Supermoon on November 14, 2016

I was waiting by Dow's Lake last night hoping to photograph the supermoon - the brightest one since January 26, 1948!  

Daily life in Colorado - Part 2

Images since the last post.

Scenery

Mount Crested Butte

Holiday season update #2 from Peterborough

Hope everyone had a spectacular Christmas day.  This is another photographic update from the past few days.  I was busy cooking a turkey (for the first time) yesterday so I didn't get any chance to sort through yesterday's photos.

December 22nd (Sunday) - I shoveled snow in the driveway and was exhausted in the end to walk to school just for using internet.  I took the dog out for few short walks and that was about it.

Kami the cat.

Quick update in February

Sorry for not posting in a while, but life has been relatively uneventful in February. Since returning from BC, I had been working hard in pinning my pollinators, identifying the Diptera flies, wasps, and other insects that ended up in the pan traps to family levels, and starting from Monday (February 20) to March 2, I will be attending a pollinator identification course in Ottawa (hosted by NSERC-CANPOLIN) that hopefully will allow me to identify my pollinators (bees and Syrphid flies) to species level. This information will be vital in my research project in terms of figuring out what the pollinator abundance and diversity are at each site along an altitudinal gradient, and how it affects the Soapberry fruit production and fruit set along the same gradient.

In addition, I cannot believe how quick this semester has gone by. With a blink of an eye, we are now halfway (6 weeks) into the semester and in about three more months, I will return back to Inuvik and getting ready for field work again!

Photography-wise, it has been a slow month. But here are what I have taken so far.

Feb 2 - There was a transformer leak (or something like that) that caused my apartment building and the nearby campus to be without power for the majority of the day and night. Since our entrance key is using an electronic swipe card, we had no choice except to call security when we want back into the apartment.

While waiting in the dark and freezing evening, I set my Nikon P&S on the garbage bins and took some night shots.

Moody.

False alarm

When I was woken up the emergency fire alarm early in the morning and realize there was a power outage, the first thought that went into my mind was the world was coming to an end (ahead by 357 days).


I snapped a photo of the dark and yet beautiful starry night in case that was true. Unfortunately, it was only a temporary power outage and was restored back to order shortly.

I don't think I have yet gotten a good night sleep since coming back to BC (especially with our terrible, noisy, and rude neighbors upstairs).

Yaletown Night Light

Yesterday evening was our office holiday dinner/party at a restaurant in Yaletown. It was a strange choice of having it on a Friday because I was exhausted from working in the morning. Nevertheless, the food was delicious and I had a good time.

There was some free time between getting off work and attending the dinner, so I wondered around the waterfront in Yaletown and took some night photos. I didn't bring my tripod, so I stabilized my camera on whatever steady surface I could find.

Decrease the aperature (i.e. increasing the f number) to get the light rays I was hoping for.

Basset Hound, Building, Ice, Ramen and Lights in Vancouver

Here are some photos taken during my lunch break and after work.

Junior waiting for its master to come out of the coffee shop and howling every few seconds or so.

November first and second combined - old friend, food, art, car, life

This post won't be as organized as the previous ones since I don't really have time after work to organize and edit the photos that I like and upload them individually and immediately. I just uploaded photos from my camera, did a quick organization (by date), and picked out the ones I like from each day and put them together in a collage.

This first collage is from the first day of the month when my co-worker/friend from Ontario came to Vancouver and we met up after my work had finished and he drove around the city, first to see Vancouver from Kitslano and then trying to find a good (and inexpensive) teriyaki restaurant. It was a good night - good to see an old buddy, finally met his lady friend, and hear about their journeys for the past month. I really hope I will get a chance to visit him in Pemberton after this work season has finished.

On Tuesday, I walked around the city searching for food and good photo spots. I came across Nelson Park and heard many birds singing, including a few Cedar Waxwings bathing and drinking from a man-made pool. It is a nice park that I visited it again today (photos to come in other times). Then I had a quick burger at Triple O's and then saw the awesome "I AM EH" Car. Definitely one of the most unique cars I have ever seen. The car has a very deep message behind it too - check out this post for a video and some of the messages in an handout by the side of the car (I took one too but haven't got a chance to fully read and appreciate it yet).

Disappointing weekend...

Ah! I didn't go out as much as I promised (and hoped) this weekend. Bummer! Well, yesterday was the office dinner party in Kitslano but it was cloudy and so I just arrived at the restaurant on time. The party itself was great - good food, good people, good atmosphere. It's going to be a sad farewell again when my work concludes.

I took this night shot as I left the party near midnight and crossed the Burrard bridge and to Downtown (for transit). I got home near 2:00-am...a bit drunk, and probably reek of holiday cheers.

The snow finally arrived today - just like the same time last year!! But the timing was terrible because I was looking forward to visit my long-time-no-see friends in Downtown today, but had cancel it. So I stayed home getting some more sleep and continued working on my scientific report (yep, still writing/editing).

That's all I did this weekend. Hope next week is better....

365 days ago (2008-12-13) ...
364 days ago (2008-12-14) ...
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Nighttime Taipei Botanical Garden (TBG)

After leaving work and walking through the botanical garden in the evening, I decided to take some pictures of Taipei Botanical Garden (TBG) in the nighttime using long exposures (~8 seconds).

I didn't have a tripod with me, so I just put the camera on my bag and timed the shutter before properly positioning the camera. Pretty impressive results, I must say.

Look forward to more experimentations with the night photography from now on since I am leaving work later and later....Sigh.

PS - I wonder where I can find some rocks to flip over tomorrow at work...
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Hiking up the Tianmu "Ancient" Trail

I don't like having such a long holiday because the natural places in Taipei City that I know of and can go to are quite limited. Nevertheless, I discovered another excellent place to visit just near where I live. It's a 2.8-km trail to the mountains in northern Taipei. At the end of the trail, there are other places to visit and trails to continue. Due to time limitation, I only hiked up the short trail, and with me being a shutter bug, a relatively short hike turned out to be more than five hours journey.

The entrance to the Tian-Mu Trail, and the tropical views along the trail. Plus, you can almost see the entire urban Taipei right below you.

One of the fascinating creatures that I encountered was this stick insect! So beautiful and well-camouflaged.

Thanks to some help, its scientific name is Phraortes illepidus.

There are plenty of crevices between the rocks and boulders that they provided excellent hiding places for this Indian Forest Skink.

Such a neat find of this Sphenomorphus indicus.

An unidentified insect that I am still working on. The only thing I know is that it belongs in the Family Pentatomidae. [Edit: I think this is a Dalader formosanus.]

Hiking up the stairs with humans was this puny Blister Beetle (Epicauta hirticornis). I picked it up with a leaf and put it where it won't get stepped on.

A japalura catching a nice fat meal of some sort of a larvae. Yum.

One of the animals that I hoped to encounter but didn't was the Formosan Macaque. Maybe next time.

Some of the prettiest sights along the trail were these beautiful Lepidopterans.

Clear Sailer (Neptis nata lutatia)

Neope muirheadi nagasawae

Nyctemera adversata

One of the side trails off the main trail leads to this 4-m tall waterfall named Chui-Fong Waterfall. Not too impressive but it makes a beautiful photographic moment, especially being surrounded by a serene tropical forest.

In the evening, a couple of friends (from the Botanical Garden) and I went out for dinner together. Afterwards, we headed to Danshui to enjoy the busy night market and the views across the river.

And before you know it, another day has passed.. Time sure goes fast when you are having fun.
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