Ah, October. Month of many transitions in the year. While September heralds the arrival of Fall, it is October that makes sure everybody understands the consequences of that arrival. Between warm days and days of near freezing, green trees and meadows and bare branches, October has it all.

October is even more special to me as I was born in this month. But that point aside, October is a pretty special month if you compare it to January or even July.

Read more: Transition time

The first time I heard that there were Hummingbirds in Manitoba, I went out to look for them. I had my Nikon D40X and an 18-200mm lens. I thought I was perfectly geared to chase these little birds. The birds proved me wrong. Hummingbirds have an annoying tendency to not stay in the place where you have focused and you end up with blurry flowers.

The English Gardens in Winnipeg were my arena of choice to catch them. Some good pictures came from there, but

Read more: Humming along

When I lived in Ukraine, everyone had a fur coat. At least the women had. Coming from Europe, that seemed odd to me, as the anti-fur activists had pretty much destroyed that part of the economy. In Canada, I see that only some people have fur coats, but most people “prefer” the industrial, plastic versions.

No, I admire the real fur coats. Even more if they are worn by the original owners. Sometimes that coat might be a bit scraggy, but usually when winter comes, the coat is in perfect state.

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“It’s gone again, that beautiful summer, that summer that started back in May! Ah, you thought there would be no end to it, but before you know it, that summer will be long gone.” A Dutch song from 1973. I can remember that one as if it were yesterday. Well, perhaps last week… In Manitoba, we can say the same thing: Summer’s gone. Fall will set in and colour the landscape in red and gold.

So before fall really sets in with cold and misty weather, let’s take a good look at what we did this summer. It seems like we have had no time to do anything and it only started last week.

Read more: Summertime

When the skies decide to wreak some havoc down below, you’d better be prepared. But prepared for what? Some people go and hide in their basement, which may be a very good idea if Mother Nature throws a fit. Others, like me, will grab their camera and try to stay safe and dry, outside of the danger zone and shoot. Shoot as much as they can of the mighty clouds and winds.

Storms by night are the easier ones to photograph in case it is a thunderstorm. Lightning will stand out against the dark sky no matter what. Doing it during lighter hours or daytime is a lot trickier.

Read more: Prairie storms

Little did I know about a feature in Lightroom that could change a certain number of my pictures dramatically. For a while now, I have had this post on the shelves in my office, waiting to be published. Somehow it didn’t make the cut, even if the evening out in the desert was a great one.

No, the reason for not publishing it was that the pictures I had were not publish-worthy. They were lacking something that made me think “YES!”. Usually when I blog, the pictures accompanying the post have a story to tell on their own or accompany the story itself.

Read more: Desert evening or split

Blogging is exhausting. Every so many days you need to come up with something new. Finally, when you have no more ideas, you start to write about something from the past and then repeat yourself. Unless you have a blog dedicated to a specific subject like Lightroom or the Secrets of Baking Cookies. And even then it’s easy to get stuck in that rut that gets deeper and deeper.

So what is the solution to this problem? Get out there and find some new ideas. Easier said than done.

Read more: Bone breakers