Pidge's excuse to take lots of pictures

CFSIA

2008-05-04T22:07:00.005-04:00

I've got lots of pictures! I've started a separate blog for the Canadian Field Studies in Africa adventures I was part of earlier this year. Check it out at http://cfsia2008.blogspot.com/

And we're off!

2008-01-17T14:04:00.000-05:00

I have no pictures. Sorry about that. Tonight we leave for a looooong travel day to Entebbe in Uganda. From their, we will spend the night in Kampala, and then head out to Kibale National Park for our first module of the program. I can't say if I'll be able to update this. Apparently, internet access is not only spotty, but mostly dial-up. I'll do my best though. There is suppose to be a general blog that will hopefully be upkept by the hard working people here in Montreal, so you can try that as well.

Ciao! And stay warm to all of you still in the grips of winter!

Turmoil

2008-01-06T15:07:00.000-05:00

Latest in Kenya

Related story

Africa

2008-01-06T00:11:00.000-05:00

So I am hoping to maintain this blog while I am in Africa for about four months. Original plans had us in Kenya, but with the political unrest, that will no longer be happening. For now, it looks as though we will be heading straight to Uganda and then to Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar. I hope to keep this blog updated with pictures and posts but that will depend on the computers available and the internet access! I will keep all two of people who look at this blog up to date ;-)

Hurricane Dean

2007-08-18T22:52:00.000-04:00

A hurricane came through! The centre ended up passing north of us, hitting Martinique, Dominica and other islands quite hard. Barbados ended up with the equivalent of a tropical storm. Still, we loaded up on canned goods, washed all our old bottles out and filled them with water, and hurricane proofed the apartment. One of the coolest things about the place we are staying is that the living and dining are are open. The front door is a grate, as is the main wall facing the ocean. This means we get fabulous breezes and can hear the ocean all the time. This also means that if a stom comes through, wind and rain go through the entire area. The kitchen and bedrooms are closed off, but we still shut all the windows and shutters, and brought everything inside.

Everything was fine. The worst of the storm passed through during the middle of the night. We did dive Thursday morning though, and the ocean was getting incredibly choppy and the current was picking up as well. On Saturday morning, when these pictures were taken, it was quite a site. Our little beach where we load our boat was gone. The reserve, which normally has no waves, looked like a good beginners surfing point. The holes had all overflowed as well, so Katrine and I went for a walk with our cameras in their casings. The water coming out of the whole was almost like a slick. Much yuckier than the last time the hole broke!

In the end, everything was fine. The electricity didn't even go out!

Don't mess with mother nature.

The Other World

2007-08-13T20:43:00.000-04:00

The ocean is a whole different world. If you haven't seen BBC's Blue Planet, check it out. There are eight episodes, the cinematography is phenomenal, and it's absolutely breathtaking. While you're at it, check out their Planet Earth. I haven't seen it, but I will as soon as I have the chance!

First up is the dwarf wrasse. This guy was hanging out in the sand by a little rock quite close to the beach at our institute. He has the funky thing sticking out of his head, and he's got cool colours, too!

This we (out team) affection- ately call 'petit pois' or 'little pea.' It's a juvenile smooth trunkfish, of which I posted a terminal (adult) phase a while ago on my blog. Their little fins flutter incredibly fast, and they just sort of booble around in the water. If a damselfish attacks, they just end up rolling around.

This, when we are doing intrusions, we call a b-bot, or blenny bottoms. There are many different species, and they are small (2-5 cm), so if we had to go down to identify each one, we'd miss other intruders in out damselfish territories, as well as affecting the normal pattern of intrusions.

The new site we've just started has lots of crabs in it, which is a lot of fun. They tend to be shy and hide in their shells if you approach them to quickly. I found these two guys, who at some point, will probably duke it out over something, like one of their shells. Talk about growing pains!

This is a secretary blenny. They hang out in tiny holes in coral, and just stick their heads out. They are so cute!

Last, but not least, is the yellowhead jawfish. Thanks to Ian Popple and Matt Chapman for telling us that there are a fair number of these guys right at the buoy where we moor our boat. Today, Sylvain, Sebastien and I dropped the girls of to work on their mini-project, and we moored the boat, dropped down, and then swam back. When we got down there, we found a decent size sea cucumber as well. The jawfish hide, but if you hang out and don't move around too much, they eventually come out of their holes, and hang out above them vertically. I was too far away to try flash, and any colour correction I tried ended up looking weird.

Anyways, the ocean is full of amazing things. There is an enormous worm called 'The Thing' and it can apparently get up to six feet long!! No wonder they call it the thing!

Hibiscus

2007-08-11T00:24:00.000-04:00

Katrine found some beautiful hibiscus (at least I think they are), so I took a pretty picture to make you all wish you were down here with me :D

Broken Hole

2007-08-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

In Barbados, there are these things called 'holes.' They are brackish, freshwater pockets right by the ocean. One hole near our current site is the roosting place for egerets. This past Tuesday, after a long and rainy night (and morning), the hole near our site broke. In other words, it overflowed and went straight into the ocean. The white-ish foam in the ocean was the line of where the hole had overflowed into the ocean. The problem with the holes is they stink, and have all sorts of lovely things in them (like sewage and other icky things). Needless to say, we were already on stand by since there was thunder (no diving during thunderstorms!), and the hole put the dives on hold for two days. It happens every year, and apparently, this year wasn't so bad - usually the water is more brown!

Kadooment!!!!

2007-08-08T18:33:00.001-04:00

Monday was Kadooment. Uhm, wow is all I have to say.

There are bands, which are groups of people in colourful costumes, who assemble in the stadium and do a little show and get judged for costumes and choreography. We didn't go to that, but we did go to the parade that follows. After the stadium, the bands hit the street and travel through the streets. Each band has a music truck, one of which had two live singers which was very cool. The better bands had booze truck(s), and the really god ones had port-a-pots as well. For those that weren't fortunate enough, you ducked behind a building and did your business there. Due to the amount of booze, there was an incredibly amount of drunk people (as in being dragged along by your friends).

The dance style that seems to be preferred here can basically be called hard core bump and grind, and I'm not posting some of the more debaucherous (is that a word?) pictures.

Anyways, despite it all, it was lots of fun, great costumes and colours to be had, even if it was raining and we had to keep ducking for cover. (yes my camera survived!)

Camera casing is back!!

2007-08-07T19:15:00.000-04:00

Guess who finally got a replacement for the lost underwater camera casing?!?!

