Today I decided to go for a drive and find an alternate route to my daily commute due to the second season, after winter in Southern Ontario, which is construction.
Now of course a drive on a Sunday afternoon requires one to take their camera with them because you never know what you will find. My drive started in Norwich, Ontario because on the way home the night before, I saw what I believe was a Great Horned Owl. What I know for sure, it was a large Owl. Of course I didn't expect to see it during the day, but I had to have a look anyway. Unfortunately I didn't see it, or any other large bird while I had my large lens on. Only when I had my wide angle lens on did I see a medium sized bird of prey. I wasn't able to identify it, and I would have had to look it up.
But just when you are looking for one thing, you stumble upon another gem. Our little excursion took us down a dirt road. Dirt roads are great because often they lead to photography gems that aren't seen by many people. But we didn't find anything down this dirt road. When we were driving down the next paved road, we spotted something large and yellow in the distance. So when we were finished figuring out our detour, we headed back to find what was large and yellow.
Canola field.
After driving down another dirt road, we found our first gem of the day. The very large yellow gem, was a Canola field. This field went a long way down the concession including down a hill giving it some depth. So I stopped and took a few pictures at the one end of the field, and then move on to the other end down the small hill. On the way down, I found a few other people that had the same idea, as they were taking selfies on their phones. When we got down the hill we found a little opening in the field. Not sure what had knocked down the plants, but I thought I would take advantage of the situation. This made it perfect for a couple portrait shots of my better half Shannon, with the large yellow field in the background. She's a good sport for me all the time letting me practice taking spontaneous portraits.
Lightning at first location.
Knowing there was a thunderstorm coming, I was hoping we would be there long enough to get some lightning shots, but wasn't sure if we would get that lucky. Well we were. I was able to get a few lightning shots as the bad weather was coming from the west. The only thing that would have made this better, was to have the lighting over the canola field. But we didn't get that lucky, but I was perfectly fine with that. I don't often get a chance to take lightning pictures.
Lightning at second location around the corner from first location.
I tried to get as many as I could, but with timing and the lightning not always being in the same direction it made things a little tricky. I wasn't able to get as many as I would have liked, but was very happy with what I did get. We stayed at this location until the rain got heavy enough to worry about my equipment. When I started getting really wet, we decided to head home.
On the way home, the rain got so heavy it was extremely hard to see where I was driving. We had to slowed right down to keep the car between the lines. We were able to drive out of the weather to where there was no rain at all.
Lightning over Delhi, Ontario.
Knowing the weather was following us home, we found another clearing for the sky to try and get more lightning pictures. This was an even better location allowing me to get some more lightning pictures, and we stayed there until the rain came again.
Not knowing what we would find, if anything, this turned out to be another great photographic adventure. Can't wait to do it all again.
Till next time,
