Last weekend I went to a bird sanctuary in Ladner B.C. called "The Rifle Bird Sanctuary". I went there with my friend A and his girlfriend J. It was a good opportunity to try out the new 200mm lens. I didn't really see any unusual birds, so I was a little disappointed in that respect, but there were a lot of interesting ducks, mostly the common mallard.





The mallards were all very accustomed to the presence of humans, and they were following us around hoping for food. I brought a bag of raw sunflower seeds with me, and they really enjoyed them. J. also had some mixed bird food that she was feeding them. You can purchase a little bag of bird food at the entrance for fifty cents.







I think one of the most difficult birds to photograph is the swallow. I love watching them fly--they are extremely acrobatic--and they're very sleek and pretty. I tried and tried to focus on one and after about half an hour trying I finally managed to get this one in mid flight. She came within about 20 feet of the lens, but she was zipping by at about 50 miles per hour.







Having a memory like a goldfish, A. forgot to bring film for the trip and had only one roll, which he quickly used up. I let him use my G2 digital camera for the rest of the day:



Here he is with J.:



One of the funniest things about this place is that there is a little shed you can go into with slots in the wall through which you can watch the birds without disturbing them. "What's so funny about that?!" you might be asking yourself. Well in that shed, there is also a bucket with fish food in it, and you can feed the carp down below. It's great because they come right up out of the water to eat when you feed them. I got this photo of one of them asking for more:



The thing that really made my day though, was that I finally got close enough to a Red-winged Blackbird to take some nice photos. I love the Red-winged Black bird. I guess I love all birds, but the Red-winged is one of my favorites. When I was a little kid, I lived right beside a big marsh area and there were lots of them there. They make a beautiful sound.







Isn't he pretty?





This little one was pretty too:



I don't know my birds well enough yet to identify this one, so anyone with information, please feel free to email me and let me know.



And what would a bird sanctuary be without pigeons? Hee hee! Yes, they were plentiful.



Here's another pretty mallard and some unusual ducks of which I'm not familiar. Again anyone who can identify them, I'd love to hear from you:

















So that's about all from the Rifle Bird Sanctuary. I'd like to go back again, perhaps later in the evening or early in the morning. I was hoping to see some owls.

In other news, our weather here has changed from summer-like to chilly again. I'm sure it will improve soon, it just feels a little wrong after all the good weather we've been spoilt with. Here's a shot of the north shore mountains from north west Burnaby:



I just realized, those of you who are using dial-up connections, it'll probably take you about a week to download this page of my journal. Sorry about your luck.

My back has been killing me lately. Today I almost took the day off because of it. It's making me cranky at work too. If it's not better tomorrow I'm probably go to my physiotherapist. I don't really want to miss any work though, so I'll try to stick it out. Silly me, I know.

Bye for now, and thanks for looking at my journal. I really appreciate everyone who comes here.

I was at the top of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver last Monday and I brought my new Canon 200mm lens with me. It's really awesome up there. If it's not cloudy, the view is great.

Ah the weather has been great! It's Easter weekend and I get monday off so that'll give me lots of time to relax and catch up on some things.

Today I'm heading down town Vancouver to do some photography. I might check out some garage sales on the way.

Know what today is?

Yes, that's right, it was one year ago today that I launched "Life as Mark Sees it" on the WWW! So much has happened over the past year since April 6th 2003.

Last year at this time I was still going to physiotherapy two or three days a week for my knees, and I had been away from work since July 2002. I wasn't sure that I would ever return to that job, as it is very physical, but later that year, I did return. Now I'm strong again, and my knees seem to be holding out ok.

During the time I had off, I did a lot of photography, learned more about life (there's always room for learning) and established some good contacts in the same field, who help and be helped.

I went to a LOT of coffee shops in Vancouver.

I was so sad when I had to return to work. Everyone knows I should be doing something else with my time, but I also know that my time will come and my ship will come in. But enough about that.

Here's a copy of the first entry I made in "Life as Mark Sees it" from April 6th, 2003...:

Hi. Welcome to my new Blog.

Last year about this time, I created a Blog site called "Life after Work". At that time I had two jobs and not a lot of spare time, so I was finding it difficult to keep up with the updates. I kinda had to let it go, even though I really enjoyed it.

Things are much different now. I have more time on my hands and I don't have the second job anymore, so I really want to put some effort into this one.

I think the thing that rekindled my interest was a website I found last night while I was looking for information on how to us a Canon G2 for infrared photography. It's this person 8pril. She has a website in which she talks about her day to day life in her journal and she posts photos of interesting things she encounters with her digital camera.

Sure, there's nothing new about that, many people have on-line journals and post images. But I realized that I should be doing this!. I was doing it to a certain extent last year, but since I had only a film camera, it wasn't very feasible. I had to process my photos and then scan them into the computer, further alter and touch them up with photoshop and then upload them to post to the blog. Well now I have a nice Canon G2 digital camera and so I can really get out there and have fun without having to worry about film costs and processing.

I think I have to find an image hosting company first though before I can post a lot of photos. I'll have to do some research and find a good one. Lately I've been using MSN communities to host my images (mostly for my auctions on Ebay) but MSN limits you to only 3 megs of space. That's not nearly enough for me.

Ok, enough of my chatting for now, I'm gonna work on developing this site.

See ya Later,
-Mark :: Mark 6:00 PM [+] ::
...


In case you're wondering what ever happened to "Life after Work", I eventually deleted it. It was really scattered and without much of a premise. It wasn't what I wanted. It was quite a while later that I decided to start this one. This one just seemed to fall into place, and it feels right to me. I like this; showing everyone who wants to see, life the way I see it.

And that reminds me, I love it when people are interested enough to visit my site often! Especially those whom I care about and are involved in my life. It makes me feel great when I can make someone happy or make their day go better at work, just because of a photo or something I've posted here.

Since last year, about 2947 people have visited "Life as Mark Sees it". I know that's not a lot--I mean, people aren't stopping me on the street and saying "Hey! You're that, that GUY....from...from that, THING--Yeah!" But it's cool that this many people have come and visited. Thanks people! (And especially you, my lovely J.S. in Ontario).

Well, I have to go. It's my Dad's birthday tomorrow and I have to send him a greeting card. My mum's birthday is soon too, so my sister is throwing them a birthday bash this weekend.

Gnite!

What a cool fish!

I went to Granville Island today with my friend J.S. (the photojournalist guy, not the lovely J.S. from Ontario) and while we were walking around, I spotted this great wooden fish on a stick. He has metal scales and glass eyes. It makes me want to build one! Whoever made this one had a great idea.

Good news, my Medium Format Mamiya C-330 sold on Ebay today, and now I've secured the 200mm f2.8L series lens that I've been wanting over at Dunne and Rundle Photosource! Yay!! That lens is amazing and I really look forward to using it! In the mean time, I've put my lighting kit up for auction on Ebay as well. That should cover the rest of the cost of the lens.

The switch back from Daylight Saving time really messed me up this morning! It just feels so wrong. I wish we could just stay at one time all the time. I got up late and I was late meeting J.S. this morning at the coffee shop. Tomorrow's going to feel especially strange, because I'll be getting up at 4:30 am instead of 5:30 am.

Ok I'm off to bed now. G'nite!