Bridgetown Market

2007-08-05T18:26:00.000-04:00

Crop-over fever as officially taken over Barbados. Crop over is the celebration of the end of the sugar cane harvest. It is now more and excuse for parties, parades, and various other things. Over the weekend, there is the Bridgetown Market. They shut down a section of the main highway near Bridgetown, and vendors and crafts people come to display and sell their wares. At the market this year, there was a group of men who played some music, but it was an incredibly hot day, so I think they spent more time resting in the shade than actually playing :-)

One of the places was a glass making place, where they use blowtorches and tools to shape glass into beautiful pendants and beads. Vanessa and I both asked for custom pieces, which they made on site. I got a fabulous little fish that looks like a cross between a angelfish and a damselfish, with gold touchs on the fins. It's quite nice, and at $25 Barbados (2 Bajan = 1 USD), the price as right too. There were tons of places to eat, though it took Sylvain and I a couple tries to find a place that had both chicken and macaroni pie, but we found one and enjoyed our lunch. As we were leaving, we found one loan dancer lost in his world. Mind you, the sun was glaring and it was 34C, but he certainly had a great time dancing right in front of the speakers!

Charlotte

2007-08-04T18:16:00.001-04:00

Well, we temporarily adopted a red footed tortoise that I found on the pathway to the beach. They are considered rare, or have the potential of becoming endangered, so we named her Charlotte, made sure she was well fed and hydrated and then released her. Seb and Sylvain went for a walk to find a place to let her go.

Sylvain found a snail and wanted to take some pictures of Charlotte and the snail, so he put the snail in a cup. Of course, the snail made it's great escape attempt, but luckily, we got it on camera, and were thus able to foil the plot with the help of our dinosaur helper.

Then of course, there is Charlotte and the snail. The snail was uncooperative (can't really blame it), so it's just the snail shell and Charlotte.

Here's to Charlotte!

L'amour d'escargot

2007-07-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

After a wonderful dinner at Bistro One, a restaurant not to far from us, we were out in the parking lot when Katrine mentioned the snails were out. The first one we found was next to some guano, so we found another one. Low and behold, as I was about to take pictures, we found another two, being quite amorous. Well, I should say we think they were being amorous, but apparently, when snails actually do mate, they come up together neck to neck. You can read more about snails, love, and their nasty little love darts here.

Shipwreck, and NC-17 rated stuff

2007-07-26T22:37:00.000-04:00

My boyfriend came down at the beginning of July, and on one of my days off, we borrowed the car and went looking for the obsolete, desolate beaches that nobody goes to. The roads were bumpy, but the views were spectacular. We went to one beach where the slope down was so steep, we decided that short of hiking gear, we couldn't make it. Of course, some spear fisherman came up the slope in fip flops, so I guess we just don't know the trick!

On our way, we passed Morgan Lewis Beach, which is where we saw that spectacular leatherback turtle (check the archives!) laying her eggs. A beach on the map, but no signs indicating where it is - just a pair of tire tracks! There is a half of a yacht on the beach, and as part of my experimentation in post processing with pictures, I stuck a texture payer on it, and did a lot of fiddling around. I kind of like the effect, but I realize it's not everyone's cup of tea. If you hate it, I'll still like you :D

Up next, we have some NC-17 rated pictures of mongooses. Mongooses were introduced to the island in an attempt to control pests, presumably rats. Now, they are a pest in themselves - elongated rats! However, we've got a family (maybe more than one) on the complex. During breakfast, we were treated to a little bit of lovin'. The male would chase the female around the yard. When he finally got a hold of her, he would hold her around the stomach and lift up and then stand on her hind legs to try and get her to sit down. He was only successful about 1 out of 4 attempts, as they would run into the bushes and then appear again.

If it is the same family, they've got some babies as well. Today I saw a juvenile mongoose try and jump up a small ledge, miss, and try again. When he finally got up, he was so excited, he started jumping - almost like skipping around.

Anyways, a friend has mentioned interest in writing a book on animals and mating behaviour. Maybe these pictures can get used?

The British Invasion

2007-07-24T20:48:00.000-04:00

So we've had two British blokes who go to uni in Newcastle here for a month. Tonight, they decided to make a nice pork casserole and baked potatoes with garlic bread for dinner. As we're waiting, working on whatever needs to get done, Andrew comes in, and hesitantly says 'uhm, we've got a slight problem here.' Needless to say, there was a grease fire in the oven, where the spuds were baking. After much running around to shut the gas line off, find the fire extinguisher, and get it out, we were left with a lovely smoking mess.

The pork casserole was delicious, however, despite the adventures surrounding dinner. We teased them about the extra carbon taste in our meal, and we've dedicated Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire song to them!

Women in the Workshop

2007-07-19T18:04:00.000-04:00

As part of Katrine's project, we must remove some damselfish. She has tried relocating them, but they have some type of built in homing device and almost always end up back at their territory. Short of loading them into a boat and taking them to th other side of the island, it means removing them. To accomplish this, we spear them. However, when you hit a rock at close range, the spears bend a lot, making them difficult to use again. We needed more, so Katrine got more metal rods and the two of us headed over to the workshop to make the points and the notched ends for the elastic. We got to learn how to use a grinder and a metal file and made a whole slew of new spears for the team. Who needs men? :)

Grooming

2007-07-14T14:03:00.000-04:00

AS I've posted earlier, there are green monkeys who wander around the institute. Sylvain and I were sitting outside working when we heard this odd noise. It didn't sound like a bird, so we went to investigate. There was a female sitting on a roof calling. She had an itch or something so at one point was scratching her leg at the same time.

Sure enough, a male showed up, and the two of them sat together on top of one of the buildings. The female groomed the male, looking for parasites and gunk on him. They moved around a bit, and then up into the trees, and then seemed to go their separate ways.

I had run for my camera as soon as we saw the female, fully expecting her to have left by the time I got back, and I was very happy to find out she still there!

Cheers

Hawksbill Babies Release

2007-07-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

So the turtle folks dropped by last night with a bucket of baby hawksbill turtles that had hatched and were making their way to the posh Sandy Lane lobby instead of the ocean. I mentioned it in a previous post (with the crazy picture of the huge leatherback turtle), but the babies us the ambient light of the ocean to orient themselves to the water. The problem with all these fancy hotels who insist on keeping their lights on (because the customers want to see the ocean apparently) is the turtles think the hotel is the ocean. The turtle people get called in, they collect them, and the take them to another part of the beach that hasn't been over run with hotels and bright lights.

So, we walked up the beach a short way to heron bay where there are no hotels. We got some of them going, but a good portion of them hadn't woken up yet. The first bunch got off to great start, but then the rest just kept on sleeping. We tried some tricks to wake them up, but they seemed to enjoy their snooze. The turtle folks got another call so they gathered up the rest and said they'd try another time when they were a little more awake

Moral of the day: if you go to a beachside hotel that has known turtle nesting spots - tell the managers to turn off their lights at night!

Oh, and yes, I did ask if I could use flash. They said as long as the flash was coming from the direction of the ocean, it was fine.

Trumpetfish

2007-07-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

This is a trumpetfish. They are very cool fish that look very weird. Their mouths are at the end of their snout, or whatever you call it. Cameron mentioned how it must be weird to be able to see your own mouth and what you eat while you are eating.

