Catch of the Day
A coyote crosses the old Doughnut bridge in the early morning hours, tripping the remote Coyote Cam for the first time.
Business End
Water temperatures in the lagoons have hit around 6°C, and the northern pike are again cruising the spawning grounds.
A Day in the Life
A day in the life of an underwater camera as a young northern pike, muskrat, and painted turtle cruise past in the lagoon’s murky depths.
The Coyote Times
A fleeting glimpse into the mysterious world of Toronto Island coyotoes: a remote camera catches a coyote pair hunting on the ice near Doughnut Island. Note: this is a compilation of several frames, showing them as the camera sees them. It is not a pack, it’s only one pair of coyotes imaged several times. Click […]
Wonderful Profile
Space shuttle Atlantis leaps from the launch pad on the final flight of the space shuttle program as STS-135. Burning over 20,000 lbs of fuel every second, Atlantis will accelerate to 28,000 km/h over the course of eight minutes.
Handoff to Houston
Space shuttle Atlantis clears the tower on the final launch of the space shuttle program, STS-135. Once clear of the tower, control is transferred from the Kennedy Space Centre to Mission Control in Houston for the duration of the flight.
Monsoon Season
A remote camera set up on a dry lake bed captures space shuttle Atlantis clearing the tower during launch of STS-135. Heavy rains preceding launch day dramatically changed the nature of this photograph, turning the foreground from a brilliant landscape of caked and broken earth to something approaching a mudbowl.
Carp of Happiness
A common carp stares at the camera through the underwater gloom, looking like something out of Asian legends.
Island Iridescence
Glowing like a pet store tropical fish, a sunfish swims past an underwater remote near Pike Cut. Clarity of the lagoons is already dropping as the water temperature rises. This b-roll image looks mottled due to air bubble contamination on the lens port, a common problem in summertime.
Where The Wind Blows
Wreathed in her own launch plume, space shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the final launch of her career, hauling the US $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. After landing, she’ll be processed and turned over to the California Science Center for permanent display.
Infrared Preview
An infrared view of the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour, as seen from the dike road at Kennedy Space Centre. The External Tank turns white in infrared, harking back to the early days of the Program when the ET was originally painted white. This is an unfinished image, the final image processed from RAW […]
Across The Pond
Space shuttle Endeavour streaks toward the clouds as photographed by a remote camera set up on Kennedy Space Centre’s dike road.
Painterly Cruising
A signature photograph for the FishEYE II: a northern pike cruises its spawning grounds, waiting for the water to warm up to about 9°C to start the main event. The lagoons are still frigid, hovering around the 5-6°C mark.
Back in School
A school of yellow perch float motionless in front of a remote camera, their numbers seeming to stretch to the underwater horizon. A B-Roll shot by all accounts, but I didn’t know that we have schools of perch this large in our lagoons.
Pike Poise
The rule of beginner’s luck seems to be a photographic constant: deploy new gear to the field, and invariably something interesting will happen. At least the first time, after that you might get nothing for weeks. This marks the first deployment of the FishEYE II, a.k.a. ‘Mr. Floaty’, an update to the original FishEYE I […]
Between the Darkness and the Light
A beautiful northern pike undulates towards the camera, sandwiched between the dark lagoon floor and bright overhead sky. Unfortunately, after heavy rains and high wind, the water is also full of flotsam and jetsam: bits of plastic, rubber, and aluminum punctuating an otherwise beautiful natural image. This image was photographed with the FishEYE I underwater […]
Underwater Buffleheads
A bufflehead duck, white feathers glowing in the gloomy lagoon light, dives in search of food beneath the surface. They’re extremely shy birds, so they’re difficult to photograph normally without extremely long focal length lenses. Underwater remote cameras come into their element in a situation like this, as they unobtrusively monitor the daily life under […]
Directions
A two-hour stacked exposure turns the late-March Toronto skyline into a fine web of aircraft trails. The Island airport can be seen at the left of the image, glowing with its myriad of takeoffs and landings. Porter Airlines can be seen following their usual east-wind takeoff pattern, from the airport directly to the top-right side […]
Business End
A mute swan, seen from an unusual angle, forages on the bottom of the still-desolate lagoon near the edge of what remains of the late spring icepack. Warmer temperatures should complete iceout over the next few days.
Northern Beauty
During the winter months, the lagoons become almost sterile as all the larger fish head to deeper waters. Crayfish, mink, beavers, and a few smaller fish can occasionally be seen going about their business under the ice, but nothing else. As the ice finally begins to clear out, the larger fish return and get ready […]
Branch
Space shuttle Discovery reaches for the sky on her final mission, consuming over 20,000lbs of propellant every second. Coincidentally, the Ongiara’s maximum vehicle load just happens to be 20,000lbs, which the shuttle consumes every second.
One More Time
Space shuttle Discovery lifts off from the launch pad for the final time. Within twenty seconds of missing her launch window and being forced to abort, she had a flawless ascent to orbit.
SSME Stabilization
Space shuttle Discovery’s SSMEs (Space Shuttle Main Engines) stabilize after ignition in this sequence. From left to right, the rough orange flame stabilizes to form a smooth blue flow, displaying the characteristic “Mach diamonds”, formed by the supersonic flow of the engine’s exhaust.
Pillars of Fire
Riding twin pillars of fire, veteran space shuttle Discovery embarks on her final voyage to orbit from LC-39A. After this final mission, she’ll be processed and turned over to the Smithsonian for permanent display.