Hol Chan

 Hol Chan, Mayan for “little channel,” covers 19km2 of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forest near San Pedro. Established during the 1990s during a time of increasing tourism and declining fishing industry, the area covers 4 zones which have differing biomes and permitted activities.

Generations of fisherman cleaning their gear while returning to port has created an unexpected gathering place of sharks and stingrays, known locally as Shark Ray Alley, where local tour guides feed the animals as tourists watch from nearby.

Hol Chan Cut is open to the sea beyond the reef, enabling marine creatures to travel between the interior and exterior of the reef. This concentrates wildlife with 160 species of fish, 40 types of coral, and 3 species of sea turtle in addition to numerous rays, lobsters, eels, and anenomes.

Mexico Rock

The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300km section of the 900km long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest coral reef system in the world, which Charles Darwin described as “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies” in 1842. With only 10% of the reef properly researched, it is already a recorded home to 100 species of coral and 500 species of fish and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996.

Mexico Rocks is a shallow complex of some 100 clustered patch reefs along a limestone ridge. Popular with both snorkelers and SCUBA divers it was recommended for preservation in 1978 and officially recognized in 2015.

Belize was the first country in the world to completely ban bottom trawling in 2010 and in 2015 banned offshore drilling within 1k of the reef. Despite these measures it suffers the same risks as all reefs and an estimated 40% has already been damaged by human impact.

In addition to environmental damage, much of the reef is also suffering from invasive Lionfish. With a voracious appetite, venomous spines, and no natural predators, these fish are taking a significant toll on local species. Fortunately the people of Belize are actively taking steps to curtail their numbers with bounties for local fisherman and eager offers to take tourists spear fishing with civeche for dinner.

Crooked Tree

66 square kilometres of lagoons, creeks, log wood swamps, and pine savanna were set aside in 1998, providing sanctuary to some 300 bird species which call the area home. Crooked Tree Village was settled in 1750, one of the earliest inland European settlements in the country, in the search of numerous different natural dyes produced by plants in the log wood forest. Today a small Creole population of 600 still call the area home, supplementing tourist income with fishing and cattle ranching.

The only sensible way to see diverse wildlife in a wetland is by boat. Fortunately the hotel we stayed at was very active with bird watching by boat and we booked a morning excursion. Despite a brief setback with some persistent early rain we had a great time peering for raptors and herons amidst the greenery.

Snail kites, their incredibly curved bills specialized specifically for eating apple snails, were a constant presence overhead, though their dark colour and the muted skies made for challenges getting a nice exposure.

Crooked Tree is also famous for its wading birds, such as this Green Heron (...shown below not wading...) and there were numerous egrets and other species of heron in the area. Crooked Tree is famous for its Jabiru storks, the largest waders in the Americas, but we were unlucky in spotting any.

The only downside was that, once we were off the boat, there was little to do in the area making our stay a brief one overall as the regional trails were too wet to enjoy a hike, and the Morelet's Crocodiles we had seen on the outing were small but still took the wind out of a more spontaneous trek around.

Droning on about perspective

DJI have been making increasingly impressive consumer drones for years, and I have been promising myself one ever since I finished my degree a few years back. I finally got one this spring with the announcement of the Mavic Mini, which weighs a ridiculous 249g including the battery and memory card. Once unfolded and configured, this little drone can fly for up to 30 minutes and easily reach the legal Canadian recreational airspace ceiling of 100m (the app automatically caps altitude, so its easy to safely stay within the limit).

While this little marvel can shoot video and race around at ludicrous speeds, my primary interest in getting one has been to expand the possible results of stereographic photography.

For those of you that aren't as nerdy on the terminology as me, stereographic photography is the end result of shooting 360° panoramas and then re-projecting the image to make a "little planet." I've been shooting these for nearly a decade and think they are really cool, but find that sometimes they over-emphasize the immediate foreground to the detriment of the horizon.

This is entirely understandable since my camera is usually 5.5 feet up and, therefore, there is quite a bit of immediate ground in that perspective. The image below is from the Langdale Ferry Terminal and was shot with my usual fisheye technique.

In contrast, the image below was shot in the exact same spot but from the Mavic Mini at a height of around 80 meters. Not only are the beach and tide line a much smaller proportion of the overall composition, but you can see the islands behind the ferry and terminal as well as the mountains beyond the trees.

DJI has done an incredible job of making a powerful and compact flying camera that I can carry with me on any trip. As an added bonus, its an ideal hobby to take up during times of physical distancing as you're not permitted to fly within 30m horizontally of other people, or over crowds at all, so it's a great excuse to get away from everyone around you. You're also required to keep the aircraft in line of sight at all times, so having a hawk-eyed wife/spotter is highly recommended when you need to focus on getting all your shots right.

