Remote I Liftoff
While we don’t get too many space shuttles around these parts, it was the Island’s environment that let me build and test the remote camera enclosures that led to this photograph, the launch of space shuttle Atlantis (STS-132), from beside launch pad 39A. While launch is targeted for a specific date, things don’t always go […]
VAB Liftoff
Shedding over 20,000lbs of propellant (both solid and liquid) every second, space shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) clears the tower as seen from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
VAB Focus
Checking focus on Canon’s 800mm f/5.6 L IS lens on the top of NASA’s VAB, in preparation for the ‘first final flight’ of space shuttle Atlantis. The final photographs from this setup can be seen here and here. Photo courtesy of Trent Smith, NASA Pad B Transition Project Lead. Lens courtesy of Lens Rentals Canada.
VAB Panorama
Space shuttle Atlantis, STS-132, soars into a clear Florida sky on her ‘first final flight’. This is a 180° panorama taken from the roof of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building, showing the sprawling space complex and the myriad swampy waterways that crisscross the area. Click the image to view larger.
Cormorant Overload
A huge number of cormorants, seemingly all of the cormorants from the Leslie St. Spit, congregate in the inner harbour. I only had a telephoto lens with me at the time, this photograph really wanted a wideangle: there are literally thousands and thousands of birds in the inner harbour.
Baker’s Dozen
One of the lovely things about living on a major migratory route is seeing the migrations happen: large groups of birds travelling long distances together. When they first arrive here on the Islands, they often remain together for a week or two before splitting up to build their nests. Flocks of 50 blackbirds at a […]
Rude Awakening
Startled from its nap, an early black-crowned night heron waits for the photographer to leave so it can get back to some serious sleeping.
Centre Mom VII
A Canada goose sets up shop in a planter on Centre Island’s boathouse dock. Very possibly Lucy, her normal planter wasn’t available due to renovation work.
Rocky Exercises
City of Toronto preparations for the G20 meeting of 2010 brought us some strange scenes. Here, the William Lyon Mackenzie (the city’s fireboat) practices dingy drills in the still-frigid water just off of the Ward’s Beach breakwall.
Arch
One of the first turtles to emerge in 2010, this little fellow basks on a log off of Doughnut Island, the background showing a still-total lack of green in the environment.
Backlight Moon
Reflected light from the rising full moon frames a beaver in silhouette on Ward’s Beach.
Sing Your Heart Out
A blackbird, back on the Island for another season, sings its heart out in the Ward’s wet meadow.
Missing Link
Walking upright out of the water, a Toronto Island beaver carries mud and vegetation in its arms to build a scent mound, territorial markers to let other beavers know that this area is verboten.
Conflagration III
Spring equinox, and the humans come out to perform their annual rituals on Ward’s Beach. Oddly, the trees had a different burning pattern this year: their thermal columns were much shorter. Compare to this tree at last year’s equinox bonfire (thanks Alice!).
Spring Colours
Some of the earliest colours of Spring, a mallard duck swims in the low sunlight of snug harbour.
Mirror Mirror
A beaver swims in an opening in the lagoon ice, still partially frozen in early March.
Spotlight
An unlikely mating of a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro lens to a full-frame Canon EOS 5DmkII (you’re not supposed to be able to use short-backfocus lenses on full-frame bodies) picks out a Dekay’s Brown snake amongst the dull browns of early spring.
Humpback of Notre Island
A mink scampers along the lagoon’s edge at the south side of the Manitou Bridge.
Early for the Party
An early arrival in March of 2009: one of the first Great Blues to finish its long migration north.
Moonrise Swans
Illuminated by the light of the rising full moon, mute swans sleep on black ice halfway across the outer harbour to the Leslie St. Spit.
Waking Nap
Mature pintails nap in the light of early morning reflected by the Queen’s Quay terminal building.
Willow Sunrise
At winter solstice, the sun rises directly between the main limbs of the Great Willow in the Ward’s soccer field.