2012-01-15 Owls and Eagles

2012-01-15 Owls and Eagles, a set on Flickr.

We were out in Delta, cruising the farm fields and at Boundary Bay… Some beautiful birds!

Nature’s Cleanup Crew

Jambo! More shots from Tanzania…
In the real circle of life, it’s the vultures and marabou storks that act as Nature’s cleaners. They come in and scour the remains of carcasses. It’s not pretty, but it’s an essential part of the "Circle of Life" that doesn’t show up on the Tourist brochures.
The whole series can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonspee … 8824463375

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Nature’s Cleaning Crew by DragonSpeed, on Flickr

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Nature’s Cleaning Crew by DragonSpeed, on Flickr

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Nature’s Cleaning Crew by DragonSpeed, on Flickr

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Nature’s Cleaning Crew by DragonSpeed, on Flickr

Comments and Critiques are always welcome!

Cheers!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Cape Buffalo

Cape Buffalo, a set on Flickr.

A collection of Cape Buffalo pictures from our 2009 Safari in Tanzania with Tropical Trails

East African Birds

East African Birds, a set on Flickr.

Well, 2 1/2 years after we finished our INCREDIBLE Kenya/Tanzania trip, I finally managed to finish editing the BIRDS from the trip (sooo many other animals to still do!) Here they are… 99 of the best bird shots by Mrs D and I. Shot at the time with the Canon 50D and the Rebel XTi. on the 50D I had the 100-400 and on the Rebel XTi we had the 70-200 2.8 with the 2X extender. Our tour company was "Tropical Trails" We had a Fantastic Guide, Jacob Loserian. Ask for him if you book with TT!

Judo – 2011 Canada West Invitational

Judo – 2011 Canada West Invitational, a set on Flickr.

Our Judo club hosted this tournament on December 3rd, 2011. It turns out I got more shots that were decent than I thought. When I walked out, it felt like it had been a BAD day of shooting. I’m pleasantly surprised.

Hong Kong 2011-11-26

Hong Kong 2011-11-26, a set on Flickr.

Our last full day in Hong Kong – spent connecting wth a friend from long ago and with family. The 27th we would be flying home.

Hong Kong 2011-11-25

Hong Kong 2011-11-25, a set on Flickr.

The Day was spent at Hong Kong Disneyland mostly… For a small place, there’s an awful lot of things see and do Hope you enjoy these pictures.  There’s over 100 shots from Disney!

Boundary Bay – 2011-12-08

Boundary Bay – 2011-12-08, a set on Flickr.

Mrs Dragonspeed and I went out yesterday to Boundary Bay to shoot the Snowy Owls. We got lucky… Not only did we see over 17 Snowy Owls, but we also saw Northern Harriers and a Short-Eared Owl hunting. Cloudy weather but good photo ops!

Hong Kong – 2011-11-23

Hong Kong – 2011-11-23, a set on Flickr.

Mrs Dragonspeed needed to get rid of me for a day , so her Uncle #7 offered to show me around. We spent the day around Sai Kung.

We went out to the Kau Sai Chau Golf Course where we got in trouble for wandering around a golf course We went on an 80 minute cruise around some local islands and we had a great seafood dinner. It was a blast!

Hong Kong 2011-11-22

Hong Kong 2011-11-22, a set on Flickr.

A day of contrasts. From the rugged isolation and challenging conditions of the Mountain property of Zheng Sheng Christian School on Lantau Island to the swanky properties of Victoria Peak, overlooking the lights of Central, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay,… I’ll let the photos tell the story….

Hong Kong 2011-11-21

Hong Kong 2011-11-21, a set on Flickr.

We spent the morning with the inlaws around Aberdeen. We had lunch and dropped into a local temple for a look around and then headed down to pick up our 17-55 f/2.8IS that we had dropped in to Canon a few days ago. it was ready to pick up. Not like Canon Canada that seems to delight in taking weeks to get things back! Wow… nice speed Canon HK!

From Canon, it was a short hop over to the star ferry pier in Kowloon to shoot the lights of central after sunset. What a lovely city! That’s gotta take a lot of coal to keep those lights burning though.