Birds!

2007-06-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

In honour my friend in Montreal who is an avid birder, I went through and found some more pictures of birds that I haven't put on my blog yet. It's been fun down here as there is now a couple of folks from Harvard working on evolutionary development stuff on birds here. They were originally going to work with Galapagos finches, but apparently obtaining permits has become incredibly difficult, so they are now working here in Barbados. So, one of them is working on the bullfinch, and the other is working on the bananaquit. The first two pictures are the bullfinch, and the thirds is the bananaquit.

Next up is the Gray Kingbird (thank to Cameron Rutt for the positive ID!). The bananaquit, loggerhead and one of the finches pictures were taken during the course in May at Gay's Cove on the east side of the island. The other finch pictures is an overzealous finch who enjoys finding the crumbs in the dining area.

Lastly are egrets (cattle I think). About a five minute walk from the institute is a large tree that the egrets go to to roost for the evening. As the sun sets more and more and more egrets come flying in. It's a spectacular sight, and gives my zoom lens a good workout.

St. Jean Baptiste Day

2007-06-23T18:23:00.000-04:00

So today is St. Jean Baptiste Day. To everyone's amusement, nobody seems to really know what the day is about except it's a really good excuse to eat food that's bad for you and drink a lot. So, like the good people we are, we celebrated St. Jean Baptiste day Bajan style. We made poutine, except we had no cheese curds, so we used cubed cheddar instead. To those who don't know what poutine is, it's french fries, poutine sauce (like a gravey), and cheese curds. It's very bad for you and very yummy!

Then we made a fire (sort of) in the BBQ and Ian shows us how to roast marsh- mallows properly. Audrey's boyfriend and his cousin were in Barbados for the weekend, so it was a great time for everyone!

The infamous gorilla tripod made an appearance as well, much to everybody's amusement.

Monkey Sea, Monkey Do

2007-06-18T23:58:00.000-04:00

On Barbados, there is one type of monkey, the green monkey. They are originally from West Africa, and were brought over about 350 years ago. They are a regular sight here at Bellairs. We have a fabulous mango tree on the property,and we actually end up competing with the monkeys to make sure we get some. The tree has just started to produce massive amounts of fruit, so it's mangos for breakfast everyday!

I had brought my underwater casing for my little Canon, but right before I left, the CCD chip blew out. It's a known problem with certain models, mine being one of them. Chris was ever so kind to take it to the service centre where they sent it off to be replaced and even shipped it back to is (in Montreal). In the meantime, Sylvain happens to have the exact same kind of camera, so my casing has been put to good use while done here. So, first, there is a golden eel. I had to remember how to do custom white balance - so using the sand, I managed to get it working decent enough. A little processing with photoshop, and voila, a very cool looking eel. The other shot is of a spotted trunkfish. The best are the juveniles. They are about the size of a pea and completely black with yellow polka dots. Some great pictures were taken, but I'm not sure who has them, so if I get a chance, I'll post them. Here, we affectionately call them petite pois (little pea).

Sadly, Holga has passed on. The night before, she was traumatized by a cat that was trying to get to her and managed to knock her cage off the table. She survived that, but we think the stress put her over the edge and she died the next day. RIP Holga.

Common Ground Dove

2007-06-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

Maria and Cameron (I hope I spelt the names right!) are in doing research on malaria in birds. It's not a form that humans can obtain - for those of you that were worried! They were using traps on the site to catch some birds. They caught this beautiful ground dove, and were showing me how they collect their data. They place them in a sack to weight them, and take a tiny blood sample. They then use callipers to measure things like beak width and depth. It was very cool. Maria is from Sweden and is doing graduate work in St. Louis, and Cameron is from Pennsylvania and working with her as a research assistant. They'll be back at the end of the month, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of their time in the Caribbean has been!

Life through Holga, Death Through a Stranger

2007-06-03T13:07:00.000-04:00

Meet Holga. She was found after she fell out of her nest right before I arrived here in Barbados. She's a green throated Carib hummingbird (thanks to Cameron Rutt for the ID), and she is the unofficial mascot for our team. Tropical birds are notoriously difficult to raise in captivity, and she's gone through a couple moments where she didn't look so great. I don't think she'll ever get to the point where she will be able to be released. She can't fly, and is a bit helpless when she falls of her perch. She does have an amazing tongue with which to get nectar and stuff.

We also had a strange visitor. This white and yellow pigeon-like bird started to come by the station. We had two people in doing research on malaria in birds in the Carri bean. Maria mentioned that the bird didn't look so great - it had parasites and seemed to be injured somehow. It was also hoarding all the bait in the traps. Two days later, we awoke to the bird lying on the walkway, ironically surrounded by flowers of the exact same colour. Down here, mother nature has her own way of disposing the deceased, so we let it take its' natural course. I was going to take a picture of it when it was alive, but I figured I'd do it another day.

Moral of the day: don't wait until tomorrow what you can do today!

Blue Moon

2007-05-31T13:02:00.000-04:00

Once in a blue moon, we actually get a blue moon. I remember when someone explained what a blue moon was, and I finally saw one, that I was incredibly disappointed that the moon wasn't actually blue. Well, it's got a slight blue cast, but I digress. I suppose I could have manipulated the picture, but I decided to save manipulation for the other picture.

So during the course, I did an impromptu mini showing to some of my friends about the wonders of photoshop. I know very little, but I was able to slap a texture shot (mundane dead coral shot) over a silhouette picture I'd taken at the beginning. I ran it through a draganizer action, and voila, digital art! I kind of like the effect of this one, though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Mon Équipe et le Fish Market

2007-05-25T23:35:00.000-04:00

SO now that the course is over, the real work begins! This is the team I will be working with this summer. Bridget and Audrey are volunteers as well. All of us are majoring in Bio at McGill, and we did the tropical ecology course. Vanessa and Sylvain are at U of Laval and Trois Rivières respectively, and Katrine is the person we are working with, and her boyfriend Sébastian is also working with us as well. We're looking at longfin damselfish and territoriality, and how changes in density will affect them. It is a very cool project, which entails us either swimming or taking a boat to get to our study sites.

We went to the fish market in Hoistens. It's a crazy open market area with vendors and tons of stalls sering fantastic Bajan food: grilled dolpinfish (mahi mahi), coleslaw, macaroni and cheese pie (YUM), and other goodies. It's normally right on the beach, but they are doing renovations so it's across the street right now. There is also an area where they blare a random mix of reggae and old pop tunes. There was one guy who was really into his dancing. What we couldn't understand is why he danced with these crazy industrial rubber gloves on. He did eventually take them off. He also lip synched African Queen to a little girl in a carriage who was less then amused by his antics. Lots of fun and good food!

THE END (of the course, not my time here!)

