Owner: My Only Photo URL:http://myonlyphoto.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:31:36 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Nature photography blog dedicated to birding, animals, travel, and night photography like moons, eclipses, meteor showers. All articles are based on personal experience and some adventures. Site statistics:Click here
My Blog's Door is Always Open Even When I'm Gone 2008-04-09 11:39:44 There are times that we reach how much we can do in our life. Well, I reached mine for now. With all the unexpected family emergencies and deadlines (a must), what would you choose, a family or blogging. Theoretically I would choose blogging, lol, however, in reality family is always first. So here I am taking a short break only from blogging to continue with other commitments. What does it mean, oh, not much just probably you will not see me at your blogs, and not sure if I will be able to comment back on your always appreciated comments, and never know may be I will recover in a week, but I cannot promise anything for now. I finished my blog visiting rounds this week, I think, however, if I did miss any of you, when I am back I will try to read as many posts as possible on your blog. So
House Sparrow A Bird That Is Always Around 2008-04-03 12:46:07 It was Livingsword from the Life On The Blade blog that recently asked me - what is your favorite bird? I thought I will broadcast this one out. In reality I like all the birds. Last year I started my birdwatching adventures and you can obviously guess that I have many bird posts included in this blog, and including my blog icon - juvenile barn swallow. I had many thoughts to change my icon, but I really like that baby barn swallow photo - it was a blessing to be at the right place, right time - the soccer field, lol. And did you ever wonder who is really behind that icon too, lol.After all, bird watching or birding is a real fun! I say we, my husband and me, last year started the birding adventure in the spring. We hiked and decided to focus more on birds, and study them in more detail. T Read more:House
The Elegant Starling 2008-03-26 22:09:19 The last and the most popular birds during last fall were starlings. They like to hang out in big groups, and it is quite fascinating to watch them pecking on the grass and keeping busy. Well birds come and go, and as the winter now passed, I cannot believe how many birds have arrived here. Even though we are still having lot of snow on the ground, the birds already started to sing early in the morning. Yes, we almost don't have to use the clock buzzer to wake us up. The red-wing black birds already are hanging on the sides of the road, and the Canada Geese are flying over our heads. Sometimes we think they are going back South. I wonder if any of them are confused because of all the snow still on the ground.On the side note interesting note about Canada Geese. Once Canada Geese arrive her Read more:Elegant
Happy Easter 2008 2008-03-21 20:51:17 For those who celebrate Easter
- Happy
Easter, and for those who do not, lets celebrate beauty of the spring.“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.”- by Rainer Maria Rilke Read more:Happy Easter
Junco Used to Visit my Backyard 2008-03-17 18:07:54 Since I put out my bird feeder last summer 2007, I had many visitors, junco (above), chickadees, house sparrows, morning doves, red wind black birds, woodpeckers, grackles, gold finches and not to mention black and grey squirrel (this one was the wild one), cats (including wild cats) oh and I almost forgot a skunk when I was photographing the lunar eclipse in August 2007. However, I think this cold and snowy winter scare many of them away, or they found place much warmer and more abundant in food, like local supermarkets. So far only the morning doves survived, if you recall the one sitting on top of our BBQ during Christmas. So I am feeling sad, however, I know they all will be back soon as it will be warmer. The other day I was so desperate that I took JJ's idea and spread seeds on the s
A Dancing Flamingo 2008-03-09 22:02:28 While we got snowed in last night or I should say overnight, I thought I will continue with spring or summer like spirit posts. Just to give you an update, we have officially close to 1.5 of snow piles around the house resulted from cleaning our driveway alone (single car driveway that includes a sidewalk) - last night alone we had 30-50 cm of snow fall. It looks like winter wonderland, and I tell you I am hoping that some of my small bushes will survive, because I cannot see them at all. Well what I have today for you is a flamingo photo taken at Toronto Zoo in 2004. As the title states this was one interesting character flamingo - he/she was dancing. I think I took a video, but I cannot find it. However, I remember for some reason this flamingo was going in a circle. Never know may be th Read more:Dancing
, Flamingo
