One of the nurses (actually posing for a photo) with a patient

Today my church participated in an event for migrant workers and their children at the Good Samaritan Mission out in Wimauma.  They had food and some variety of medical care (looked like vaccinations, I think) for the parents, and school supplies, popcorn, cotton candy, and all sorts of festivities for the children.  There was face-painting, hair-cutting, magic shows, balloon animals, and all manner of fun.  I think they even tried to have a soccer game, but the sun was brutal, and that didn’t last for very long.

My last photo of the day

I went with my friends John and Louis who do video with me at church, and they had brought a video camera to do interviews and shoot the different activities.  With any luck, next Sunday we’ll have a short video with interview footage overlaid with scenes from the event, with some of my photos at the end set to music.  It was a fun event, and the children really seemed to enjoy it.  I got some photographs that I’m pretty happy with (despite the utterly atrocious light the sun was giving me), and the video turned out pretty well: I can’t wait to see it all edited together.

Speaking of editing, the footage from the youth lockin that I shot at church Friday night is all put together now, and posted to YouTube.  Unfortunately, the audio turned out horribly.  I just got an XLR cable from the sound board, plugged it in, and recorded what I got on the tape.  Apparently what I got was no good, terribly crackly throughout.  Who knows what the problem was, but I know next to nothing about running audio into the camera, so it’s entirely possible that the mistake is all mine.  Oh well.

I didn’t make any photographs today, but I did find a wonderful spot to shoot a sunset tomorrow morning.  Seeing the sunset was pretty impressive, and certainly something that I haven’t done in a long time.  Here the sun comes up over the water, too, so if I can just get a little bit of cloud cover tomorrow it should make for a really spectacular image.  Here’s hoping.

Geotagging: It's great fun

Not a whole lot happened today: it turned into a day off of sorts.  I spent a little while geotagging on Flickr, which I’ve found to be wonderfully amusing.  You just drag photos from a strip onto a map of the world, and it marks their locations.  Then you can see all your photos on a map, and other peoples’ photos from the same areas.  Admittedly, it’s going to take a while to go back and find where I made all two hundred photos in my library, but it should be awfully amusing to look at the map afterwards.

Other than that, we just went down to St. Johns and had brunch at The Sprout and picked up a few souvenirs, along with a couple of Amy’s bean burritos (I’ll be having the first one tomorrow, here’s hoping it’s good).  I’m going to try and get to sleep at something like 19:00 local time tonight, since I have to start getting ready for my 05:00 flight on Wednesday.  Getting up at 05:00 would be bad enough, but between getting ready and getting to the airport early (with a 40 min. drivet there), I’m going to be up at about 02:00.  That’s 00:30 back home, so I’ll have to see if I can find some people in Bradenton online staying up late when I get up in the morning.  Now I just have to try actually falling asleep this early…

One of the root cellars

We drove over to Elliston today, which is further up North on the coast, and saw some more puffins, and some root cellars.  Since Elliston is the root cellar capital of the world, apparently, I’ll address those first.  A root cellar is basically a basement without a house attached to it, dug into a hill.  They look a lot like the hobbit houses from the Lord of the Rings movies, except that a gnome could live in them instead of a hobbit.  Well, and they have no windows and only one door.  In fact, they’re nothing like a house at all, other than the outer appearance.  Inside they’re just single, dark rooms that stay nice and cool during the Summer underground.  Some of them are centuries old, and now a lot of them are open to the public.  They look nice and dark and cavernous, so I decided to go ahead and set up a couple of lights inside and take some shots.

A puffin in flight

More importantly, though (to me, anyways.  I guess some folks are more into ancient refrigerators than I am), Elliston has an absolutely wonderful viewing area for puffins.  They tend to settle on smallish islands out to sea (I guess so as not to be eaten by land predators), but in Elliston they’ve settled on one that’s maybe ten yards or so from a cliff that you can walk up to from the land.  And when I say they settled, I mean that hundreds of them have settled: everywhere you look on the island there are puffins milling about, and there are even more of them down in the waters below fishing or just hanging out.  To humans, of course, the gaping chasm between their home and the rocky outcropping is nigh impossible to cross.  Puffins, however, can fly.

