A Few Favourites

This is the last set of Jake's photos that I plan to share for now. I have many more great pictures I could share, but for now this is where I'll end.

The following are a few of my favourites and I am sure you will enjoy them as well.

Capturing those little droplets at the edge of the leaf, was something he enjoyed doing.

What's not to love about this cute face? This was part of what he loved to do. Finding wild animals and capturing them in their natural surroundings. For an earlier post on these adventures check out this link.Caught in the Act. This was a post I published in 2008.

I remember well the day this photo was captured. Jake and I had met up with some friends and we were planning on a hike. We did get to the hike eventually, but first we came upon this field full of Milkweed ready to set it's many seeds free. Four people with cameras were kept busy for quite a while.

Sometimes, the beauty is right at your fingertips. Like this frost flower, which had grown overnight on one of the windows of our house. Such delicate beauty.

Jake taught me by example, that after a rain, one must head outside to capture all those little drops of water clinging to the pine needles.

From tiny details to vast landscapes, he had a way of capturing all of it with skill and precision .

All I can say is,

To God be the Glory!

 

Nature Around Us

I hope no one is getting tired of seeing the old pictures taken by Jake.

I enjoy sharing these older photos, another reason I am choosing to share them now is that there are not very many photo opportunities around right now.

Near Morden, Lake Minniwasta is usually a good place for photos. The sun is giving a wonderful warm, rich glow to this scene.

A number of years before Jake's passing, we heard about this large white bird at a nearby marsh. We went there and found this Great Egret. This only one of many pictures captured, but it is most certainly my favourite.

Many a day around sunset, Jake and I would head out in search of that perfect photo.

This was what he was looking for. 

It doesn’t have to be a large body of water to give love reflections .

If memory serves me right, the year was 2008. That fall was one of the most spectacular I have seen. This was at our local park,not a very large place, but the views were breathtaking.

 Think about this:

You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.

Nature Scenes by Jake

Once again, I am sharing pictures taken by Jake so many years ago.These would all have been captured with slide film and later transferred to the computer.

I cannot say where most of these were taken, but that doesn’t change the beauty of them.

I love reflections, so this one caught my eye because of that.

If I were to guess, I would say this is somewhere near Lake Minniwasta, but I can not be sure.

It was obviously a beautiful fall day.

Just seeing the rocks in the foreground,I think this could be in Whiteshell Provincial Park, but that is mostly a guess.

The blue of the sky and the blue of the water are so pretty.

Those billowing clouds in the background make this a lovely image.

A stock of Delphinium buds covered in raindrops. We used to have many Delphiniums , so I am pretty sure this would have been in our garden.

 To God be the Glory!

The Heavens Above -- Guest Post

 Hi everyone and thank you for having me here, I'm Steve, Ruth's son, and Mom asked me to share and talk about some of my astrophotography and give a little history into where it all began.

I'll start off with a little background... I've always loved the stars!  From a little boy, growing up out in the country I remember spending time out on the yard, under a black sky looking up at the stars with Dad (Jake).  We'd often look up and count satellites and meteors, we'd spend hours doing this.  As I got to be a teenager, the interest was still there and Mom & Dad bought me a telescope for Christmas.  Well the first scope was very short lived, the second scope, a little better lasted about a year, if I recall correctly and then I started saving up to buy a much bigger and better telescope.  Well being a good father that Dad was after I saved up 500.00 he pitched in to help ME get the telescope... yeah, I think he wanted the telescope just as badly as I did and if he "helped" me he could justify the purchase to Mom... shhhhh don't tell her 😊

Well this last telescope was good, it was an 8" diameter Celestron telescope, and it saw a lot of use over the years.  However as I got older I started leaning towards photography, which as many of you may know led to my career as a professional photographer, but the scope still stayed.  There were times I wanted to sell it because I never really used it, pulling it out on rare occasions to view Jupiter or Saturn.   Honestly that was about the extent of my astronomy for many years until one evening traveling home from Winnipeg with my friend Doug.  I remember as we were driving and we talked about how beautiful the stars looked that night.  After dropping him off at home, I took a little detour and stopped on a quiet country road to grab this image of Orion.  Funny thing is it's such a poor shot I had to draw it out so that could be seen.