Forget Me Not 2008-03-02 22:34:29 Tonight I had few ideas for posting on my blog as I was going through my last summer adventure photo gallery. Then I ended up scrapping them all when I came across one of my favorite flowers that kind connected to many things. Sometimes I find my self thinking, my posting frequency these few months has declined due to few things, where some of them is the winter and the cold that comes along, then work and other things that prevented me from exploring winter wonderland - so yes please do not forget me, lol. Secondly, for those who are awaiting spring and living through a long winter - its coming. No sign here yet, but I think we are getting rain tonight that will fall on pile of snow front of our house. Forget-me-not is not the first flower in the spring, however, soon as it starts bloomin
Last Lunar Eclipse Before 2010 2008-02-22 22:14:29 I am sure everyone by now has covered the Lunar
Eclipse on February 20, 2008, so guess what life moves on and everyone forgets or may be some do, lol. Therefore, I thought I wait couple of days, and post my results to remind you again, and let you know that next one on December 20, 2010 - cold one again. BTW, the 2010 year feels like science fiction year.Full Moon, Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Feb 20, 2008, 06:18 PM EST However, here are my adventure with the moon on February 20, 2008. To start, I was killing myself for not bring my camera with me when driving home from work. The moon on the horizon was beautiful, especially being against the light blue sky. By the time I got home, it was high up in the sky, but guess what, I was able to take some full moon photos and partial eclipse from my b
Moon Photo Come Back 2008-02-20 09:41:30 Here in Ontario, Canada we have been granted a Family Day - meaning one Monday off work for the month of February. It was nice, as myself and my husband we were renovating one of the rooms, and we would laugh that we were building a family. Now, going back to blogging, I guess its time for the latest moon photo shot. It's been a while since my last showcase. Well I want to publish at least one photo and now especially before the lunar eclipse on Feb 20, 2008. With my best luck this winter, I am not sure if I will be able to see anything but I am hoping that I will. This winter so far, we had many overcast nights, followed either by rain or snow, and then some cold. Well I hope that Bob from Blackholes and Astrostuff will be able to showcase this lunar eclipse for us, as he got himself nice Read more:Photo
Beautiful and Colorful Rainbow Lorikeets 2008-02-11 14:11:35 Today I thought I get away from talking about winter. But let me get few words in about the winter since last couple of days, its been freezing here at my place, -30 C with windshield - its cold, and I have no idea how some of you do it. I guess clothes make a big difference. However, I have to mention JJ from Nature Shows and Dreams, she has been such a trooper exploring winter wonderland this year that gave some of us an opportunity to stay warm at home, lol, and enjoy viewing winter from our computer window.Let's now back to these beautiful and very colorful exotic birds called Rainbow
Lorikeets. This photo was taken, many times already mentioned, during the trip to Singapore [at Jurong Bird Park] in September 2005 using my compact Kodak 3 mega pixel camera. I have been photographing lo Read more:Beautiful
, Colorful
Crawling House Spiders - Keep or Keep Not 2008-02-04 11:13:58 I am not a big fan of spiders, especially when they are bigger than one centimeter, but below that size I keep them running and climbing around the house. I just keep them to ensure they eat the smaller bugs in the house, which I am not able to see. It makes me feel better a bit. If anyone has objections keeping this little spider in the house, please let me know now, but I think they don't bite, lol. However, I have to mention when I was much younger, may be seven years old, my parents once wanted me to get over the spider fear and gave me a rolled newspaper and told me to kill this giant then spider. I never did, I just stood there and cried, until my parents realized how stubborn I was. I still fear big spiders, but hey I don't care, I just run away, why harm them, lol.What you see, obv Read more:House
, Crawling
Watermark 2008-01-30 14:41:56 May be in few months I will be able to blob more about my slow posting in these past couple months and future months to come. The busy life behind blogging is definitely a factor and okay I have to admit some 'relax and smell the flowers' factor too, lol, but there will be more, stay put - oh and don't worry everything is fine, I am not going anywhere, lol. In the mean time, enjoy my recent photo - this is what I am waiting for - the spring.Also, few of you had questions about adding watermark to your photo, so I am including this information in this post. The benefit of watermarks is that, you took that beautiful image, it is yours, so put your name on it. Okay this is not really benefit, more like a command, but it is true - it is yours. There will be always someone skilled who will take
