Tag Archives: winnipeg nature photography

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” John Keats

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Lilies have long been referred to in literature for their beauty as I found out when I looked for quotes about lilies. Here are a couple”

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin.” Matthew VI 28.

The rose is the flower and handmaiden of love – the lily, her fair associate, is the emblem of beauty and purity. Dorothea Dix

I love lilies and every summer my front yard is in full blossom with their beauty and colours. My neighbour joined me in planting lilies and many other flowers, so our front yards are a colourful site  to see. Here are some of the flowers from my yard, including a few lilies.

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A Little Taste of Summer! (Winnipeg Photographers)

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Winnipeg has been brown and grey with dull skies lately. I find the dullness kills my spirit and I needed to see some colour and some beauty in nature.

The Conservatory was a perfect place to go for a cure. Being a lover of lilies, I was thrilled to see all the lilies and smell their fragrant aromas. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see some colour.

Here are some of my favorites:

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New Landscape/Travel Website! (Winnipeg Photographers)

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I’ve been very busy lately working on websites. First my own; http://www.chrismcwilliamsphotography.com and then my landscape site http://www.21photo.ca and the camera club one (that one isn’t ready to go yet.)

Today, I am launching my new landscape/travel site: www.21photo.ca.

Have a look. I think it looks pretty awesome.

I’m toying with the idea of switching my main site to ww.21photo.ca. What do you think? It is a shorter and more catchy name. I wonder though how much work it would be and how efficient it would be to send people who go http://www.chrismcwilliamsphotography.com to a new website. I know I can have a forwarding page.

Your comments on my new site and also about the idea of changing my whole site to 21photo would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Here’s a screen shot of the new site.

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A Piece of Lily Heaven! (Winnipeg Nature Photography)

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There’s a small piece of lily heaven happening right now in my front yard. I have 8 different colours and kind of lilies blooming and they’re putting on quite a show. I’ve been going out every day to photograph them and in the last 4 days I’ve found a new type of lily has opened up each day. This show has been a couple of years in the making because the red lily beetle has eaten my lilies to the ground in the last 2 years. This year I lost a couple of white ones to rabbits, but aside from that, my piece of lily heaven is glorious!

Here are a few of the stars of the show! Let me know if you have a favorite.
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In My Own Backyard (Winnipeg Photographers)

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Sometimes we think we have to go somewhere to take great photos, and although I love going places to take pictures, I decided to see what I could find in my own yard, and I have to say, I was really surprised.

I love spider webs and have quite a few of them but the one shown below, which by a rusting plant bracket really struck me. My climbing rose is in bloom and with the sun’s directional light it looked really pretty.  Then, I have a family of rabbits living under my deck and one of the larger ones was out for his evening meal. Fortunately, he was eating grass and not my lilies! The biggest surprise was in my bird bath, where I found some seeds had blown in and a few had sprouted.

Why not challenge yourself to see what you can find in your yard? I bet you would be surprised as well!

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Nature’s Magical Icicle Show (Winnipeg Nature Photography

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I hate this weather as much as anyone but did you know there is a magical icicle show in the snow banks right on your street?

I found all of these on Headmaster near Gateway yesterday. If you haven’t noticed them, take a look. They remind me of the cenotes in Mexico. Of course these are much smaller but there is something magical about them.

Having said that, I hope they don’t last long.  I am also posting the weather for this day for anyone who doesn’t live here and doesn’t realize how cold it is. It’s March 17th and is still as cold as the dead of winter!

If you haven’t noticed the icicles, get out and take a look. Take your camera along with you too!

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RCMP Musical Ride, Matlock and Fireworks!!! (Winnipeg photographers)

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I had a ton of fun on Sunday shooting with some people from The Manitoba Camera Club. I like to shoot by myself sometimes, but it’s a lot of fun to compare shots with other photographers. If you are anyone you know is interested in photography, join us at the club (www.manitobacameraclub.ca. )

We started out in West St. Paul and photographed the RCMP Musical Ride. It was the first time I had seen this show and it was very impressive and made for some great shots with the red coats  that the Mounties were wearing, the totally brown horses with white hooves. I played with shutter speed for some shots which gave the pictures a neat look.

 

 

The next stop was to at Boston Pizza in Selkirk, followed by the pier in Matlock, just in time for some beautiful colours in the sky.

We drove out to Gimli and took a few pictures of the marina there but nothing really struck me.

We then made our way back to West St. Paul just in time for the fireworks. I didn’t have my tripod with me (I hadn’t planned to be shooting fireworks), and had no time to set up, so I tried hand holding my camera using an ISO of 6400 and an f-stop of 4. Shutter speed was  around 1/20 of a second.  I had seen an article on some ideas of different things to do while shooting fireworks and had wanted to try zooming in and out with my lens while the shutter was open. It was very hit of miss, but I like this one. What do you think?

 

 

By zooming in and out you get the effect of the light dragging and get the lines. I like :0).