Autumn in Jackson Park - Take 2

I wasn't overly satisfied with the photos that I took on Monday because the leaves were not bright enough!  I went back to Jackson Park today hoping to see a more expressive forest, and I was right.

Combined with the sunlight, the leaves produced a blend of beautiful colors worthy of being photographed.

Torch of tree.

Bald Eagle watching & first experience with OM lens

Today I headed to Finn Slough first thing in the afternoon to meet up with a fellow birder, who is kindly giving me his lens adapter for adapting old Olympus film OM lens to 4/3 digital bodies, as well as lending me his Zuiko OM 50mm f1.4 lens to try it out.

Before I got to Finn Slough, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on top of the telephone pole just above me. From experience, I know they tend to be very shy and almost always fly away before I can take out my camera. So I biked past it and took photos from about 100-m away. Not the best photo but good enough to finally show that there are Red-tailed Hawks around in the area.

Busy day, little done & Raynox 250 test photos

This is what I did today:

4:15 am - Went to the airport with my father (where he works and when his shifts begin).
4:30 am - Drove the car back and headed back to bed.
9:15 am - Woke up.
9:45 am - Went to the airport to pick up an acquaintance from Taiwan who received a working visa and will be looking for work here.
10:45 am - Acquaintance arrived and drove her to Burnaby where she found housing.
12:00 pm - Drove back to Richmond and had lunch at Richmond Public Market and bought groceries there.
2:00 pm - Arrived back home and dead tired.

My acquaintance brought me my new photography toy - Raynox Microscopic Lens DCR-250. An addition that I have been looking for quite a while to improve my macro photography.

It's not exactly a lens, but an addition in front of the lens that magnifies the image captured. To my best of knowledge.

No Franklin. And no lens cap.

It was a sunny Sunday and I headed out to Steveston again to try and see if I can find the Franklin's Gull again.

On my way to Steveston, I stopped at the dock to see if I can spot some eagles.

Then I heard an eagle calling, and so I quickly took out my new lens, opened the lens cap, accidentally dropped it on the ground, and watched it rolled through the cracks onto the platform below.

And there it lays on its new home now. Gosh darn it!!! These squeeze lens caps are always a nightmare of mine, it's so easy to fell off that this is just waiting to happen.

New lens (70-300) & testing it out at Yaletown and UBC

Today, I completed a deal with a seller on craiglist and got a birding-lens for my Olympus E-620, the Zuiko Digital ED 70-300 f4.0-5.6. It's a dream come true, because it can reach 600mm so I can take much closer photos now. It's a much bigger, heavier, and beautiful than I thought but it's definitely going to make my photos better.

The seller is at Yaletown so I met him there this morning. Before he arrived, I took some photos of the people and dogs walking by.

This was the cutest dog.

Another of its own.

After the deal, I couldn't wait to put it on and try it out by walking along the Granville Seawalk! Even though it is not a macro lens, it takes pretty good close-up photos of flowers too.