On Top of Mount Solmar

 Part of the view from our resort in Cabo San Lucas was a rocky peak in Land's End called Mount Santos. One evening as we were watching whales and frigatebirds at sunset, I noticed a small group of people standing at the top of the hill. From that moment I became set on climbing to the top and getting a full panoramic view of the whole end of the peninsula.

 The trailhead is accessible beside a dog obedience school and the owner Enrique leads the ascent himself twice a day along with a pack of puppers to help show the way. We had no problem with the trail but there are certainly parts where we were scrambling a bit, so I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. The path in the photo below is quite simple and near the start, but it does get trickier.

There had been some sort of unspecified problem a few months earlier so the gate to the hike is now locked except during the two guided jaunts daily. We would have liked to do it a little before the worst of the sun set in, but the only times available were 9:30 and 3:30. While we were concerned by the size of the group at the start, probably around 50 people, it thinned out significantly on the walk itself.

 The view from the top was totally worth it, as I hope the spherical panorama below can adequately convey. Kathryn was able to spot a number of humpback whales from the peak and the view of the harbor and city was spectacular.

We were also slow walking in order to try and take pictures without as many people in them and the downside to that was that the path was not super-well marked and a little easy to lose track of on the return. That was our fault for dawdling though, not a problem with the are.

Corcovado

 It occurs that we have been covering Costa Rican people and animals pretty well, but haven't been giving enough attention to the landscapes and scenery which were also so stunning. To rectify that, here is a selection of photos which showcase what an incredible park Corcovado is. The picture below was taken beside a stream where we stopped to have lunch during our all-day hike in the area and hopefully helps show what a slice of paradise the whole area is.

 I have struggled for years to take compelling photographs of forests. The locations themselves are always amazing, but my pictures have previously never come away with anything that helps capture the scope or majesty of an area. While I still have much to learn, and large steps yet to take, I do find that a fisheye lens really helps capture the scale of these places, as it does below looking through the foliage and out onto the beach.

 Going over the top with fisheyes of course, the logical conclusion is another little planet, which you can click to enlarge if you like. This was our morning hike from where our driver dropped us off along several kilometers of unoccupied beach to the park gates. Mario was very keen on getting us there early, so the only others on that path at that time of day were a donkey and his driver doing a luggage delivery from one of the lodges in the park.

Aboard the Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary served as an ocean liner from the 30s to the late 60s as everything from a luxury liner to a WW2 troop transport until its retirement as a tourist attraction/hotel in Long Beach. Kathryn and I initially weren't too keen on what we thought would be a kitchy tribute to excess, but changed our minds and thoroughly enjoyed our time onboard.

 We had free roam of most of the ship (which ones again, is a great place to bring a wide angle lens) and also took a behind-the-scenes ghost tour. I continue to not believe in ghosts, but our guide had excellent delivery and knew his stuff. It was also a great opportunity to peer around some creepy bits of the ship like the old pool and where the boilers used to be. (Part of the contract to keep the ship in Long Beach involved a guarantee to remove any transportation functionality, so the enormous furnaces that once powered it were removed).

 Its been awhile since I shared a fisheye planet with everyone, and I was particularly pleased with the way this one from the front of the ship turned out. Having lots of wires running overhead forced a particularly interesting perspective to avoid cutting anything out and I very much enjoy the binary feel the final image has.

 

As a quirky aside for this picture, near the bottom left there is a large white dome (click on the image to enlarge, as always) which once housed Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose"

Cathedral Grove

For shame. This has been lying in my post queue way to long. Sorry big, beautiful 600 year old trees. Yes, one of those guys was alive and well when Christopher Columbus was sailing across the ocean blue. That one below I believe.  This is Cathedral Grove which the highway from Nanaimo to Port Alberni and the Pacific Rim splits in half.  Its very accessible on both sides of the road.  It makes it crowded but what can you do.

There are only a few stands of these enourmous old growth trees left in British Columbia.  Most are not protected. These were logged once upon a time as many stumps still bear the marks of spring boards.  We are lucky that so many in this area were spared.  It is important to know that logging continues right next to these protected areas.  The surveyors are very good and preservering sightlines from highways.  Sometime walk off the number 1 highway west of Banff (don't get lost). Very quickly you will likely find yourself in either a block surveyed for cutting or the junk left behind.  All those little roads with the radio numbers are logging roads.

Its very intimidating to look up and find yourself unable to really make out the topds of the trees.  I think it would be cool to be a bird or a squirrel and be able to go from the forest floor to the canopy in seconds.  Oh that gives me a GoPro idea. I wander if I can attach one to a bow and arrow... Stand by for that!