Well it's crazy how things you've grown up with just stick.  I believe it was 2 or 3 evenings later I was back out trying to get another image, and another.

The above is a collection of different images I've done of the area over last 3 years since the bug bit me once again.  I've loved the learning process and seeing the image quality increase as I've moved along this amazing journey and all time spent under the stars which is something that I'd never give up.   As good as these images got to be I wasn't satisfied, and as I'm sure Mom can testify to if it's possible to do better I will do everything in my power to get the better image.

As I said I was thrilled with some of the images I had gotten up until this time.  I remember the lower left image in the collage, when I got it I was so thrilled because I could see the Horsehead Nebula, which was something I always wanted, so I made a canvas print for my wall.  These shots range anywhere from 20secs, to maybe 5 mins of exposure time on a star stracker.

  This brings me to this final image of Orion.  I had seen some amazing images online and thought to myself "I bet I can do that".  So I set out to show how the Horsehead Nebula and the Orion Nebula are all connected in one giant gas/dust cloud.

This image is nearly 7 hours of exposure time over about 5 nights of shooting.  The camera is mounted on a 40lb mount that tracks the stars perfectly.  Although this is shot through just a 135mm camera lens, the lens is mounted on a specialized and dedicated astrophotography camera which keeps the camera sensor to -10ºC (14ºF) no matter the outside temperature. (see image below)

This sort of photography can be very rewarding when all is said and done, but does require a lot of patience as you go out night after night and shoot the same image over and over, but like I said it is worth it in the end when it all comes together.  I do have plans to go back and add more image data to the Orion project, I'm thinking I'd like to settle on around 20-30 hrs total time.

I do have one example of an image shot with my telescope, it was a 6 image mosaic that has been stitched together... the total amount of time spent photographing on this image is 33 hrs, and then roughly 10 hrs of editing to complete the project.

I hope you enjoyed these images and learning a little about what goes into making them and where it all began.  If anyone has any more questions regarding any astrophotography feel free to contact me, I'd love to help you out if I can, it's an amazing hobby.  You can reach me through these links:

Instagram  Facebook  Website 

The Beauty of Birds Part 4

This post contains some of my favorite bird photos Jake got over the years. 

A Ring-billed Gull, either taking off or landing. When I look at this picture, I see angel wings. It is one of those times when everything came together to create a perfect shot.

The male Eastern Bluebird is working hard to help keep his family fed.

Was this a lucky shot or skill? I know that Jake had a lot of skill as a photographer, but this was absolutely perfect timing.

A friend of mine had called to say that her blooming Apricot tree was filled with birds. Jake and I went there and were thrilled to find many warblers in that tree. Here is just one of Jake's many shots, this being a Cape May Warbler.

Forgive me, please. I know this is not a bird, but because I'm featuring favourites, this one had to be here. 

Again, not a bird, but probably one of those moments that will stay with me forever. We were hiking at the Pembina Valley, came around a bend in the trail and were greeted with this sight. Bambi was motionless, except that we could see his sides moving just a little as he breathed.

Multiple pictures and a hushed moment to absorb the beauty of this moment and on we went.

Jake had so many interests and observing the stars was definitely one of them. This is a long exposure, showing how the earth rotates.

 

The above photo is a teaser for what will come in the next blog post.

Be sure to check back in a few days.

To God be the Glory!

The Beauty of Birds Part 3

We now move into the digital world. You will notice the drastic improvement in the quality of the photos. Still all were taken by Jake, during the last few years of his life.

I know that this was actually taken at our local sewage lagoon. This may not be where most people go to watch birds, but it can be a very good spot to see a variety of birds.

I love the 'tracks' this female Mallard is leaving on the water.

The next two pictures are actually the same shot.This one is as it was captured. The Willet, and there is only one, the other is a perfect reflection, looks like it is about to fly out of the photo.

