“Land Critters and Water Bling"

I should be ashamed of myself for taking so long too post. Well not really, the weather has been a bit, well, under the weather! Not fit for kayaking enjoyably. So you hide out on land and make the best of it. MAybe take shots (photos) of land critters. There is this very nice lady in Torbay NL that raises Newfoundland Ponies. Small things they are. Very beautiful really. She allows me to visit and shoot them and even chums the land for me to get some “hilly” compositions with sunsets. Here are a few. Land bling of sorts I guess.

The thing I like most when I visit her farm is when I open the gate and the animals all come running to greet me like I was a long lost friend. I usually visit two or three times a year. Not sure they remember me but they always get treats from their owner when I do. I don’t like to bring anything because I believe she feeds them a certain diet. Not sure. I’m bringing apples next time. I think I’ll do that this weekend.

The ponies have distinct personalities as some are quite shy, certainly the black one is and others are timid while another just plain curious. Her brother Bruce Moss, a folk singer turned gospel singer wants to use one in a video. Photo that is. I said no problem especially after I listened to his song about the sinking of the Ocean Ranger called “The LAst Good Bye”. He also wrote and sang the popular Newfoundland song “The Islander”. Some think it was Shannyganook that wrote it but not so. If you like folk check out the songs on YouTube.

This was a popular shot in our photo club Camera35 and have had quite a bit of interest in it so I thought I would share it. I called it “Newfoundland Buds” as they are both Newfoundland ponies and unbeknownst to me when I got home Judy said that her daughter’s favourite pony was the Blonde haired one and she calls him ‘Buddy’ as fate would have it I guess.

Well that’s all warm and fuzzy I suppose but you know,  I am anxious to get back out on the water for some semblance of a paddle. The boys are going tomorrow so hoping I’ll be able to get my act together by then. 

The snow covered land and freezing water forming icicles  makes for some great shooting from the seat of a kayak kind of like adding ‘bling' to nice land or seascapes. You know that extra little bit to juice up the photo. 

I took this one yesterday at lunch time. It is 9 frames HDR’d,  black and whited it, then put in some selective coloring of The Battery houses. This is their original colors just masked them in and did some split toning. But every time I look at the spar buoy in the foreground it reminds me that I should be on the water paddling by it or even touching it rather than shooting it from land.

So now I must prepare for a bit of a winter paddle and maybe post some real kayaking news by the weekend.