A puffin I caught with his mouth open

And fly they did.  A good number of them liked to come over to the human-accessible side every now and then, and they’d often congregate in groups as big as seven or eight puffins before flying off again to go do whatever it is they felt like doing.  After a little waiting, I had no trouble at all getting some of them to gather up nice and close to me.  At first they were a little skittish, even shying from my flash, but they pretty quickly got used to me and my equipment.  They got so used to me, apparently, that an entire crowd of other humans managed to come in close to see the puffin circus without them caring a whit.

Cuddly puffins

The trick was just sitting out by the cliffs long enough for them to get used to me.  At first they’d fly by, turn towards the cliff, see me and turn away.  Then one or two of them would perch on the cliff near me for a little while, as if checking me out to see if I was dangerous.  Then eventually a whole bunch of them started gathering up by me, some of them coming over to look at me and others just going about their business as if I wasn’t there (I had puffins coming so close to me that I couldn’t focus on them with the 400mm f/5.6).

A roosting puffin

Eventually it got to the point where I’d collected about as many puffin portraits as I thought I could ever feasibly use, and I went over to the ledge to try and catch some puffins in flight.  This proved challenging, but certainly rewarding once I started to get it down.  They fly pretty quick, but I could follow them all the way from the ledges they took off from, so it wasn’t too hard to track them.  Ironically enough, while I was trying to catch them in flight I had two or three of them come and settle on a ledge by my feet!  I actually tried to shoo them away to catch them flying, but they’d have none of it—I actually got to within a foot or two of them without them seeming to care.  I guess they figured out that if push came to shove, they could jump off the ledge…and I couldn’t.

The puffin headshot I've been looking for

I spent a while capturing the puffins in flight, and then we headed off for the long drive back to the room (Elliston was about three and a half hours away).  I managed to sort out the photos along they way back (getting a power inverter to run my laptop in the car has worked out wonderfully on this trip), and then when we finally made it here I stuck another pizza in the oven (just pineapple this time, so much less hassle) and had dinner.  And, of course, made a blog post, which concludes the day.

Vegan pizza

Today we went to St. Johns, which turned out pretty well.  It’s pretty much the only big-ish city in Newfoundland, and we found a nice little vegetarian restaurant there called The Sprout.  I had a lentil burger, which was alright (a little dry), but they also had a curried chickpea dish, which was just delightful.  They also had some vegan deserts, which were pretty great.  After that, we went on to a Dominion grocery store, which was pretty impressive.  The place is more or less the size of a Wal-Mart, but almost entirely devoted to foodstuffs.  They have a natural foods section that could almost put Whole Foods to shame, and I was able to pick up some Amy’s prepackaged dinners (here’s hoping they’ll turn out good), some soy yogurt, soy ice cream, and granola.  But most importantly, we found that they had Follow Your Heart’s Vegan Gourmet Mozarella, and some frozen semi-fresh pizza dough (vegan) in the bakery section.  So I picked up a block of the cheese, a couple of crusts, some veggie pepperonis, and went about making a vegan pizza tonight.

The pizza, admittedly, didn’t turn out great, but it was good to have something a little junky (although relatively healthful, compared to dairy cheese and meat pepperoni) and cheesy to munch on.  I put the entire block of cheese on it (my first mistake), piled on the pepperonis, and stuck it in the oven.  The Vegan Gourmet cheese, unfortunately, can be awfully difficult to melt, and after 12 minutes in the oven at 450F, the stuff was still perfectly solid, so I went ahead and threw the broiler on high.  The cheese started to melt pretty quickly, but the crust also started to blacken, and when I finally turned the oven off, most of the cheese had melted, although the center was still pretty solid, but most of the crust was also charred.  And the kicker?  The bottom of the pizza crust was still mushy.  Such is the dilemma of cooking with vegan cheese.

