The Pine grosbeak is a large (measuring 8-10 inches in length) member of the finch family and is found mostly in coniferous woods across Canada and Russia.. Camera was the Nikon D300 with the 300 2.8 lens on a tripod at 1/80 of a second at F5.6 and ISO 280
The Common Redpoll travels in flocks and while they breed in the Arctic can be found as far south as the US border in the winter. Although some winters you can find them as far south as the central US.
During the winter you may find them tunnelling into the snow to stay warm during the night.
Today’s photo are from one of three minor hockey game in Fort St John on January 26, 2008. This game was the Shoppers Drug Mart team from Fort St John, vs. a Grande Prairie Minor Hockey team. Â Camera was the Nikon D300 with 80-200 lens ISO 3200 1/400 sec at F3.5 for the shot on the Shoppers Drug Mart Goal. Same camera and lens but 1/400 sec at f2.8, ISO 1600.
The lighting in minor hockey rinks leaves much to be desired with as much as two stops difference from one spot to the next. It doesn’t help that the lights flicker through a range of colors that while the human eye does not see, the camera has no problem picking up.
Early in the day in 2006 I was driving north of Fort St John on the Rose Prairie Road when I saw this old log building, the light was perfect and I grabbed a single image with my at the time brand new Nikon D70s. The Exif data tells me that I used ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/180, but does not give me any lens details. Probably because most of my lenses at the time were still all manual lenses.Â
I later used the image as the basis for the masthead for my newspaper The Peace Country Spotlight.
Later in the day it was back to the arena in Fort St John to photograph a couple of hockey games.
In North Eastern BC there are two things that are a given. That most people work in the patch, and from Aug 1 until May you will find a hockey game going on. Our goal was to have a play-by-play game story in the newspaper about every single team in our coverage area. That was from pre-novice to Senior A and some kids would be up at 3 a.m. so that they could make it to their team practice at 5 a.m.
Todays feature images are from a minor hockey game in between Fort St John and Chetwynd.