After a long day walking, it was good to get home.

Hong Kong 2011-11-20

Hong Kong 2011-11-20, a set on Flickr.

Today we went over to Cheung Chau for the Chu family dinner.

Had the opportunity to shoot a bit of the life and action on Cheung Chau, from the Chu family temple, to a kiteboarder to a Heron fishing off the swimming marker. It made for a great day trip out.

Hong Kong 2011-11-19

Hong Kong 2011-11-19, a set on Flickr.

We went out to the Mai Po protected Wetlands. It was a 3 hour guided tour with 25 people in the group. There were some amazing birds. It would have been nice to be alone and have a better chance of seeing some of them a lot closer. The visit was good though, and the cost was worthwhile. It was a long way from downtown to get there. I’m glad that Maggie and Francis live nearby!

Hong Kong 2011-11-18

Hong Kong 2011-11-18, a set on Flickr.

A sampling of photos from day 8 in Hong Kong. We had lunch buffet at the Marriott hotel. we visited the Hong Kong Park and its aviary. We went to Langham Place and then out to stay at Maggie and Francis’ place since Saturday would be an early morning to go to Mai Po.

Hong Kong 2011-11-17

Hong Kong 2011-11-17, a set on Flickr.

A Crazy Day that had us all over Mong Kok, Sham Tsui Po, Aberdeen and up to Flying Goose Mountain!

3 days in Guangzhou

Hong Kong 2011-11-14-16, a set on Flickr.

Sorry – fell behind while we were in China. We spent Monday-Wed in Guangzhou/Huadu. I had a chance to show Mrs Dragonspeed the office that I helped get setup when I visited 5 years ago. We also got to visit with our niece and nephew. A fun, but somewhat dusty and smoggy visit. Enjoy the photos

November 12 – Day 2

Today’s photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonspeed/sets/72157628114496110/

We woke up at a reasonable 0730 and got showered and ready to go.  Shortly after that we got a phone call that Allen and Carmen would be coming by to pick us up to help us do our running around!  Yeah!  Easier than zipping around on transit.

They came by at 1000, which gave me time to get some photos uploaded and make sure our gear was all ready to go.  We headed down to Tsim Tsa Tsui to take our problem 17-55 lens to the Canon repair shop.  Nice to have the repair depot in your town!  It costs $100HKD to get an estimate and then it will be about 10 days to fix.  Sweet.  We also headed down the the canon showcase room where they had all the canon products on display and you could check them out… from the 1DS MkIV to the 600F/4… SWEET.

While we were in the repair depot, Allen was kind enough to head to the bus station.  He picked up our bus tickets to get us to Huadu on Monday.  Everyone is so helpful!

We met up with Color and Raymond and stopped at a small restaurant serving Shanghai style food.  We had some dumplings and some chow mein before we headed out to Yuen Long.

Yuen Long is on the edge of Shenzen Bay, in the New Territories.  There are a few canals and quite a bit of marshland.  It attracts many different egrets and shorebirds as well as ducks. 

Black winged Stilt

Egret (Greater?)

Grey Heron

You know that if it’s going to attract birds that it also definitely attracted bird photographers.  Wow.. the 600mm and 500mm lenses.  Yikes.

We wandered around the area for a while and took some shots of the birds and the landscape.  We stopped in at a little restaurant and had a drink.  They had fish hanging to sun dry… resulting in a couple of cool photos.  The area was very interesting.

Muk Muk and Duck Duck in Yuen Long

Apparently we were VERY close to Maggie and Francis’ place, so after some crazy driving around we found their home.  All 6 of us just popped in!  They were great hosts and had their photo album from their Nepal trek. I’d like to do something like that for our Africa pics one day…  Mrs D. had developed a headache, so slept for about 2 hours while we all chatted.  It came time to wake Mrs D up though, and head out for dinner.

