense.  An atom, as it turns out, is mostly empty space.

How much gold is there in the world?  It turns out gold is a fairly rare metal.  You could fill an Olympic sized swimming pool with every gram of gold ever found, and still have room left over.   Have a look at this website; I found it fascinating. 

OK - last thought.  On top of all the other amazing properties of gold, here is another one.  Gold is one of the best conductors of electricity in the world.  Although copper and silver also rate very high, gold's resistance to tarnishing makes it valuable in certain electronics.  Your cell phones and computer motherboards all likely have gold in them.  Lots of devices do.  This is one of the reasons why it is important to recycle them.  There are other metals too, including some heavy metals which are bad for the environment.  Have a look at this article on gold recycling.

Thanks for reading.

Myra Canyon - part of the Kettle Valley Trail

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The Kettle Valley Railway consists of over 600 km of railway tracks - sans the actual ties, spikes, and rails.  The resulting trails carve through some spectacular scenery through much of southern British Columbia.  Whether hiking or biking, you will experience some jaw-dropping vistas.

Although I have only done part of the Kettle Valley trail system, I can tell you that it was all very memorable and I would love to do more of it.  Besides the amazing scenery, there was a myriad of wildlife and lots of fellow travelers to rub elbows with.  The area that I was fondest of was the Myra Canyon trail.

There are 18 tressels which allow the adventurer to cross over gullies, streams, and massive rends in the earth.  The structures are built out of wood, but are all safe and have had railings installed to ensure passage without incident.  As you can see in the image above, there was a fire.  It happened in 2003 and destroyed much of the vegetation and 12 of the 18 magnificent historic tressels.  Fortunately, they have been rebuilt and fortified. 

You can access the Kettle Valley trail system from many locations.  Hope, Penticton, Kelowna, Merrit, Manning, Coalmont, and Osoyoos are just some of the town which hosts the extensive pathways.  Whether you are out to cycle for just a day or plan on shuttling from start to finish, it will likely be an adventure to remember.

Pitt Polder; a good day for a hike.

Pitt Polder bird sanctuary in Pitt Meadows, BC.

There are a number of ways to tell that spring is in the air.  The blooming cherry trees are a good indicator, as are the myriad of colours shown by the still flowering tulips.  My favourite way though is by the presence of mating pairs of birds.  Nests are in the process of being constructed, but it is still too early for eggs or vulnerable chicks.  That time is still over a month away, but it is hastily approaching.

Good days in the early spring occasionally occur; today was one of them.  Gardening was put aside and hiking boots donned with the hope of enjoying nature and all the glories she offers at this time of year.  A friend and I headed out to Pitt Polder.  It is a nature preserve that finds favour with many species.  There is a sandhill crane rookery in the area, and I have heard that the western tanager also breeds in the area.  We saw neither species today as we gazed near and far, but we did see plenty of other creatures.

Winter wrens, Anna's hummingbirds, bushtits, spotted towhees, song sparrows, juncos, Steller's jays, bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, and ospreys were all sighted.  There were quite a few pairs of Canada geese, many of them not too pleased with the fact we were walking on their trail.  Although the weather is still cool for reptiles, we did see a western pond turtle and a common garter snake.  I managed to get some nice shots of the Steller's jay - a species which has managed to elude my photographic attempts frequently.  I have a few poor shots of them but think I got something worthwhile today.

That is the thing about taking pictures of wildlife.  You may see something, even get a shot of something, but that doesn't mean you got a good shot of it.  For example, I have photographed great blue herons many times, seen them all over the continent, but have really only got a half dozen pictures which I am really happy with.  It sometimes takes hundreds of shots before you get the one that sets it apart from all the others.  Occasionally I may get that shot the first time out; our trip to New Zealand is an example.  I saw species of birds I never even knew existed and got some nice photos of them upon my first encounter.  That tends to be an aberrant event though.

Whether I ended up with any good photos or not though is beside the point.  A nice day, good company, and a camera in hand.  What more could you want? 

Theseus and the Minotaur

Theseus and the Minotaur Fountain in Sydney, Australia

One of the reasons I enjoy traveling is because of the amazing new sights there are.  Natural wonders, man-made edifices, and internationally renowned icons all waiting to be captured by my camera.  The magic of being there adds to the allure, as does learning about the history of the people and area.