Winter Wonderland Unexpected Blast 2008-01-20 18:31:44 For those who are enjoying warm weather somewhere in the world all year long, this is how the fourth season winter looks like here in Ontario, Canada. The winter is beautiful, however, it can be dangerous at times. Today we traveled to see family in the morning. Beautiful cold sunny day - and I though it is also a good day to take my moon photos (well, well not for long). While driving we spotted an older man driving a van. He was also steaming on the back of his car, because he was driving on his emergency breaks. So how do you try to wave someone down to let them know that they are on fire. In this case if traffic is moving over 100 km/h, it is not that easy. I think it is probably the best to call the patrolling police. However, the beautiful winter driving does not ends here. On the w Read more:Wonderland
, Unexpected
, Blast
, Winter Wonderland
Melting Glaciers - Athabasca Glaciers 2008-01-13 17:53:55 It was short and sweet trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountains back in July 2006. We planned two day trip to Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada - yes very short, just drive through. Driving along we visited fascinating site Athabasca Glaciers, Columbia Icefields, Alberta, Canada. The view was spectacular, and then once there we have decided to see glacier fields by taking this bus designed to drive on the rocks and snow and up the hills. It felt scary at times, however, the vehicle did handle well on the rough surface. Once we got there, whoever, sold us tickets told us it will be only about 5 degrees C colder, well, well and well, when we got to the fields, including the wind shield factor, it was more like 25 degrees C colder, probably below zero degrees. It was cold. However, we should h
How Do Frogs Handle Winter? 2008-01-07 20:43:38 I was searching through my photos and I came across this frog photo I took last summer in August 2007 (Scanlon Creek Conservation Area). A funny thought came across my mind when I was preparing this photo for the post. It reminded me the Everybody Loves Raymond sitcom episode She's The One, when Robert thinks that he finally found the one, however, what he found was a frog lover, lol.So I had frogs on my blog before, however, I just wanted to come back to talk about what happens to frogs during winter - just to keep the winter theme. Well, we know that frogs to not migrate, just imagine how could they; no fur to grow and no wings to fly South; and believe or not they do not freeze and then thaw, lol. Well, since I made you read a lot in the last post I will make it simple. The frogs prepar Read more:Frogs
, Handle
We Are Family Of The Bearded Dragons 2008-01-02 21:31:25 Another beautiful Christmas Season is over. As you can see I almost forgot how to blog, its been 7 days since my last post. However, nothing like spending time with family. I did my Santa appearance twice, one for my cousin's daughter and one for my godson. Believe or not the one year old godson almost kissed me, and he wasn't scared at all. The 3 year old girl was a bit scared but then she did too warm up to Santa. Unfortunately, I don't have good pictures of my appearance this year. My other godson and my niece, my sister's kids, were sick, so we paid them a visit after Christmas. We were very lucky to have nice no snow weather, as it allowed us to travel from house to house.So what you see on the photos are BeardedDragons
, and no they are not mating. They are just comfortable to enjoy Read more:Family
Farm Windmills to Windmill Farms - Renewable Energy 2008-01-02 21:16:14 It will be almost couple of years since my last trip to Hannover, Germany. Germany was really nice place to visit, clean and also reminded me a bit place when I used to live when I was a kid. Everything looked so clean, nice farm lands and beautiful architecture in places like Munster or Olsenburg, and lot of people on the bikes. Autobahn was fun, in some sections there was no speed limit and since it was still summer time, lot of bikers passed us, at the no speed limit zone of course. The interesting part of the whole trip was how environmentally friendly Germans are and two things being, self cleaning toilets and windmill farms or technically called wind turbines. I will leave self cleaning toilets for another day - I actually took a video of the whole mechanism, lol. However, the fascin Read more:Windmill
, Farms
, Renewable
, Energy
, Renewable Energy
Warming Holiday Mourning Dove 2008-01-02 18:13:44 It was Sunday morning that we found this cute Mourning
Dove sitting on top of our BBQ covered in snow. I went out to take some pictures, and believe or not, the Mourning Dove did not even move, I guess may be the BBQ was still giving off some heat even though it has been a week since we used it, lol. That day all weather networks were calling for winter storm warning, so as the Mourning Dove was warming up to the BBQ, we were able to warm up in our house for a day - as on Sundays we are always on the road to visit our family. Happy Holiday
s!Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Merry Christmas 2007-12-25 10:09:10 KNOWING YOUChristmas
season fills our hearts with joy;Bright, happy days bring special kinds of pleasure.We're wrapped in the excitement of it all,The sights, the sounds, the smells and the tastes we treasure.Yet when we have some quiet time to thinkAbout our finest blessings all year through,We focus on our Friends,And appreciate the gift of knowing you!Best Wishes & Merry
