Vancouver had been shrouded in fog for a number of days and on Sunday the 20th, I finally decided I had enough of the gloom and drove to the top of Burnaby Mountain in the hopes of finding sun. I hadn't seen fog like this over Vancouver for quite a number of years and it was quite a spectacular view. In the gallery, there is also a link to a time-lapse movie of the swirling fog, taken facing north up the Indian Arm inlet - 25 minutes of actual time compressed into 12 seconds. The "island" of trees is just east of Belcarra Park. If you have QuickTime 7.0+ installed, the first link (blue) will be a faster download and a higher quality movie. If that doesn't work for you, try the other one...

For two weeks in September, I traveled the US desert southwest again, and this time my primary destination was New Mexico. A total of 8400 km driven through 10 states - Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Idaho. Photographically, the definite highlight was White Sands National Monument. The quality and variety of light on these amazing white gypsum dunes was stunning and the weather could not have been more dramatic.

This was essentially a lens test weekend... the longer shots were all taken with my new Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L telephoto and most of the wider shots were taken with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di Zoom which I'm evaluating. Saturday took me east of Vancouver to Pitt Lake and its surrounding marshes known as the Pitt Polder. It is a wonderfully scenic area with lots of dikes to bike and wander along. On Sunday I made a very brief trip to Burnaby Mtn. Park and Monday I wandered about the Reifel Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. It really is the wrong time of year to visit Reifel Island as it is still too early for migrating birds, so I had to make do photographing some of the "regulars" that hang about...

On the holiday weekend, I visited a friend who works at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton, BC. The first images are from Yellow Lake, a little ways west, and the rest were taken at the DRAO facility. The main dish at DRAO is unfortunately missing its receiver in these photos - it has been removed for upgrades that will enable it to detect polarized signals in the 1300-1750 MHz frequency range. On page 2, the raptor photos are of a pair of osprey that have built a huge nest atop a large antenna.

Early 2005 was the wettest in recorded history for Death Valley. An astonishing 6 inches of rain fell there during the first few months! For comparison, the previous 3 years had totaled considerably less than 1 inch! Unfortunately I missed the peak of the wildflower bloom in mid March, however in early April, when I finally made my way there, the bloom was still going strong in many parts of the park and further south in the Mojave Desert. I feel privileged to have witnessed Death Valley in such splendor - it was, quite possibly, a once in a lifetime event. Note that images 104-130 were taken in Nevada and Oregon on the drive home. Enjoy...

As young forestry students, Hannah & Christopher wanted some outdoor photos after their wedding, in preference to any formal studio portraits. Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver was the chosen destination for this session on April 24, 2005, although they had been married a few months prior.

Back in April, my friend's sister Janina came from Germany for a visit. Julia thought it would be nice to get some photos while Janina was here, so we all decided to go for a quick walk down to the beach. Luckily, the weather cooperated on that day! The photos in this gallery were taken at Locarno and Jericho Beach, Vancouver on April 10, 2005. Oh, and Julia's cute little dog that's in many of the photos... that's Luna.

In late February, I travelled to Florida and spent a week exploring the Everglades and the Keys. I never imagined the incredible variety of wildlife that I would see up close and was stunned at how the animals essentially ignored their human visitors. All the wildlife photos in this gallery were shot "in the wild" and not in a zoo or enclosed preserve of any sort. It was a remarkable experience and anyone with a passion for bird-watching or wildlife photography must visit this amazing area at least once in their lifetime!

For an excellent overview of the flora and fauna of the Everglades, take a look at what the American Park Network says about it...

This gallery is showing a selection of images from my outing to Brackendale, just north of Squamish, which is about 1 hours drive north of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Every winter, there is a massive gathering of bald eagles there that feed on the remnants of the season's salmon spawning run. Last year over 2600 eagles were counted with the maximum count occuring in 1994 at well over 4000! This area boasts the largest yearly gathering of bald eagles in all of North America.