2007-05-24T20:21:00.000-04:00

So today is the last day of the course. After a late night (we worked until 3.30am!!) and not much sleep, we hammered out our paper and did our presentation. Audrey knows Powerpoint, so she found some cool photos and put together a cool shot with all our stuff and our kickass rarefaction curves. The presentation was great. Everyone did an amazing job on their projects and put together interesting presentations. considering the presentation was close to 2 hours - it never felt like it was droning on and on.

That morning, some construction people dug up a hawks bill turtle nest, and the turtles had hatched and were probably going to dig themselves out that night, so they brought them to Bellairs. We called the turtle people and they came to get them to release them to the ocean that night.

After the presentations, we had a party - fresh grilled fish (Mahi Mahi, tuna, something else I can't remember) thanks to Dr. Kramer. We made a potato salad, and there was lots of beer and rum. Emma, at the start of the course, collected all our beer bottle caps, and we made them into little bottle cap art. DNA for Dr. Bureau (molecular module), fish for Dr. Kramer (fish module), and a spider for the spider specialist Dr. Buddle (bug module).

And lastly, I pulled out my new Gorilla tripod which provided much phallic entertainment for the evening. I did put it to good use to take our last group shot though.

I'll be posting more about my adventures down here. Stay tuned!

Crunch time!

2007-05-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

Today Audrey donned her swamp clothes and went out with Dr. Buddle for a whirlwind collection of the pitfall traps and malaise trap, as well as trying to find a few more specimens. Everyone was working incredibly hard on their presentations and papers (due on Saturday at 2pm!). I was in the lab all day, so all I have to show for it are some macro shots of our pinned bugs. Thanks to Etienne who lent me his camera with a sweet 150mm macro lens for these shots (even though his body was a Nikon :P)

Lab Work

2007-05-17T18:43:00.000-04:00

So today, we didn't do a field day, but we spent the day in the lab identifying all our bugs we had collected. The lepidoptera and odonata group worked on identifying species, and some of the species they had to differentiate between looked remarkably similar! The fish people were dissecting their parasite and identifying their fish as well. Lots of work, lots of stress, but still very cool. Kristen spent the day identifying spiders, and she is now the expert spider woman! Audrey also worked on separating the ants by morophospecies, so she is now the ant queen. Morophospecies are when you separate the ants by morphological characteristics. Identifying ants unless you are an expert is too difficult. I have it a shot and ended up with some species that ius only found in Australia, so we used morphospecies instead.

Graeme Hall: Muck Day

2007-05-16T19:23:00.000-04:00

We thought yesterday was a mucky, swampy day. This one was just as bad. First, Dr. Kramer, or OMS (old man of the swamp) shows us how to get through the sedge habitat by wading waist deep in the sludge. Dr. Buddle in the mangroves showed us what the new fashion is - mud covered pants. He did keep his camera nice and dry, though! Today was a field day for our group to do insect collection in our focal habitats: mangrove and sedge. We mostly did it through opportunistic collection. We had a great time collecting our focal taxa, though we fell seriously short on one of them. We didn't get very many coleoptera (beetles), since it seems they are most effectively caught through flight intercept traps, which brings us to the malaise trap we set up. Malaise traps are designed for diptera and other flying insects that when they encounter something, they fly up. The only opening at the top is into a jar of ethanol, so we were able to collect flies, bees, wasps, and other things like that. Flight intercept traps are designed for things that fly and go down, such as coleoptera, and we all realized if we were to try and sample them, we would need a flight intercept trap. Next time! So, while slugging through the sludge in the sedge, while waist deep, I did manage to find a spider that had not been previously recorded on Barbados before. I found a dock spider, with an egg sack, which was pretty cool. Very large and hairy!

Graeme Hall: Swamp Day

2007-05-15T17:08:00.000-04:00

Today is first field collection day. The beginning of the day was dedicated to game plan and out collection techniques. I may have my days mixed up, but there was one day where everyone had to go out in the field. Now, in the what to bring list - they said bring some clothes for Graeme Hall that you won't mind getting muddy. When they said muddy, they meant muddy. As you can see, the boys demonstrated proper swamp fashion. Tyler also demonstrates the art of zen lepidoptera and odonata collection. Or as he calls it: Oh-no-data.

Dr. Kramer worked with the fish group while Dr. Buddle worked with the two arthropod groups. We set out pit-fall traps, which are cups of ethanol set into the ground that bugs will walk into, fall in, and be preserved in the ethanol. The picture shows Dr. Kramer and the fish group trying to identify their bounty while puzzling over this weird growth on some of their fins. The growth actually turned out to be a parasite, and when you looked at it under the microscope, it sort of pulsated and moved - straight out of an alien movie!

Graeme Hall: Non-swamp day

2007-05-14T16:59:00.000-04:00

So today was our introduction to Graeme Hall and decide on a project day. We were meeting various government people, so were instructed to dress semi decently. First was Graeme Hall - a nature sanctuary owned by a Canadian. In this reserve there is the last remaining mangrove habitat, and we were told of a petition to make Graeme Hall a national park. The problem is a developer wants to put a water park right next door to Graeme Hall, and so some people got together to form an NGO designated to make Graeme Hall a national park. Due to the political implications and complications, our project ended up being very information based as opposed to actually making a recommendation. However, I do think we gathered some interesting information through this project.

We also went to the Ministry of Agriculture, where the entomology sector showed how they were using bioloigcal methods to try and control crop pests. It was very interesting, and alternatives to pesticides are almost always a good thing.

Then it was brainstorm time to try and find a project. Dr. Buddle acted as our moderator, and we actually ended up with five sub projects. One group would do research on biodiversity and its importance and the effects of conservation programs in other countries. Three groups looked at fauna in Graeme Hall, collecting and identifying species, and the last group worked with molecular biological techniques to be able to process and add to the DNA barcoding initiative. The three fauna groups were fish, lepidoptera and odonata (butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies), and terrestrial arthropods.

To finish is an example of our now superb pinning skills which will be put to good us in this project! The bug in the top right was a carpenter bee. It was found dead - can you imagine that thing actually flying around?!

Leatherback Turtles

2007-05-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

So, as you can tell, I am about week behind in getting my posts up. However, in retrospect, this day that I am currently writing about has to be the highlight of the trip. First, we met up with this very cool guy, Barry, and some of his assistants and he explained to us how the Sea Turtle Conservation project was started and what. They had found what they though was a nest by the little tracks to the water. On Morgan Lewis beach, the nesting turtles are the Leatherback turtles.