Christmas to You & to Your Family!Poem Source: Christmas Friend's Poem Read more:Merry Christmas
Moon Reflections 2007-12-15 15:26:00 Again the sky did not work in my favor or Bob's favor from Blackholes & Astrostuff. It was overcast to observe the Geminid Meteor Shower on December 13-14, 2007. It was clear next day on the 14th, but I guess I looked up the sky too late. However, I had more time to try something new in my blog post then, enjoy this Full Moon animation (not so full, as it is actually hard to catch the exact Full Moon) taken November 23, 2007 at 7:46 pm over Aurora, Ontario, Canada. Thanks to Kriz Cpec from Kriz Cpec Photo blog, and Roger from Idaho Daily Photo blog for great how to tip - it worked as you can see. Enjoy! Read more:Reflections
Powerful Niagara Falls and Something Useful 2007-12-12 20:18:52 I have visited NiagaraFalls
many times, and once you there and watch it flowing down it is really powerful feeling. The falls gives you sense of power, along with the power it generates, or not.However, the purpose of this post was to give you some photo editing tip. I know that some of you have photo editing software and some of you don't. The idea was sparked by JB's Big World blogger cat, yes a cat, who asked me about adding copyright watermark on the photos. So I went and researched some applications that lets you make edits online. Well I found one that I experimented with a bit, and looks like this may be nice tool some of you may enjoy. This online software features tools like photo editing, special effects and animations. It is easy to use, all you have to do is upload image and e Read more:Useful
Seven Wonders of Me - Last Year Santa Clause 2007-12-10 22:42:28 Just in case you did not read my Story Blob, Share Your Christmas Moments post - last year I decided to dress up as SantaClause
. My Santa costume (on the photo above) is hand made by me, and yes it took a long time, every night of the whole week and one weekend, and I still forgot to make myself a belly. I was sawing like crazy, and on the end all this work was really worth something - we all had a blast. I did special appearance for my two nephews and one niece, and of course I delivered few gifts to my neighbors. Note no snow on Christmas Day last year. Gifts are nice, but I think the feeling of Christmas, the laughter and most of all time with the family is the best gift one can get. Dressing up as Santa is something I really enjoy, and this personal addiction or kind of funny side of Read more:Seven
, Wonders
Bald Eagle - Not Endangered, Not Threatened 2007-12-07 17:25:14 Bald Eagle
s [Haliaeetus leucocephalus] were always and always my favorite birds, and this is way before time before I had my hands on the camera. Never really saw them in real life until few years ago. They are such a beautiful and glorious birds. Unfortunately, most of my photos are taken at various zoo's (Toronto Zoo, African Lion Safari, Jurong Bird Park, San Diego Zoo, Hanover Zoo), and through the mesh. I am lucky that my current 100-400mm Canon lens does not pick up any close to the lens obstructions, like cage mesh or wire fences. Well, there was one another place I saw Bald Eagles, was when we visited Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, but due to bad weather and them being far away I only got quick glimpse of few pairs of eagles. But this gives me a good reason to go back one day.As my ti
Proudest Moment of My Life 2007-12-01 21:00:38 Livingsword from Life on the Blade tagged me with this question: 'What is the Proudest Moment
of My Life'. So it had to be the proudest moment of my life, and not just proud, lol. I read the Livingsword's post, and I said wow, then I moved on to who he was tagged by - the Trinity, and I said wow again, and so on. I picked up some great ideas, but then that would be cheating. The answer seemed very easy at first, however, when I started to think and think some more, and then my crazy imagination kicked in, and now I was sleeping on it, and so on. So the list was getting bigger and bigger. Every moment, little event, big event is just equally proudest or proud moment of my life, and I tell you there were not the proudest moments of my life too. Okay don't you get any ideas on that one, lol.
Spring Full of New Beginnings & The Gold Finch is Enjoying It 2008-05-06 15:53:47 I have not realized that it will take me that long to get back to blogging. Things finally started to normalize, and I can actually sit and rest before bedtime. Tell you the truth, for me it was really nice break from the computer, however, at some point I started to miss my blogging. But sitting front of the computer for eight hours at work, and then at home it was not doing me any justice, I think I started to become a computer geek, a virtual friend (I don't mind that part) - yes the winter was too long, and I was being exhausted of posting ideas too.The spring finally arrived, it is really starting to be beautiful around here. We now have rain, clouds, sun, wind - everything what heart desires after long cold and snowy winter, and yes birds arrived too, as you can see above one of my n Read more:Spring
, Finch
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