It’s the time of the year again. The darkness is upon us, hope and laughter is served on every corner of the streets. Carols are floating through the air and lights are lit up all around us. As a photographer, it’s those lights you want.

The effort put in to creating a spectacular light show is sometimes enormous. Sometimes… not so (“Ditto”, anyone?). Most of the decorations are quite modest, but some stand out. Over the years I have shot many of them, some years a bit less.

Read more: A very light collection

Beauty can be found everywhere, that’s what any photographer will tell you. At least if he or she has an “eye” for things that stand out. Most of us rush over highways, without ever seeing a different bird than crows flying over the road. And we call them “bird” not Crow or Raven. It flies, so it’s a bird. End of story.

Those who have an eye for something more will discover that those highway birds are not all the same. They will discover that crows and ravens are not the same, and that some ravens have a white head and a white tail. Wait, that’s no raven anymore, but more likely a Bald Eagle. Once they get into that game, the possibilities become endless. A few weeks ago I left with a friend on a road trip. Meandering the highways and back roads of Manitoba.

Read more: Unadulterated beauty

As prairie Canadians we are supposed to have a subscription to frosty mornings. Surprisingly enough, this is the first one this year and we’re already at the end of November. Sometimes weather conditions are weird and high or low temperatures persist in a strange way. A few years ago all the weather guys were convinced that the North Pole had a severe case if resilience with high pressure. Leaving us with months of cold weather.

Other places have Ridiculous Resilient Ridges where normal weather patterns can’t get past. This year it all seems to be mellow, and in my opinion a bit flavourless. This morning, however came to life for me.

Read more: Frosty morning

History, one of my favourite subjects. Now, not when I was in highschool. Far away history like the Renaissance or the last Ice Age have always fascinated me. Unless I needed to learn the facts and dates by heart to recite them later on in a quiz. Today I was thinking about my own recent photographic history and in particular the month of November.

November is usually the month when winter starts. At the same time, we continuously complain about the fact that the weather is “not like it used to be”. So why not go back for only a decade and see?

Read more: Shots in November

Everyone needs to do this. It’s a fact of life. No bacon, no life. We always think that this is only true for the carnivores among us, humans. Vegetarians and vegans will disagree, obviously. But there are alternatives to bacon. And no, I am not talking about transforming some vegetal substance into a bacon flavoured patty and call it meat.

One can eat fish, or even pork rinds. Just to name a few of them. Wildlife, however, never even asks if something is ethical to eat or not. They eat what they can get.

Read more: Bringing home the bacon

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