New lens is always inspirational, especially ultra-wide with its specific lines. Below are a few examples.


Island View Beach

Back to Sidney

Sidney Pier Hotel (well, a pirate in front of it actually)



Tulista Park

Walk before sleep

Night time view on the Sidney Pier

Butchart Gardens

Blue Poppy... well, and a moon

Island View Beach

Todd Inlet


White over white




Breakwater lighthouse



Back to more traditional lenses. Foxglove

Something.

This one is easy. Rose

Blue Poppy again, no moon

Deer coexisting with cars and bycicles

Heron dancing

I mean, really dancing...

As spring draws to an end, I realize that I haven't posted a few more I wanted to share, before we switch to other themes. So, adding some while it's May still.


Walk along Sidney shore always yields some nice opportunities

Hunting...

 ... and generally looking good.

China town

Waiting for tourists


Beacon Hill Park. Full of inviting benches.




I try to keep photos of the flowers to a minimum, but some still sneak in



Aliens landed!



Sidney Pier




Bath time!

Elk Lake

Favorite treadmill, 10K loop around Elk lake.

Not that we had much of the winter, mind you - but when spring jumped from around the corner, it did so with eagerness of a chocoholic seeing a bar of Lindt.  Below are some samples of this blooming madness.

First, some early crocuses and other stuff (like Herons, mind you - I always confuse botany with ornithology)










That was mid-March. Just a week or two later later we had this below.

Beacon Hill Park never fails to deliver

Just bring something for them and start spreading the goods - and it's as if they have cell phones or something, out of nowhere dozens fly in.

The heavy stuff comes... the defense lines are drawn, don't even think of crossing them. This guy has attitude!

Sensitive types go AWWW:


Yup... early tulips

Everyone photographs cherry blossoms... I couldn't resist either.


Tulips on fire


This guy just flew in my frame while I was trying to focus on the flower.

Blossoms... told you, hard to resist


Spring cleaning!

Yeah... blossoms. Sorry.


Blossoms AND duck. Double sorry.

Let's continue this series as I have a few more beaches to show, all are as idyllic and as any and each with its own character.

First, road to one of the beaches (Kua Bay) in a state park with some unusual geological formations:


The road itself is very nice, right? Remember it as later on I'll show you another one, to another beach in this same park, Kekaha Kai. For now, some more shots from the Beach 69. These rock formations and tide pools are impossible to stop photographing.







First row!

On a collision course:

 Mini-volcano:

 Hawaiian version of a snowman:



Hmm... Hawaiian version of a crow?

Now, let me take you to a different beach in that same state park. Remember that nice road earlier? Well, this one looked like it was bombed into stone age; felt the same, and if you want to keep all your teeth you spend 30-40 min to go about a mile and half!







But the beach at end of it was oh so worth it! Mahai'ula beach:





Hungry? Food is up there:


No, this is not my foot, don't even ask:


Done with beaches, and near done with the whole Hawaiian trip, just a few miscellaneous shots left, till next time... hopefully later this week!

Got quite a few more beaches, so before I overdo that category, let me do (overdo?) another one. Sunsets are everyone's favorites of course, and I am no exception. I also love everything low light, so I will include some night shots as well.

Anaeho'omalu Bay is one of the most spectacular places for the sunset shooting. First evening there, I had only 12-60 with me, and decided to return with 70-300 next time, to catch that huge sun effect. So, first day (and believe me, there were a lot more shots, I just have to show some mercy on you):





This one is from another beach, Old Airport. We will have more from there as this place was close to our hotel and we dropped by for the sunset a few times more.



This is from the Kona Pier, right in our village, 5 min walk from the hotel:

Back to Airport Beach:


Now, really good stuff! This one printed in poster size looks fantastic on my wall, right above computer monitors. Will show later :)




One more from the "good stuff," printed large and looking stunning. There is something to be said for large prints...




                                

Monochrome with bluish tint:

And that's what I wanted telephoto lens for:


Back to our village:


Sunset from Kona Pier:



Luau:

A few night shots while walking along the shoreline of Kona Village:



Let's finish this series with this symbolic shot:

One of the beaches has a shelter for cats. Well-groomed and well-fed happy creatures, pleasure to look at.



This one had identity crisis:

Collected the best of the beaches in one post, day time shots only. Night and sunsets will deserve their own separate post.

First one is somewhat unusual; it has a lot of shade and plenty of wood and rocks to make it very picturesque destination. Locals call it simply 69 - by the highway mile marker.












Different beach, full of turtles, but we will have them in separate post as well.






This one is actually taken on the way back from beach.

One of the most luxurious beaches, fine white sand and all that:





Very nice beach grounds at one of the hotels:








Tired of beach scenes yet? Let; break them by something else.