Happy Canada Day to You All

 Canada Day has come once again and while Kathryn was spending a sizeable day out whale watching, I took a chance to brave the crowds and take some pictures of the locals celebrating our great nation in all its weird and wonderful ways. Like these two chaps below, happily posing for pictures with passersby and generally being weird looking but absurdly patriotic at the same time.

 There are always street performers of many kinds with musicians, skateboarders, buskers and mascots among them. This year I chose this photo of a person dressed as an inukshuk to highlight the weirdness and neat costumes that fill the streets on July 1st. A worthy second place goes to the women wearing dresses made of cans that were arranged like drums and were encouraging passersby to play their drum dresses.

 

I always like to wander through the area around the old Olympic Torch by the convention centre on Canada Day since it gives you a neat perspective above the crowds. I have infact posted panoramas from this very spot in years past, but not with my weird little planet tweaks, so here's a new look on an old favorite to round out the day.

Snowshoe Peak

Behold the glorious peak of Mount Hollyburn and the vista that is Vancouver...... Yes.     Apparently on a clear day you can see Mt. Baker.  Could not have climbed that without snowshoes. I was told the best way to descend with snowshoes is just running downhill. I prefer sliding.

More Who Trees.  Nice and bowed over with snow.  Those are tree tops. The snow is so deep and packed that we were walking around the tops of trees. It doesn't look that way but there was at least 10 feet of snow beneath us.

And it wouldn't be an outing without a spherical panorama. I love the vista at the top of the photo. It gives a new perspective. This is taken just below the peak of Hollyburn Mountain. To get here you have to go into the back country about one kilometre. This was taken near where the snowshoer fell of a cliff but we are careful and we did not go much past this point. In the back country caution always wins.

Scuba at Warbonnet

One day during the August long weekend Geordie and I did our first Vancouver Island Scuba Trip.  To be specific, a fairly North Vancouver Island trip.  We got up early in the chilly and foggy August morning to drive to Port McNeill.  We joined 2 snorkelers and our 2 dive buddies at Fun Sun Divers. The skies cleared half way through our 2nd dive.
I'm still a nervous diver but I think that is partly due to so many layers that I get constricted and lose mobility so I end up fighting myself.  Also with all the layers I need more weights than I can comfortably carry to begin with.  Layers are necessary as I get cold easily. The 2nd dive I got rid of some layers keeping just regular clothes and my 200g weight mountain gear and had a much better, more relaxed and longer dive despite the same amount of weight.  I need more dive experience to get the balance right as well as more comfortable being so far down (only 47 feet max depth but still....)

The picture below is at Warbonnet which was a great spot full of basket sea stars, fish and chitons that look like oily rainbows. 

Camping the Cove

For the first time, we camped in Telegraph Cove.  Rubes that we are, instead of using the tent camp ground that was about 1 kilometre or so in the interior (ie: in the mud), I was able to get us a spot in the RV camp.  We promptly lowered the property values as we were the only tiny tent in a lot full of swish RVs that belonged to either early retirees or rich familes.  A fact that was not lost on the gently mocking inhabitants who were in fact quite nice and gave some huge fillets of Pinks salmon!  And the cutest little boy/girl was having a blast blowing bubbles.

The below vessel is the Gikumi, named for a Native Chief.  It is an oft photographed boat and is featured in many a photo book of the West Coast and/or Vancouver Island.  Really. Pick up the nearest one and check. The building in the back is Stubb's Island Whale Watching (recommended) and the Whale Interpretive Centre (also recommended).

The building mentioned above, the WIC, is the one on the right side of the photo just where the big bunch of trees end.  This is a spherical plan taken from a dock that is almost in the middle of the cove.  Historical Telegraph Cove is at the top Modern Telegraph Cove is at the bottom.  Very differently styled sections. The result of two different developers.

Butchart Gardens

Butchart gardens is pretty pricey for a bunch of plants. Never the less we went.  We were there in the late afternoon and stayed for fireworks.  I got to ride on this little bronze statue named Annabelle sculpted by Nathan Scott.

This is the sunken garden.  On the top right you can see some people. It is this old bit of limestone left behind when the whole place was a quarry. You can climb up it and look over the plants and trees.  We were there over the September long weekend so the summer plants were still blooming nicely.

As always, Geordie has his fish-eye and took another planet panorama.  I think this is in the Japanese garden.  It is a very nice bushy sphere.  The path running throw it is a nice divider and gives it some pleasing symme'tree'.

As always you can click on the little planet panorama above to enlarge it.

Someone Dropped a Bear Bomb!

Timelapses are fun. Especially when you stick one at the top of a mountain and a bear photobombs it! We put this one up at the Peak of Grouse Mountain hidden at the very top a bit to the side of the chair lift.  And we left it.....for a week. The very fun result is below.  Let us know if there are places in Vancouver that you think might make for a neat time lapse. Only criteria is that it needs to be locked to something preferably in a place where its not going to be messed with. In this case it was locked to some old rebar.