This was captured at the Kaleida marshes.

Steve took the picture to his computer and with some good editing skills, this is the end result a spectacular photo. This was the picture used on the bulletin at Jake's funeral.

i think I would be safe in saying that this was captured at St. Vital Park. The light is just perfect on this Wood Duck.

A majestic Bald Eagle flying over the Pembina Valley. We spent many hours there and enjoyed every one of them. Many memories were made during these times.

I know this is a Warbler. Jake has tagged it as a Tennessee Warbler, but I am not sure about that.If someone has a positive ID, I would welcome that.

 Stay tuned for Part 4

To God be the Glory!

The Beauty of Birds Part 2

Here is part 2 of the Beauty of Birds, with photos by Jake.

Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to find a Hummingbird nest while on a field trip with the school bus. While the children were taking part in a track and field event, I wandered around in the park and quite by accident found this tiny nest.

Later I took Jake back there and he had the joy of capturing this picture.The birds are the two young ones.

I don't know the story behind this shot, but I do know that Jake had a way of talking to the birds and they then allowed him to get fairly close, as was the case with this Mourning Dove.

This picture, I remember like it was yesterday. We had become aware that a Pileated Woodpecker was in this certain bush area, so we would often go walking there in hopes of seeing it. One day while out walking and on our way back to our car, I quietly called for Jake to stop. This is what we saw. He got this picture and we were both thrilled to have seen this bird.

The Pileated are more common now, but back then they were not often seen around here.

Once again, I have no idea where or when this was taken, but the beauty remains the same. The Wood Duck is always a treat to see.

This looks like one of the nest boxes built by Jake and hung along a fence line not far from where we lived. The Mountain Bluebird is so beautiful , even if it only sports one color.

Blue Jays are all around and some folks don't like them, but I happen to think they are beautiful.

The quality of this picture is not great, but you must remember that all of these were captured with slide film and later digitized .

 Keep watching for part 3.

To God be the glory!

The Beauty of Birds Part 1

I am continuing on with photos taken by Jake, oh so many years ago.

He loved birds and spent many hours trying to get that perfect picture.

If my guess is right and please correct me if I'm wrong, this is an Eastern Screech Owl. He found this one sitting in an old building on our yard.

The Tree Swallows are fun to try to capture. This one is posing well for Jake.

Not all Snowy Owls cooperate to have their picture taken, but this one did.

We used to have Mountain Bluebirds around. They may still be around southern Manitoba, but I have not seen one in years.

Waiting at a nest box will yield some good pictures of the eastern Bluebird. I'm pretty sure this was taken using a remote control on the camera, so Jake could remain further away from the nest. Lunch is being served.

 Be watching for at least three more posts on bird photos captured by Jake.

To God be the Glory!

Good Memories

I will continue on with sharing photos taken by Jake. I have two reasons for doing this, one--I have so many of his pictures and I think they deserve to be seen, the other is that we are in a dull time as far as photography goes. At least it is that for me, since I am not going out much right now. Hopefully that will soon change.

Bear with me as we look at a few more aircraft. That really was a passion of his. He even took flight school and then quit after doing one solo flight. Part of the reason for quitting was that each flight would cost more money and being we had just started our family and I was off work, money was in short supply.

The Canadian Snowbirds put on a great display and we have seen them multiple times at various airshows.

Like I said we went to many airshows in Manitoba, some in North Dakota and even once to Abbotsford, British Columbia.

This is a C-5 Galaxy, a massive plane.

Here we have a C-130 doing a JATO(Jet Assisted Take Off) Burn. That is spectacular and when those jets light up, the plane just pulls out of there in a big hurry.

I wish I could remember where all these were taken, but this is a Vulcan Bomber. Another rather impressive aircraft.

I apologize for the quality of this shot, but seeing the USAF Thunderbirds is always a thrill.

Here they are flying F-4 Phantoms.

 A little known fact. We got married on a Friday evening and on that Saturday , we spent the day at an airshow. I enjoyed these shows as much as Jake did, so that was not a problem to me.