So, as part of their efforts, every nest they find is excavated, and every non hatched egg is opened to see what stage of development it was in. The picture shows an egg, and you can see the embryo and yolk sack. When they are fully developed, they use their egg tooth to get out of the egg. They then manage to get out of the sand (the females lay their eggs in nests that are a couple feet deep), and using the light reflected from the ocean, they make their way to the ocean. While they were digging out the nest, they found a coupe that hadn't made it, but we did find one live one. The group named him Zeus, and at dusk, we put him in the sand and cheered him on as he made his (roundabout) way to the ocean. Because of the tourist development on the west coast of Barbados, the turtle project get calls from people saying there are a bunch of baby turtles in the lobby. The bright lights of the hotels disorient the baby turtles, so they think they are heading to the ocean when they are in fact heading the opposite direction.

So, after a BBQ on the beach - nothing like sand as a condiment to the burgers - we accompanied tome volunteers on the turtle walk. Female turtles come up at night to lay their eggs. On the way back, as we were literally ready to head back to the cars, someone found some tracks. We were luck enough to see two of thes HUGE turtles. The carapice (shell) length on one of the females was 1.67 metres long! It was very cool. If you ever have the chance to see these guys, I highly recommend it! June is apparently peak hatching season for the beach on the side of the island where the research institute is located. Can't wait to watch the babies!

Atlantis and Turner Hall

2007-05-12T23:41:00.000-04:00

So today the group had decided to take a tour in this tourist attraction called the Atlantis submarine. It was a lot of fun, and the captain and commentators were very entertaining. One of the guys managed to get one of the commentators to mention that there was a DNA code outside the portside. It's fun being a nerd!

Afterwards, we went to Turner Hall. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, as the maps we had were not the most accurate things in the world, but Bridget led the way and we got to Turner Hall. Turner Hall is apparently one of the least affected areas in Barbados, meaning it what we were seeing was basically how its been for a long time. Audrey and I, through leaf sifting, managed to find a pseudoscorpian that made Dr. Buddle so happy, he's keeping it for his personal collection. We actually managed to find two since I managed to drop the first one on the ground before it was in a collection vial, and these things are about the size of a period, font 7!

Gay's Cove and Welshman Hall

2007-05-11T23:32:00.000-04:00

So, the internet in Barbados is a little temperamental, so I apologize for the delay in getting these up. I haven't quite figured out the template of this blog either, so I apologize for funny margins and obscured text. I hope everyone can still at least sort of read it.

Since we finished the module rotations, the next few days have been spent discovering Barbados and its ecology. This day, we first went to Gay's Cove. After a bumpy ride through a cow grazing area, we were treated to a spectacular cliff over looking the east coast of Barbados. We found a bees nest and some very cool spiders and other little critters. We got to walk down the cliffside to the waters edge and walked up and down the pebble beach there as well.

We then headed to Welshman Hall for a picnic lunch. A local tour guide showed us some of the flora in the gully, telling us what some of the plants were used for in traditional medicine and other purposes. We figure she must have thought we were crazy because we kept running off and chasing insects. Dr. Buddle found an ant lion - a predatory insect that makes burrows and waits for ants to fall in. They only walk backwards and are incredibly tiny. Fun stuff!

B-Ball

2007-05-10T23:13:00.000-04:00

So today was the fish module, but my camera for my underwater casing chose a convenient time to simply not work on me, so I don't really have anything to show. Etienne decided to be lazy in his hammock, and was so lazy he didn't bother taking off his wader boots.

There is a basketball course right next to the research institute. A basketball was found in the computer room. Thanks to whoever left it!

Day 4: Entomology

2007-05-09T00:13:00.000-04:00

So today was the entomology section for my group. I never knew bugs could be so much fun! I've known about the ecological significance of insects, but today, we went out in the field and learned bug collecting techniques, how to mount (pin) them, and how to separate them based on their morphological features. Rachel and I went out hunting and turned over a huge rock and found this very cool millipede under it. We didn't need it for our purposes, but the prof let me bring it back to take some pictures of. We went twice, once in the afternoon and once at dusk. The second time there was the cattle egret in the water logged areas, so I snapped a couple of pictures. I wish I had my telephoto, but I'm sure there will be a time and place to get some more shots of these guys.

I have a new found respect for insects, and my mild phobia of them has disappeared upon realizing the vast majority are harmless. The second time out, I took a sweeper net and focused on butterflies and flies, and got some specimens the prof was happy with. We learned how to mount butterflies and moths as well. I may go out and get a sweeper net and start a small collection of Quebec butterflies. Of course, I have many other projects I would like to do as well, so we shall see if this one comes to fruition!

Day 3: Molecular Ecology Module

2007-05-08T22:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a sort of orientation day. We went snorkling over the reef, and we spotted a flying gurnard - a very cool, large fish that has huge fins that it uses to scare up little critters like shrimp to eat.

Today my group did the molecular ecology module. We were introduced to DNA barcoding, a technique that molecular biologists have developed that can potentially have huge implications to the ecological field. It's a constantly changing area that some cool possibilities in the future - we'll see how things develop. Then we learned how to isolate DNA sequences, PCR (polymerase chain reaction), and gel electrophoresis. We used insects we collected yesterday on a walk we talk around the immediate area. We all used various parts of various insects, and were mostly successful in isolating the targetted DNA sequence and amplifying it with PCR.

The food here is great, today was BBQ chicken and mac and cheese, and yesterday was mahi mahi. YUM!

Thanks to Emily and Bassel for letting me post their pictures. The bird is a black grackle on our compound.

Barbados - Official Start

2007-05-06T22:11:00.000-04:00

So, today was the official first day of the Tropical Ecology course that I am taking. I also got to take the first of many sunset pictures. Today we went snorkling and saw lots of parrotfish and damselfish. My friends saw a turtle, but I somehow managed to miss it. We did see some cuttlefish, which I've never seen before so that was really cool. This course sounds very exciting. We went for pizza and got to meet the other students and the profs as well. So, hopefully I'll be able to post every few days or so, or even more. Cheers!

What to do when it snows in April and you need a break from studying for finals

2007-04-12T20:35:00.000-04:00

Yah, so pretty much exactly like the title says. We're almost halfway through April. And it snows. At least it was snowman snow. Raided the fridge for a carrot and some broccoli florets. First pictures I've taken in a long time, and they're snapshots. I think I'm saving myself up for the summer or something.

Now it's back to bio. Four finals to conquer this semester.

Happy winter (oops, it's spring) everyone!

Star Trails

2006-12-25T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hmm, hope you can see this on your monitors. So HDR seems to be the rage at the moment in some areas of cyber photo land, and while I haven't had the chance to try it out for real, I used the HDR option to stack two long exposure night shots to see what would happen

I got my star trails. Yah! I also got noise. Hoorah for noise ninja! Anyways, as you can see, I have no clue what I'm doing. I have a friend who will be trying out more of this stuff with me sometime next year, so let hope we have good weather!

If your in the east, happy non-white holidays!

2006-10-10T19:27:00.000-04:00

30 second exposure up in the country. no ND filter (on my wish list). The sun ahd basically gone down when I took this. Little bit of PP to bring up the water and enhance the sky

Now, who wants to help me remeber the names of all the components of a splicesome?