As is always the case with embedding, you may need to right click and watch it directly on Vimeo if you get playback issues here. 
This is the locale where we put it. I just realized I was in this photo!  This one turned out quite well. Geordie is getting very good at spotting places that would make for a good all round panorama. Well not panorama but whatever you would call that.  360 view I guess. Or planets. I like planet views.

Just in case you missed it here is our bear bomb. Looks like an older yearling. There are some grasses with seeds near the camera which may have attracted it.  There are some birds you can see if you stop the video fast enough.  I would love to get more animals in timelapses like this. I hear rumours of a beaver in Lost Lagoon but can't find a place to put the camera that is not high traffic. May risk it anyway......

Harrison Hot Springs

On the Canada Day long weekend Geordie and I escaped rainy cold Vancouver to go to rainy cold Harrison Hot Springs. The 'Source' is below where the steam is coming out of that neat building. The pond in the foreground is a mix of lake water and spring water and had the temperature of a warm bath but you would not want to swim in it. The cold temperatures made the steam rising out of the bubbling up spring very thick.

With all the rain BC has been getting the area had some flooding problems. One was a breach in this dike. There also was not much beach left, only 1-2 metres. It was closed to pedestrians. Geordie and I drove into those lower mountains for some nice hiking in the rain though we made it back to the car just before it got really torrential.

More planet fun. On the right is the lagoon that is in the above picture. In the centre a breakwater path of sorts and to the right of that what little sandy beach remained. To the left beyond the grassy park expanse is the town of Harrison Hot Springs. The cabins in which we stayed are at the bottom. It was pretty much that slate grey overcast the whole time we were there.

Fisheye Planets of the West Coast

 Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.

Geordie is getting very adept at both stitching together these planetoid photos and finding places that make for an interesting end product. I really enjoy the one below of the Sooke Potholes with the trees bursting out at either end.

 I like how you see different things in the image too. This one is at Whiffen Spit park just outside of Sooke. These images have all been processed in a different way than the ones posted earlier and have more proper perspective without crushing buildings/trees on the horizon or making people look squat.

 We hiked to check out the Seal Petroglyph near East Sooke. This is where it is situated. If you enlarge the picture maybe you can spot the seal picture and another figure. I like how all the trees are at one end and the open ocean at the other.

Galaplanets

  Note: Clicking on any of the pictures below will enlarge them.

As you may or may not remember, I got a fisheye lens recently with the specific intent of creating little planet-style panoramas such as the three you can see below. These ones were shot in a different and slightly inferior manner in that they took dozens of smaller pictures to make rather than 7 or so fisheye pictures, and as such there is a lot more distortion in the ground and less sky. Still, they are neat representations of that wonderful and alien landscape.

 Above is the beach at Genovesa island, the last place we visited before returning to the mainland. You can see a frigatebird passing by in the sky and feel the heat coming off the sand. In the lower left there were people swimming with sea lions and the air around us was filled with the calls of nesting birds.

 Above is the top of a lookout near Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz where we had our first excursion. In the right side you can see Kathryn and Jean (our tour leader) scouring the distance for sings of cuckoos or other rare birds. We were at the end of our group and walking along the path that snakes in from the left and exits to the right.

And finally we have a visit to Sombrero Chino, a recent volcanic arrival there was barely any plant life beyond a few settler cacti and some hearty plants. To the lower right you can see the bay where we watched penguins swimming, and at the very bottom you can see the white dot of our boat waiting patiently in the bay for us while to the left the peak of the island raises up.

Fisheye Fun

 Just taking a one-post break from our recent holidays to share a new Christmas toy with any other photography folks out there. Kathryn was incredibly sweet and got me a fisheye lens for xmas, so here's a few test pictures from the very first day. The #1 reason anyone wants a fisheye lens is for photos that make your pets have really big eyes and noses, so here's a quick portrait of Kodiak, taken from about 1 inch away.

 The other neat feature with fisheye lenses is the fact that they can see and capture 180 degrees  and allow for some fun perspectives. This photo of a bridge in Stanley Park was taken from nearly underneath, but because of the warped and extreme perspective you can see the sky above it and the ground below it. This wouldn't work for every situation, but I think its a neat one here and in a handful of other situations.

The primary reason I wanted a fisheye was for taking spherical panoramas. I have tried doing these with my regular lenses, but they required 60+ photos to fit in all the perspective and were invariably distorted in the end and a pain in the ass to stitch together. With the wide angle of the fisheye I was able to capture the picture below with only 8 pictures and with time can probably learn to trim that down to less. This panorama is from the beach at English Bay infront of our apartment and you can click it to see a larger version.