Junction Creek, Sudbury

My first photo outing of January 2011 took me, Blaine and Richard to Junction Creek, Sudbury. We focused on a stretch of open water and a congregation of hundreds of mallard ducks grooming and feeding along the icy shore. 

Suddenly the sun found an opening in the clouds and the ducks came alive; bright orange feet, emerald heads and sparking white snow. 

Minutes later a snow flurry blew across the sun creating the lovely speckled panorama you see below. 

Canon 7D at 85 mm, 1/250 and 1/400 sec, ISO 200, f/9, hand held

Down by the Stream

Under a cloudy-bright sky I took a midday stroll along the Cap-Rouge River looking for Trout Lilies, aka Adder's tongue, American trout-lily, Dog's tooth violet, Serpent's Tongue, Yellow Adder's-tongue, Yellow fawn-lily, Yellow Snowdrop and, en français, Erythrone d'Amérique. They grow in moist soil, close to the ground and flower in early May. To photograph the downward-facing flowers, I made like a snake, mounted my Canon on a Gorillapod, turned on Live View and focused manually.

I like the warm yellow petals and orange pistils contrasted against the intense green background.

Having contorted my neck observing the lilies, I wandered stream side looking to photograph another favourite subject, unfurling cinnamon ferns. Behind my back this mallard snoozed on a warm rock. Nonchalantly I approached and shot him: this time locking my Canon to a full-size Manfrotto tripod. I Live-viewed, focused manually and shot in RAW. I adjusted the white balance, added a little contrast and sharpened the cropped image.

A very handsome duck wouldn't you agree?