Around this time of the year, Social Media is being flooded with pictures of summertime, spring or even fall, even indoor pictures of water drops or basement spiders. As long as there is no snow, ice or cold to be seen. A bit like the “end of century” malaise, except that it’s repeated each year. This post is to accommodate those that suffer from the “end of winter” syndrome.

Let’s just add a twist to it and let me present some memories of a different day and age, namely when I was living in Ukraine.

Read more: The end of winter

Sometimes people ask me what gear I use for night shots. Well, apart from my cellphone that decidedly sucks at night shots, I’d say “anything goes”. 13 years ago I had the opportunity to get my first digital camera. It was a big deal for me. After a hiatus of nearly 15 years, I finally had a camera again. The first thing to try was of course family portraits and landscapes.

Then came the more challenging shots. Macro shots and night photography. You wouldn’t expect night photography to go well with a small point and shoot. Even worse, those things are nowadays declared obsolete and are hardly for sale anymore.

Read more: Point and shoot nights

By this time in winter we all start to think about summer. I think that is human nature, always trying to get what is not available. I wonder who put that in our genetic code… Anyway, in a photographer’s fashion, I have my own way to get what we all crave at some point in winter.

Photographical memories. While they are easy to see, they are not always easy to take or make.

Read more: Warm memories

Last weekend I went out, again. The weekend is the only time for me to get out and do something else than work. I guess that’s the case for many people, so I won’t complain about that. The decision was to visit some friends on Matheson Island. The same that will bring you up to Black Bear Island not far from there.

Of course, in this time of the year, there is no way to go to Black Bear Island. So a friend and I took the car and rolled. And rolled. Matheson Island is roughly 250 km north of Winnipeg and doesn’t see many tourists or visitors.

Read more: Whiteout and grey hair

Often I get the question “How far away were you when you shot this?”. Well, that depends. It’s no secret that I have a 600mm lens and that gets me quite close at times. Other times, not enough. Another question is “What were your settings?”. That question tends to irk me. Settings alone do not define a picture. Even more when the settings asked for don’t include the most important information.

Distance. Asking for Shutter speed, aperture and ISO values is useless if you have no clue as to the distance the picture was shot. Without the distance, any lens can give the results required. I can shoot a turkey with a 20mm lens and get great results.

Read more: Shooting long

When the first signs of owls are showing in Manitoba, I can always find a way to get out and shoot them. Photographically speaking of course. In general, owls don’t like to be seen, by humans or even less, by their potential food.

When driving though the countryside in search for new owls (last weekend we clocked 500km… again), the first thing we look at is the above type of picture. The tell-tale shape of the Great Grey Owl. The fact that you see this does not mean you will get a good shot, though.

Read more: Owling for a day

Lately I have been prone to headaches. They are mostly related to work. Not so much the work itself, but more the way it has to be done. Sitting in a chair. There are not many ways to do programming while walking around or doing sit-ups. Forget about push-ups. None of that can be done if you need to work on a keyboard.

Last week was a week of horror for me. Four days and nights of a low and medium grade headache. None of the advertised pills/gels/powders had any effect. So it was time to do something else.

Read more: Treating a headache