For dinner, we all went out to some place called 流浮山 Lau Fau Shan.  I have no idea of it’s actual English name.  The area is apparently a crazy busy wholesale fish market in the early mornings and there are a few restaurants serving excellent seafood.  We were there for the seafood.  We had Lai Liu Ha (self peeing shrimp)  – they are like little lobsters!  Huge, with delicious meat.

 

Also on the menu were big Scallops and a Garoupa that turned into a couple of dishes.  All in all very tasty.  Unfortunately Mrs D’s headache had stayed with her so she crawled out to the car to rest.  We all wrapped up dinner and headed home.

View over Shenzen Bay from Lau Fau Shan

It was an interesting day of visiting and exploring.  The headache put a damper on it a bit though.  Hopefully  Mrs D will feel better on Sunday.

See you all later!

Back in Hong Kong again! November 11 – Day 1

The fun started when we checked in and went through security at YVR.  The dumb IMS scanner hit “positive” for explosive residue on Mrs D’s hands!  She had to go through the security grope and all her carry-on had to be hand examined.  At least we then got to go through the “Fast-Track” lane We were to take off from Vancouver at 13:35 but due to anticipated strong headwinds and a full plane, we had to take on an additional 10 tonnes of fuel.  This delay meant that we didn’t actually take off until almost 1400.  Due to the strong headwinds, we also were delayed further and all this meant over 14 hours on a plane. In and of itself this would make a flight long, but it also seemed that they wanted to keep the temperature pretty warm.  So, we sat in a plane for 14 hours, warm, and in close contact.  I watched “The Deathly Hallows II, Cars 2, Captain America, and a fourth movie that I can’t remember.  Thankfully the movies were pretty good because I just COULDN’T sleep.  A total of one hour sleep later, we arrived in Hong Kong.  It seemed that our bags were the LAST to get off the plane… It took forever to get them.

Once we got our bags and cleared immigration and customs we were surprised to see Maggie and Francis there to greet us!  What a fantastic surprise.  They had come from work to the airport to meet us, and were going to drive us “home”.  I told them of my plans to meet Isobel on our arrival and they took us over to pick up Isobel and we all headed over to “King Ludwig’s Tavern” and enjoyed some German food in HK with my friend from Alberta Crazy world.  It was great catching up with 20 years of time with Isobel!

Today, the 11th, I woke up at 0800 after having happily passed out last night at 0100.  Mrs D apparently woke a couple of times in the middle of the night.  We were out and on the road by 0930 and we were on the bus to Aberdeen by 0945.   The bus took just under an hour to get across the bay and under the mountain to Aberdeen.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Lorna and Claire, Raymond, Vicki, Christine, Color as well as mom and dad Chu.  Also there was cute little “number 3” – the, as yet, unnamed newest addition to the Chu family. 

We hung out for a bit and then we were off for Dim Sum at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.  Very swanky.  We had a great meal and it was nice to get caught up with everyone!

After lunch, Color took Raymond, Mrs D and I for a drive.  We went to Shek O, Big Wave Bay, and the Commonwealth Military cemetery in Stanley.  The beaches at Shek O and Big Wave bay were lovely…must be great in the heat of summer!

It was very nice to visit the cemetery – particularly on Remembrance Day.  I paused for a while paid my respects.  There are even Canadian graves there.  The battle for Hong Kong in December 1941 ultimately took 4500 lives.

We hung out at Color’s place for a while and then headed out for dinner at Christine’s place. She had cooked up a delicious mix of pork chops and some curried chicken.  Mmmmm! 

Color drove us down to Causeway bay where Mrs D picked up an iPad for mom and dad Chu.  Hopefully they will enjoy using it, and will be able to see pictures of “number 3” and the other two grandchildren with it.

After we finished down at Times Square we took a cab back home to Kowloon.  We got home about 12 hours after we left. Phew… long day… and it’s only the first full day of the next 16!

A selection of todays photos can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonspeed/sets/72157627979101659/with/6334100657/

See ya tomorrow.

Judo – 2011 BC Championships

Judo – 2011 BC Championships, a set on Flickr.

Got some photos from This weekend’s Judo. All shot with the 7D and 70-200 at F/2.8 ISO 3200 and 1/400s

Enjoy.