All that being said, the pizza was really tasty.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely as close as I’ve ever gotten, and the Vegan Gourmet stuff really does taste like mozarella (or at least as near as I can tell, not having eaten the real stuff for the better part of a year now).  I only wish I’d stuck the pepperonis under the cheese, as they got a little too crispy for my taste.  The package had two frozen crusts, as well, so tomorrow methinks I’m going to make another one of these, but this time I’m just going to cover the whole thing with pineapple.  That should make it a little easier to bake, and it’ll still be plenty tasty when it comes out of the oven: who says pizza needs cheese?

After that, we went for a little walk down by the rocks, and I had some great fun leaping around various rock formations (thankfully not to my death, although there were a few close scrapes).  Tomorrow I’m heading off to hopefully get closer to some puffins: I’m still hunting that elusive puffin headshot.  For now, though, methinks I’m going to reheat some of that pizza.

A whale we saw with her cub in Witless Bay

Today we got up and went out for a little trip to a park, where we walked through some woods and down to the coast.  There were ruins at the bottom of an old, old town that apparently got washed away in some great storm.  There were foundations left for an awful lot of buildings, and they tended to be very small (think around 10′ x 8′ for an entire house).  Generally all that was left was basically a rectangular frame of stone, but in some cases there would be a little bit of a chimney left over.

A puffin in flight

After that, we went out on a boat to see the whales and puffins on Witless Bay.  They took us out into the bay towards the puffin sanctuary island, and as we made our way towards it we could see flocks of puffins flying in towards it on their way back from the fishing grounds.  Apparently they fly miles every day just to go fishing, and then they all come back to the islands where they nest.  I took the 400mm f/5.6 out on the boat, so I had plenty of reach on them, and managed to get some closeups of the puffins in flight (and I assure you, tracking a fast-moving bird with a 400mm lens on a crop body while standing on a rocking boat is no walk in the park, especially when you’re trying to maintain focus on them).

Puffin portrait

Along the way to the island, we came across a mother whale and her cub.  First we saw the mother’s spray, and then her and the baby both popped up.  They dove a couple of times for food, each time staying down for around ten minutes before coming back up again.  The captain managed to get the boat pretty close to them, and then they both came up to check us out a little, getting awfully close.  When they went down for the last time, I was finally able to get the tail close-up that you see at the top of the page.  Unfortunately, they managed to get just close enough that the 400 was actually a little too long, and I had to go with a pretty extremely close view of the tale.  Nonetheless, I like it.  It’s nice to be able to see the detail in the barnacles on her tail.

Puffins playing king of the ledge

Once we pulled up alongside their island, the puffins were just everywhere.  They had their nests there, all awfully close together, and we got to see them jostling about with each other, and all their other interactions.  Apparently the brighter outer parts of their bills are only for courting, and they actually shed them after mating season.  Then they head off to travel for something like six months, and then come back to the same place every year to meet up with the same mate as always.

A proud looking puffin

After seeing the puffins and whatnot, they took us back, and I got to look through the gift shop, which proved interesting.  Apparently Newfoundland was once a pseudo-country on its own, and they had some old Newfoundland coins for sale.  And, of course, there were all manner of puffin memorabilia to be had, ranging from stuffed puffins to puffin salt shakers to puffin door stops.  After all was said and done, we came back to the room, had another dinner of lentil and rice tacos (this time microwaved, but still good), and I got to the business of processing photographs and making a blog entry.

