I went out early, despite the dull sky and unpromising outlook. Five minutes beyond "city limits" (go ahead, laugh), there was a Golden Eagle atop a power pole.
I stopped. It flew. Sometimes they fly toward me but usually they don't, and so I shot two frames of its butt end receding, and figured I had missed it. But... no.
It circled over the nearby field, and only then did I spot the second eagle. And they rose up together in what was probably a courtship display, although it looks like a confrontation. I've witnessed this before. I've seen them lock talons in mid-air, just like Bald Eagles do on the west coast.
I think the female is the larger bird on the right. She wasn't having any of it, maybe because they were too low to lock talons and do their aerial dance, or maybe she had a headache. At any rate, her response was a definitive "No!" But they flew away in tandem, so I believe there is hope; after all, it is eagle mating season.
A great start to the day, for me if not for the male eagle. Later there were pronghorn, bison, prairie dogs, other eagles, and two species of hawk, but nothing as exciting as this. There will be more from this sequence when I find time to get to the processing - but I'm kinda jammed up this week with some maintenance work on my house and pulling together photos for a magazine article scheduled for the summer, deadline mid-April. When spring arrives following a long winter, everything happens at once...
Re. the square formatting, it is my least favourite crop for wildlife shots, but the only one that worked for this shot.
Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos wildlife bird raptor eagles two male female courtship spring white sky morning mating season wild prairie action square Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2025
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I held one shot out from my recent "Green" series, because St. Patrick's Day was coming - so here it is, the day and the shot. Happy St. Patrick's Day to my Irish friends!
This isn't a shamrock, but it's the best I can do from my photo file. Vanilla Leaf is known for its aromatic properties, especially when dried. It is found in coastal British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and into northern California.
Photographically, one of the first tricks I learned as a teenager with a 35mm camera was "Expose for the highlights; let the shadows go dark." I still use this device regularly when dealing with contrasty subjects that are beyond the dynamic range of my camera's sensor. Dark shadows are almost always preferable to blown highlights. Here, I was in the forest on a sunny day, so there were lots of dark shadows to use as backgrounds.
Photographed in Cowichan River Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, BC (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2006 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: Vanilla Leaf Achlys triphylla plant green macro close up black background dramatic beauty forest mountains wild nature Cowichan River Provincial Park Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2006
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As I've mentioned before, I spend a lot of time in ditches. The ice in this one was thin, so I couldn't walk on it - I had to lean precariously over the ice from the margin and use live view rather than my viewfinder to frame my shots, while taking care not to fall in or wreck my back.
Sometimes the idea of how to crop comes after the fact, but in this case I knew immediately it had to be square. The frozen bubbles, framed diagonally; the horizontal fracture line across the top. Square felt right. I like its formal dimensions. I find it too static for most wildlife shots but just right for some other subjects and situations.
And that golden light seemingly originating beneath the ice. Just remember The Merchant Of Venice: "All that glisters is not gold." (Today we generally substitute the modern word "glitter", but in Shakespeare's day "glister" was a synonym.) Anyway, cold, not gold.
The usual setup here: macro lens, tripod, cable release, because my camera's shutter is not electronic, but rather, mechanical, with moving parts that create vibration. Locking up the mirror helps. Soon only dinosaurs will still be using DSLRs.
I love shooting spring ice; it's always a good exercise in imaginative seeing.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice bubbles frozen thin ditch macro close up late winter almost spring square details beauty light wild prairie Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2025 naturesquare
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Our unpredictable March weather continues. Two days ago daytime temperatures reached 17°C (that's 62.6°F); right now, with the first faint glow of dawn on the horizon, it's -13°C (8.6°F). "All the snow has turned to water," sang the late, great John Prine, and it has. But we are still in the melt-refreeze cycle, and that can produce interesting special effects wherever ice forms overnight.
A year ago, I spent 45 minutes at the edge of a wheat field where standing water had gathered in a shallow depression and turned to ice. Some of the resulting images look three dimensional, but despite the apparent curvature in this one, the surface was flat. It isn't even wide angle distortion, as I shot it with a 105mm and teleconverter. So strange.
I'm out of here. Have to catch that early light!
Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice puddle seasonal melt-refreeze cycle flat illusion not curved abstract pattern ice crystals wild prairie roadside Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2024
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I miss photographing birds in urban parks, where they are habituated to people. The experience might not be as "pure" - and in that sense rewarding - as shooting truly wild birds and mammals, but being able to get close, like this, sure does reveal the details.
I learned my lesson yesterday, when I reposted a shot by simply changing the upload date. It is now near the front of my photostream, but hardly anyone saw it because it doesn't appear in the activity feed. This, too, is a repost, but a fresh upload. The original was cropped square and I was never happy with that. The vertical crop helped emphasize the natural lines of the swan's neck and head. Upscaling in ON1 Resize replaced the lost pixels.
Photographed at Esquimalt Lagoon, Colwood, Vancouver Island, BC (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2010 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: Trumpeter Swan Cygnus buccinator wildlife bird waterfowl swan vertical beautiful wild nature coast coastal Esquimalt Lagoon Colwood Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2010
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