Fishy!

2006-08-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

My lab professor is one fo the co-teachers of a course I'm taking in the fall. It's basically an intensive lab course that will cover things like data collection and statsitcal analysis and stuff. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

For this course, they felt that it would be nice to have pictures of the fishes that would be used in one of the labs, so they asked me to come and shoot the fishies in their aquariums. I splurged and got a circular polarizer for this to try and reduce the reflections. It made a huge difference, and I now have a kick ass polarizer and step up rings for all my favorite lenses.

Anyways, here is a picture :-D

The End of the Road

2006-08-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it's a little earlier than I said, but I think it's time for me to hang up my shoes and pronounce the end of my PAD. I may post occasionally, but don't hold your breath. I've ended up with some end of the summer projects, and I'm finding posting a PAD not nearly as enjoyable as it once was.

I've learnt a heck of a lot posting, experimenting with PP techniques, and checking out everyone elses PAD projects, and I intend to keep persuing those who are still going.

Kudos to those who are still going!

I figure 7 1/2 months out of 12 isn't to shabby!

Until the next time,
Cheers!

226:

2006-08-14T23:01:00.000-04:00

Old shot I recently got around to processing for stock. It's a sunset in Charleston, SC from a year ago.

225: Vitamin E

2006-08-13T16:53:00.000-04:00

Vitamin E pills and bottle. I used to take it because they said VItamin E would help accelerate muscle repair or something like that. Then, several years later, another study said that to much Vitamin E was really bad for you. I eat fairly well, and I take a multi-vitamin, so I've stopped taking the extra vitamin E. I'm glad I've finally been able to do something with the leftovers!

The capsules also are very good for deep moisturizing. I would occasionally get nasty dry skin splits in the winter (especially when dancing bare foot a lot) and popping one of these and putting it on seemed to help...

224: Spider

2006-08-12T16:46:00.000-04:00

I

will

make

a

little

lead

in

because

I know

some people

can't stand

spiders...

So this was a hairy spider my boyfriend found and caught for me.

I have a confession to make. I went against all ethics on shooting bugs and decided to stick it in the freezer to chill it so it would be sluggish. My boyfriend had told me it was a fast guy. Unfortunately, it worked a little to well. So, for those of you who think I was un-ethical and should be reprimended for what I did, have at me. I apologize.

I did put the spider back outside so it could be put back into the cycle of life somehow.

That being said, I REALLY wish I had one of those kick-butt macro lenses, or reversing rings or extension tubes or something as he had very cool eyes and stuff.

Click for a larger and hairier view

223: Stock Shot

2006-08-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

Another stock shot.

222: Doofus

2006-08-10T22:43:00.000-04:00

I'm jsut being a doofus...

221: John and a chair

2006-08-09T16:28:00.000-04:00

This is John, the guy who too the me and a chair shot. We had lots of fun doing this!! You've seen him before when I've posted stuff from the studio shoots!

220: Me and a Chair

2006-08-08T16:23:00.000-04:00

FINALLY! This is the one shot I've been wanting to do for a really long time.

This is a continuation of my mainly unsuccesful project to take pictures of me in chairs in different places.

I had my friend, John, help me out with this. We had tons of fun doing this, and we just may go back because we tried to do slow shutter stuff but they were to blurry without a tripod

219: Stock Shot

2006-08-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

Well, this would have been a stock shot, but Blogger doesn't like me again :-(

Edit: Ok. Blogger likes me

I've recently decided to try my hand at stock photography. I've also decided to go straight for macro stock. Basically (in a nutshell), microstock is where images get sold royalty free for 1-10 dollars, and you make about 20 cents a download. Macrostock is where pictures go for much more (sometimes thousands) and the photographer makes more money per download.

So, there was a request for a bottle of club soda. However, you aren't allowed to have anything trademarked on it, so I added my own swank CS where a big 'ol trademarked logo normally was!

And just a side note, I'm going to be stopping uploading a picture a day starting in September when I go back to school. I will still post occasionally, but Blogger has been giving me problems at least once a week, and I've got a busy semester ahead.

218: Summer Rain

2006-08-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

Ahhh summer. I was waiting for the bus and it was a classic summer rain. As you can see, the sun is shining on the lower field at McGill as it is being inundated with summer rain. The rain didn't last long at all. I got about three shots before the bus showed up and by the time I put my camera away it was over. Click the picture for a larger shower.

217: Jackie and Mel

2006-08-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Jackie is also working in the lab I am volunteering in, and you've already met Mel. We were just having lots of fun!

216: Melanie and Villie

2006-08-04T14:11:00.000-04:00

This is Melanie and Villie. They are both working in the lab I am volunteering in, and we all have lots of fun!

215: Family

2006-08-03T14:07:00.000-04:00

My boyfriend, myself, my dad, and his wife on a hike we went on when they were visiting Montreal in July. I felt bad because I said it was just going to be like a steep walk. It was a small hike, but we all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. Taken with my tripod and my very cool remote!

214: Stupid Biters

2006-08-02T22:15:00.000-04:00

As we all know, summer brings fabulous things. Beers on a terrace, lazy weekends hanging out and reading, sunny days, long evenings, and other little luxuries. They also bring silly things like mosquitos and blackflies! So, one got in our apartment, and bit someone (most likely me since they always seem to go for me and not my boyfriend). It was buzzing around, so I smacked it on the wall. Blech

213: Soccer

2006-08-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the gap. I tried to fill in yesterday, and Blogger was being unco-operative, so I gave up. I am lazy this morning, so I've decided to skip the weekend.

My apologies

I shot my boyfriend's soccer game again a week or two ago, and have finally gone through and converted and sorted the pictures. Can I just mention how much I love my 4gig compact flash card?!!? I can now shoot RAW to my heart's content! I love it!!!

Minimal PP on this one. Some quick RAW stuff and then a resize and save for web.

So the jungle gym has been a huge hit, for kids and adults alike!

209: Liam III

2006-07-28T22:29:00.000-04:00

My friend's adorable little boy! Everytime I see him he's changed so much. It's amazing how fast kids grow up!

I'll see everybody on Monday!

208: Cheers!

2006-07-27T22:27:00.000-04:00

Hmmm. One has to wonder if the jungle gym was made for the kids or the adults...

207: Different view

2006-07-26T23:47:00.000-04:00

Another view so you can see the slide and everything. you can see the chairs we hauled up on the second level to toast or success building the thing!

206: Climbing Wall

2006-07-25T23:44:00.000-04:00

Climbing wall of the jungle gym we made. There is foam padding on top of the two left slats now, as we realized lots of skin would get scraped there if it was left uncovered

205: Jungle Gym

2006-07-24T22:39:00.000-04:00

Hmm, I've managed to mess up my numbers again. Back on track (i hope)

Didn't think it could be done, but after a few days, lots of over engineering, lots of power tools (which I got to use, too!!) and lots of grunting and groaning, this rustic jungle gym was built.

