Holidays and absences [3]

You went back to Disneyland to catch the Matterhorn ride.

halfwise wrote:You went back to Disneyland to catch the Matterhorn ride.

If you look closely you can see the Yeti animatronic and me screaming!

A little bit late as have been caught up on too much stuff recently, but here is a selection of photos from my most recent trip.

I think at least one person might have guessed the general area I had been in, but for the rest it was a few weeks in western Canada. The high level route was Vancouver -> Vancouver Island -> Whistler -> Jasper -> Banff.

I am going to get in to video mode when I get the chance so will share that when I get it done!

Canada is 90% wilderness, with Vancouver a very stylish entry point. Spent a night sleeping in the park outside the Vancouver bus station (long story) but that's all I've seen of Vancouver in person; I need to get back and explore it properly.

I just noticed that the picture above is just that... only 1 picture. It was supposed to be a whole Flickr album (well... about 10 pics).

Or is everyone else able to see them all?

{{ Blimey, life of an international spy!
I'm seeing 17 pictures Lance. }}

I didn't even notice the arrow! I have to assume you were using a very high quality telephoto lens, otherwise most people don't survive getting so close to a bear cub. I'm amazed you saw so many bears in what seems to be broad daylight rather than dusk or dawn.

Ahh, it is working. Might be because I dont have much screen estate on my phone... I can't get the arrow to appear!

The grizzly was probably about 40 feet away, the big black bear probably closer. But I have a 150-600mm lens that I took for a first spin on this trip.

The cub we saw in the evening. There were 2 with their mum and the 2 spent most of their time up a tree after being scared off by another bear

fantastic photos Lance !!! absolutely lovely !! Being a goofy animal lover Im fond of those best You are building such great memories for your quieter years, Be proud, Im sure your friends and family are That eagle on its nest ! And the bears !!

I hope I dont have any quieter years! Doing long haul now so quieter just means closer to home!

{{ Truly there are some cracking photos there Lance, love the eagle in flight in particular, that's a tricky one to get. Did you do much post editing? }}

I always do a bit of editing on photos because there isn't often enough time to change the camera settings when things turn up (especially wildlife) and you can fix that afterwards if shooting in raw.

The bear cub, for instance, I went from shooting it's mum on a dark hill to that on a light gravelly road so it came out way over exposed.

The Vancouver shot too, brought out some of the colours that we could see at the time but either some was over exposed (like the bright white sign in the middle) and some under because you can't balance it all up.

{{ When you are editing what tool do you use to adjust contrast and brightness, if you are not using it already I would recommend using the Curve tool instead (in GIMP its under the colors tab) its super versatile, it gives you a graph where you can make adjustments at any point along it- this lets you easily do stuff like alter the exposure in the dark areas, whilst adjusting the light areas to compensate without being overblown, and you can fine-tune to your hearts content. }}

I'm still surprised you got within 40 feet of a bear, several times. The place must have been crawling with them.

When I say "quieter years" Lance, I was being polite for when your as old as an old fogey like me, You know, a few centuries give or take a year or three,  And youve got grandchildren with sticky mitts

the little ones always do have sticky hands, don't they? It's a healthy sign they're properly getting into all kinds of things. A 4-year-old who's always nice and clean won't amount to much.

so true Halfy, a good dose of dirt never killed anyone ..... ( tho me with a spade might )

halfwise wrote:I'm still surprised you got within 40 feet of a bear, several times.  The place must have been crawling with them.

Quite a lot of black bears. Only saw 1 grizzly.

One of those bears is not like the others!

Standard line months agter going away... finally finished my holiday video! Editing takes so long.

Wowzer that's a long one. Will come back to watch it over a meal.

{{ I got to Whistler before I had to go to work, part 2 when I wake up.
And yup Lance editing is very time-consuming. What are you using to edit in, is it just a built-in editor on your phone or are you doing it on a pc with something like Premiere or Da VInci?
Like the drone work, a drone is on my wishlist, next to a new buckie cellar. }}

I use PowerDirector to edit. There would be far too much stuff there to store and manage in a phone.

I love my drone but annoyingly most of the national parks in Canada have a drone ban that comes with a hefty fine. So not as much footage as I would have liked.

A drone ban in national parks is understandable due to noise. Need some kind of magnetic levitation.

Hope everyone is keeping well? I'm doing pretty well all things considered. No huge changes in my life, rather busy at work (I'm one of those weird people who actually enoys working the Nightshift) and still going strong with my girlfriend (can't believe it will be 7 years together in january where does the time go? )... I still haven't watched Rings of Power

I've been lurking from the sidlines for too long, hopefully I'll find the time to stop by more often...