With spring here and an abundance of insects and flowers to photograph, I’ve been busy! Just like this busy honey bee I captured yesterday:

My Macro Photography course is starting at Georgian College, from May 22nd to June 5th.

The course is 15 hours (9 classroom, 6 in the field) and covers all areas of macro photography. From gear to technical info, composition and all the tricks to take fun pictures like this Dandelion refraction image:

I’ll even have preserved snowflakes on hand!

Here’s the details:

Where?: Georgian College Barrie Campus
Who?: Anyone! No prerequisites, and special lenses are not required!
Cost: $132.00
When: May 22 – June 5, 2012, Tuesday Nights 7-10PM
Saturday June 2nd, 9AM-3PM Outing
Course CRN: #35105
Sign Up: Click Here for Georgian College signup page

I’ll need a few more participants in the course before it can run! It’s a great opportunity to expand your photography and learn all my secrets. If you know someone that is interested, please pass the info along.

And for those that simply enjoy the photographs with no desire to make your own – here’s a gallery to browse of some recent images:

I got a phone call from a colleague this week to hop in a helicopter above downtown Toronto. “Awesome!” I say, “when?”… leaving immediately!

I did some promotional video work for Eye In The Sky Photography, and then had a moment to try my own thing – a fisheye image about 1800ft above Toronto’s shoreline. This was the result:

It turned out exactly as I envisioned it, and I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to make this image. It’s one of those days of random adventure, and a reason why I love my job!

I don’t often get on my soap box, but this is something that I want to bring to everyone’s attention. The images attached to this post show the the current state of the Canada Air & Space Museum. They’re packing up what’s left, loading up skids and clearing out the building. Last year, they were evicted. Currently, they have no place to go.

The Air & Space Museum is home to some of the most spectacular artifacts of Canadian invention and engineering, including a scale replica of the CF-105 Avro Arrow, currently being disassembled.

There’s a whole story behind the eviction, and I encourage you to read about it at their website: http://www.casmuseum.org/

I was lucky enough to be allowed to enter the facility, which was once the De Havilland Canada aircraft manufacturing plant during World War II. It was designated a heritage site, a designation that mysteriously disappeared when the museum was evicted. (they claimed it’s listing as a heritage site was “an error”). Hockey rinks are going in when the museum has cleared out.

The museum is a non-profit organization and has no public funding. They depend on private support and donations. I encourage anyone who wants to see the museum find a new home to donate: http://www.casmuseum.org/donate.php or become a member (memberships are currently $20). They are in talks for a new location, but the atmosphere during my visit was very sombre. They certainly need help.

I never had the chance to see the museum when it was opened. I’d love to see it again under better circumstances. Since my visit yesterday, I have been reading much more about Canada’s air and space history, and I must say I’m inspired. I have a new book to read, authored by the still-living Landcaster bomber Philip Gray.

Please tell me your thoughts on this! I’d love to have a discussion about it. This history needs to be saved.

Spring is here, and things are greening up quickly! I made a day trip to the nearby Copeland Forest to see how lively the wildlife was, and I was pleasantly surprised. Birds, animals, insects, the world has come back to life with much energy after a mild and short winter. From the delightfully small Chickadee:

To the shy yet curious Painted Turles:

…and even a playful Mink!

and yes, of course I took the macro lens out to photograph many species of insects along the way, through both the forest and along Barrie’s waterfront:

Enjoy the full gallery, and try to get out and enjoy some of it yourself! The world is alive again.

Where did spring go?? We have had such unseasonably warm weather that is breaking all sorts of temperature records, and it has encouraged me to get out shooting something other than snowflakes!

Here’s a photograph that I took at Barrie’s waterfront yesterday morning. The ice was nearly completely gone, but still cooling the air over the lake enough to create fog. This was the result:

Actually, that’s not entirely true. That’s the “edited” result. Below is the image I photographed right out of the camera so you can see how much work goes into getting the image I was looking for. I had to place the sun into the frame, in a position that would normally only be found in mid-late summer. Take a look:

The Barrie Photo Club has an outing to Shaw’s Pancake House recently, and I was happy to be able to go this year. Despite the unusual weather the sap was still flowing nicely. Here’s a couple pics:

and the below picture is a section of tubing that carries sap from trees back to the boiler, a more modern approach. The water droplets show a refracted image of the maple forest:

And finally, Desi and I had a wonderful afternoon in High Park in Toronto, and during the visit we came across this pair of swans. It was a great way to spend the afternoon! <3

More fun pictures to come! Sorry for not updating the blog that much recently, I have been very active over on Google+. I’ll post more soon!