We had a wonderful time visiting Sydney, Australia.  We only had the day to explore though, and time was ebbing faster than we thought possible.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated and gave us amiable skies.  I actually enjoy shooting with thin cloud cover as the light tends to be even and there are no shadows or little evidence of them.

We came upon this amazing statue built into a fountain.  I later learned it was based on the mythical story of Theseus slaying the minotaur.  Clearly, a photograph was in order.  It should not be just any shot though.  The question was (and often is), "Exactly how do I go about that?"  You could take a thousand photos, each from a different angle using a different camera and lens settings, and end up with an equally varied collection of shots.  Some would be better than others, and a few might even be good.  What makes those few more visually appealing?

There are a number of things happening in the above photo.  Each one was done in camera.  They include:

  - full frame camera with mild wide angle focal length (32 mm) to produce an effective foreground / background ratio for perspective
  - an aperture of f/14 combined with the mild wide angle produced enough depth of field to get both foreground and background in focus
  - ISO was 100 which allowed a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second; fast enough to restrict blur due to camera motion 
 - background was lined up with foreground so that both the church and the fountain would be fully visible
  - I waited for people to be out of the way, although some are present at the far left of the image
  - I positioned myself high enough so that the circular window of the church's mid-tower was not blocked by the minotaur's head
  - I positioned the camera so that the lateral edge of the fountain (right side) leads your eye towards the church.  Notice it starts at the bottom right corner.
  - the image was shot in raw mode and corrected for white balance and exposure in photoshop CS6

Overall I like the image and think that the various components interact well with each other.
 

Creating panoramas

Quamichan Lake near Duncan, BC.

The above photograph is a panorama - a wide view of a scene.  It is difficult to capture a panorama with an ultra wide angle lens in a single shot as the extreme distortion renders the background very small, often to the point of insignificance.  It really depends on the situation, but when wanting a wide shot of an area which really catches me I find there is nothing better than creating one on my own.

The process is relatively simple, but a few pointers helps the process along quite a lot.  The basic process involves taking a number of photos of a scene, each one progressing through an arc, with a modest amount of overlap between shots.  I typically take between six to ten photos, depending on the width of the scene and the focal length of the lens being used.  A longer focal length requires smaller angles of change and more images, but you are paid off with a larger background relative to the foreground.  Lower focal lengths means that you can rotate through your shooting arc with less shots, but the background is smaller relative to the foreground.

I used a focal length of 38 mm on a full frame camera to capture the seven or so images used in compiling the panorama.  After converting the raw images to usable jpegs I used the photomerge feature of photoshop to connect the images.  There are a few options you can play with to help with the rendering, but the auto feature often does a pretty good job.  I also use the reposition option regularly.  After the merge has been successful you may have to go in and fix any glitches.

In terms of shooting panoramas, below is a list of techniques that I have developed over time.

  1)  Set camera to manual exposure mode; as you rotate through the exposure arc your camera may alter aperture or shutter speed in an auto mode.  In manual mode the exposure will be the same in all photos.
  2)  Before starting, make sure you are happy with shutter speed and aperture.  Rotate through the arc and pay attention to how those values change.  Adjust exposure up or down depending on the situation.
  3)  Pick a focus point according to what your depth of field issues are.  I like to use a smaller aperture if possible and pick a point of focus to give me a wide range of focus.
  4)  Set your camera's lens to manual focus.  This way the focus will not change as you move through your shots.
  5)  A tripod is very helpful, although not mandatory.  Rotate through the arc and make sure your horizons are where they are supposed to be for the start and finish.  Make sure the camera is level; I use a camera with a level indicator in the viewfinder to help me keep everything square.
  6)  Once it is all set up, determine how much of an arc each shot will take in.  I do this by looking at a point in the previous image where the next shot is to begin.  I start out left and move right in my panoramas.
  7)  If you are using a tripod lock your vertical and angle of inclination gimbals locked so that the only motion to occur will be rotation in the horizontal plane.  If your tripod has an angle indicator for rotation you may want to predetermine what rotational angle you will use.
  8)  Start your run.  Once you are all set you should be able to compete the shots in less than a minute, depending on shutter speed.
  9)  Import into photoshop or other program which allows stitching and do your work.

