Capt Mondo's Blog

I took the dog out for a walk yesterday and brought along some bird seed with me, intending to take it to a spot near the lake where I know the chickadees tend to congregate, and hoping to get a shot or two of them. I went via the jogging path that runs alongside Ashbridges Bay, and remembered that there was a small, homemade bird feeder that somebody put a a couple of years ago in a small copse of trees. I went over there to see if there was any seed, and found that there was none. So I put in a handful of seed and within seconds a flock of black-capped chickadees were excitedly chirping and diving to the feeder to grab a beakful.

Black-capped Chickadee

This started to attract other birds, seeing what the sudden commotion was about. A pair of nuthatches came to take a look, and also started darting to the feeder for seed.

White–breasted Nuthatch

Then a female Downy Woodpecker appeared, and started looking for hidden insects in the bark of an adjacent tree.

Female Downy Woodpecker

But the best was when a male Cardinal flew in for a peek, and picked a branch which was bathed in sunlight, resulting in this picture:

Male Cardinal

Will have to head back there with more seed sometime soon, since these guys seemed hungry.

Today is the last day that pennies are to be used for any sort of financial transaction, so for my Picture of the Day I emptied our penny jar and took some pics as a tribute. This jumble ended up being my favourite:

Pennies

It contains a nice shinny example of a 2012 penny just above center, along with a couple of older pennies, going back to nice example from 1962, and you can also see a few US pennies peeking out from under the pile.

I took my youngest daughter Annie to FrostCon, which was a small largely Anime-themed one-day event that was happening at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Small, a bit crowded at times and the presentations were a little bit haphazard, but everybody clearly had fun while there. I was also by a decade (maybe two?) the oldest person I saw there.

Came away with some fun shots though.

First, my two daughters:

FrostCon: Fionna and Cake (Annie and Dawn)

FrostCon: Vanessa as The TARDIS

Other people Cosplaying at FrostCon:

FrostCon: Creeper Who Wants a Hug

FrostCon: Hailey as Hogarth from The Iron Giant

FrostCon: Doctor Whooves and Derpy (Keikoandgilly and BaldDumboRat)

FrostCon: Someone Playing Marshall Lee from Adventure Time

FrostCon: Vickybunnyangel Cosplay

FrostCon: Woman Playing a Character from Spiderman Cast of Characters

FrostCon: Woman on Panel Cosplaying as Discord from My Little Pony

FrostCon: Steampunk Girl

Full Moon (Shot Using “Bigma” 500mm Lens)

For once we had clear skies, and when I looked outside a full moon was directly overhead. Grabbed my “Bigma” lens (a 500mm Sigma with a four/thirds mount) and went outside. I played around with aperture settings and with focus, and out of about 40+ shots this was the one that was the most crisp. Some contrast added using PhotoShop Lightroom in order to bring out more detail.

The following was shot using by “Bigma” lens set to about 450mm, as this pair of swan maybe 10 meters from the shoreline (and keeping a wary eye on my dog, who was along for the walk down by the beach).

A Pair of Overwintering Mute Swans

Shot with my 200mm lens about an hour before the sun came up:

Crescent Moon Before Sunrise

A couple of Dark-eyed Juncos have joined a local flock of sparrows, and they sometimes venture onto our deck when I put out some birdseed for them. Today was a rare day when there was some sun, making for an opportunity for some good bird photos.

What I find interesting are the touches of brown amidst their overall dusky colour, which comes out best in the final close-up photo.

Junco on a Branch

Junco Eating a Seed

Junco Close-up

I was lucky to just catch the front runners (and eventual winners) of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon as they can through the Beaches.

The light was overcast and so the images aren’t as sharp as I would like, but am happy with the following shots I managed to take, which are shown here in the order I took them:

Hillary Chenonge, 10th Place Winner

Ben Fish, 17th Place Winner

Front Runners Heading East Along Queen Street 1

Kenneth (Kiplimo) Kimutai, 2nd Place Winner

Siraj Gena, 5th Place Winner

I put in a request to the Toronto Fire Department for permission to take pictures from the top of the local Firehall’s tower adjacent to Queen and Woodbine in order to take panoramic shots of the local area. This is for a future story in the BTRA newsletter that compares the modern view against that of a panoramic set of shots taken from the Firehall tower shortly after it was built in 1905.

Here are a couple of panoramic views showing the view east from the tower looking towards downtown via Queen Street East:

East Panorama from The Beaches Firehall Tower 1

East Panorama from The Beaches Firehall Tower 2

Compare these to the view from the same vantage point from over a hundred years ago, from a panorama I stitched together taken from shots taken in the tower circa 1905 that were in the Toronto Municipal Archives. You can see the old Woodbine Racetrack, and muddier-looking Queen Street stretching off into a much smaller downtown Toronto core.

East and South Panorama from Beaches Firehall Tower circa 1905

I also took some panoramic shots directly to the south, east and north. Here’s a panoramic shot looking southward:

South Panorama from The Beaches Firehall Tower

Looking westward:

West Panorama from The Beaches Firehall Tower

And looking Northward:

North Panorama from The Beaches Firehall Tower

Unfortunately all of these shots suffer from too many darn trees in the way to properly see the houses and buildings properly. Will have to see if I can request to go up the tower again sometime after the leaves are off of the trees.

I was shown around by local Fireman Mr. Lalonde, who is also an amateur historian who has done a lot of research on the background of the Beaches Firehall. Here he is pointing out some old signatures on the old wooden box that once protected the original clock’s escapement mechanism, with signatures (primarily) of the fireman who worked at the station dating back to the 1910s:

Mr. Lalonde Pointing at Some of the Old Fireman’s Signatures

Firehall Signatures 1

Firehall Signatures 2 (from the 1910s and Later)

One of the more poignant ones was of the fireman who were here at the firehall on 9/11:

Firehall Signatures 3: Firemen Present at the Beaches Firehall on 9/11

Shot with my 200mm fast lens early this morning from the back deck of our house:

Venus and Moon in Morning Sky