Project 365 – Day 103: Bluebells and Trees

April 12 2012

I went hunting for some wild flowers today, but they’re hard to come by in downtown Montreal. The one place I did find blankets of bluebells growing was up on rue Peel above avenue du Docteur Penfield.

Bluebells on rue Peel

I thought Mount Royal would be a good potential for my hunt in finding spring flowers but to no avail, or at least not in the area around the Peel entrance. Made me think that the City or someone should one day plant seeds or bulbs to brighten up the forest, I could imagine the side of the mountain facing downtown glowing blue or yellow in the spring.

So instead I decided to try my hand at photographing some birds. I really haven’t shot much wildlife before – as this slightly out of focus attempt demonstrates. I thought I would post anyway, since the little guy (a Downy Woodpecker I believe) was tough to track down. Patience is, I like to think anyway, one of my virtues and I enjoyed the thrill of the chase in hunting down where the chirping was coming from and then waiting for the opportunity to get a shot. Okay “thrill of the chase” is probably a bit over the top, but sitting in the woods on a nice spring morning was fine with me.

Downy Woodpecker on Mount Royal

While I was getting up close with nature, I thought I would try some artsy shots looking up tree trunks. There was a silver birch that was particularly interesting for some close-ups and DOF experimentation.

Up close with a Silver Birch

Silver Birch

Tree to infinity

Tree reaching for the sky

This last shot is a 3 exposure HDR with a little fine tuning using Topaz Adjust. As you can see the trees here in Montreal are still without leaves, but I did see some green shoots starting to appear, so hopefully not long before this spot is transformed.