What I love and hate about panoramas done this way is that you end up with absolutely huge files, especially if you save them with no reduction as a tiff file.  It is not uncommon to end up with a 200 or 300 megabyte file.  However, take that image and print it on a wide format printer with roll paper and you can produce some incredible images.  Stunning to be sure.

The versatile bench.

A bench surrounded by the magical colours of fall.

I like to photograph benches.  Not a bench by itself, mind you - any landscaping place can provide one of those for an image.  No, the benches I look for are the ones that render a short respite for the weary traveler while also helping the sojourners to enjoy the surrounding vistas.  It is interesting that the bench's purpose, which is to help others enjoy the surrounding environment while striking a restful pose, becomes part of the scene itself.  In some ways it is like painter becoming the subject for a painting.  It was not the original purpose, but its presence has altered the moment.

I will photograph benches from many different angles, but the most common shots are done from behind, allowing beholders of the image to experience what the scene the bench was meant to foster.  Often I will have someone sitting there, their gaze set upon the unfolding landscape beyond.  Other times not.  Also, as I have said before, I will photograph both images.  One with a person in, and one without.  Often the person is shot from behind for anonymity, representing no one in particular.  I also quite like a hat to be present as it takes the vagueness to another level.

One of the compelling things about benches which I like is their ubiquitous nature.  You can find them almost anywhere.  Wherever people may find the time to take a stroll, perhaps sit quietly for a few moments to take in the scenery, or even some lunch, you will find benches.  People have even started to use them as memorials for loved ones; placing engraved plaques on them dedicating them to others gone too soon from their lives.  Made of materials found in the area, many benches are a testament to the construction materials locally present.  Rock, stone, wood, metal, and even fabric makes their existence possible.

I have photographed benches in both Western Canada and the US, in the Caribbean, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, in Texas and Hawaii, and Florida.  Eventually I will get to Europe and Southeast Asia where I hope to borrow their unique buttocks planting devices and obtain other compelling photos.  You can bet some of them will include a person, facing away, wearing a hat. 

Nelson's Dock Yard, Antigua.

View of Freeman's Bay on Antigua in the Caribbean.

We were in Antigua a little over a year ago.  An amazing place to be sure, the hilly landscape provided many opportunities to get above the scenery and shoot from an elevated position.  I took this photo from Shirely Heights, a position to the south of the harbour. 

When doing landscape photography I am on the lookout for anything which contributes to the image.  This could involve framing, using lines, paying attention to thirds, finding an attractive angle to shoot from, and having a foreground subject.  In the shot above the lines of the beach and horizon naturally guide the eye, but a suitable foreground item was needed to give the image more appeal. 

I quite liked the cactus, which lent a sense of irony to the tropical paradise, and the lichen encrusted rock was a nice touch too.  The problem with such an image is trying to get everything in focus.  This requires using a technique called hyperfocal focusing.  It is actually not too difficult but entails some specific camera adjustments.  Below are the steps to achieving hyperfocal focusing:

  1 - choose a wide angle lens (or zoom down to a low millimeter focal length).  Lower numbers are better, although there is a trade off as the background quickly reduces in size.  I shot the above image at 26 mm on a full frame camera body.  Relative values between 28 mm and 18 mm tend to work well.   Lower focal lengths give greater depth of field at any given aperture.

  2 - Use aperture priority and set the aperture to a large f/number value.  Larger values (smaller apertures) give more depth of field than do smaller numbers (larger apertures) at any given focal length.  Aperture values at f/11 or higher work, with f/values at 16 or 22 being preferred.  Keep an eye on shutter speed though; it decreases inversely to the aperture.

  3 - Choose your point of focus.  It cannot be at infinity and not be on the foreground.  It should be somewhere in between, but significantly closer to the foreground than the background.  You can focus manually or use center-point focus lock by pressing half way down on the shutter button and reframing.  Some camera lenses are equipped with a "full time manual override" collar which allows you to alter focus after it is locked in.  Whatever your method, you will need to play with it a bit.

  4 - Bracket focusing.  Take a photo then press "Play" on your camera; zoom in to see the if everything is in focus.  If not change the focus point a bit in the direction towards the out-of-focus parts and try again.  Repeat until you have it all in focus.  If you can't get it all you will have to alter the focal length or the aperture to get more depth of field.

Once you have done this for a bit it will become second hand to you.  There are a lot of variables, but you will begin to master them over time.  Remember to play and have fun.

Keep on shooting.