Snow Owl

Today we made our way over toward Bay Bulls, on the East side of Newfoundland.  Along the way we ran into a nature park of sorts, where they keep animals who have been rehabilitated but aren’t fit for release into the wild in enclosures.  It was set out in the woods, with a boardwalk going through the whole thing and animal areas set up throughout.  They varied in size and nature, but in general it was far from a zoo.  It was a wild habitat for the animals, it’s just that they had enclosures preventing them from leaving it.  For instance, the snow owl to the right was in a big fenced-off section of the park that the boardwalk actually went right through, with unlocked gates at either end (apparently he wasn’t a flight risk).

Gloomy Groundhog

There was even another groundhog there, perhaps one of George’s relatives.  He was set up in a big fenced-in area atop a hill, but seemed none too happy there, always pawing at the bars.  I’m sure it’s better than dying from whatever it is they had to fix him up from, but you gotta feel sorry for the little guy.  We went on along the park, photographing the rest of the animals that showed up, and then went along our way to the coast.

Arctic Fox

Now we’re in a nice little economy unit by a bay, and I finally have a kitchen.  Which is awfully handy, because there’s basically nothing vegan in restaurants around here, aside from plain vegetables from time to time.  Grocery stores are also sparse (did I mention that it’s awfully rural around here?), so I’ve been pretty much eating peanut butter sandwiches, bagels, and Clif bars since I got here.  Tonight, though, I was able to make some lentil and rice tacos, which worked out great, and tomorrow I can cook more.  With any luck, I’ll also get to go to a Taco Bell soon…the only one in the province, as far as I’m aware.

ORLY?

Tomorrow I’ll be off to see puffins, as well.  We’re going to take a boat tour, and they say that the puffins come within ten feet or so of the boat, so I may even be able to pull off a puffin head portrait with the 400mm lens.  Now I just have to go and see how well I can set up this pull-out bed.

The landscape at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland

Today I woke up on the ferry.  Sleeping on a ferry is most certainly no pleasant affair.  The bunks were tiny, and crowded probably 20 or 30 in a room.  Without any place to stow luggage, I had to stick my bag up on the bunk with me by my feet, which left me sort of curled up in an odd position.  Consequently, I woke up with knees aching from being bent all night long, after a night of none-too-restful sleep.  I got up and had a little time to wander around before docking, and then we got into the car and drove out into Newfoundland.

Grandpa photographing the gannets

From the ferry, we drove South through some very, very small towns and checked in to a little inn along the coast.  After that we made our way over to the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological preserve, to photograph the colonies of seabirds.  And those colonies were huge.  Two massive rocky outcroppings were absolutely covered with seagulls, gannets, razorbills, and a couple other species of birds nesting, feeding, and just generally swooping around.  Unfortunately, most of them were far enough off that even with a 400mm lens on my 20D I couldn’t really effectively photograph them, but the Gannets nested and went about their business well within reach of moderate telephotos.

Gannet in flight

The gannets were all milling around nesting and feeding their young atop a rock, and I managed to get some wonderful shots of them in flight.  I found that the 400mm f/5.6 makes an excellent lens for tracking motion when handheld.  It’s nice and light, and combined with AI Servo makes tracking the birds in flight a breeze.  The gannets flew around a nice scenic-looking chasm, too, so I had some great backdrops for them as well.

Nesting gannets squabbling

On the way back to the parking lot at Cape St. Mary’s I also had time to make some nice landscapes, like the one at the top of the post.  The time of day was just right for the sky and ground to more or less even out in exposure, so all I had to do was frame things up and focus.  The entire landscape was covered with beautiful rolling hills and scattered rocks, all leading up into a perfect blue sky.  Add a 28mm lens, and all was well.

Nesting gannets with young

Once we got back to the hotel, I found just how strange Newfoundland can be.  The shower in the room has the knob for hot water on the right and the knob for cold water on the left.  Not too strange, right?  It gets better.  The knob on the left turns to the left to open it up, just like the ones back home.  The knob on the right, however, turns to the right to open it up.  So you have to turn the knobs in two different directions to turn the water on.  And then the kicker: the drain is on the opposite side of the tub as the knobs.  That’s Newfoundland.