It's very solid, and the test runs by my friend's children give it an A-OK!

In case you can't really see, there is a slide, a climbing wall, a hanging rope, a swing, a space for a baby swing, a ladder, and a platform.

Fun Fun Fun!!

203: Rafting

2006-07-23T22:34:00.000-04:00

High on finishing the jungle gym, the boys take a ride down the river!

202: Butterfly

2006-07-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

This butterfly had a fantastic feast on the flower. Anyone know the name of the butterfly or the flower?

201: Bug

2006-07-20T22:29:00.000-04:00

These bugs are all over the place up in the country. They are very nice with their huge antennae. This guy crawled up on my boyfriends knuckles, and had a nice little photo shoot before he decided to fly away.

200: Butterfly of the Night

2006-07-19T22:26:00.000-04:00

Did you know you can give a moth red eye?

Picture is flipped since the moth seemed to enjoy the bottom of the edge of my plate.

Couldn't get a nice shot without flash, so this is done with flash

199: Spider

2006-07-18T20:03:00.000-04:00

BIG HONKIN' SPIDER

198: Flowers (and spiderwebs)

2006-07-17T20:30:00.000-04:00

Pretty flower! Karen or JP, can you help me identify it?

197: Flowers (again)

2006-07-16T22:56:00.000-04:00

More flowers. What can I say

196: Lunch Time

2006-07-15T22:52:00.000-04:00

If you have kids, I'm sure you've seen this a million times. Watching kids cracks me up, as long as they aren't hurling the food towards you! My friend's toddler feeding himself some healthy veggies (pureed of course!). Be sure and eat your veggies!

195: Cheeeeeze

2006-07-14T22:48:00.000-04:00

My friend's adorable kid!! Say cheese everyone!

I know the focus isn't perfect, but he's one of those kids who usually makes a funny face when you ask him to smile, so I said give me a real smile and he gave me this!

194: Look out Below!

2006-07-13T23:47:00.000-04:00

I know this happens all the time, but it's still very impressive watching huge pains of glass be hoisted in the air with a crane, cable, and enormous suction cups. It was a blustery day, too. Silly me didn't get the camera out when the glass was blowing in the wind, but you can still see how high it was lifted!

193: Growth

2006-07-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

More plants

Thanks to Karen and JP for identifying that cool flower from yesterday! I really appreciate it, and now I know who to turn to if I need flower ids!

192: Untitled

2006-07-11T09:33:00.000-04:00

Not sure what these are, but they looked cool!

191: Flora

2006-07-10T09:26:00.000-04:00

Look Ma! Bokeh!

190: Fungus III

2006-07-09T12:29:00.000-04:00

The last of the fungi!

189: Fungus II

2006-07-08T12:24:00.000-04:00

So this one is a bit more colorful than the previous one. We were all convinced that the brighter the colour, the more poisonous they would be

There is a place here where you can take mushrooms and they will identify them for you. I think I may look them up and see if they accept pictures. I'd be curious to know what kind these are

188: Fungus I

2006-07-07T12:15:00.000-04:00

So this weekend, my dad and his wife came up to the country with us. We were fortunate to have spectacular weather, and we took a hike to a nice view point yesterday.

Because we've had such a wet spring, we saw a pretty neat assortment of fungi. This 'shroom was the most mundane of the bunch...

187: Lwamunda Eggs

2006-07-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

I've been volunteer- ing in a biology lab this summer at McGill, and it's been a lot of fun. The people working in the lab are great fun, incredibly helpful, and I've been learning lots of stuff!

When I decided to go back to school, I was sure I wasn't going to enjoy the lab part. I had visions of those sterile labs with terrible lighting that you see on television, with everyone working in utter silence and never talking to each other. I am (happily) completely wrong! I'm sure those labs exist somewhere, but the one I'm volunteering in is great!

I'm helping a grad student with her research right now. She's studying the effects of oxygen gradients on the breeding habits of fish. This is the oversimplyfied version! I'm weighing each egg from each brood, photographing them, and then using a computer program to measure dimensions and calculate volume. This is one of the photographs I've taken.

Cool stuff!!

186: Flower

2006-07-05T22:28:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine planted some climbing vines in the country, and when I last went up, he asked how they were doing. One of the had flowered, so I snapped a shot to preserve in case none of the others flowered.

Here you go, Joel!

185: Another New Friend

2006-07-04T18:42:00.000-04:00

I don't know how my grass- hopper friend will get along with this friend though...

184: My New Friend

2006-07-03T12:31:00.000-04:00

This is my new friend.

183: Bzzzzzzz

2006-07-02T12:24:00.000-04:00

So this buzzer was happy as a clam in all the flowers a friend of ours planted earlier this spring (Thanks Lianne!)

However, I have no idea what it is. It's got a huge probiscis though, the kind that curls. Any idea what this is?

It's also big! Seemed to be almost twice the body length of a honey bee!

It was nice to be back out in the country again. What wasn't nice was that the blackflies are still around since it's been such a soggy spring and summer

182: Hibiscus

2006-07-01T12:33:00.000-04:00

More practice flower shots. Not much else to say.

Happy Canada Day!

Going out of town tomorrow. Will be back soon enough

181: Plant

2006-06-30T20:30:00.000-04:00

Fun with colours and DOF. A plant in the park I went to yersterday.

180: Practice flower

2006-06-29T18:28:00.000-04:00

So techinically, this is an outake, but my one possible entry if my other idea doesn't pan out will not be posted until I decide what I'm going to do.

Just some flowers on a tree in a park near my place. Nothing more, nothing less.

Well, there is a leaf in there.

179: Toadstool

2006-06-28T18:17:00.000-04:00

Another one a day late and a dollar short. I actually have an excuse. We had a power outage that was supposedly due to a fallen tree. It was out for about 8 or 9 hours. They said that they needed to cut more trees down and that was the problem. I think they were at the local pub knocking back a few and then they took their sweet time to fix it.

Anyways, during the outage, I went for a walk to take some practice flower shots. I found this little mushroom all by its lonesome self. Had a hard time getting the shot as I couldn't lay in the grass since it was wet. Still, I needed a little frog or fairy or something!

Bonus picture:
You may recognize the cat from my terrible excuse of an 'art' photo a while back. Here (s)he is being a nice cat!

178: Future Pesto

2006-06-27T18:52:00.000-04:00

I know, I blew out the sky, but I'm lazy. I'm running out of things to take pictures of, and it was raining when I left the house this morning so I didn't take my camera

Every year, we grow basil in some boxes at our place. My boyfriend uses it in sandwichs, we put it in salads, and then I periodically make pesto with it. I prefer homemade because I find the commercial stuff usually has an unecessary amount of olive oil in it.

To make pesto, all you need is basil, pine nuts, romano and/or parmesan chees, olive oil, and garlic. My secret is I use a whole head (!) of garlic, but I roast it. Cut the top of the garlic head off, drizzle a bit of olive oil, sprinkle some pepper and dried oregono on it, wrap it in foil, and bake for about 30 minutes at about 350 F. Let it cool, and then the garlic will be all nice and buttery-like so you can just squeeze the cloves out.

Anyways, that's all you need for pesto! You can also do fun things like throw in sun dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil - drained, or dried, but re-hydrated), other herbs, or if you want to get really fancy, can replace the basil with things like arugula (rocket for you Brits and Aussies) or flat leaf parsley. The possiblities are endless! Happy cooking!

177: Flower

2006-06-26T19:32:00.000-04:00

Another flower from Torrey Pines because I'm highly annoyed with some of the calls that were made during World Cup games today and I think the refs need glasses.

Anyways, I'm annoyed so I don't feel like taking pictures

176: Beverages

2006-06-25T15:33:00.000-04:00

So, each case has 24 bottles of beer in it. That means copious amounts of beer was consumed the past few days!! No, I did not drink all that by myself, either!

So an interesting addendum to the term peanut gallery. My boyfriend noted that peanut gallery is actually a segragationist term, where it was the area in a theatre that blacks were made to sit during the days of segregation.

It's interesting how the racial connotation of the term is actually relatively difficult to find. A quick search finds some references to blacks calling the segregated area of the theatre the peanut gallery. However, it seems as though the Howdy Doody show broke the racial connotation of the word.

Thanks to my dad for the help in finding info about that

175: The Peanut Gallery

2006-06-24T14:48:00.000-04:00

For those who don't know what the Peanut Gallery is, it was what the audience the Howdy Doody Show was called. Since most of the audience were little kids, they were the peanuts, and thus, the Peanut Gallery. Peanut Gallery also is another name for the nosebleeds, which are the seats that are the farthest and highest away from what ever you are watching. The nosebleeds are due to the high altitude :-)

174: Football, Baby!

2006-06-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

None of that silly American football! This is real football! Actually, this is just a picture of a soccer ball on a pitch. Nothing special!

173: Balcony Planting

2006-06-22T10:42:00.000-04:00

So I weeded and dug up some slower boxes that we haven't used in a few years. I managed to unearth some little insects that weren't happy I had just dug up their homes. We have no idea what they are, but they just kind of buzzed around while I was planting. They didn't bite, thank goodness, but we wanted to try and get rid of some of them. So, my brilliant boyfriend brought out the shopvac and we vacuumed them up. It took a little bit of practice to not vacuum the plants and vacuum the bugs, but we did get rid of most of them.

I know, we're terrible people for vacuuming bugs! If it's any conselation, when we humans are all gone, the bugs will still be here laughing their little heads of at how they survived and we didn't.

172: Torrey Pines

2006-06-21T10:36:00.000-04:00

Torrey Pines State Park in San Diego. I know I should clone out the wire barrier, but I'm to lazy. I discovered the soft light blending mode and I had lots of fun with that!

Torrey Pines are reknowned for there ability to survive under harsh conditions, and this Park and one island off the coast of California are the only places left where these pines grow.

I apologize for not posting this yesterday like I am suppose to.

I will soon resume taking pictures everyday since I'll have the time this summer.

Go Ghana!!!

171: World Cup Fever!!!

2006-06-20T16:09:00.000-04:00

Since these are the last games in each group of the World Cup, they play the games simultane- ously. We're lucky enough to have two televisions, and a way to watch both games at the same time. We put the sound on for the one we're most interested in (in this case Sweden/England) but we can watch the other one at the same time.

That is called World Cup Fever, my friend!

I'm sorry Ecuador lost, and Trinidad and Tobago are down 1-0 at the half, but anything can happen. Go Trinidad and Tobago!!

170: Bokeh

2006-06-19T18:53:00.000-04:00

This was taken at Torrey Pines State (National?) Park. The out of focus background is (I think) known as the bokeh, and in this particular picture, I think the out of focus flowers mimicing the curl of the main plat add a nice touch. To bad this was taken before the Bokeh challenge at DPC was announced.

That being said, the hard core people who are researching it would probably give this a Does Not Meet Challenge because I don't have little circles in the out of focus background. Well, I sort of do. Oh well

Back to Torrey Pines. Even though I'd grown up in San Diego, I can't remember ever going to the Park. It has some nice walks. They call them hikes, but the one we went on was more of a walk :-) Since it was beginning of summer, lots of flowers were blooming, so I ahd fun shooting them. Thanks to Emily for being so patient while I kept wandering off the path and stopping to get some of the shots. I didn't really wander off the path (I know that's bad), but I did step over the barrier to get that 'perfect' shot.

169: Children

2006-06-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

Whoops! I'm so caught up in World Cup fever I forgot to post something yesterday. In return, you get two pictures. These were children on the streets in Baja California. Their mothers were asking for change, and also getting their kids to beg as well. My dad's wife always has some change and a few singles for the children, so I would snap a few shots of the children.

RANT ON

I got berated by some random guy while in Baja. I was taking some candids of the children, and was reviewing the pictures, and a guy came up to me. He said something along the lines of - you're gonna give those kids your taking pictures of some money, RIGHT? I was doing candids, and the kids, once you gave them money, would tend to pose for you which for that particular shot wasn't what I wanted. What bugged me the most about it was his tone. It was incredibly condescending. I understand that a lot of people new to the area/photographing unerpriveleged kids might not know about the unspoken etiquette of giving someone a bit of money in return for taking the picture, but geez, DO IT IN A NICE WAY. I really wanted to slap the guy, but I figured it wasn't in my best interest to do so. And anyways, if he'd bother to open his eyes, he would have seen that someone in my group WAS giving the kids money as he was berating me.
And FWIW I do know that giving a little bit of money to kids/homeless people/street muscians, etc. in exchange for taking their picture is common practice. Sheesh, I felt bad for taking a picture of some buskers once when all I had on me has a big bill. I still look for them so I can drop them so change next time I see them. I just found his tone so presumptuous and superior, it really irked me. Maybe next time I'll take his picture and give him some change.

RANT OFF

It's amazing how much those of us in first world countries take everything we have for granted.

167: Turtles!!

2006-06-16T23:54:00.000-04:00

Taken at the mercado in Rosarito in Baja California. Very sad that Cote d'Ivoire lost in World Cup today. What a game though! Very exciting, and it looked like the Dutch were on a roll, but les Elephants came back with a vengeance. Oh well, this is the excitement of World Cup!

166: HUGE Crab!

2006-06-15T21:24:00.000-04:00

While on the southwest side of the island, we went diving. On the second dive, our divemaster showed us an undercave where there were lots of HUGE crabs camping out under there. My boyfriend took this shot, but the crabs sure looked like they would have made a yummy dinner!